History YMMV / LeaveItToBeaver

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Wally, in later seasons. In fact, Tony Dow ended up becoming so popular, that in the later seasons, the writers started writing episodes in which Wally would get into the schemes and scrapes that Beaver would usually get into, with Beaver becoming more of an observational character.

** In the episode "Water, anyone?", everyone was aghast that Beaver was actually selling water to people! Mind you, it wasn't so much that he took advantage of inside knowledge that the water main would be shut off or that he was selling it out of a bucket on his wagon, but merely the fact that one person could be low enough to sell water to another person! How [[Creator/DennisMiller Evian spelled backwards]] of them!

** As if Wally's hideous jelly-roll hair style in "Wally's Haircomb" weren't cringeworthy enough, the incessant music leitmotif played when Wally admires himself (a ridiculous jazzy raunch-sax rock snippet that only a clueless corporate executive could have thought was worthy) ices the cake even more strongly.

** Beaver's status as a [[FreeRangeChildren free range child]] can come off as this to modern viewers. He is mostly left unsupervised, is allowed to wander town with friends or by himself, hangs out with adults his parents don't know, and they are often unaware of where he is except that he is "out." Keep in mind Beaver is '''eight''' at the start of the series.
** The plot of "Sweatshirt Monsters" in Season 5 revolves around Beaver and his friends buying sweatshirts with pictures of monsters on them. All of the kids' parents dislike the shirts, forbid the kids from wearing the shirts to school, and Beaver in fact gets sent home from school for wearing his. But from a modern perspective, the monster images are ridiculously inoffensive and would very likely be allowed in a 21st century public school, and it makes all the adults look like humorless killjoys.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: The "jazzy" remake of the show's theme song and the background score in the sixth and final season of the show.

** The plot of "Sweatshirt Monsters" in Season 5 revolves around Beaver and his friends buying sweatshirts with pictures of monsters on them. All of the kids' parents dislike the shirts, forbid the kids from wearing the shirts to school, and Beaver in fact gets sent home from school for wearing his. But from a modern perspective, the monster images are ridiculously inoffensive and would very likely be allowed in a 21st century public school, thus making all the adults look like humorless killjoys.

* ValuesDissonance: The show mined a lot of humor from the fact that Ward and some of Beaver's friends had parents that disciplined them with physical abuse, with the kids worrying increasingly about "getting hit" by their parents [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin once they heard about the trouble they caused]]. Something that was a lot more common during that era.
-->'''Beaver:''' Larry gets a quarter for just being quiet when his dad gets home.\\

** In one episode, Wally mentions that 8 years from now he'll be able to vote. It's worth noting that Wally was 13 at the time of the show, and this was back when the voting age was 21 instead of 18.

* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Wally, in later seasons. In fact, Tony Dow ended up becoming so popular, that in the later seasons, the writers started writing episodes in which Wally would get into the schemes and scrapes that Beaver would usually get into, with Beaver becoming more of an observational character.
%% ** And, of course, Eddie Haskell.
%% ** Not to mention Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford, bad girl Judy Hensler and even Gilbert Bates.

** And, of course, Eddie Haskell.
** Not to mention Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford, bad girl Judy Hensler and even Gilbert Bates.

* ValuesDissonance: The show mined a lot of humor from the fact that Ward and some of Beaver's friends had parents that disciplined them with physical abuse. Something that was a lot more common during that era.

* HarsherInHindsight: The show mined a lot of humor from the fact that Ward and some of Beaver's friends had parents that disciplined them with physical abuse. Something that was a lot more common during that era.
-->'''Beaver:''' Larry gets a quarter for just being quiet when his dad gets home.\\
'''Ward:''' Well, that's not the way my father kept me quiet.\\
'''Beaver:''' Oh, yeah. You had a hittin' father, didn't you?
** Season 3's "Teacher Comes to Dinner" has an off-hand remark where Larry Mondello, noting this is the first time he or any of Beaver's other friends have seen their teacher Miss Landers outside a classroom about things she might do while not on the clock, including smoking. Sue Randall, who played Miss Landers, was a heavy smoker in real life, which contributed to her death from lung cancer in 1984 at the age of only 49.

