Leave It to Beaver Beaver's Hero (1957–1963) Online

Beaver has a substitute teacher for a couple of days, a "Mr. Willit, played by Wendell Holmes. "Mr. Willit" is good at teaching history with World War II stories. He asks the kids if they have anything to add. Several get up and tell how their fathers were heroes, the worst being "Judy Hensler," of course, the most obnoxious kid in the school, and the biggest apple-polisher. (She and Eddie Haskell would have made an interesting couple, had they been the same age. That reminds me: Eddie hasn't been in an episode here in months.)

Anyway, outside of class Judy starts picking on Beaver so Beaver responds as he usually does, meaning his lies his butt off, telling what a big war hero his dad was and that he has a trunk full of medals, machine guns, hand grenades, etc., at home. The teacher overhears the argument and sticks up for Beaver (Judy was yelling at Beaver, calling him a liar - the only thing she ever got right.) and tells our boy to bring some of that stuff into school for a show- and-tell-type presentation.

At home, Beaver and Wally go out to the garage and dig into that old war chest of their dad's. The first thing they see are pictures of women. "Wow, I never knew Dad knew so many women," said Beaver. "Those aren't women; those are pictures of Mom," answers Wally. (Actually they were, too - pictures from the 1940s of Barbara Billingsley. A younger-looking and long haired Billingsley was interesting to see.).

The boys then discover other souvenirs from the war, except they turn out to be measuring devices. It seems Ward did surveying work for the Seabees. Beaver is disappointed. "I thought he did more than just measure dirt," he says to Wally.

To make matters worse, Mr. Willit calls up Beaver that night to remind him to bring in the war souvenirs. He adds, "nothing dangerous, however." Holmes was interesting to watch as the substitute teacher and he does Beaver a big favor at the end.

Beaver gets Wally to write a fake letter, pretending Ward is writing June during the war telling him what a hero he is and what he's doing. That part was hilarious.

How Beaver gets out of another jam, or the lesson to be learned, is the rest of the show. One good thing: Beaver finally learns something about embellishing the truth, and how it isn't a good thing to do.

Beaver is having a substitute teacher because Miss Landers is sick, Mr. Willet, the asst. principal. The topic is WW II and Beaver tells the kids his father was a hero and he has a trunk of his WW II souvenirs. Problem is Beaver made it up. When Beaver gets home, he and Wally open Ward's old SeaBee trunk but no guns or hand grenades or tank parts inside. Beaver is disappointed to find out Ward didn't kill anybody. He just leveled dirt.

Wally asks Beaver why he made up stuff about their dad; because Judy Hensler was bragging about her father. Mr. Willet calls Beaver to see if he could bring in some of the stuff that his dad brought back from the war. June and Ward overhear Beaver's side of the conversation but June has some doubts as to Beaver's version. She asks Ward if he thinks Beaver is in trouble and should they find out. Ward responds don't trouble trouble until trouble trouble's you. June looks at Ward and says and once you were a philosophy major.

Beaver feels he is on the spot so he has Wally write a letter for him. In part reading that Ward was sitting here with my submachine gun on Wake Island waiting for the enemy; and that earlier he captured 75 men. After listening to Wally read the letter, Beaver feels the letter won't work.

Beaver talks to June about being a kid and making stuff up but falls short of telling her what's really bothering him. Ward finds the letter that Wally wrote and decides he better talk to Mr. Willet. Judy makes sure she reminds Mr. Willet about their conversation about WW II, but Mr. Willet, for some reason, decides to talk about the Louisiana Purchase and that lets Beaver off the hook.

After school, Ward talks to Beaver about the letter he had Wally write. Ward explains that he was an engineer and the army put men where they could do the best. Ward asks if Beaver can just accept his old dad the way he is. Of course, Beaver can.

Beaver has learned his lesson though. Wally finds him writing about his most exciting experience and Beaver writes about catching fish at the lake. Wally suggests that Beaver jazz the story up and claim he caught 40 fish and someone fell in the lake. No, Beaver says he is done with jazzing things up.

Times change, today Ward would be celebrated as a hero even though the role of the SeaBees hasn't received a lot of attention. My father was in the Army Air Corp (today's Air Force) and flew missions over Europe from London to Germany. He seldom spoke about his time in the service. Most of the adults I knew as a child served but remained stoic about what they saw, did, and went through.