Best/Worst

[tdr]

Watching the ep "Chuckie's New Shoes" this week, I was surprised at how terrible the acting was by the one who played 'Mrs. Murdock,' Churckie's mother. I didn't remember that from when I had seen this ep before, but almost any of the child actors who did scenes of worry or crying on LITB were better than she in her attempt. Even great classic shows are going to have their best and worst moments, scenes, plots, et al. So she would be a candidte for worst acting by an adult in the series. Among some other best/worst topics...

Best friend/foil to Beaver: Larry Mondello.

Worst friend/foil to Beaver: Harry (?), who the PTB were quick to see was not working out.

Worst casting: Madge Blake as Mrs. Mondello-- not bad acting as the nervous-wreck mother whose husband was usually gone, but she was too old to be Larry's mother.

Best advisor: Gus the Fireman.

Worst contrived plot: "Beaver Plays Hooky"-- Beav skips school, Wally is sent home by school nurse, June moves TV into Wally's room, Beaver goes to market to get free food sample, ends up on live TV as Wally and June turn the set on.

Worst method of getting an answer: Beaver's parallelisms; such as, when he asked if he had a million dollars in the bank if it would still be his money if the bank was sold-- then he goes to their old house to dig up 'his' tree and bring it to their new house.

Best advice Ward gave: "As you go through life, try to IMprove yourself; not prove yourself"-- from "In the Soup."

Worst unexplained incident: The disappearance of Larry Mondello.

Best portrayal of a true societal problem: "Beaver and Andy," where Andy the alcoholic befriends Beaver, then takes advantage of his naive good nature.

