Danny Williams, a successful comedian and nightclub entertainer tries to balance his family and career. The series ran for a total of 351 episodes until its demise in 1964. It has the distinction of being the first show to spawn a successful sitcom spin-off - The Andy Griffith Show. Me-TV has been airing the show since Labor Day 2012. In 2014, the series is being aired by Cozi TV.
Danny Thomas - Danny Williams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Thomas His career spanned five decades, but he is probably best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy
Make Room For Daddy Season 1 Episode 1 Released: 1/1/53
The Danny Thomas Show launched one of the most popular television shows of all time: The Andy Griffith Show Pilot "Danny Meets Andy Griffith" Season 7 Episode 20
Leave it to Beaver. He has also been a producer, director, writer and sculptor.
In his youth he was a Junior Olympics diving champion. In 1987 he was given the
Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award for his role as Wally Cleaver
by the Young Artist Foundation.
Jerry Mathers - Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Mathers Jerry Mathers is best known for his role as Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver in the television sitcom series Leave It to Beaver. He began his career as a child model at two years old and later starred in TV commercials and appeared in movies.
He appeared in all Leave it to Beaver episodes and he was the first child actor to get a percentage of the merchandising revenue from a television show. The Leave It to Beaver show still generates merchandise revenue today.
While he was still in high school, Mathers joined the Air Force Reserve, and appeared as a presenter at the 1967 Emmy Awards ceremony in his dress uniform.
In 1996 Mathers was diagnosed with diabetes and lost 40 pounds in a weight loss program with Jenny Craig. He later became their first male spokesman.
The Cleaver Family
The Cleaver Home on Pine Street in Mayfield
Jerry Mathers
Tony Dow
Leave It to Beaver is a television comedy about a boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures. The writers of the show used characters, plots, and dialogue inspired from the lives of their own children. It's one of the first primetime sitcom series written from a child's point of view.
The show debuted on CBS the same day the Soviets launched Sputnik, on October 4, 1957. It later moved to ABC and completed its television run of 234 episodes on June 20, 1963. In 2007 it was placed on TIME magazine's unranked list of "The 100 Best TV Shows of all-time". The original sitcom has been shown in over 80 countries in 40 languages.
A telemovie, Still the Beaver, was made in 1983. The film followed Beaver as an adult and his struggle to reconcile his recent divorce and single parenthood. This led to a new, made-for-cable series, The New Leave It to Beaver that ran from 1984 to 1989. The older Leave it to Beaver series was syndicated in the late 1960s and currently airs on TV Land.
The show received two Emmy nominations in 1958 for Best New Program Series of the Year and Best Teleplay Writing—Half Hour or Less (Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher) for the premiere episode, "Beaver Gets 'Spelled".
In 1984, Jerry Mathers was awarded the Young Artist's Former Child Star Special Award
In 1987, Ken Osmond and Tony Dow were both honored with the Young Artist's Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award.
Leave It to Beaver placed on Time's "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time" list.
Bravo ranked Beaver 74th on their list of the 100 greatest TV characters.
Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow
were the first non-athletes
on a box of
Kellogg's Corn Flakes.
Interview with Jerry Mathers: The first Leave it to Beaver episode was banned from TV
Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver:
Do you really like me, Wally? Wally Cleaver:
I guess so. Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver:
Do you like me a whole lot? Wally Cleaver:
Look, don't get sloppy on me. I might just slug you one.
Wally Cleaver:
Boy, Beaver, wait'll the guys find out you were hanging around with a girl. They'll really give you the business. Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver:
But gee, Wally, you hang around with girls and the guys don't give you the business. Wally Cleaver:
Well, that's because I'm in high school. You can do a lot of stuff in high school without getting the business.
June Cleaver:
Wally, where are you going?
Wally Cleaver:
I'm going over to slug Eddie.
June Cleaver:
That's no way to talk, this is Sunday.
Wally Cleaver:
You're right, I'll wait 'til tomorrow and slug him in the cafeteria.
Ward Cleaver:
How'd the fishing go Beav?
Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver:
Great Dad. We didn't catch any fish, but Larry and I saw a man slip on a wet rock and heard everything he said.
Ward Cleaver: Beaver, you know what Larry was doing was wrong. You could have stopped him. Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver: Gee, Dad, I have enough trouble keeping myself good without keeping all the other kids good.
Wally Cleaver: Did Dad hit ya? Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver: No. Wally Cleaver: Did he yell at ya? Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver: No. Wally Cleaver: Then why ya cryin'? Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver: Sometimes things get so messed up, crying is the only thing you can do.
Father Knows Best was an American radio and television series which portrayed middle class family life in the Midwest. It ran on radio from 1949 to 1954 and on television from 1954 to 1960. Only Robert Young remained of the radio cast when the series moved to CBS Television.
Lauren Chapin, Jane Wyatt, Robert Young, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray
A total of 203 episodes of Father Knows Best were produced. They ran until September 17, 1960, and appeared on all three television networks of the time. The television show won six Emmy Awards
and averaged #6 in Neilsen Ratings
in its final year of production.
Robert Young - 1956,
Best
Continuing Performance by an Actor
in a Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy
Series
Robert Young - 1957,
Best Continuing Performance by
an Actor
in a Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Series
Jane Wyatt - 1957,
Best Continuing Performance by an Actress
in a
Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Series
Jane Wyatt - 1958-59,
Best Continuing Performance
by an Actress
in a Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Series
Jane Wyatt - 1959-60,
Best Continuing Performance by an Actress
in a Leading
Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Series
Peter Tewksbury - 1959
Best Director for a Single
Program of a Comedy Series: "Medal for Margaret
Because of it's popularity, in 1959, the U.S. Treasury Department commissioned a special 30-minute episode of Father Knows Best called "24 Hours in Tyrant Land" to promote the buying of savings bonds. It never aired on television but was distributed to schools, churches and civic groups. The episode is included on the Season One DVD.
Father Knows Best was so popular that when production ended, it continued on the primetime TV network schedule for the next three years, from September 1960 through April 1963 (no other TV show in history has done that).
It ran another five years (until 1967) on ABC's daytime line-up. Throughout the decades of the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's it was on local and cable channels. Currently (2014) it is being broadcast on the Antenna TV Network. On November 22, 1963, the third season episode "Man About Town" was being rerun on several ABC affiliates when at 1:42 PM EST, ABC News broke into the program with the first bulletin of the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.
The TV cast reunited for two TV movies on NBC, in 1977.
Father Knows Best Reunion May 15, 1977
Father Knows Best
Home For Christmas December 18, 1977
Father Knows Best Reunion - 1977
Betty had become the widowed mother of two girls,
and Bud and his wife were the parents of a son.
Kathy had become engaged to a doctor.
Father Knows Best - Bud Learns To Dance Season One - Episode One
Bud Anderson: You've been around so long and seen so much and done so much, and still manage to look so good. Jim Anderson: Thanks a lot! Bud Anderson: I think you look real young. Honest. Younger than Joe Phillips' dad, younger than Claude Mesner's uncle, why even younger than... Jim Anderson: Bud, before you have me back in kindergarten, see who's at the door, will you?
Bud Anderson: How many were in your class, Dad? Jim Anderson: Oh, 2-300 I guess. Bud Anderson: How many are left?
Margaret Anderson: Well, I suppose Father knows best.
Robert Young and Jane Wyatt - Father Knows Best Television Series
