Tony Dow Movies
Tony Dow is best remembered for playing Wally Cleaver, the clean-cut and much wiser older brother of Beaver on the classic family sitcom Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963). Since the show's demise, he has appeared sporadically in a couple feature films and in a few television movies. He reprised the role of Wally in the 1980s in the made-for-TV reunion film Still the Beaver (1983) and in the series it spawned. In 1965, Dow starred in the short-lived series Never Too Young. After a final feature-film appearance as a judge in the good-natured, nostalgic spoof of the Beach Party movies Back to the Beach (1987), Dow disappeared for a few years and then re-emerged as a director of television episodes for such series as Babylon 5 (1993) and as a producer of films such as It Came From Outer Space II (1996). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1960
Still securely ensconced in a Saturday-night time slot, Leave It to Beaver satisfies its ever-growing fan base with 39 new episodes in its fourth season on the air. Joining the familiar cast of regulars is child actor Richard Correll as Beaver's new pal Richard, a replacement of sorts for the departing Larry Mondello. This season includes two of the series' most moving and realistic episodes. In the season opener "Beaver Won't Eat," Beaver (Jerry Mathers) and his mom June (Barbara Billingsley) form a closer bond than ever before -- and it's a plate of Brussels sprouts that causes it all. And in "Beaver's House Guest," Barry J. Gordon (A Thousand Clowns) guests as Beaver's friend Chopper, who desperately tries to convince everyone that he really, truly enjoys being a child of divorce. Elsewhere, the "creepy" Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond) unexpectedly evokes the sympathy of the viewers when he is two-timed by a conniving female in "Eddie's Double Cross"; Beav must face the unimaginable horror of forever losing his favorite schoolteacher in "Miss Landers' Fiancé"; a youthful kleptomaniac gets Beav in Dutch in "Beaver and Kenneth"; and Wally's oafish pal Lumpy Rutherford (Frank Bank) learns the hard way that dating the "Teacher's Daughter" is not a guaranteed method of improving one's grades ("Yes, F. It's the lowest grade they allow me to give.") Also: Eddie and Lumpy inadvertently get Wally kicked off the track team in "Wally's Track Meet," then advertently get Beaver in trouble with dad Ward (Hugh Beaumont) by cleverly changing a "D minus" into a "B plus" in "Beaver's Report Card"; Beav stirs up trouble on his own by being trapped into a dare in "The School Picture"; and Wally offers his services as "Substitute Father" when Beav is hauled before the principal for swearing in school (no, we don't hear the words!). By far the season's funniest and most famous episode is "In the Soup," which, of course, is the one in which Beaver climbs onto an elaborate billboard and manages to get himself stuck in a gigantic soup bowl! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, (more)
- 1959
Another 39 terrific episodes are served up in Leave It to Beaver's third season, which when originally telecast on ABC were seen in the series' brand-new Saturday evening time slot. The first offering is "Blind Date Committee," another thrilling chapter in the love life of the now-14-year-old Wally Cleaver (Tony Dow). This is followed with another classic episode wherein Wally volunteers to babysit kid brother Beaver (Jerry Mathers) with embarrassingly soggy results in "Beaver Takes a Bath." And one week later, Beaver's classroom nemesis Judy Hensler (Jeri Weil) of necessity becomes his best friend for a whole four minutes in "School Bus." In other episodes, mom June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley) mortifies Beaver by making public his baby pictures; dad Ward's (Hugh Beaumont) well-meaning exaggerations about his own youthful athletics cost Beaver dearly in "Beaver Takes a Walk"; Beav's schoolteacher Miss Landers (Sue Randall) shocks her favorite pupil by wearing open-toed shoes in "Teacher Comes to Dinner"; chaos ensues in "Beaver the Magician" when The Beav convinces five-year-old Benji (Joey Scott) that he has turned himself into a rock; and later on, it is weaselly Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond) who pulls the wool over Beaver's eyes in "The Hypnotist"; June chooses to wear an outlandish blouse rather than break her sons' hearts in "June's Birthday"; and Eddie -- that creep! -- persuades Beaver that Ward will go to jail when Beaver's library book turns up lost. Many fans consider the season's highlight to be "Beaver and Violet," in which poor Beav is unwittingly caught in a kiss with little Violet Rutherford (Veronica Cartwright) ,thanks to her camera-fiend dad Fred (Richard Deacon). Also, for the benefit of those who regard the series as frivolous and insignificant, we refer you to the episode "Beaver and Andy," a poignant and thoroughly realistic story about alcoholism. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, (more)
