Leave It to Beaver: Season 02  (1958)

Theatrical Release Information:
Leave It to Beaver: Season 02

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