User Reviews

A new kid at school named Kenneth is eager for Beaver's friendship. He brags about his rich father and all the things they have, and gives Beaver several presents. Only it turns out that these "presents" are in fact items which Kenneth stole from the school. It's up to Ward, June, and Kenneth's father to get to the bottom of things. Wally's role in this episode is limited to offering his usual caustic comments on the goings-on.

The episode has an unusually serious tone: Ward and June understandably view the matter of stealing with utmost gravity. Yet at the same time it is leavened with some particularly clever humor. At one point June reminds Beaver that God is always watching him; Beaver replies that he wouldn't want to do anything to upset God, because He has "enough trouble with the Russians and all." A very serious scene is that between Ward and Beaver when he tries to get the truth out of him. The scene shows how much Ward trusts Beaver and believes the best about him. The subsequent scene in which Beaver and Ward try to straighten things out with Kenneth and his father plays like something out of Perry Mason! Kenneth does not come from a loving family like the Cleavers. Kenneth's father comes off as robotic and authoritarian. It is implied that Kenneth's parents are divorced.

Despite these handicaps, Kenneth turns out to be fundamentally a good kid. He comes clean in front of Miss Landers, and order is restored. Miss Landers is firm yet understanding towards Kenneth and offers him this wise piece of advice: "The way to make friends is not by giving them things, but by giving them a little of yourself."

The plot seems to borrow a bit from the Shirley Jackson short story Charles. My students always argued if the mother ever had the epiphany that the boy her son Laurie was describing as Charles was really her child, Laurie. Still the episode is a nice take with June deciding if she knows her son as well as she thinks.

I always wondered how many years Beaver had Miss Landers as his teacher. Anyway, when June finds the items that Miss Landers mentioned went missing are under Beaver's bed, her first thought is call Ward and figure out what they should do.

At school Beaver has a new friend, Kenneth, who has supplied Beaver with the items. And Kenneth is bragging about how rich his dad is, and how he is always buying things. He even offers to give Beaver money.

June tries to give Beaver a lesson about how stealing is bad, and how it hurts God to do so. Not sure you could give that lesson on TV today, unless it's a rerun like this series. Certainly, you couldn't say that in school. And why should June call Ward, she could just ask Beaver how he came by the items. Then when Ward asks Beaver, Beaver tells Ward the truth, and even Ward has some doubts at first.

Eventually Ward and the Beaver go to ask Kenneth's father about the items, and Ken disavows knowledge, and his father is right out of Shirley Jackson. But Kenneth does confess to Miss Landers because he really wants to be Beaver's friend.

Things do work out, and Miss Landers gives Kenneth some advice on how to be a friend. At home, Ward and June have a discussion about popularity and some of the silly things they did as kids. Nothing has changed. What's worse is all we need to do is look at the current behaviors of our "political leaders" and cringe as we see them acting like kids in elementary and middle school. Maybe we should sit them down and force them to watch Leave it to Beaver, and iterate the lessons out loud to us.

A bit of a departure from the shows theme of blaming Beaver for the faults of others. When circumstances look like Beaver's at fault, Ward does a thorough job of interviewing Beaver and then follows Beaver's lead to the real perpetrator. Ward's behavior gets much better results than usual. Beaver than follows up and gets the perpetrator to confess. As other's have mentioned, this confession was a little unrealistic, but it was still an enjoyable episode, especially with the final summation by the teacher we all wish we had, Miss Landers.