Inside ‘Leave it to Beaver’s Controversial First Episode
Though it got off to a rocky start and even changed networks after its first season, Leave it to Beaver became one classic television’s most beloved family series after it went to syndication. The pilot episode was virtually kiboshed, undergoing a name change, multiple cast changes and a storyline revamp before the first official episode, “Beaver Gets ‘Spelled,’” debuted on October 4, 1957. And even then, the plot raised some viewers’ and critics’ eyebrows when it featured Beaver’s teacher and principal believing that Ward (Hugh Beaumont) and June (Barbara Billingsley) beat the boy for no good reason.
So what went down on “Beaver Gets ‘Spelled'” and did he really get a lickin’ fron his mom and dad? Here’s what happened on the very first episode of Leave it to Beaver.
Beaver and Miss Canfield get off to a rough start, no thanks to Whitey and Judy
Episode Screenshot
The episode begins with Beaver (Jerry Mathers) newly in the second grade, which is taught by pretty young instructor Miss Canfield (Diane Brewster), who insists on calling him Theodore. When Miss Canfield asks him to deliver a sealed note to his parents, Beaver’s troublemaking classmates Whitey Whitney (Stanley Fafara) and Judy Hensler (Jeri Weil) convince the Beave he’s being expelled.
Beaver does everything he can think of to lose the note, then takes his woes, and the note, to big brother Wally (Tony Dow). Since Beaver can’t recall doing anything wrong, Wally decides to type a catch-all note from saying the elder Cleavers have taken turns “whipping” their youngest for whatever it is he’s done and that everyone is very sorry, signing the missive “your friend, Mrs. Ward Cleaver, Theodore’s mother.”
What did the note from Miss Canfield really say?
Eventually, Beaver, Ward and June learn that Miss Canfield really just wants him to play Smokey the Bear in the school pageant — an honor, not an expulsion.
Miss Canfield ultimately approaches her young student and reassures him that he is brand-new second grader and she is a brand-new second grade teacher, so they can both learn from each other and grow together. Beaver has an idea where she can begin.
“Miss Canfield?” he chirps. “Will you do me a favor? Call me Beaver?”
Miss Canfield says it’s deal and the two become pals for the rest of the first season, when Brewster left to take guest starring roles on other series so she could devote more time to her family.
Was there any fallout from “Beaver Gets ‘Spelled'”?
If “Beaver Gets Spelled” seems a bit like it picks up the Cleavers’ story already in progress, that’s because it does. The episode was intended to be the second episode of Leave it to Beaver to make it to the air, with “Captain Jack” originally meant to introduce viewers to the Cleaver clan.
That episode was considered even more of a doozy, needing the censors to get involved. The suggestion of Beaver get a whipping for something good was apparently less appalling to censors that showing a commode, which “Captain Jack” does when Beaver and Wally send away for an alligator and hide the tiny critter that shows up in the toilet tank.
The episode — which also featured the only appearance of the Cleaver’s housekeeper Minerva (Connie Gilchrist) — had to pass muster with the censors before it could hit the airwaves, marking the first time TV history that a bathroom and part of a toilet were shown on network television.
“That was some way that ‘Leave it to Beaver’ actually set some precedents for the television industry: We were the first show to show a bathroom,” Mathers told FOX News in a 2014 interview.
Minerva wasn’t the only character in the episode never to return. Ward and June actually replace the gator with a pup named “Captain Jack.” By episode three, he was gone.
Everett Collection
And it wasn’t the most memorable episode featuring a four-legged guest star for Billingsley. The beloved actress told EMMYLEGENDS.org that the Season 2 episode “A Horse Named Nick” enjoyed that honor.
“The kids it home from the circus because it’s called a “lyin’ down” horse, and it won’t stand up,” Billingsley said, adding that an on-set veterinarian gave the horse a shot to make it drowsy so the episode could be filmed. Trouble was, the horse snored loudly, disrupting the shoot anyway, and was still woozy even as the actors prepared to leave the set.”
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