Episode name: The Younger Brother
Original Air Date: 12 April 1962
Director: David Butler
Writer(s): Dick Conway and Roland MacLane
Credited Actors outside regular and recurring cast members: Russ Conway as Mr. Doyle
Wally Cleaver was a great athlete. He was a really good pitcher, outstanding at football and according to the coach of the Park League, Wally was a great basketball player. And let’s not forget that Wally was pretty handy with a tennis racquet, and his tumbling skills were top notch. Beaver, on the other hand, is pretty good at baseball, as a first baseman, and okay at football, but that’s about it. As the younger brother of Wally Cleaver, Beaver has some big footsteps to follow.
Well, in The Younger Brother episode, it’s sign up time for the park basketball league. Richard Rickover, Beaver and the others sign up and the coach, a Mr. Doyle played by actor Russ Conway, is definitely not giving Beaver “the business” when he tells the group of kids gathered around the sign up table that it’s possible for the team to win the championship, especially since they have another Cleaver on the team. Mr. Doyle had previously coached Wally in the same park league and Mr. Doyle assumes Beaver is just as athletically inclined as his older brother. He assumes wrong.
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Ward is the one who encouraged Beaver to try out when Beaver at first, was hesitant to do so. Beaver’s instincts were correct, although it is always good to try something new. Beaver goes to the first practice, with new sneakers his dad bought him at “Foster’s.” At Practice, it’s evident right away that Beaver is awkward and doesn’t fit in with the rest of the team. Typically, when a player is cut from a team like Beaver is in The Younger Brother episode, it’s usually no big deal, and I think that’s how Beaver felt, until his parents and Wally met him at the door when he walked in from his first practice. They asked questions, one on top of another. Beaver tried to interrupt and give the bad news. But then another question would come his way and then Ward asked Wally what his best game ever was. Wally answered with, “32 points…” and Ward told Beaver, “Now you have something to shoot for.” After that, Beaver gave up trying to tell what had happened. He realized if he did so, everyone would be very disappointed, especially Ward.
For the next few days, Beaver pretends to go to practice, even going so far to dirty up his sneakers just the right amount to look like he’d actually been practicing. That’s when Ward and Fred Rutherford stop by the park to catch a bit of Beaver’s basketball practice on their way home from work. When asked where Beaver is, the coach, Mr. Doyle, tells Ward that Beaver had been cut from the team. Imagine the surprise to Ward when he finds out his son is not going to be a basketball star and not even good enough of a player to make the team? And the embarrassment to find that out in front of Fred Rutherford of all people, must have been a bit too much to handle.
It seems Beaver had a knack for pretending. This is the third such instance I can remember of such a situation. There was that time he didn’t make the band. He carried his clarinet case to school every day, pretending he was going to practice, but just sat at school until practice was over. Then there was that time when Beaver bought the ice skates and pretended to go to the skating rink each day although the rink was closed down for renovations or for some similar reason.
Of course, everything ends well in The Younger Brother, as it is Leave it to Beaver. I think that’s what I love most about Leave it to Beaver. We get to see a good resolution to every problem that arises. It’s similar to that in our own lives if we look at the big picture of things. While we would like all our problems solved in 30 minutes like in the show, our problems typically, turn out well or fix themselves over the course of days, weeks, months and sometimes, it may be years.
Here’s a little bit of trivia about the non-recurring character in The Younger Brother episode, Russ Conway as Mr. Doyle. He began his career in Hollywood in 1947 after his service in World War II where he served as an entertainment director and as a producer and announcer for Armed Forces Radio. It’s interesting that as a WW II vet, after coming home from Japan, his first movie was an uncredited part in Abbot and Costello’s “Buck Privates Come Home (amz link).” Conway went on to have roles in 245 more TV shows and movies. He was not the only character actor in his family as his brother, Donald Woods, began a career in Hollywood in 1937, and wound up working in 141 productions. As for movies, Russ Conway had some very minor roles in films which featured some big stars. In Elvis’ Love me Tender, he played a character named Ed Galt. He also had parts in Somebody Up There Likes me which starred Paul Newman, The Great Imposter starring Tony Curtis, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, and Our Man Flint with James Coburn. But the most interesting of all his film roles has to be the 1967 film, C’Mon, Let’s Live a Little, starring singer Bobby Vee, in which Conway played a character named John W. Grant. A couple other Leave it to Beaver connections in this film include the director of The Younger Brother episode David Butler. At age 73, this was the last directorial job for David Butler. Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) was also in this film and played a character named, “The Beard.”
Have you any thoughts on The Younger Brother episode of Leave it to Beaver? What was your favorite part? Favorite line? Were you ever the younger brother or younger sister and have to follow in footsteps like Wally’s? I’d love to read your thoughts in the FB comment section below.
