What state did leave it to beaver take place in?

[Karnage]

I know the town that leave it to beaver was from is Mayfeild. However I was wondering what state this show was supposed to have taken place in?

[collins]

Originally posted by Karnage:
I know the town that leave it to beaver was from is Mayfeild. However I was wondering what state this show was supposed to have taken place in?

wisconsin. there are several clues. Madison and Monroe are often mentioned; the W on the pennant in the boys bedroom; crystal falls is in the Michigan penninsula;there is a suburb of milwaukee called mayfield.

[trmoore]

In the episode where they built the eskimo boat, Ward states the ocean is twenty miles away, that would put it on the east or west coast. Since beaver wore his coat a lot it would put it on the north east or north west coast. The letter could have stood for any town. Mayfield represents no known town.

[rjrane]

I think it could be in Ohio.I live in Ohio- and in fact close to Mayfield Heights,Ohio. For years I lived in Shaker Heights,where Ward said he grew up.Whenever I drive down one street in Mayfield Heights,and drive past Mayfield High School,I always remember Wally Cleaver and whistle the Beaver theme to myself.

[scut farkas]

It was Ohio. Euclid Avenue. The Ohio State pennant on Eddie Haskell's bedroom wall. Gotta be Ohio.

[Dobie]

It was filmed in California but I think The Cleavers lived in Ohio I am pretty sure and how I think so is becuase Larry Mondello's father is always in Cincinatti. Its just a guess I have.

[Dobie]

I mean the show was filmed in California but the characters of the show The Cleavers probably lived in Mayfield, Ohio.

[James]

Every time I watch the show I can't help but think Ohio is where it took place. The Cleveland suburbs and Cincinnati (where Larry Mondello's father always was) have always gotten mention. In one episode a girl named Allison moves into Beaver's school, and she said she was from Hamilton, some 30 miles north of Cincinnati.

Then in one episode Wally and his friends mentioned Route 7, which exists in eastern Ohio from Conneaut to Chesapeake (north of Huntington, WV).

[gregg987]

How could the location be Ohio as Ward mentioned the ocean being close to their home?

[sami dg]

In the book The world according to Beaver the author stated that the writers made the location of Mayfield a secret , possibly so this conversation could go on for years.

[Richard]

I wonder if one of the head writers,either Mosher or Connelly,was an Ohioan.That would explain many references.

[lukes42]

Well, I think we can go around and around in circles discussing this topic. I guess its been one of those strange mysteries about the show that has existed since it went off the air. This and what actually Ward's occupation was. Personally, I think the show was based in Ohio, but who really knows.

[Beavs great]

At the beginning of the later episodes, each of the family members run out the front door and get into the car (Ward is carrying a thermos, Wally a beach towel). However, there is no state on the car's rear license plate which is shown very clearly! The episode where Wally gets roped into taking the Beav and his friends camping, it seems there were mountains shown (painted) in the background and Eddy falls off of a clift/ledge. Are there mountains along route 7 in western Ohio? Does anyone remember the name of the lake that they went to?

[lukes42]

You have to remember that the show was taped in California, so the mountains that you see in some of the later episodes are the ones near Los Angeles. I can't remember the name of those mountains right now, but there's a chain that runs close to LA

[lukes42]

The Lake that they most often visit is called Friend's Lake, and I know they visit Crystal Falls early on. I think that's a lake on the show, too.

[Matt Kratoville]

Leave It To Beaver: Where is Mayfield???
I would have to guess strongly that the town of Mayfield is located in the Buckeye State of OHIO! Let's face it! Leave It To Beaver has a strong mid-west flavor to it! Moreover, Larry Mondello's father is constantly going to Cincinnati all the tyme! As for the camping trip that Beaver & Wally and friends went on, I remember taking a trip to some wooded hills just south of Columbus, the State Capital of the Buckeye State! So that's my guess! Call it Mayfield, Ohio, USA! By the way, that's a very pretty dress you're wearing, Mrs. Cleaver!

[lukes42]

As I was watching one of my tapes of the show that I recorded during the marathon weekend, I noticed that in the episode VooDoo Magic, in Eddie Haskell's room was an Ohio State Pennant tacked up on his wall. This is the scene where Beaver visits Eddie, who is faking to be sick in bed, to see how he is and to bring him flowers. Who knows, maybe this is just a coincidence. Anybody else notice this before?