Leave It to Beaver entered its second season in a new time slot (Thursdays rather than Fridays at 7:30 pm EST), a new network (ABC instead of CBS), and a new movie studio (Revue Productions had moved its base of operations from Republic to Universal). Things get off to a delightful start with "Beaver's Poem," one of the series' many "crisis of conscience" episodes in which Beaver wins an award for a poem written by his dad Ward (Hugh Beaumont). Subsequent first-rate episodes include "Beaver and Chuey," wherein The Beav nearly loses the friendship of his new Mexican acquaintance thanks to the duplicitous machinations of the redoubtable Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond); "Beaver's Ring," which finds our hero stoically contemplating amputation when he gets a valuable family ring stuck on his finger; and "The Shave," in which Beav's older brother Wally (Tony Dow) contemplates scraping off a few "chin whiskers" that frankly don't yet exist. (This episode features Howard McNear, best known as Floyd the barber on The Andy Griffith Show, here cast as -- you guessed it -- a barber!) Also: In "The Grass is Greener," Wally and Beav learn to appreciate what they have in life when they meet a poor family; in "Beaver Plays Hookey," Beaver and his buddy Larry (Rusty Stevens) skip school, only to be caught in the act by a TV camera; in "Wally's Pug Nose," Wally is given reason to be self-conscious by his new girlfriend Gloria (played by Cheryl Holdridge before she was established in the role of Judy Foster); "Beaver and Gilbert" introduces Stephen Talbot in the role of preteen conniver Gilbert Gates (later Bates), who wastes no time hatching a scheme that will get Beaver "clobbered" by his dad; Beav manages to get locked in the principal's office and get his head stuck in an iron gate in "The Price of Fame," and later causes embarrassment for himself when he brags about his father's WWII exploits in "Beaver's Hero"; and in "Wally's Haircomb," Wally shocks his parents by emerging from the bathroom with his hair in an Elvis-like duck tail (listen for that gloriously phony rock & roll music on the soundtrack!) The season ends with "Most Interesting Character," which feature our hero's latest schoolteacher, the pretty Miss Landers (Sue Randall). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, (more)
The first season of Leave It to Beaver was originally telecast on CBS and seen in an early-Friday-evening slot. When first we meet that "lovable, spankable, unpredictable" Beaver Cleaver (Jerry Mathers), he is all of seven years old, and his older brother Wally (Tony Dow) is a mere 12. The boys and their parents, Ward (Hugh Beaumont) and June (Barbara Billingsley), are living in a different house than in later episodes, principally because the show was being filmed at the old Republic movie studios, and wouldn't move to its more familiar Universal stamping grounds until the 1958-1959 season. Wally's weaselly buddy Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond), already practicing his two-faced trick of being effusively polite to Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver and abrasive and bullying to Beaver, makes his first appearance in the episode "New Neighbors" (a later installment, "Voodoo Magic," affords viewers the rare privilege of seeing Eddie's parents, played by Karl Swenson and Ann Doran). Another familiar juvenile supporting player, Frank Bank, makes his debut as Lumpy Rutherford in the episode also bearing that name; though he is instantly established as the son of Ward's coworker Fred Rutherford (Richard Deacon), Lumpy is depicted as a bully, and not the amiable oaf he would later become. Similarly, Ward Cleaver is not always the all-knowing, gently philosophical character whom we're familiar with: in the episode "The Black Eye," for example, Ward not only aggressively