Best overlooked comedy device: June and Ward's playful verbal jabbing (ex: June looks at picures of her in younger days in Ward's old warchest and says, "Oh Ward, did I ever really look like that?" He says, "Oh yes--- but I married you anyway."
~~~~
There are probably a lot more best/worst opinions. And the best question from the ep, "Chuckie's New Shoes,"-- Does a lion roaming around in the jungle have a conscience? (Beaver's Q, of course)

[DarleneIllyria]

Originally posted by tdr



Worst contrived plot: "Beaver Plays Hooky"-- Beav skips school, Wally is sent home by school nurse, June moves TV into Wally's room, Beaver goes to market to get free food sample, ends up on live TV as Wally and June turn the set on.



Actually, I liked that episode. I always lmao when June and Wally see Beaver and Larry. Then Larry comes up with that insane story about the school being flooded and then just their classroom was flooded, and then Beav. speaks up and says, "Maybe just our two desks were flooded." roflmao

You know the one that I'm going to put for the Worst contrived plot? The bunny episode. Beaver was just too old and looked too foolish to be dressed in a bunny costume. That episode would've been cute and funny if it took place during Beav's younger days.

[Jack1000]

"Beaver the Bunny is bad" Does TV Land even show that episode? I haven't seen it for a long time.

"The Clothing Drive" is my vote for worst episode. Beaver goes on to everybody about getting all their old clothes ready for him to take to school for some charity. (The winner got some 50 cent plague with his name on it.....big deal)

Ward leaves some suits out for June to take to the cleaners, and Beaver accidently thinks they are for the clothing drive and takes them to school.

June questions Ward at the dinner table (a.l.a Perry Mason, as Wally points out) "Who put the suits out in the hall?", "Who told Beaver to take the clothes in the hall to school?", and she says Ward should go and get the suits back so he does.

Beaver's teacher, (Mr. Bailey, not Mrs. Rayburn here as it should be) compliments Beaver for the suits donation and says he should win the prize, Ward talks to Mrs. Rayburn gets his suits back and offers to give Beaver another chance to collect more clothes. Beaver doesn't think he should win the prize because he got two chances to bring clothes in while the rest of the class only got one.

This episode is very very poor (as someone else even mentioned)

1. You have a scene in the beginning where Beaver is walking with two kids, one is Mike, (Played by Tim Mathison! the only redeaming quality of this awful episode) The other is the most ugly homley looking kid I have ever seen! What do they even talk about here? The conversation is stupid

2. The acting and writing are poor and the whole plot of Beaver being so excited about winning some plague is out of charactor

3. June doing her "Perry Mason" thing at the table is out of character for her to the extreame. She's not that kind of person at all

4. Ward is made to look dumb in this epiosde, which is totally out of charactor

5. The writer/director never worked on another episode

6. The epiosode is from the second to last season and never should have aired because of the poor quality, acting, and writing

Someone said that this is Beaver at its worst and I complete agree!

Jack

[tdr]

< Actually, I liked that episode. I always lmao when June and Wally see Beaver and Larry.... >

I didn't say I didn't like that episode. It just has too many very unlikely events brought together, which is what I meant by "worst contrived." It's hard to believe 3rd grade kids could walk into a spot with TV cameras and all their lighting and equipment on the audience and have no idea they might be on television-- even supposing a daytime TV show would broadcast from a small town supermarket to advertise candy bars. Then Wally being sent home from school and June moving the TV into his room and turning it on just when Beaver and Larry are about to be seen behaving so comically guilty.... it's funny, but it's less believable than most Beaver eps.

I will agree with the Worst Episode candidates on this thread-- "Beaver the Bunny," and "The Clothing Drive." My reasons are the same and repeated here already, so there is no need to go into them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
More best/worst:

Worst date for Wally: 'Myra,' who told Wally her mother thought she should wear an orchid to the dance. Ward refused to give him the money, then by June's persuasin he gives in, then Wally comes home and says he hardly got to dance with her at all.

Best Larry ep: "Larry Hides Out."

Best expression on Beaver's face: The photograph where Violet was kissing him in "Beaver and Violet."

Worst ignorance on June's part: When she thought Beaver would not be embarassed by her sending his naked baby picture for the class contest in "Baby Picture."

[DarleneIllyria]

Originally posted by tdr
[B
Worst ignorance on June's part: When she thought Beaver would not be embarassed by her sending his naked baby picture for the class contest in "Baby Picture." [/B]

Yeah, I do agree with you on that part. How could someone NOT be embarassed by a naked baby picture? At least Beav got the picture back, but yeah I do agree with you on that one.

[Kristina]

Originally posted by Jenny


Actually, I liked that episode. I always lmao when June and Wally see Beaver and Larry. Then Larry comes up with that insane story about the school being flooded and then just their classroom was flooded, and then Beav. speaks up and says, "Maybe just our two desks were flooded." roflmao


That part was hilarious. :lol:

[Kristina]

Originally posted by tdr

Worst method of getting an answer: Beaver's parallelisms; such as, when he asked if he had a million dollars in the bank if it would still be his money if the bank was sold-- then he goes to their old house to dig up 'his' tree and bring it to their new house.


Yeah that was, but that was yet again another hilarious scene lol.

[Artfiore1]

Jack1000,
"Beaver, The Bunny" was on TVLand tonight -- Thursday June 27th, and probably will be repeated tomorrow.

Later,
Art

[Jack1000]

Thanks Art,

Yea, I watched it just to remind myself how bad it was. You know, "Beaver the Bunny" COULD have been decent like the first or second season. (If any of you have seen the all time classic holiday film, "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie comes down in the bunny costume you will laugh yourself to tears! One of my all time favorite films!) But Jerry Mathers was getting too old to play a bunny rabbit in a school play at a time in the show when he was supposed to be in about 7th grade (12 or 13 years old) That must have been very humiliating for him! I wonder if anyone in the cast might have looked at those rare cluncker scripts and said...."UGGGG" And Clothing Drive and Beaver the Bunny are just plain bad. Clothing Drive, because it's a stupid concept and Beaver the Bunny because Jerry was too old.

Jack

[Artfiore1]

Jack1000,
On the other hand, I'm not so sure how "Beaver, The Bunny" would have worked during the first or second year of the series. A big part of the episode's "crisis," so to speak, was the fact that he *was* that old and playing a bunny rabbit in a school play. Not only that, but when Beaver was as little as he was in the first season, would he have ever been out on the streets alone, and making calls from a pay telephone?

Later,
Art

[bktFan]

I agree that Jerry was too old for that, but he looked hilarious!!!:lol: