Beaver Becomes a Hero (Leave it to Beaver, 1960)

 

TV babies of a certain age might remember the Leave it to Beaver episode where Theodore and Wally find a missing canoe at the lake while fishing one Sunday (Beaver Becomes a Hero [1960]). It was re-run on MeTV this morning. https://tubitv.com/.../s04-e03-beaver-becomes-a-hero...

Beaver tells his class about the "adventure," and they build the story into a daring rescue involving a millionaire and his daughter. (Kids can be forgiven for letting their fakery run wild. Adults? Not so much.)

After school, Beaver's classmates, including toothy Whitey and annoying Judy, ask their teacher Miss Landers to help them pitch the story to the Mayfield Press. She agrees and off they go, without Beaver's knowledge.

The paper runs the story on the local front, misspells Beaver's name (Theodour) and turns him into a hero. (Newspapers are not treated well in this ep.) June and Ward read the paper together when he gets home from work and complain about the downer headlines. They see the story and are amazed the boys kept the good news from them.

Then the calls begin, congratulating the Cleavers on Beaver's heroism. (It's gratifying to know so many people read the paper back then.) Wally comes in and hears about the story, hits the roof because it's all lies and tells Beaver to come clean on what happened, which he does.

Miss Landers commends Beaver for admitting the story was false, and his classmates are told to write a letter to the editor that cleans up the mess.

As is true with all of the Beaver's misadventures, solid humanistic morality is at the heart of this Eisenhower-era program. Winking at its cultural monochromatics, Leave it to Beaver's messaging, what it said about American values, stands in startling contrast to today's cynicism.

Nostalgia gives a warm feeling, but we can't really build on it and we can't reshape the present to be the past. But I think we can find some comfort in knowing we are capable of being better than we are going into the future because we know that we have been better.