Before leaving on a business trip, Ward asks Wally to look after June and Beaver and Wally does indeed.  However, when Miss Landers hears Beaver swear at a bully, Beaver turns to Wally to handle the situation and be a ""substitute father.""

Substitute Father

Jerry Mathers

Barbara Billingsley

Hugh Beaumont

Tony Dow

Bob Mosher

David Butler

Season 5

Beaver's Doll Buggy

Beaver is determined not to eat brussels sprouts and adamently refuses not to eat them when June serves them for dinner.  In order to go to a football game, Ward makes Beaver promise that he will eat them the next time they are served.  Beaver quickly finds himself confronted with the ""deadly"" vegetables when the Cleavers go out to eat at a posh restaurant.

Beaver Won't Eat

A friend Beaver made at summer camp, Chopper, stays with the Cleavers for the weekend.  Beaver is quickly introduced to Chopper's unusual life since he is the son of parents who have been married and divorced many times.

Beaver's House Guest

While Beaver and Wally are fishing an abandoned canoe floats up and Beaver and Wally responsibly return it to the owner, whose name had been carved in the paddle.  However, after telling his friends the story, they adjust it to make it sound as if Beaver had saved a girl from drowning.

Beaver Becomes a Hero

Beaver proudly takes his friends Whitey and Gilbert on a picnic at the lake to see Wally in his first day as a lifeguard, not knowing that a new law forbidding anyone under age 18 from filling the position has forced Wally to work as a snack vendor instead. When he sees Wally in a floppy hat peddling hot dogs instead of sitting importantly on a stand in a lifeguard uniform, an embarrassed Beaver wants to go home before anyone else finds out.

Wally, the Lifeguard

When Clarence gets fed up with Beaver calling him Lumpy, he gives Beaver a new nickname of Freckles.  This leads Beaver to become self-concious about his freckles and takes steps to try to remove them.

Beaver's Freckles

Constantly entering contests, Beaver's latest one has him selling raffle tickets in hopes of winning one of the prizes.  Surprisingly, he does indeed win third prize and the prize is a $3,500 sports car.  However, his dreams are dashed when Eddie's premonition comes true, Ward breaks the news that Beaver can't keep the car.

Beaver's Big Contest

While doing some yard work for Miss Landers, Beaver and Whitey witness their favorite teacher in the midst of a gentleman caller, which makes Beaver a bit jealous.  However, Beaver gets sick to his stomach when he discovers Miss Landers is engaged to be married and the man he saw was her fiance.

Miss Landers' Fiancé

Eddie crawls through the Cleaver house spreading the news that he's going steady with Caroline Schuster, something that worries June who doesn't want Wally to get any ideas about going steady.  However, Wally has other worries when he overhears Caroline saying that she's only using Eddie while her boyfriend is grounded.  Leaving Wally with the decision to tell Eddie or not.

Eddie's Double-Cross

After learning that he's going to be taking an I.Q. test, Beaver hits the books, scared after his friend tell him that if he doesn't pass, he will be sent to ""dumb"" school.

Beaver's I.Q.

Wally is shocked to learn that the glamourous Kitty Bannerman is visiting Mayfield and he's afraid that she will find out that he's not the rich hot shot that he told her he was in the letters that he had sent her.

Wally's Glamour Girl

A neighbor gives Wally the responsibility of taking her son, Chuckie, down to the shoe store to pick out a pair of shoes.  However, when Wally gives the job to Beaver, Beaver finds himself searching for Chuckie, who has gotten himself lost.

Chuckie's New Shoes

While at a parent's meeting, June leans from Miss Landers that someone has been stealing in Beaver's class and so far, a baseball glove, a lunch box and a baseball cap were heisted.  Later, June makes a shocking discovery, she finds the stolen items under Beaver's bed.  This leaves June and Ward wondering if they're raising a thief.

Beaver and Kenneth

An advertisement in the mail for a free tryout of an accordian has Beaver sneaking around behind Ward's back.  After rescuing the flyer from the trash, Beaver sends it in and indeed gets an accordian that he quickly finds hard to hide from his parents.

Beaver's Accordian

Ward's Uncle Billy arrives in Mayfield for a visit and begins telling Wally and Beaver exaggerated stories.  Not realizing this, Beaver expects Billy to come through after promising Beaver a fishing reel.

Uncle Billy

Wally's latest girlfriend is Julie Foster who just happens to be the daughter of a Mr. Foster who teaches English.  Meanwhile, at school, a new semester lands Wally in Mr. Foster's class and quickly finds himself feeling uncomfortable.  Especially after Eddie tells him that his relationship with Julie will determine his grades.

Teacher's Daughter

Wanting Ward to become a millionaire, Beaver buys him a book called, ""I Became a Millionaire in Twelve Months.""  Ward thanks him for it but Beaver quickly learns that Ward is just being polite as to spare his feelings.

Ward's Millions

After revealing that he wants to be a writer when he grows up, Ward buys Beaver a diary to practice writing and Beaver begins keeping a record of his daily activites.  However, June and Ward pick the lock and sneak a peek at his diary after Beaver neglects to come home on time.

Beaver's Secret Life

Wally is all set to compete in a track meet but after the coach catches him ""horsing around"" in the locker room, he's ousted from the meet, even though Lumpy and Eddie were egging him on.

