A few years ago Don Henley wrote a song called “The End of the Innocence”.  The first lines went like this:

“Remember when the days were long
And rolled beneath a deep blue sky
Didn't have a care in the world
With mommy and daddy standing by”                                                                                               

Those words could have been written about the last broadcast of “Leave it to Beaver” on Television which took place on June 20, 1963.  The show ran for 6 years on CBS and later on ABC Television. Yesterday marked the 55th anniversary of the show’s debut in 1957.

Leave It to Beaver was an American television show about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore “The Beaver” Cleaver portrayed by Jerry Mathers and his adventures at home, in school, and around his neighborhood. The show also starred Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont as Beaver's parents, June and Ward Cleaver, and Tony Dow as Beaver's brother Wally. The show attained iconic status in the US, with the Cleavers exemplifying the idealized suburban family of the mid-20th century.

Every kid in America watch this show to see what trouble “The Beaver” would get it into. There was always a lesson to be learned from the show in the end. I challenge you to find a show like it anywhere else in the last 20 years. It’s another show that aired in the 50’s that would be considered “corny” today but one that we could use today.

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