Leave It to Beaver | |
---|---|
Directed by | Andy Cadiff |
Written by | Brian Levant Lon Diamond |
Based on | Leave It to Beaver by Joe Connelly Bob Mosher |
Produced by | Robert Simonds |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Thomas Del Ruth |
Edited by | Alan Heim |
Music by | Randy Edelman |
Production company | Robert Simonds Productions |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 84 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $15 million |
Box office | $10,925,060 |
Leave It to Beaver is a 1997 American comedy film based on the eponymous television series. Many in-jokes and sub-plots relating to the series are adapted for the film. [1] It features many of the original regular characters, most played by new actors, with some cameos by the original TV cast. Universal Pictures released it on August 22, 1997.
The movie opens with a bakery truck driving down the street, and Beaver and Wally riding together on the latter's bicycle, delivering morning newspapers. Beaver tosses the papers wildly into the air with both hands: one plops into wet cement, others land on two roofs, one in a dog's mouth, one in a birdbath, one on a cat, one in a man's leaf-vacuum nozzle, and one on a painter's head. Then the leaf vacuum explodes and throws dirt through the bakery truck's driver's side window, causing him to slam on the brakes and have his sticky pies thrown about. Beaver and Wally apologize and ride away.
Beaver has his heart set on a bike in a store window but does not think Ward and June will buy it for him. Eddie Haskell tells him that if he flatters Ward by signing up for football, he will get it for his birthday. He joins the football team and endures the practices, despite his disadvantage of being smaller than his teammates. He even goes so far as to refuse to let Ward read him a bedtime story and kiss him goodnight. He looks forward to his first game. Ward is glad he signed up for football, but his first game ends poorly when he is tricked into passing the ball to a kid on the opposing team, whom he remembered as a friend from summer camp. When he celebrates his birthday, he is presented with the new bike, as well as a computer from his great aunt.
On the first day of school, five days later, Ward and June tell Wally to accompany Beaver for a few days while he gets used to riding his new bike to there. He has a kind new teacher named Miss Landers. After school, Eddie asks Wally to come to the soda shop to see him flirt with Karen. Eddie does not want Beaver to follow them, so Wally leaves him alone at the bike rack, telling him he will be back for him. He is polishing his bike when a teenage boy comes over and asks if he can show him some cool bike tricks. He agrees and the boy shows him the tricks before riding off with the bike. At the soda shop, Karen likes Wally and not Eddie. When Wally and Eddie come out and hear that Beaver's bike was stolen, they look for it, but can't find it. During dinner that night, Beaver and Wally try to cover up for the missing bike. When Ward finds out the truth, he is upset with Beaver, but angrier at Wally because he was responsible for watching him. In Beaver and Wally's bedroom, they get into a fight, which sends Beaver's new computer flying out the open window. Wally grabs the wire and tries to pull it in, but the wire breaks, and it crashes on the ground and smashes into pieces. This results in Ward completely losing all of his patience and grounding Beaver and Wally.
After the grounding, Beaver skips football practice and studies; and Wally spends time with Karen, who breaks up with him after reuniting with her ex-boyfriend, Kyle. Beaver goes to the city and gets hit by a truck but is unharmed. He encounters the boy who stole his bike. The boy, who is Kyle's younger brother, challenges him, as a way of getting it back, to climb up to a gigantic coffee mug atop the local cafe, which he falls into and can't get out of. The fire department and Ward help get him down, Ward realizing he may be under too much pressure. He had found out about him skipping football practice and says he can quit the team, but he rejoins it. During the last game, he catches the ball and scores a touchdown, while chasing after his stolen bike. At the Mayfield Festival, he again encounters the boy and chases him. Kyle trips Beaver to help his brother escape, and Wally retaliates by pushing Kyle into a tub of fudge. Karen is also put off by Kyle's bullying and leaves him for Wally. Beaver uses a concession stand to block the boy's way, causing him to fly across a judges' table of pies set up to be judged and into an entire cart of them, resulting in Beaver getting his bike back. At home, Ward sees him polishing it, tells him that it would be safer if it stays in the house, and, at his request, reads him a bedtime story.
Cameos by actors and actresses from the television series
5,000 actors auditioned for the role of Beaver. [2] [3] [4] [5]
The film was poorly received by critics, as it currently holds a rating of 21% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's consensus states: "Declining to update the television series' sensibility for modern audiences while lacking in its requisite charm, Leave it to Beaver should have just left these characters in the past." [6]
Roger Ebert gave it 3 out of 4 stars writing, "I was surprised to find myself seduced by the film's simple, sweet story, and amused by the sly indications that the Cleavers don't live in the 1950s anymore." [7]
The film grossed an estimated $10.9 million in the United States and Canada against a $15 million production budget. [8]
The film was released on January 20, 1998 on VHS, DVD, and LaserDisc. It was re-released on DVD on March 20, 2007, as part of a 'Family Favorites 4-Movie Collection' (with The Little Rascals , Casper , and Flipper ). All are presented in anamorphic widescreen.
On August 13, 2019 it was released on Blu-ray.
Prior to the film's release Universal signed the cast for 2 sequels. They were quietly cancelled after the film underperformed at the box office. [9]
Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy that follows the misadventures of a suburban boy, his family and his friends. It stars Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers.
June Evelyn Bronson Cleaver is a principal character in the American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. June and her husband, Ward, are often invoked as the archetypal suburban parents of the 1950s. The couple are the parents of two sons, Wally and "Beaver". Wally is twelve years old and in the seventh grade when the series opens; Beaver is seven years old and in the second grade. Episodes followed the escapades of Wally and Beaver and usually ended with a moral lesson delivered to the boys, but also often included reminders of childhood and minor lessons for the parents through the adventures of their boys. She was included in Yahoo!'s Top 10 TV Moms from Six Decades of Television for the time period 1957–1963.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Frank Oz. It is a remake of the 1964 film Bedtime Story, whose co-writers Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning received screen credit for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, along with writer Dale Launer. Set on the French Riviera, the film stars Steve Martin and Michael Caine as two con men competing to swindle an heiress out of $50,000.
