"Leave it to Beaver" my favorite episodes in order
listing all 235 episodes of "Leave it to Beaver" in the order I like them best, not necessarily how I would rank them as a critic.
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- DirectorBretaigne WindustStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowBeaver and Larry are forced to attend a series of high-class dances. After the first one, they decide to ditch them. Then they meet a young cowgirl and ride a horse.With guest Karen Sue Trent as "cowgirl".
Beaver and Larry seem to be rewarded for ditching Saturday dance class with the day of their lives when they meet a girl their age riding around on a horse. This was made the year before Karen was in Beaver's class as "Penny", but I like to think it is Penny living in a close-by neighborhood at the time and that she remembers Beaver the next year but doesn't mention it, and he doesn't recognize her because she is not in her cowboy hat anymore. In a future episode Penny mentions in class her love for horses, so that is a sign it could be the character Penny despite not being named in this episode. - DirectorDavid ButlerStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowBeaver learns a girl he fights with is moving out of town.with Penny
In the first 3 seasons Beaver sits in class next to the tall, smart, tattletale Judy who is always his nemesis. Then in season 4 and the first half of season 5 Penny takes her spot in the classroom but as a sometimes friend/sometimes nemesis of Beaver. At the beginning of this episode they are not getting along before Miss Landers announces that Penny is about to move away and they are going to have a going-away party for her after school at the end of the week. That is a delight to Beaver until his mom tells him he has to go to the party and get her a present like everyone else. The last scene between Beaver and Penny is my favorite ending moment of the whole series. - DirectorAnton LeaderStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowWhen Beaver buys a wrecked 'coaster car' from Eddie Haskell, Wally pitches in to help his little brother fix it up and school chum Penny Woods promises him the wheels from her old doll buggy. But Beaver forgets his tools when he goes to Penny's house to remove the wheels and panics when he runs into his best friends, Gilbert and Richard, while trying to sneak the buggy home.with Penny
To complete his dune buggy (or "coaster wagon" as his mom June calls it) Beaver must get wheels by going to the house of his sometimes friend/sometimes enemy Penny and also meets her mom. Hilarious moments with a lot of heart. - DirectorNorman TokarStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowBeaver's friends Larry, Whitey and Gilbert climb a tree to secretly spy on their teacher, Miss Landers, when she has dinner at the Cleaver house.Amazing, Great, Fun, Best episode
I have 3 "favorite" episodes ahead of this probably because I like the relationship between Beaver and Penny but if I had to pick the very "best" episode that deserves the best rating it would definitely be this one.
with Sue Randall as Beaver's teacher Miss Landers - DirectorNorman AbbottStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowBeaver gets upset when his favorite teacher gets engaged.with Miss Landers
In the second season when Miss Landers first becomes Beaver's teacher he has a crush on her, in the beginning of the third season he says his feelings are no longer a crush but likes her in the same way he likes his mom (which gives his mom who is listening a big smile), but here in the fourth season his crush sure seems to be back and Beaver realizes how much. - DirectorNorman TokarStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowViolet Rutherford gives Beaver a black eye.The first appearance of "Violet Rutherford", played by Wendy Winkelman for only this one time.
In this first season episode Ward's co-worker and long-time friend Mr. Rutherford has Violet as his daughter who is the youngest but says he also has two sons who were offered college football scholarships. His son "Lumpy" is not mentioned until a later episode and the two college sons seem to no longer exist after this episode where they are not shown. - DirectorDavid ButlerStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowThe Cleavers' and the Rutherfords' picnic day turns into embarrassment for Beaver when a snapshot of Violet kissing him on the cheek appears on the cover of Ward's company magazine.The second appearance of "Violet Rutherford", now played by Veronica Cartwright.
Contains perhaps my favorite scene in the whole series, when Wally makes a comment to his mom June about how she handled a call from Violet that Beaver didn't want to answer, and June gives Wally a double-look that you can't stop laughing at.
The second of only 3 episodes with Mrs. Rutherford in it, all played by 3 different actresses.
In this episode Star Trek fans may recognize Violet's gorgeous mom as being played by Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Chapel in 25 episodes of "Star Trek", was "Number One" in the first pilot episode called "The Cage", was the voice of the ships computer in
Star Trek:The Original Series,
Star Trek:The Next Generation,
Star Trek:Deep Space 9,
Star Trek:Voyager,
and Star Trek:The Animated Series.