goads Beaver into a fight with the kid who gave him a "shiner," but also punishes Wally for informing him in a later scene that Beaver's "opponent" is a girl! And if we may digress for a moment: another first-season episode, "Water Anyone," marks the one and only time that June Cleaver is seen mopping the floor while wearing a pearl necklace and a fancy dress. (And, given the plot at hand, June's allegedly inappropriate outfit makes sense!) Other characters introduced during season one are Beaver's attractive blonde teacher Miss Canfield (Diane Brewster), his friends Larry (Rusty Stevens) and Whitey (Stanley "Tiger" Fafara), his classroom nemesis Judy Hensler (Jeri Weil), and Wally's off-and-on steady date Mary Ellen Rogers (Pamela Beard). Among the actors making guest appearances are silent-film star Madge Kennedy as Wally and Beav's hidebound Aunt Martha, and in two separate episodes, veteran character actor Lyle Talbot, whose son Stephen Talbot would join the cast two years later as Beaver's chum Gilbert. With such classic episodes as "Beaver Gets 'Spelled," "Beaver and Poncho," and "Beaver Runs Away," Leave It to Beaver performed admirably during its freshman season, though ratings-wise it lagged behind its ABC competition The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, (more)
- 1957
One of the undisputed classics of American television, the weekly, half-hour sitcom Leave It to Beaver was created by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who had risen to prominence as principal writers of the TV version of Amos 'n' Andy. Fulfilling their ambition to create a warm, credible sitcom about modern suburban life as seen through the eyes of small children, Connelly and Mosher came up with a pilot film, "It's a Small World," in 1957. This trial balloon featured Jerry Mathers as six-year-old Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, Paul Sullivan as his 11-year-old brother Wally, Casey Adams (aka Max Showalter) as their accountant father Ward, and Barbara Billingsley as their housewife mother June. Also appearing in the pilot were Diane Brewster, Richard Deacon, and, in the one-scene role of a wise guy neighbor kid named Frankie, a very young Harry Shearer. Though the concept did not fly as "It's a Small World" (the pilot would be folded into a syndicated anthology series, Studio 57), CBS evinced interest when it reemerged, with several new cast members, as Leave It to Beaver, which debuted October 4, 1957.
Carried over from "It's a Small World" were Jerry Mathers and Barbara Billingsley, while new to the cast were Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver and Tony Dow as Wally. Likewise retained were Diane Brewster and Richard Deacon, albeit in different roles as respectively, Beaver's schoolteacher Miss Canfield and Ward's co-worker Fred Rutherford. The basic original premise was also kept on, with Beaver and Wally trying to interpret the ways of the world through their own youthful and naïve perspective. The Cleavers lived in the town of Mayfield, and shared many of the same trials and tribulations as the "nuclear families" who comprised the series' fan base. What really sold the series was the warm, realistic rapport between the Cleaver kids and their parents, and the authentic-sounding dialogue, full of the slang and idioms common to youngsters of the Eisenhower era. The huge supporting cast included Rusty Stevens as Beaver's chubby pal Larry Mondello, who was invariably seen chomping on an apple and who lived in fear of his disciplinarian father who always seemed to be on a business trip to Cincinnati (Madge Blake, aka Batman's Aunt Harriet, was occasionally seen as Larry's mom); Stanley "Tiger" Fafara as another Beaver buddy, the adenoidal Whitey Whitney; Stephen Talbot as young Gilbert Bates, who spent most of his time talking Beaver into getting in trouble; Richard Correll as Richard, evidently brought in during the series' third season as a Larry Mondello replacement; Jeri Weil as snotty, insulting Judy Hensler, Beaver's classroom nemesis; Frank Bank as Wally's school chum (and Fred Rutherford's son) Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford, an amiable, none-too-bright oaf; Pamela Beard as Mary Ellen Rogers and Cheryl Holdridge as Judy Foster, Wally's erstwhile girlfriends; and Sue Randall and Doris Packer respectively as Miss Canfield's successors at Beaver's school, Miss Landers and Miss Rayburn. By far the most famous and