Secrets From the ‘Leave It to Beaver’ Set Revealed! 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Show

Leave It to Beaver was canceled after just one season on CBS in 1957, but luckily, ABC saw potential in the series, which starred Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers. The show ran for five more seasons on its new network, allowing viewers to fall in love with the Cleaver family and revealing some interesting secrets from the set in the years that followed.

The Cast Didn’t Anticipate the Show to Be So Successful

While Leave It to Beaver eventually became a TV phenomenon, the show’s cast didn’t initially anticipate the sitcom to be so successful.

“When we first went on the air, we didn’t even know if it would last two weeks,” Jerry told Closer in April 2024. “It was phenomenal because it hasn’t ever left the air since.”

Jerry Mathers Appeared on Another Sitcom as a Child

Viewers fell in love with the adorable Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver, played by Jerry, during all six seasons. It wasn’t his first time appearing on a sitcom. In 1952, he appeared in an episode of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Contrary to popular belief, he did not appear in an episode of I Love Lucy.

“I know that many of you have wondered whether or not I appeared in the I Love Lucy episode, ‘Ricky’s Old Girlfriend,’” he wrote on Facebook in March 2019. “Although the young boy with Lucy in the dream sequence may resemble me, I never appeared in an I Love Lucy episode. I enjoy your discussions about the topics that you find interesting about LITB, as well as other facets of my life!”

A Lot of the Original Crew Returned for the Spinoff

In 1983, the cast returned to reprise their roles in the sitcom sequel Still the Beaver, with the Cleaver kids starting families of their own.

“That was really nice because I got to move into the part of the father,” Jerry told Closer. “We got a lot of the original crew back, too.”

Beaumont died one year before the premiere, but the television movie that kicked off the series was dedicated to him.

Jerry Mathers Revealed How He Became a Child Actor

Jerry’s path to stardom was rather unique, as he was discovered in a store while out shopping with his mom.

“My mom happened to be at a department store, and a lady came up to her and said, ‘Is this your little boy? We have a fashion show — could he be one of our models?’ That’s how I got started,” he recalled. “At the time, live TV was just getting started, so I started doing live TV because I was used to walking out in front of an audience [from the fashion shows].”

The Set Was a Family Affair

For Jerry, being part of the iconic program left him with memories to last a lifetime.

“They were very selective with the crew, because, of course, we were kids. They only hired pretty much family people that had kids so that they would kind of know how to deal with us,” he told First for Women in February 2024. “And it was just a real family atmosphere. Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher were the writers and between them they had 18 kids, so they were used to dealing with kids. Mr. Connolly had, I think nine, Mr. Mozier had nine, too. All the writers were family people and it was just a really nice place to work.”

The Cast Remained Good Friends

Leave It to Beaver created lifelong friendships for the cast.

“Ken Osmond and Tony Dow were my very, very good friends my whole life,” Jerry said. “Now, after we finished the first show, I didn’t get to see them very much. I mean, we would make appearances and go to openings and things like that, but they were always friends of mine. So it’s nice to have friends from your childhood and then be able to work with them again as adults.”

Jerry Mathers Went to Regular High School

After childhood stardom, Jerry ended up going to a regular high school, which he described as “very different” from his life on set.

“It was something I liked doing. I got to play sports, which I didn’t do with Leave It to Beaver,” he noted. “It was a really fun time, and basically I had a hundred or a hundred and fifteen adults who were, in a lot of ways, like parents, and I was with them for eight hours a day.”

Barbara Billingsley Talked About Being Typecast

Billingsley, who died in October 2010, once spoke about being typecast after Leave It to Beaver, particularly in the 1980 film Airplane.

“I was cast because I’d been June Cleaver,” she told the Archive of American Television. “I was sent the script and I thought it was the craziest script I’ve ever read. My part wasn’t written. It just said I talked jive. I met the producer and I said I would do it. I met the two black fellows that taught me jive. It wasn’t hard for me to learn. And it reached a point where I was as well known for Airplane as I was for Leave It to Beaver. It revived my career.”

Tony Dow Was a Swimmer

Prior to portraying Wally Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver, Dow was quite the swimmer with a dream of competing in the Olympics.

“I used to give diving exhibitions from when I was five,” he told The Daily Advocate. “I worked out every day at a particular pool, and one of the lifeguards there was an actor.”

Hugh Beaumont Was a Minister

Like Dow, Beaumont also had other passions outside of acting.

“Hugh was interesting, because in reality he was a Methodist minister,” Jerry shared. “Before Leave It to Beaver, he was at a very, very poor congregation in the worst part of L.A. that specialized in alcoholics. He was on basically Skid Row. Now, he wasn’t a part of that, but he went down there as his mission to try to save those people. So when he started doing Leave It to Beaver, although he was very happy to be an actor, he missed that.”