Also she was married to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in real life. - DirectorNorman TokarStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowMary Ellen Rogers schemes to get unsuspecting Wally to ask her to the school dance, using her friendship with Beaver to get closer to his big brother.The episode where we first meet Mary Ellen Rogers
(played by Pamela Baird)
who we hear her name mentioned a lot all through the series in a positive manner even when she is not in the episodes. (She is only in 5 episodes but seems to be mentioned in about 50 episodes). She goes through a lot in this episode to get to meet Wally, in a roundabout way, and Wally's mom seems to know from experience exactly what is going on but Beaver sure doesn't. - DirectorNorman AbbottStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowAfter seeing all the girls swoon over Wally at his new job at a soda fountain, jealous Lumpy and Eddie plan revenge on Wally.with Cheryl Holdridge
Has the fifth of 5 appearances of Mary Ellen Rogers
One of the best episodes focusing on Wally where girls come in the ice-cream shop just to get to see Wally working.
It is interesting that two of the girls at the counter are telling Wally that they are going to an all girl party later that night at Mary Ellen Rogers house, and then about a minute later they pan out the camera and we see Mary Ellen is actually sitting right next to them after they talked like they couldn't wait to see her later.
We also learn that Mary Ellen Rogers house is just around the corner from Wally's (the house they have in seasons 3-6, not when they first met). - DirectorNorman TokarStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowWhen Ward gives Wally permission to get a job, Wally discovers that there is more to making money than just selling ice cream bars and that allies come from unlikely places.with Cheryl Holdridge
and a young Ann Jillian (in the credits as Anne Nauseda)
When there are two young girls standing by the ice cream cart one of them is named and based on that it makes it seem Ann Jillion is the smaller girl on the right, but the girl in the middle sure looks like what Ann looked like in a Twilight Zone episode ("Mute") at that time. - DirectorDavid ButlerStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowEddie tricks Wally into taking a tall girl to a school dance.Wally's date in this episode get's my vote as the perfect girl for him. It is the only episode she is in.
- DirectorNorman TokarStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowBeaver finds himself where no self-respecting second grade boy would ever want to be: the only boy invited to little Linda Dennison's otherwise all-girl party.One of two great stories involving Linda Dennison
(played by Patty Turner).
Actor Lyle Talbot does a very memorable and fun portrayal as Linda's hunter father, where he all of a sudden just appears, and makes me wish there was a sequel to the episode. - DirectorNorman TokarStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowTo stop his friends from teasing him and prove that he doesn't have a crush on classmate Linda Dennison, Beaver is pressured into calling her a nasty nameThe second of two great stories involving Patty Turner as Linda Dennison.
She is a delight as a girl who Beaver seems to not know why he starts to like the attention she gives him.
She is in at least four more episodes but you mainly just see her as the girl with wide open eyes in the back row of the classroom in those episodes.
It is unbelievable to me that besides these two episodes she is never given more than one line to say,
and that "Leave it to Beaver" is the only t.v. show she would ever be on. - DirectorNorman TokarStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowBeaver's crush on his teacher Miss Canfield and teasing by the other kids leads him to put a spring snake in her desk drawer. When his conscience starts acting up, he does his best to make sure the snake stays in the desk.We see in this first-season episode that Beaver also had a crush on another teacher, Miss Canfield, the year before Miss Landers became his teacher.
It is the first episode to feature Beavers friend Larry, he would appear in 67 episodes, the most of any of Beaver's friends, although Wally's friend Eddie would appear in 97 episodes. - DirectorDavid ButlerStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowWally falls hard for the pretty ticket taker at the movie theater. When he takes her out on a date, he finds she is not as nice as he thought.Wally when he is a senior in high school goes out on a date with a 20 year old girl who is nice but not knowing she is a "woman of the world" as Gilbert puts it.
- DirectorDavid ButlerStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowWhen Beaver's teacher Miss Landers assigns the class a book to read Ward suggests Ivanhoe, one of his favorite boyhood books. Impressed by the tale of knighthood, Beaver forms his own knight club and sets out to defend his neighborhood.with Miss Landers and Penny
We get to see Karen Sue Trent again for the second time, this time officially as Penny, the school year before she is in Beaver's class, where her and her brother seemed to have just moved to that neighborhood and are taking the schoolbus for the first time, but are in a different classroom from Beaver. - DirectorDavid ButlerStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowWhen Wally and Eddie coach Beaver's summer football team and give them a secret play to use against the opposing team, Beaver finds out that the best way to keep a secret is to not tell it...to anyone!with Penny
In this episode after the school year of season three (but the summer before Beaver and Penny are in the same classroom in season four) Beaver all of a sudden knows Penny well and when they see each other they sit down by a tree and talk to each other like old friends. It makes you think you missed an episode when they got to know each other, but there was no such episode. Then two boys come afterward and ask Penny what she was talking to Beaver about, and one of them says he thinks Penny's brother is stupid. The funny thing is the last time we saw Penny in a previous episode ("Beaver and Ivanhoe") he WAS her brother.