celebrated of the series' supporting players was Ken Osmond as Wally's pal Eddie Haskell, that juvenile Uriah Heep who laid on the insincere charm whenever he was around Beaver's parents ("Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver. My, Mrs. Cleaver, you're looking lovely tonight. Are Wallace and Theodore at home?"), but who reverted to his true personality as a weaselly, conniving creep whenever he was alone with Wally and The Beav. Moving from CBS to ABC for its second season, Leave It to Beaver ultimately lasted six seasons and 234 episodes, signing off only because Tony Dow and especially Jerry Mathers had outgrown their roles. The final network episode aired on September 12, 1963; one week later, the series entered rerun syndication, where it has flourished ever since. And in 1985, most of the original cast (minus the late Hugh Beaumont) were reunited in their same roles in a new series, The New Leave It to Beaver, which was a spin-off of the earlier retro special Still the Beaver, and which remained in production until 1989. While the newer version is not held in terribly high esteem by fans, the original remains an audience favorite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Carried over from "It's a Small World" were Jerry Mathers and Barbara Billingsley, while new to the cast were Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver and Tony Dow as Wally. Likewise retained were Diane Brewster and Richard Deacon, albeit in different roles as respectively, Beaver's schoolteacher Miss Canfield and Ward's co-worker Fred Rutherford. The basic original premise was also kept on, with Beaver and Wally trying to interpret the ways of the world through their own youthful and naïve perspective. The Cleavers lived in the town of Mayfield, and shared many of the same trials and tribulations as the "nuclear families" who comprised the series' fan base. What really sold the series was the warm, realistic rapport between the Cleaver kids and their parents, and the authentic-sounding dialogue, full of the slang and idioms common to youngsters of the Eisenhower era. The huge supporting cast included Rusty Stevens as Beaver's chubby pal Larry Mondello, who was invariably seen chomping on an apple and who lived in fear of his disciplinarian father who always seemed to be on a business trip to Cincinnati (Madge Blake, aka Batman's Aunt Harriet, was occasionally seen as Larry's mom); Stanley "Tiger" Fafara as another Beaver buddy, the adenoidal Whitey Whitney; Stephen Talbot as young Gilbert Bates, who spent most of his time talking Beaver into getting in trouble; Richard Correll as Richard, evidently brought in during the series' third season as a Larry Mondello replacement; Jeri Weil as snotty, insulting Judy Hensler, Beaver's classroom nemesis; Frank Bank as Wally's school chum (and Fred Rutherford's son) Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford, an amiable, none-too-bright oaf; Pamela Beard as Mary Ellen Rogers and Cheryl Holdridge as Judy Foster, Wally's erstwhile girlfriends; and Sue Randall and Doris Packer respectively as Miss Canfield's successors at Beaver's school, Miss Landers and Miss Rayburn. By far the most famous and celebrated of the series' supporting players was Ken Osmond as Wally's pal Eddie Haskell, that juvenile Uriah Heep who laid on the insincere charm whenever he was around Beaver's parents ("Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver. My, Mrs. Cleaver, you're looking lovely tonight. Are Wallace and Theodore at home?"), but who reverted to his true personality as a weaselly, conniving creep whenever he was alone with Wally and The Beav. Moving from CBS to ABC for its second season, Leave It to Beaver ultimately lasted six seasons and 234 episodes, signing off only because Tony Dow and especially Jerry Mathers had outgrown their roles. The final network episode aired on September 12, 1963; one week later, the series entered rerun syndication, where it has flourished ever since. And in 1985, most of the original cast (minus the late Hugh Beaumont) were reunited in their same roles in a new series, The New Leave It to Beaver, which was a spin-off of the earlier retro special Still the Beaver, and which remained in production until 1989. While the newer version is not held in terribly high esteem by fans, the original remains an audience favorite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Beaumont, Barbara Billingsley, (more)
