‘Leave It To Beaver’ Wise Guy Eddie Haskell Dies at 76
Actor Ken Osmond who played the overly polite trouble maker on the 'Leave It To Beaver' TV show, has passed away.
The TV show, 'Leave It To Beaver,' was my 'Seinfeld' growing up. The show ran for six seasons from 1957 until 1963 and was filmed with just one camera and in black and white.
The sitcom portrayed the 'golly-gee' period in American television, and all Eddie Haskell wanted to do was to get his best buddy, Wally Cleaver(Tony Dow), in trouble at any opportunity and pick on the Beaver. (Jerry Mathers) Eddie was also a major league suck-up towards Mrs. Cleaver. (Barbara Billingsley) but she wasn't buying any of what Eddie was selling.
After the show's last season in 1963, Ken Howard went on to become a motorcycle officer with the Los Angeles Police Department according to an article on npr.org. After Osmond passed, The Beav, Jerry Mathers tweeted,
I will greatly miss my lifelong friend who I've known for over 63 years. I have always said he was the best actor on the show because his real-life personality was the exact opposite of his on-air character.
Are you ready for some little known facts about, 'Leave It To Beaver" thanks to metv.com.
* It was the first TV program to show a toilet.
* Jerry Mathers wore his cub scout uniform to his audition.
* After the first season in 1958, CBS canceled the series but ABC immediately scooped it up.
* The show never broke into the top 30 ratings.
* Some jokes were removed from the series because they received too much laughter. Tony Dow (Wally) said the producers weren't looking for loud laughter, they only wanted chuckles.
* The TV movie 'Still the Beaver' reunited the original cast in 1983 followed by a new series, 'The New Leave It To Beaver.'