** Wally, in latter seasons. In fact, Tony Dow ended up becoming so popular, that in the later seasons, the writers started writing episodes in which Wally would get into the schemes and scrapes that Beaver would usually get into, with Beaver becoming more of an observational character.

** In one episode everyone was aghast that Beaver was actually selling water to people! Mind you, it wasn't so much that he took advantage of inside knowledge that the water main would be shut off or that he was selling it out of a bucket on his wagon, but merely the fact that one person could be low enough to sell water to another person! How [[Creator/DennisMiller Evian spelled backwards]] of them!

** Wally, in latter seasons.
** Indeed, Tony Dow ended up becoming so popular, that in the later seasons, the writers started writing episodes in which Wally would get into the schemes and scrapes that Beaver would usually get into, with Beaver becoming more of an observational character.

-->'''Beaver:''' Girls've got it lucky...They don't have to be smart. They don't have to get jobs or anything...\\
'''June:''' Well, Beaver, today, girls can be doctors and lawyers too, you know. They're just as ambitious as boys are.

** When Beaver and Wally surprise Ward with a new hunting jacket. He thought they had bought some expensive high-end baseball equipment at the Abernathy Potts Sporting Goods shop, but it turned out they used the money they saved to buy him a new duck hunting jacket. As Ward is wearing his new jacket, June tells him it must be hot inside the house with that jacket on, and he tells her he's not uncomfortable in the least. To put that in perspective, the money they paid to buy that hunting jacket for their dad would be somewhere over $400 in 2019 money. That is why Ward is so concerned and angry at first when he finds out Beaver and Wally are spending the money they earned instead of saving it, and then they even withdrew $10 more - and that's why he is so moved when he finds out what they bought and who they bought it for.

* NewerThanTheyThink: For a show that supposedly defined UsefulNotes/TheFifties, it sure came along awfully late in the game. In fact it ran longer in UsefulNotes/TheSixties (three-and-a-half years) than it did in the '50s (two years, three months). What it ''really'' defined was the childhoods of most Baby Boomers (the generation born 1946-63), which is remembered as "the '50s" for convenience because in the '60s they were busy doing ''important'' things like being hippies or getting drafted or protesting on campuses, not being cute little snot-nosed scamps saying "golly" or "willikers".

--->'''Beaver:''' Girls've got it lucky...They don't have to be smart. They don't have to get jobs or anything...\\

* HilariousInHindsight: In one episode everyone was aghast that Beaver was actually selling water to people! Mind you, it wasn't so much that he took advantage of inside knowledge that the water main would be shut off or that he was selling it out of a bucket on his wagon, but merely the fact that one person could be low enough to sell water to another person! How [[Creator/DennisMiller Evian spelled backwards]] of them!

** When Beaver and Wally surprise Ward with a new hunting jacket. He thought they had bought some expensive high-end baseball equipment at the Abernathy Potts Sporting Goods shop, but it turned out they used the money they saved to buy him a new duck hunting jacket. As Ward is wearing his new jacket, June tells him it must be hot inside the house with that jacket on, and he tells her he's not uncomfortable in the least.
*** To put that in perspective, the money they paid to buy that hunting jacket for their dad would be somewhere over $400 in 2019 money. That is why Ward is so concerned and angry at first when he finds out Beaver and Wally are spending the money they earned instead of saving it, and then they even withdrew $10 more - and that's why he is so moved when he finds out what they bought and who they bought it for.

* ValuesDissonance: Gilbert's frequent references to his father threatening to clobber him are PlayedForLaughs.

** Veronica Cartwright played the recurring character Violet Rutherford.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Beaver (to Wally): "I'd rather do nothin' with you than somethin' with anyone else."

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Wally, in latter seasons.

** [[Series/HogansHeroes Major Hochstetter]] was a coniving milk salesman who used Wally as his stooge.

--->'''Beaver:''' Girls've got it lucky...They don't have to be smart. They don't have to get jobs or anything...