Wally's Track Meet

An old friend of Beaver's spends the weekend at the Cleavers and Beaver is all ready to have a great time like they use to.  However, Beaver quickly discovers that people change and in this case Beaver's old buddy has indeed changed.

Beaver's Old Buddy

When Beaver becomes sick, the doctor thinks Beaver may need to have his tonsils taken out.  Ward quickly puts Beaver's fears to rest by telling him everyone will bring him presents when they visit him in the hospital.  This leads Beaver to tell everyone that he's going to have surgery but then finds out he may not need the operation after all.

Beaver's Tonsils

Eddie makes it known to everyone that he's just gotten a job down at Parker's Pet Store, which happens to be the store that's holding a contest where you guess how many fish are in the tank.  After hours of counting and re-counting, Gilbert suggests to Beaver that they ought to just ask Eddie for the count, but Beaver is a bit hesitant at cheating.

The Big Fish Count

Miss Landers is having Beaver's class do projects on the colonial period and Beaver is one of three people doing posters.  Who ever makes the best one, gets a prize and Beaver is sure that Ward will paint the poster for him, but Ward rejects that idea and forces Beaver to do his own work.

Beaver's Poster

A neighborhood cleaning woman, Mrs Manners, gets a request from June asking her to help out a couple times during the week.  Mrs. Manners is too busy herself but instead sends over her daughter, a girl whom Wally instantly falls for.

Mother's Helper

After joining the dramatic club at school, Beaver is given the lead role in a play.  However, after reading the script, Beaver discovers he must kiss a girl and wants out of the production.

The Dramatic Club

A close friend of June's moves into the neighborhood and June arranges to have Wally show the new kid, Dudley, around school.  However, everyone thinks Dudley is a creep and Eddie and Lumpy plan to make a fool of Dudley at a party.

Wally and Dudley

Wally invites Eddie to spend the night.  However, during a game of chess, Eddie accuses Wally of cheating and they get into a big argument ending with Wally ordering Eddie to go home.

Eddie Spends the Night

Beaver gets out of school early to go to the dentist which prompts Gilbert to drop off his report card.  However, Eddie and Lumpy get a hold of it and Eddie decides to alter Beaver's arithmetic grade from a D- to a B+.

Beaver's Report Card

A police officer catches Richard throwing rocks at the windows of an old abandoned house.  When asked for his name, he tells the officer his name is Theodore Cleaver.  Meanwhile, Ward has joined a committee to organize a youth center.

Mistaken Identity

Wally falls head over heels for a popular girl in school, Ginny Townsend.  To get them together, June slyly invites Ginny on a picnic and the Cleaver's quickly discover that Ginny is not exactly a barrel of laughs.

Wally's Dream Girl

Beaver's class is having a group picture taken and while having it done, Gilbert goads Beaver into making a face with him when they snap the picture.  However, when the picture is actually taken, Gilbert backs out and Beaver is the only one making a face.

The School Picture

Beaver making trades with his classmates is beginning to get on Ward and June's nerves since he seems to be the one who always walks away shorthanded.  June especially thinks Beaver got the short stick in his latest trade, when he comes home with a pet rat.

Beaver's Rat

Wally is throwing a party and is successful in getting Beaver out of the house, who is planning to spend the night at Whitey's.  However, on the way to Whitey's house, him and Beaver get into an argument over a billboard that is advertising for soup and this leads to Beaver falling into the giant soup bowl mounted at the top of the billboard.

In the Soup

Beaver volunteers to go around the neighborhood and collect for the Community Chest in June's place after she decides to attend Wally's open house at his school.  Beaver brings along Gilbert and thanks to Beaver's astronomical mistake of losing the collection can, chaos erupts.

Community Chest

Beaver decides to run for Junior Fire Chief and, to his surprise, wins.  However, as soon as he's elected, Beaver lets the responsibilities go to his head and begins issuing citations to not only his family but his neighbors as well.

Junior Fire Chief

Beaver wants a canoe and makes a deal with Ward that if he can come up with half the money, Ward will pay for the other half.  So Beaver, comes up with a way of making money by selling frogs.  However, little does he know that the man who's going to buy the frogs, uses them for class disections.

Beaver's Frogs

Beaver and Gilbert begin a lawn mowing business and plan to go door to door in seach of lawns that need to be mowed.  However, shortly after they venture out, Eddie gives the boys some advice that leads them into trouble and Gilbert to bail out of the business when their first client appears.

Beaver Goes into Business

An upcoming father-son Kite Day has Beaver getting all excited when Ward agrees to participate with him.  They do a great job building a kite together but when Gilbert talks Beaver into testing it out, the kite crashes and falls apart.  This leaves Beaver with the duty to tell Ward just what happened to their entry in Kite Day.

Kite Day

Beaver buys a run down mini-race car from Eddie and needs to find a set of wheels for it.  Beaver decides to ask Penny Woods if he could have the wheels off her old doll buggy but finds himself in an awkward position, pushing a doll buggy down the street.

An inquisitive and often naïve boy, Theodore 'The Beaver' Cleaver, has adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood. The show also starred Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont as Beaver's parents, June and Ward Cleaver, and Tony Dow as Beaver's brother Wally. The show has attained an iconic status in the US, with the Cleavers exemplifying the idealized suburban family of the mid-20th century.

Substitute Father

Seasons6

Season 4 Episodes39

Cast4

Crew2

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Episode Summary