‘Leave it To Beaver’ Star Reveals What His TV Parents Were Like Behind The Scenes
As a child actor, the TV parents might be just as important as their actual parents. Whenever they aren’t at home with their mom and dad, they’re on set with with people playing as them. Some actors take a certain responsibility in this. For instance, you can tell how much Michael Landon meant to the younger actors on Little House on The Prairie. The same idea applies for Jerry Mathers during his time on Leave it to Beaver.
Recently, the actor spoke with PEOPLE, reflecting on his time working on the hit TV show. Mathers opens up about the parents on the show treated him and his older brother figure on the show Tony Dow. Ultimately, he has nothing but glowing things to say about his Leave it To Beaver parents. “They were really nice people,” he says. “[Dad] Hugh Beaumont and [Mom] Barbara Billingsley were wonderful to Tony and me. They were actually kind and caring to everyone.”
Jerry Mathers Opens Up About His Time on Leave it To Beaver
“Hugh Beaumont was basically a very nice man, but he was also a minister,” Jerry continues. “So he kept everybody pretty much on the straight and narrow.” Essentially, he highlights how Beaumont kept things breezy for everyone on set. However, they also weren’t intent on getting incredibly drunk or going out for nights on the town. It was all incredibly wholesome, according to Mathers.
Jerry makes Leave it To Beaver sound like heaven on earth for him. He would go on set and have the time of his life, while he also had his beautiful life outside of it. It’s as if the dark pitfalls of Hollywood were incapable of reaching him. “I go there, I see all my friends, all the light people and all the different people and they’re all friends of mine and they’re happy to see me and we all fool around and have a good time. It was fun all the time,” Mathers recalls of his Leave it To Beaver days. “I could have had to go to school and stuff like that, but it was just a lot of fun and a lot of nice people, so there wasn’t really any bad part to it,”
