Revised and higher quality version of the original 1983 CBS TV reunion movie that I first posted here on my KZfaq channel in November 2018.
Twenty years after we last saw the Cleaver family in Leave it to Beaver, we revisit them in this CBS TV movie first broadcast March 19, 1983. This was a precursor to what became a revival TV series also called Still the Beaver starting in November 1984 on The Disney Channel that ran for four seasons through June 1989, the last three on WTBS under the name The New Leave it to Beaver.
In this initial TV movie, Beaver (Jerry Mathers) is grown and has two boys of his own but his wife is divorcing him, so he moves back in with his mother June (Barbara Billingsley) at 211 Pine Street in Mayfield (Ward has died about six years earlier). Wally (Tony Dow) is a lawyer married to his high school sweetheart Mary Ellen Rogers (new actress Janice Kent) and they are trying to have children. Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond) is back and is the same personality as ever, running a shyster construction company, and he has a son (Eddie Jr. - he later was renamed Freddie in the series) who is a chip off the old block (his real-life son Eric Osmond). Friends Lumpy (Frank Bank) and his father Mr. Rutherford (Richard Deacon), Larry (Rusty Stevens), Richard (Richard Correll), and Tooey (Lucas "Luke" Fafara II, aka Tiger) are still around, as is Miss Canfield (Diane Brewster), now principle of the school of the Cleaver grandchildren.
The presentation here is commercial-free due to the ads being edited out from my original Betamax recording of 37 years ago.
Copyright restrictions on KZfaq also required shortening some of many clips in this movie from the original Leave it to Beaver series, but every clip from the original series shown by CBS in this movie is still represented here.
Of course, this Still the Beaver movie doesn't offer all the 1950s-era innocent charm of the original but it is filled with touching and fun remembrances, including numerous clips of the classic black-and-white series, especially with father Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont died the year before this movie was made and had been ill for several years prior to that). And there are numerous sweet and nostalgic references to the first series.
Corey Feldman and John Snee play Beaver's sons Corey and Oliver, respectively (Corey was replaced by actor Kipp Marcus as Beaver's oldest son Kip when it went to the series). Eddie and his son (who was renamed Freddie for the series) are two highlights of this movie and the series. Ed Begley Jr. re-creates Whitey, and Joanna Gleason plays Beaver's wife Kimberly (she was replaced by Jeannie Wilson to play Kimberly in the final episode of the series six years later in 1989). When the series started, there were a several cast changes, including a replacement to play Mr. Rutherford in the first couple of episodes since Richard Deacon died. Kaleena Kiff was also added to the cast as Kelly, the daughter of Wally and Mary Ellen.