There is an outdoor scene where it seems someone else's voice is coming out of Ward's mouth. Since this is the last episode of the third season, perhaps Hugh Beaumont (Ward) had already left on summer vacation before they knew they needed an overdub from him, so they may have had a voice actor to do it (they did do that for the outdoor scenes of a character in the very last episode of "The Twilight Zone"). - DirectorNorman AbbottStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowOver breakfast on the last day of school before summer vacation, Beaver and Wally sneak a peek at the gift June bought for Beaver to give to his teacher. The embarrassed boys find a lacy slip, and not knowing that the department store made a mistake and that his gift was supposed to be handkerchiefs, Beaver must decide whether to give Miss Landers the slip or nothing at all.with Miss Landers
- DirectorNorman AbbottStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowWard and June are proud when Beaver is elected as his grammar school class's Junior Fire Chief for Fire Prevention Week until he starts taking his honorary position a little too seriously.with Miss Landers and Penny
Miss Landers announces an election to see who will be the classes Junior Fire Chief and at one point it seems all the boys are going to vote for Beaver and all the girls are going to vote for Penny. During this episode Penny tells Miss Landers she was in a horse show the night before, which seems a big clue that she is the same character as in the episode "Beavers Dance", as the cowgirl, (which was Karen Sue Trent's first appearance but they never mentioned her characters name in the episode). If there was ever a time for Penny to remind Beaver of the first time they met in that previous episode it would be in this episode when they are rivals and it would be to her advantage for him to remember the fun they had that day, but like Larry predicted in that previous episode, she would probably not even recognize them the next time they met.
Wally as a junior in this 4th season episode mentions something he will be doing the next school year when he will be part of the graduating class of 1962, but in the next (5th) season Wally and all his friends are juniors again for a second year, (it is only mentioned once in the 5th season he is still a junior). So Wally is not actually a senior until the 6th season and becomes part of the graduating class of 1963. - DirectorNorman TokarStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowBeaver uses his own $13 to buy a wild Eskimo-style sweater, but regrets it when Judy Hensler has the same one.One of my two favorite episodes that involves Judy. Beaver saves up for an awesome looking sweater he can't wait to wear until he finds out Judy has the same taste as him.
- DirectorNorman TokarStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowBeaver gets suspended from riding the school bus for acting up.with Miss Landers
The other of my two favorite episodes involving Judy.
It is announced everyone can take the school bus no matter how close they live to school, to the dismay of Judy who now has to share the bus with many more students including Beaver. The best scenes between Beaver and Judy are in this one. - DirectorDann CahnStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowBeaver balks at playing the lead in his school play 'The Little Dutch Boy' when his role includes kissing his co-star...the little Dutch girl!with Miss Landers and Penny
One of two episodes where Shirley Temple is mentioned.
In this episode when Wally is a junior close to the end of the year in track season Wally is given a third stripe on his letterman sweater, signifying it is the third year he qualified to get the letter for sports. The three pins on the sweater show he qualified for the letter in three different sports (football, swimming, track). Wally explains that students are only allowed to go out for three major sports a year. (Wally went out for basketball and baseball in park or city leagues which is explained in a different episode.) The next year in season 5 Wally is again a junior so still has 3 stripes, and in the final season 6 in track season Wally says he already earned enough points for his fourth stripe but they never show an episode with it sewn on. - DirectorNorman TokarStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowBeaver needs a baby picture for a class project. June comes up with one where he doesn't have any clothes on and mails it to Miss Landers without showing it to him first.with Miss Landers
one of two episodes where Shirley Temple is mentioned
as you might have guessed, the picture they show of Beaver as a baby is not really a picture of actor Jerry Mathers when he was a baby, for some reason they used a stock photo that was in in other t.v. shows as other characters baby photo - DirectorNorman AbbottStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowGilbert convinces Beaver that they should both make an ugly face when their class picture is taken. Beaver does it, but Gilbert doesn't. It doesn't get discovered until the picture has already gone to press to be in the school yearbook.with Miss Landers and Penny
- DirectorNorman AbbottStarsBarbara BillingsleyHugh BeaumontTony DowAfter finding Ward's old drawing tablet, Beaver volunteers to make a poster for a class project on colonial America, hoping that his talented dad will do it for him. But Ward only offers his son advice and encouragement, and even though his friends make fun of his art, in the end, Beaver is glad that he painted the poster by himself.with Miss Landers and Penny