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Beaver was big in Japan
Elements of the show made it enjoyable globally.
Leave It to Beaver is a fascinating relic. Looking back, it's easy to feel like the show existed as this white-picket-fence suburban American ideal. The "Gee, shucks" dialogue roots it in a time and a place far removed from the way the world has since progressed. It seems like Beaver and Wally were American kids facing American problems that would specifically speak to an American audience. The truth, though, was that the adventures of Wally and the Beav were a little more universal than one might expect.
In a 2023 interview with Remindmagazine.com, Jerry Mathers reflected on his most famous role and spoke about what made him proudest. As it turns out, that same, unexpected universal relatability still puts a smile on Mathers' face when he looks back on Leave It to Beaver.
“What makes me most proud is the longevity of it,” Mathers says. “Most shows that were on and they quit making, they just disappeared. Usually with a series, you do 39 shows a year, but with Leave It to Beaver, we did 39, and it just kept going and going and people really liked it.
"It’s amazing to have done something as a child that people are still watching and coming up to me and saying, ‘Oh, you were so good.’ And I say, ‘Well, thank you very much.’ But it’s been on since 1957, and it’s never been off the air. And it’s not only in this country — it plays all over the world. Now in Japan, it’s funny to watch it because not only do I speak it, but it’s a little girl’s voice.”
One other big difference: In Japan, the show is titled Happy Boy and His Family.
“When people think, ‘Oh, it was just in the United States.’ It played all over the world. I would get things from Japan and all over Europe. And a lot of times fans would say, ‘Excuse my broken English in my letter, but I really like the show and whatever.’ It kind of brought American culture to a lot of places that didn’t really know much about America.”
No word, though, whether those international audiences stayed as impressed by The New Leave It to Beaver when that show debuted in 1983.
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15 Comments
Herman would give Eddie a lecture on how people unfairly judge others by their appearance - like the
Munsters themselves - and then cited the different types of races in the world.
They had a Munster maven on TVLAND long ago (when it was a fun place with great, witty commercials)
who talked about the behind the scenes stuff - who was hosting a number of episodes and commented
at the end and beginning.
He said besides making $ and comedy the creators took the opportunity to teach kids to be more
accepting of other people in the spirit of the then raging civil rights debate.
They had to tread gingerly lest offending some viewers at the time and scaring the network
suits into censoring them.
They even commented once or twice on the Military Industrial Complex!
Herman saying something about how the land he sold the government for
a missle base will be used to cement world peace and if the enemy didn't like it we would
wipe them out. It was very funny, I'm not doing the line justice as it was years ago I last
saw it, but here again the writers were making a point.
Obviously the series was not created as a Civil Rights vehicle, there was no Bull Connor
type turning a fire hose on the Munsters while the KKK burned a cross on their lawn
as Herman was dragged by a chain behind a truck for trying to vote, despite being a WW 2 vet.
But as on Beaver, the people in charge put in messages trying to influence kids to be better
citizens in the future when they grew up, and wether that was thru Ward or Herman lecturing
their kid, their heart was in the right place and thats a good thing.
This had bupkis to do with Bud & Lou etc.