[tdr]

There actually is quite a bit of evidence that the show had Ohio in mind...a very white small town or suburb with middle class and middle American values. Eddie has the OSU pennant in his room, Larry's dad is usually on business in Cincinnati, and Larry says his brother lives in Cincinnati; there actually is a Mayfield and a Shaker Heights near each other in OH.

Sometimes it seems the reason Ward makes the comment that they live 20 miles from the ocean is to deflect too much evidence that they were locating Mayfield in a particular state after all. [No one calls Lake Erie an "ocean," do they?]

I know how silly it can be to try to sort the info and come to a conclusion which is only fictional to begin with; however, the process of elimination shows that Mayfield is:

Not near Cincinnati-- it (Cin.) is referred to as being elsewhere and far enough away for overnight stay.
Not near Los Angeles-- it was a 'long way' from there, said Don Drysdale.
Not on the east coast-- although it may take someone like Aunt Martha to say the Cleaver home "is such an eastern-looking home so far west."
North of Texas-- Wally says "they've got it all [oil] down in Texas."
Not near Washington, DC-- Miss Landers at first took it seriously when Beaver lied and said his dad was "flying to Washington to see the president." [I suppose east coast would include that one anyway]
Not near St. Louis, since Ward had to fly there and stay for a few days on business.

Less definite clues:
Sometimes mountains are shown as being close, but no arid or desert terrain; so not likely AZ, NM, UT, or NV.
No one talks with a southern, an Appalachian, or (except Aunt Martha, a visitor) a New England/NE accent.
Farms are sometimes seen or inferred, but agriculture does not seem to be an important industry to the town; at least not as if it were a small town in Iowa or Nebraska.

The weather implications [jackets and coats] mean nothing except that Mayfield is not in a place which is warm or dry year around, although snow is never seen.

So-- excepting for Ward's "twenty miles from the ocean" citation-- we seem to be given that the location is somewhere within a triangle of Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Or else-- perhaps *with* the '20 miles from the ocean' quote valid-- in the northwest; Oregon or Washington state.



[This message has been edited by tdr (edited 06-25-2001).]

[Dad_Is_Here]

I know this is an old thread but I came up with a location that fits all the criteria first of all there is Rt 7 which is a road in Maryland on the north east side of Baltimore In Baltimore County and Harford counties. The Location of the Baltimore suburbs was about 20 min from the ocean in the 50's and 60's, now the traffic is worse of course... That being said, in the episode "Beavers secret life" Wally refers to the Colts football team which at the time was the Baltimore Colts.

We all know that it was filmed in California, so the mountains in the background of some of the scenes could be expected. On occasion mistakes are made in filming and I expect that is one similar to cigarettes being at a different state of burning from one frame to the next.

I don't know what town Mayfield is modeled after but it would seam to me it would be a Baltimore Suburb. As for the Pennants in Eddies room... My son has pennants from many different colleges in his room from going to games at several different colleges so I don't think that's much of an indicator...

If some one can think of a reason that it couldn't be Baltimore I would love to hear your reasoning.

:)

[Cincy Guy]

I have read that the town was styled after Shaker Heights, a Cleveland suburb. There is a Mayfield Heights just east of the downtown area of Cleveland.

One of the problems of the show supposedly being in the Cleveland area is that I never recall seeing any episode with snow in it or even any very cold weather. Residents of the Cleveland area will attest both snow and cold are very common there from late fall through early spring.

[Dad_Is_Here]

I have read that the town was styled after Shaker Heights, a Cleveland suburb. There is a Mayfield Heights just east of the downtown area of Cleveland.

One of the problems of the show supposedly being in the Cleveland area is that I never recall seeing any episode with snow in it or even any very cold weather. Residents of the Cleveland area will attest both snow and cold are very common there from late fall through early spring.

Where did you read that?

It's no where near RT 7 and it far more than 20 min from the ocean.

As for snow... That is probably because the show was filmed in California.

