RIP Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver)

[roadman]

Re: RIP Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver)

Brought up in one of the obits was the fact that the show was cancelled because the actors wanted to move on. This surprised because LITB never hit the Top 30 in any of it's seasons (I recall it's best rating being #32). Of course in those days you could be just outside of #30 and still have ten million viewers.

Interesting how the stories are woven in and out between the years. I read on one site where Rusty's dad took a job out east. Another site had Barbara Billingsley in a interview and she said Rusty's mom was like the stage mom of the show and Universal was tiring of her antics and wanted her gone.

Beau Beaumont I read didn't like to be typecast in the Ward Cleaver role forever. Jerry Mathers appreciates the Beaver following.

[JayBee74]

Re: RIP Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver)

Interesting how the stories are woven in and out between the years. I read on one site where Rusty's dad took a job out east. Another site had Barbara Billingsley in a interview and she said Rusty's mom was like the stage mom of the show and Universal was tiring of her antics and wanted her gone.

Beau Beaumont I read didn't like to be typecast in the Ward Cleaver role forever. Jerry Mathers appreciates the Beaver following.

Mather's book, "And Jerry Mathers as the Beaver", offers some pretty good insight into the cast. Hugh Beaumont's 68 year old mother died in a car accident during the first year of the series, and it reportedly took a lot of joy out of the success he received getting the Ward gig. Later in his life he was afflicted with Tourette's syndrome, characterized by involuntary motor and vocal tics. Mathers found this out first hand when he ran into Beaumont at a California grocery store. "Ward" let go with a flood of curse words, apologizing and explaining the disease immediately after the "spell" had subsided. Ironic, because Beaumont was an ordained Methodist preacher.