All the Queen's Men is a 2001 English-language action comedy war film directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky and starring Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Izzard. Made on a budget of $15 million, the film received heavily negative reviews from critics, and it earned only $23,662 in the United States.
Baby's Day Out is a 1994 American adventure comedy film directed by Patrick Read Johnson and written by John Hughes, who also produced the film. Starring Joe Mantegna, Lara Flynn Boyle, Joe Pantoliano, and Brian Haley. The plot centers on a wealthy baby's abduction by three criminals, his subsequent escape and adventure through Chicago while being pursued by the criminals.
Ward Cleaver Jr. is a fictional character in the American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. Ward and his wife, June, are often invoked as archetypal suburban parents of the 1950s baby boomers. At the start of the show, the couple are the parents of Wally, a 13-year-old in the eighth grade, and seven-year-old second-grader Theodore, nicknamed "The Beaver". A typical episode from Leave It to Beaver follows a misadventure committed by one or both of the boys, and ends with the culprits receiving a moral lecture from their father and a hot meal from their mother.
Edward Clark Haskell is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver, which ran on CBS from October 4, 1957, to 1958 and on ABC from 1958 to 1963. He was played by Ken Osmond. The character was also featured in the later series Still the Beaver, and in the film remake of the original series.
Kenneth Charles Osmond was an American actor and police officer. Beginning a career as a child actor at the age of four, Osmond played the role of Eddie Haskell on the late 1950s to early 1960s television situation comedy Leave It to Beaver and reprised it on the 1980s revival series The New Leave It to Beaver. Typecast by the role, he found it hard to get other acting work and became a Los Angeles police officer. After retiring from police work, he resumed his acting career.
Anthony Lee Dow was an American actor, film producer, director and sculptor. He portrayed Wally Cleaver in the iconic television sitcom Leave It to Beaver from 1957 to 1963. From 1983 to 1989, Dow reprised his role as Wally in a television movie and in The New Leave It to Beaver.
Wallace "Wally" Cleaver is a fictional character in the iconic American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. Wally is the thirteen-year-old son of archetypal 1950s suburban parents, Ward and June Cleaver and the older brother of the seven-year-old title character, Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver. The characters grew older along with the actors.
The New Leave It to Beaver is an American sitcom sequel to the original 1957–1963 sitcom Leave It to Beaver. The series began with the 1983 reunion television movie Still the Beaver that aired on CBS in March 1983. The success of the television movie prompted the creation of a revival series, also titled Still the Beaver, that aired on The Disney Channel from 1984 to 1985. In 1986, the series was picked up by TBS, where it aired until June 1989. The show also concurrently ran in first-run syndication for the 1988-89 season.
The Battle of Shaker Heights is a 2003 American comedy-drama teen film directed by Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin, written by Erica Beeney, and produced by Chris Moore and Jeff Balis. It stars Shia LaBeouf, Elden Henson, Kathleen Quinlan, Amy Smart and Shiri Appleby. The film was the winning script for the second season of Project Greenlight.
Shiloh is a 1996 American family drama film produced and directed by Dale Rosenbloom. It was shown at the Heartland Film Festival in 1996, but its general release came on April 25, 1997. The original book by the same name was written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. There are two sequels, Shiloh 2: Shiloh Season (1999) and Saving Shiloh (2006), both directed by Sandy Tung and distributed by Utopia Pictures.
The Outfit is a 1973 American neo-noir crime film directed by John Flynn. It stars Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker and Robert Ryan.
Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver is the fictional title character in the American television series Leave It to Beaver. Originally played by Jerry Mathers, Beaver is the son of June and Ward Cleaver and the brother of Wally Cleaver.
Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford is a fictional character in the television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. The show aired from October 4, 1957 to June 20, 1963. Lumpy is a bit of a bully and, with Eddie Haskell, is one of Wally Cleaver's friends.
Frederick "Fred" Rutherford is a fictional character in the television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. The show aired October 4, 1957 to June 20, 1963. Fred is portrayed by Richard Deacon. Alan Rachins played the character in the 1997 film adaptation of the series, Leave It to Beaver.
"Family Scrapbook" is the final episode of the American television series Leave It to Beaver. It last aired on ABC on June 20, 1963. It was the 39th episode in the show's sixth and final season, and the 234th episode in the complete series.
"Beaver Gets 'Spelled" is the premiere episode of the American television series Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963). The episode aired on CBS on October 4, 1957. The episode is the first episode in the first season, and the first episode in the complete series. "Beaver Gets 'Spelled" is available on DVD.
"It's a Small World" is the pilot episode from the American television series Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963). The pilot was first televised April 23, 1957, on the syndicated anthology series, Studio 57, without a laugh track nor the series' well known theme song, "The Toy Parade". It never aired as an episode within the series. Following its April 1957 telecast, the episode was subsequently misplaced and was feared lost until a copy was found in a film vault in Illinois. After rediscovery, it was aired as the third-season premiere for the 1980s TBS revival series The New Leave It to Beaver on October 4, 1987, exactly 30 years after the original series officially premiered on CBS. It was televised again in October 2007 as part of TV Land's 50th anniversary celebration of Leave It to Beaver. It was released to DVD in 2005. The series made its CBS debut several months later on October 4, 1957, with the episode, "Beaver Gets 'Spelled".