By Mallory Mattingly
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER star Jerry Mathers recently revealed that his TV dad, Hugh Beaumont, kept the show’s cast “on the straight and narrow.”
“Hugh Beaumont was basically a very nice man, but he was also a minister,” Mathers told PEOPLE. Mathers starred as Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver, while Beaumont played Ward Cleaver. “He kept everybody pretty much on the straight and narrow.”
The actor shared that the crew wasn’t “out drinking every night and coming in drunk,” and he later learned that most of them were parents.
“They knew how to be around kids,” he said.
Thanks to the wholesome environment, Mathers loved going to the studio.
“I go there, I see all my friends, all the light people and all the different people and they’re all friends of mine and they’re happy to see me and we all fool around and have a good time,” Mathers recalled. “It was fun all the time. I could have had to go to school and stuff like that, but it was just a lot of fun and a lot of nice people, so there wasn’t really any bad part to it.”
The former child star, who’s now 77, shared a close bond with his TV mom, Barbara Billingsley, even after LEAVE IT TO BEAVER ended.
“She did a lot of charity work,” he said. “Every once in a while, she’d call me up and say that maybe she was not feeling so well that day, could I help her? And I’d go around different places that I’d never been before and help out with whatever organization she worked with,” he said.
Nowadays, Mathers shares his love of the show, which ran from 1957-1963, with fans on his Facebook page, recently posting about a reunion with some of his old cast mates.
Related: LEAVE IT TO BEAVER Star Jerry Mathers Says Show ‘Ended At The Right Time’
“I had so much fun at our LEAVE IT TO BEAVER reunion at the The Hollywood Show recently with my cast members left to right, Stephen Talbot (Gilbert), Jeri Weil (Judy), me, Luke Tiger Fafara (Tooey) and Veronica Cartwright (Violet Rutherford). Thank you to everyone who came out to see us!” Mathers wrote.
“Hard to believe it is almost 70 years since LEAVE IT TO BEAVER first aired on television. Our fans are so devoted, and many write to me that they record the show in the morning and watch it at night so they can have a peaceful sleep in this crazy world,” he told Fox News after the reunion.
“I am very grateful to be associated with such a heartfelt show that touches the lives of so many families in such a positive way,” Mathers added.
Because of the show’s wholesome on-set environment, it isn’t surprising that its cast, crew and fans still love it to this day.
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