The Beaver prefers "messin' around" with his pals and reading comic books to attending church or taking dance lessons.

Most episodes in the series feature the Beaver getting into trouble at home, in school, or around the neighborhood and then receiving timely and appropriate moral instruction from his father regarding his misbehavior.

Leave It to Beaver was created by the writers Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who found inspiration for dialogue and plot lines among their own children.

In the reunion telemovie and the sequel series, the Beaver is a divorced father of two children living at home with his widowed mother, June.

Ward is a white-collar, briefcase-toting businessman, whose actual occupation is never mentioned; he states he was an engineer while serving as a Seabee.

The Beaver has a paternal great uncle, Billy (Edgar Buchanan), who makes a few appearances in the series.

Billy, a world traveller, is not entirely trusted by June because he fills her sons' heads with fancies of irresponsible living.

No grandparents or other relatives appear on the show, though Ward and June occasionally mention their parents while recalling incidents from their childhoods.

The Beaver's best friends are Larry Mondello, Gilbert Bates, Whitey Whitney, Richard Rickover, and the elderly Gus, a fireman.

The Beaver's enemies are loud-mouthed, snitching classmate Judy Hensler in the early episodes, and, in the later seasons, snooty Penny Woods.

In another early episode, the Beaver's classmate Linda Dennison becomes sweet on him and invites him to her all-girl birthday party.

He wins a big doll in a party game and retreats from the feminine frills and furbelows to the den where Linda's father (Lyle Talbot) entertains him by exhibiting his gun collection.

In a season five episode Beaver walks a girl home from school, and she likes him but she eventually develops a crush on Wally.

As the Beaver grew into an awkward young teen, he sometimes took a back seat to his older brother Wally, a student in his final years of high school.

Tony Dow had grown into an attractive, athletic young man and was often featured in magazines aimed principally at teen girls.

Producers took advantage of Dow's popularity and scripted episodes delving into Wally's dating life, his after-school jobs, his pals, and his car.

The series lasted one season on the Disney Channel before being picked up by TBS in 1986 and renamed The New Leave It to Beaver.

His sons and he move in with their widowed mother and grandmother June (Ward had died several years earlier) until he can get back on his feet.