Leave It to Beaver - The Complete Second Season
The second season ofLeave It to Beaverfinds the Cleaver family happy and wholesome as ever, with most episodes involving the Beaver getting into a scrape, or hearing the from-the-mountaintop advice from Mom or Dad afterwards. Despite the formula, the episodes hold up well, because of the earnestness of the actors and the delivery of their lines, which is, well, swell. Mom June (Barbara Billingsley) is the matriarch who makes it all look easy in her well-pressed frocks and pearls (pay close attention to those necklaces--there are actually several; some plain strands and some with pendants), and Dad Ward (Hugh Beaumont) is thoughtful and a little monolithic. But it's the adventures of boys, older brother Wally (Tony Dow) and the Beav (Jerry Mathers), that make the show so fun. One episode involves Beav and pal Larry (Rusty Stevens) playing hooky (they're late to school anyway, and they figure they may as well get "killed" later as opposed to today), and then winding up on live TV, on a show which June just happens to be watching. Moral? Golly gee, there's more than one, and they're delivered by both parentsandBeav's teacher--and echoed earnestly by Beaver himself. The  chuckles come in a ready stream, even if sometimes inadvertently. Sample exchange: Wally: "Mom, can I get tattooed?" June: "Tattooed!? Absolutely not!" Wally: "Oh, OK. Bye." No wonder people are so nostalgic for the '50s--teenagers never gave anyone any lip. This season, 1957-58, contains 39 remastered episodes on three double-sided discs, and is a treasure box of nostalgia, in the absolute best sense.--A.T. Hurley