User Reviews

The grade school plays are coming up and the parts for the third grade are being cast. Beaver managed to get the lead in the play; he is a bird. Ward is sort of disappointed in Beaver's role; he doesn't see any bragging rights attached. Most of the kids are sort of disappointed that they don't have speaking parts. Whitey just gets to squawk; and Larry gets to hop; and Judy doesn't believe Beaver should have been given the lead of a yellow canary. Ward figures Beaver has been forced to take the role, but Beaver comes flying down the stairs and he's really crowing about his part.

Miss Wakeland from the high school drama department is coming to Grant Avenue school to help the kids with their roles. Judy of course gets to come out in her ballerina shoes and is willing to show Beaver how to float if necessary. Miss Wakeland is somewhat disappointed in Beaver's canary so he gets some extra practice.

It's the night of the play and Ward is still a little down on Beaver's part but has promised June to give Beaver a pep talk. Ward suggests Beaver might be a little nervous so not to worry if anything bad happens, like he should trip and fall or forget his lines and get laughed at. He's just not to worry. Beaver wasn't worried before but he is now; he insists he isn't getting on the stage for anything. June is looking daggers at Ward.

Beaver's class finally makes their appearance with flowers and a floating canary. When the canary is exposed, the canary is Whitey. The mushroom was Beaver. Miss Landers says when Beaver arrived at school, he just wasn't in any frame of mind to play the canary. She decided to have Beaver and Whitey exchange roles.

Ward is sort of down on himself for giving Beaver a "pep" talk and messing things up. But Beaver figures the night when all right anyway. Whitey was a better Canary then he could ever be.

As I recall, third grade was the last time my school had "grade" plays. I suspect because our classes had like 40 kids in them and it could get a little unruly backstage.

I've only seen a couple of episodes of this show, but every episode I've seen has made me think the father is a sociopathic jerk. In this episode, the Beaver is cast as the lead in the class play in the role of a bird. This upsets the father because a bird isn't tough enough or have enough "meat" on it. The insinuation is that he doesn't want his son playing a role which may make him look less than a tough guy. So, instead of being supportive of his son being the lead, he messes with the Beaver's head by convincing him that he might screw up the entire play and make a fool of himself. In the end, Beaver gives his costume and mask to another kid, because he's ashamed to play the bird and instead plays a mushroom in the background. After the shoe, when the father expresses regret over the "pep talk" he gave the Beaver the mother says it was okay because the Beaver was upset anyway. So, the father is a sociopath and the mother is his enabler. The terrible message of this episode is, don't be a sissy and don't try new things because you'll probably fail if you challenge yourself. People refer to these old shows as wholesome and from the good old days, but in actuality, they're an example of how awful children were actually raised in the 1950s. No wonder this "boomer" generation is known for being selfish and uncaring. Their parents were clueless psychos.