My friends always called my wife June Cleaver and they were pretty much on point. All of our kids watched this show when they were growing up along with My Three Sons, Donna Reed and Ozzie and Harriet.

Thanks for the trip in the "Way Back" machine. I watched the Beave faithfully when I was a young'un. Those that sneer, snark, and disparage the Cleaver family are clueless idiots.

Gee, Wally, that's swell.

A kinder gentler era when America Was Great. I grew up with these shows including Mickey Mouse Club. The music was G rated with entertainment value. Today it is filled with anger (especially rap music) which fuels social unrest. Yes, our moral compass is a muck and communism is alive and well.

Very enjoyable article and an accurate analysis. Too bad such moral guidance for children is lacking today.

Gee, that's a nice dress you're wearing, Mrs. Cleaver.

Why, thank you, Eddie.

I was born in 1949, so this was square in my growing-up years. I didn't watch "Leave it to Beaver" because that family didn't look like mine. (Not that it was a bad family, theirs or mine. It's just that mine wasn't like that at all, so there wasn't much for me to identify with.)

Didn't really watch much other TV either because I was a bookworm. But, I did (today) watch the entire episode that is posted at the end of the article you are drawing from. I will have to admit laughing out loud over the GUN talk and the dead animals (with FUR on them!!) and other things that give liberals nightmares.

Now think about it. Maybe there were some mass shootings in those years. I certainly don't remember any....but the more we hide the guns and make them "bad" to talk about...the worse it gets.

And nobody seems to see this! Are they blind?

I don't believe that the world has changed...we've always had the perverts and abusers, out there. Difference was...our government would lock those people up and hand out "real" punishment to transgressors.

What has happened is that they've opened the doors and let all the crazies out, while at the same time, handcuffing parents and preventing them from taking the appropriate actions to protect their children.

Ah, nostalgia.
They sure read a lot of stuff into the script, didn't they? Even the names had special meanings. But as I recall, rather than the pleasantly euphemistic play on words that the writers of the article expressed "Beaver Cleaver" had a meaning to most of the piggish boys who scurried about like mice in my immediate vicinity that was fairly obscene, Especially in those days where a peek at Brigitte Bardot's cleavage was the key to opening the door that concealed her behind.

1957.....I remember it well. We moved from North Carolina to a small town on the east coast of Florida. My parents had a 57 Chevy. I was constantly telling my dad to mash the gas pedal and put it into passin' gear. The small Florida town was a great place to ride our bikes and go fishing. Then we graduated to motor scooters and terrorized the neighborhood. Then came the cars and the girls. Life was beautiful.
And then..........

A great article. Thanks for posting.

Similar shows were on TV up and through the 80's (Family Matters, The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, Family Ties, Cosby Show, etc.) but these have all gone the way of the dodo to be replaced with shows glorifying dysfunctional families such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, and others. It's one of the reasons I've never subscribed to cable TV and I doubt I ever will. Even the venerable Disney Channel no longer has anything showing the traditional family - their most popular show (until it was cancelled) was about a nanny.

We see the same thing in cartoons. (This will date me but oh, well.) I grew up watching He-Man, GI Joe, Transformers, and other shows which nearly always had at the root of the episode a moral question which was then addressed by the characters at the end of the show. Now (aside from Phineas & Ferb and maybe My Little Pony) we have nothing but Sponge Bob (and his intellectually stultifying themes) and other such tripe. Gone are the days of actual morality on TV.

The moral imagination referred to in this article also reminds me of the moral characters in many of Heinlein's excellent "juvenile" sci-fi novels. I have always thought the label of juvenile was incorrectly applied to Heinlein's works.
Examples:
A Tenderfoot in Space
Citizen of the Galaxy
Farmer In The Sky
Farnhams Freehold
Have Space Suit, Will Travel
Orphans of the Sky
Podkayne of Mars
Red Planet
Rocket Ship Galileo
Space Cadet
Starman Jones
Tunnel In the Sky

Awesome Carl thanks. Leave it to Beaver the story of a young boy who learned “first principles” and was guided in “virtue and wisdom” in the midst of his family.
I was first disillusioned by the liberal dems when the obvious solution to many problems was what they attacked. Family values ....sheesh.
Now they openly attack making America great .
May a Camel sit on their heads and flatulate(sp).

This makes me want to watch the show. As the article says, I know the show only as its title used as a cliche.