The "Wally Cleaver's Friend Has Left The House!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Much like any other day during this "Stay-at-home" quarantine we are part of at present.  Arose about 7:30 AM, put some sweatpants and a t-shirt on and headed downstairs to get the morning newspaper.  Fed the cats and sat in my favorite lounge chair to read the paper.  Saw a familiar face on the top left corner of the LNP/LancasterOnline paper.  Then it hit me who the guy was...Eddie Haskell!  Don't remember Eddie?  

Ken Osmond as Eddie Haskell.

Eddie was the two-faced teenage scoundrel who was played by Ken Osmond on the show "Leave It To Beaver."  The black and white television show was one of my all-time favorites when I was in my mid-teenage years.  I even have been watching a double episode the past couple of weeks when I get up in the morning.  It is on our local station as part of the "MeTV" programing.  One of today's episodes had Eddie telling Wally that he now has a steady girlfriend.  Oh, Yeah!  I remember that one.  Saw it at least half-a-dozen times, but never get tired of it.  But, today's shows are going to have a bit more sadness to them, since the reason for Eddie's photo in the newspaper is to notify the residents of Lancaster that he has died.  The character of Eddie died years ago when the show was canceled, but Eddie's actor, Ken Osmond recently died at the age of 76.  

Wally, "Beaver" and Eddie on the set of "Leave It To Beaver."

Eddie had appeared in close to 100 of the show's 234 episodes that ran from 1957 to 1963 on CBS and ABC.  "Leave It To Beaver" was one of my favorites from the '50s and '60s as was "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,""Wagon Train" and "Covered Wagon Theatre."  In "Leave It To Beaver," the Cleavers represented the classic white middle class family while Eddie represented the danger in a '50s kind of way being he chewed gum and wore a jean jacket.  He also sucked up to Wally and Beav's parents, June and Ward Cleaver, and made fun of them when they weren't looking.  Eddie also treated Wally's little brother, Theodore, nicknamed the Beaver, as a useless irritant.  Eddie greeted the Cleavers with his usual..."Oh, good afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Clever.  I was just telling Wallace how nice it would be for Theodore to go to the movies with us."  Everyone watching the show knew he didn't mean a word of what he was saying.  Over the years the character of Eddie Haskell became so associated with Ken Osmond that he found it so hard to play any other character in any other show.  Because of his being typecast as a bad guy and not being able to play any other character in television, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department.  He told a reporter one time that playing Eddie was "a death sentence."  When he joined the L.A.P.D. he grew a mustache to try and disguise himself.  In 1980, he was shot three times during a chase with a suspected car thief, but escaped serious injury due to his belt buckle and his bulletproof vest.    

At a reunion are: Front - Gary Mathers (The Beaver), Barbara
Billingsley (June Cleaver), Tony Dow (Wally Cleaver) rear:
Frank Bank (Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford) and Ken Osmond
(Eddie). Eugene Beaumont (Ward Cleaver) died in 1982.

He retired from the force in 1988.  Kenneth Charles Osmond was born in Glendale, California in 1943.  His father was a studio carpenter while his mother was an agent who started taking him to auditions when he was 4 years old.  He appeared in commercials and at the age of 9 was cast in the film "So Big".  He also appeared in "Good Morning, Miss Dove" and "Everything but the Truth."  He grew up in North Hollywood and graduated from North Hollywood High School in 1961.  He immediately started a helicopter charter company with his older brother Dayton.  After his last season of "Leave It To Beaver," he joined the Army reserves.  In 1983 he appeared in the CBS made-for-TV movie "Still the Beaver" that led to "The New Leave It To Beaver" that ran from 1984 to 1989.  Osmond played Eddie as a husband and father, while his two sons in the show were Freddie Haskell and Edward "Bomber" Haskell Jr. who were played by his real-life sons, Eric and Christian.  In 2014 Osmond wrote a memoir, "Eddie: The Life and Times of American's Pre-eminent Bad Boy."  The character of Eddie Haskell has so endured in pop culture that a psychological syndrome has been named after him...The Eddie Haskell Effect.  This effect explains why bullies may not be discovered because they suck up to the authorities and peers behind their backs...just as Eddie Haskell did on "Leave it to Beaver."  Eddie is one TV character I have never forgotten from my past.  Not sure that is good or bad, but I can certainly see why Ken Osmond could never forsake the character when the show ended.  RIP Ken Osmond!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.