[Cincy Guy]

The information about the town where LITB took place being modeled from Shaker Heights was in one of the Richard Lamparski "Whatever Became of..." books in the 1980's that featured a chapter on Hugh Beaumont.

The show was filmed in California, but film studios there have been able to create snow for over 100 years.

[Dad_Is_Here]

I have just watched a show where the boys were traveling on a train by themselves to a relatives home in NY. Many clues in that episode. You should watch it. :)

[tdr]

If some one can think of a reason that it couldn't be Baltimore I would love to hear your reasoning.

You picked a very old thread on this subject :) . There have been many other threads, but I see mainly 2 items of reasoning some of those include that, as you would "love to hear," shows it couldn't be Baltimore. I have updated my own persuasions since what I posted on this 11-year-old thread, but I'm not going to go over all that, just what you seem to be looking for. [You can, of course, find those other threads on the Search function.]

First, remember the final season ep, near the end of the series run, when Eddie is planning to go on a fishing cruise to Alaska. There would be no such cruise that leaves from Baltimore or the Chesapeake Bay area. They wouldn't go through the Panama Canal or around Cape Horn on a summer time fishing venture. Interestingly, though, this does lend a bit of credibility to Ward's quote of years before, "We live twenty miles from any ocean..." But the summer Alaska deal kills it. And it also supports the idea of the Northwest (Washington or Oregon) as the location, as we can easily imagine fishing boats leaving from there to fish near Alaska during the hottest season.

The other point is also from the final season; the episode about Lumpy's football scholarship. One guy approaches Lumpy and says, "If they go to the Rose Bowl this year, get me a couple of tickets, will you?" They, of course is "State," the university from which he got the scholarship offer. If you know college football (and do know the history thereof), you know that from 1946 until the Rose Bowl finally joined the BCS (1999?), the Rose Bowl game was between the Big Ten Conference winner and the Pacific Coast (later Pacific 8, later still the Pac 10) Conference winner. So if 'State' was a land grant university that used State in its official name [logical enough], that narrows it down to Ohio State, Michigan State, Oregon State, and Washington State-- Arizona State and Penn State were not in those respective conferences at that time (1963).

To sum it all up, this is a debate which really has no answer, but it's a bit of fun for fans, even so. Washington or Oregon meets the rugged mountains shown in the camping episodes, the "twenty miles from the ocean" remark, and the fishing excursion to Alaska. Ohio and Michigan meet the 'feel' of the show being middle America, the references to Cincinnati and to the Cleveland suburbs and street names. All 4 states meet being: not southern, not northeastern, not Texas, not southern California, and the 'relative' situation of Aunt Martha's combination put-down and compliment of "it's good to see such an eastern-looking home so far west." But none of them reflect the climate of the respective area, and Larry's father nearly always being in Cincinnati wouldn't ring true if they live 2000 miles from there (or maybe it's another Cincinnati?), and no fishing troller leaves from the Great Lakes area to fish in Alaska.

Well, maybe I did go over most of my arguments. :lol:

[Schmoopie]

Ha ha, I love it that a thread was continued twelve years after the last post! Awesome! I never really thought about the location for this show but I think all the guesses could be right. It's most likely a mystery that will never be solved. Maybe the writers just wanted to depict small town America. Although I have to say (Selfishly of course) that I'm kind of hoping it's either Washington or Oregon!

[xanadu1]

I was just watching an episode and I wondered where they lived. Ward told beaver that New England was "just a few hours away by plane" That would put it in the areas that were mentioned above. somewhere on the Eastern half of America. I guess their just was not a location, but growing up, I always felt like they lived on my street here in Texas. I always had the same situations and problems as Beaver. And I grew up in the 80's!

[stevea]

Ha ha, I love it that a thread was continued twelve years after the last post! Awesome! I never really thought about the location for this show but I think all the guesses could be right. It's most likely a mystery that will never be solved. Maybe the writers just wanted to depict small town America. Although I have to say (Selfishly of course) that I'm kind of hoping it's either Washington or Oregon!
This debate goes back years, on other sites, too! It's fun to try to figure out--just like trying to figure out what Ward does!

[jetboy24]

the second show, 'Still The Beaver', was definitely supposed to be Ohio, but the original never revealed location..