Leave it to Beaver S04E27 - Beaver's Report Card, 1961
- Michelle Otten
- Mar 25, 2018
- 2 min read
Directed by Norman Abbott, written by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher and starring;
Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver
Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver
Tony Dow as Wally Cleaver
Jerry Mathers as Beaver Cleaver
Frank Bank as Lumpy Rutherford
Ken Osmond as Eddie Haskell
Stephen Talbot as Gilbert Bates
Beaver is struggling in school with arithmetic and both Wally and Ward are frustrated to no end with his complete disinterest in taking anything in.
That same week Beaver has a report card coming out but isn’t in attendance due to a dentist appointment. Gilbert is asked by Ms Landers to take the report card to the Beaver’s house after school. He is greeted by Eddie and Lumpy at the Cleavers’ front door and they bully him into handing over the report card.
Eddie and Lumpy snoop over Beaver’s marks and notice his arithmetic mark is a D-. They come up with playing a practical joke him by changing his mark to a B+.
Naturally, when Ward and June see the B+ they are thrilled at the supposed improvement and decide to reward Beaver for his efforts. Meanwhile, Beaver confides in Wally that he doesn’t understand why the mark is so good but is advised to rather keep it to himself.
Ward and June soon find out that the mark is in fact a D- and so confront Beaver about it thinking that he was the one behind changing the mark. Beaver, with no knowledge of his report card having been tampered with, denies the allegations but Ward and June still think he is being dishonest.
Wally puts two and two together and starts suspecting that Eddie and Lumpy must have something to do with this whole mess. He confronts Eddie about it and Eddie ends up phoning Ward to apologise for the trouble he caused.
Ward is understandably annoyed with Eddie and gives him a stern talking-to. He is then faced with the task of apologising to the Beaver, remarking to June “You know, it’s so easy to tell them when they’re wrong and so hard to tell them when they’re right.”
Frank Sinatra - I've Heard that Song Before, 1961