Beaver’s Crush
Original Air Date: November 22, 1957
Writers: Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, story by Phil Leslie
Being the teacher’s pet in elementary school is not conducive to making friends, or keeping them. Beaver’s crush on Miss Canfield in this episode has him doing nice things for her, collecting papers, cleaning erasers and anything else that would keep him near her. In return, she shows him some favoritism.
The kids in class do not like what they perceive as Beaver being the teacher’s pet. Larry Mondello and the other kids in class try to get Beaver to prove he’s not the teacher’s pet by having him stuff a spring action snake into her desk drawer. Reluctantly, Beaver agrees to do so, but the next morning, Miss Canfield discovers the snake and it never does pop out of her desk drawer, much to the disappointment of the students.
I’ve not been anyone’s favorite anything but I have seen favoritism in action. Just this past baseball season, I saw how favoritism can do damage. It all began the previous fall when a baseball coach spoke about “his kids.” He meant the group of kids that were part of his spring baseball team in contrast with the extra kids, including my son and a few others who were now on his fall team. I never really noticed the dichotomy he mentioned until a fellow parent of one of the “other” kids brought it to my attention. It still didn’t bother me. But Jake’s parents were particularly upset about it and would do their best to start a team in the next spring session for their son and any others who wanted to belong. So, favoritism by the coach caused Jake’s dad to want to become a coach himself. Unfortunately, I signed my son up to be on Jake’s team for the next spring session. It was a disaster in many ways.
This new team had its own favored player. It was the coach’s son. He wasn’t a second basemen but he played there almost every inning of the season. Just like in the case of Beaver and the teacher, the favoritism shown Jake by his father did not do his son any favors. No one liked Jake. His attitude was bad and the team lost morale every time balls bounded by him or rolled under his glove or avoided his glove when they were thrown to him. It seemed as if his glove had some sort of cowhide repellent sprayed on it before each game. But there was that one time he accidentally caught a ball when by some miracle of God he was put in left field.
Favoritism never does anyone any favors. It didn’t do Beaver a favor. He was made fun of for being the teachers’ pet. And favoritism didn’t do Jake a favor. It merely gave him a false feeling of importance.
Speaking of favorites, this is one of my favorite Leave it to Beaver episodes. I think it may be because it features Miss Canfield. I loved Miss Canfield. I with actress Diane Brewster had been in more episodes. But I have to be satisfied with this and six other appearances from her in season one (including the pilot episode).
Do you have any favorite memories of this Leave it to Beaver episode? Do you have any favorite Miss Canfield appearance? Please leave a comment below.
