Roman wrote:I may be a minority on this but I have a mixed reaction listening to the Beavers episodes. Their references to Jack's ridiculous boasts is very funny, along with the comments about what their parents say about Jack. And Jack as the Beavers' treasurer is always good for a laugh. But I have two problems with these episodes. First, while the kids who play the Beavers are pretty good as far as child actors go, the scripts gave them a very bad case of Jay North-itis ("golly, gee, jeepers, Mr. Benny"). Second, and much more significantly, given all we've read about Jeff Smith, that rabbi in Maryland featured on Dateline, and assorted priests and scout leaders, there's something a bit off-putting about bachelor Jack hanging out with a bunch of young boys. The fact that I think about this is a commentary on our times, not Jack's, but it's hard to listen to these episodes without giving some thought to those depressing news stories.
Wow, these two drawbacks never even crossed my mind! I love the, "Gee Wilikers, Mr. Benny" stuff! I think they are fun and different episodes from the norm of the show! I'm alwasy impressed with Jack and his writers, knowing just how often to milk certain subjects, but not over do it. We get just enough Beavers, Ed, and Professor Le Blanc! The only thing he might have gone overboard on were the Buck Benny skits, but even they are Ok, becasue they are very frequent for awhile, but then they disappear altogether for many years!
