"Leave It to Beaver"
The Visiting Aunts (1958)

Director:

Norman Tokar

Writers:

Joe Connelly (creator)
Joe Connelly (teleplay)

TV Series:

"Leave It to Beaver" (1957)

Original Air Date:

18 December 1958 (Season 2, Episode 12)

Genre:

Comedy | Family

Plot:

The Cleaver boys' Saturday afternoon carnival plans are disrupted when June's Aunt Martha comes for an unexpected visit. |

Plot Keywords:

Baseball Cap | Stay At Home Mom | American | Wife | Brothers

Cast

Hugh Beaumont	...	Ward Cleaver
Barbara Billingsley	...	June Cleaver
Tony Dow	...	Wallace 'Wally' Cleaver
Jerry Mathers	...	Theodore 'Beaver' Cleaver
Madge Kennedy	...	Aunt Martha Bronson
Irene Tedrow	...	Mrs. Claudia Hathaway
Tiger Fafara	...	Tooey Brown
Buddy Hart	...	Chester Anderson
Frank Bank	...	Clarence 'Lumpy' Rutherford

Series Cast

These people are regular cast members. Were they in this episode?

Bobby Mittelstaedt

...

Charles Fredericks

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

A Very Hard Lesson To Teach

What a bummer this is! Wally, Beaver, Tooey, Chester and Lumpy all get free tickets to the carnival, the last day it's being held. They're all excited: it's going to be a good Saturday ("about the only good day when you're a kid," explains Beaver).

Then Aunt Martha calls and says to June that she and her friend Mrs. Hathaway are going to stop by on their way somewhere else. It's been a year and Aunt Martha wants to see how much the boys have grown. Meanwhile, Wally and Beaver got their dad to say he will to take them to the carnival and back.

June puts a damper on those plans by explaining about Aunt Martha's call. "When she leaves, you can still go to the carnival," she tells the shocked and now-worried boys.

I can't believe that June - who normally is so concerned about the boys' happiness - is so unthoughtful as to do what she does in this episode. The aunt is ready to leave early, which means the boys can go the carnival on time, but Junes insists the two women stay for lunch! "The boys have nothing to do," she says. (Hello??!!). Ward goes along with it silently.

Two hours later - long after their friend have all left - the guests finally leave and Ward volunteers to take the boys to the carnival. Wally declines, too upset over what happened. He goes up to his room, followed by Beaver, to sulk.

The boys are lectured that by Ward that "sometimes you have to do some things that may make you unhappy but will make other people happy." He explains how important Aunt Martha is to June and why she didn't want the woman to leave so fast. The boys then apologize to their mother for their selfish behavior.

A frustrating episode to watch.....but there was the typical nice, feel-good ending.