Customer Reviews

And Jerry Mathers as the Beaver

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I went into this book with an open mind as I am a baby boomer who grew up on shows like "Leave It To Beaver". It really wasn't a book that I thought would be solely about what was behind of the scenes of "Leave It To Beaver" but was anticipating more of an autobiography of Jerry Mathers. I must say, I wasn't disappointed in the slightest.

From the first page, as you read about Jerry Mathers from infant to adult, the reader is made to feel like you are actually sitting down with Jerry as he tells you his story on a one to one basis. I found integrity, honesty and humbleness of memories, facts and words as I read along listening to what Jerry wanted to tell his reader.

The reader is treated to the pre-Beaver era and how Jerry got into acting..to the Beaver era with some behind the scenes memories shared..to the post-Beaver area (one of how Jerry chose to leave acting for an education...not many child stars opt to get out of the business while the going is good)...to where Jerry's adult life's journey took him..to what he is doing most recently.

The LITB fan is treated to some behind the scenes memories as well as actual paragraphs and pages written by former fellow cast members.

The book has a few chuckles along the way from the horse story from the first episode that Hugh Beaumont wrote and directed to the impromtu telephone ringing when Jerry and Tony Dow were acting in "So Long Stanley", which had me chuckling out loud as I sat reading it as I had a lunch out in a restaurant.

It's such an easy and delightful read, this book could be easily be read in a day or two. It took me a little longer because I was out of town travelling as I was embarking on the book.

It you are a "Leave It To Beaver" fan and a Jerry Mathers fan, you can't go wrong purchasing and reading this book! This is a two thumbs up release!

It was great to finally hear from Jerry Mathers himself. The story he tells is interesting, starting with his big break into show-biz and throughout the ups and downs of his life. He comes off as a pretty down-to-earth guy who seems grateful for the opportunities he's had. He doesn't seem bitter like a lot of child actors who didn't make it as huge stars. He blames no one. He looks back on it all with a lot of warmth. He seems to realize that luck and timing sometimes help. But he certainly took advantage of what was presented to him and aquitted himself well. It's gratifying to know that he really likes his co-stars and is still in touch with many of them. On the negative side, it would have been nice to hear more about the Beaver series and to have heard more inside stories. He obviously enjoyed it and I'm sure there are more anecdotes to share. Also at times he seems to be rather self-congratulatory, as when he mentions the expensive car he had while attending Berkeley - (a little unnerving to those of us who munched on Ramen noodles or macaroni to survive while in school). He also doesn't fail to mention his rich, well-connected friends. It seemed to smack of name-dropping after a while. But all in all Jerry Mathers seems to have kept a good head on his shoulders and seems to have a healthy perspective on life and his fellow man. Though I can't help thinking that he's lead a rather sheltered life he seems like he'd be a fun guy to know; he'd be a loyal friend and an approachable person. He is certainly someone I'd like to meet. My image of him is certainly enhanced by this book.

As a Leave it to Beaver fan, I really enjoyed this book. Jerry Mathers opens up his life and tells many behind the scenes stories about his career and the ongoings of the television show. The book is about "The Beav" and as a result, some people may (and are) put off by some of Jerry's "bragging". While this does seem to happen in the book, the information and stories that he provides more than makes up for this. A nice touch is towards the end of the book where he gives some of the television show cast members their turn to talk about how they felt about the series. Gee, Beav, are you gonna write another one?

I enjoyed reading this autobiography of Jerry Mathers. He not only discusses the period of time that he was doing Leave it to Beaver, but he also talks about his life before and after the show. I thought that my interest would wane once he started discussing his post-Leave it to Beaver years, but I found out that that wasn't the case at all. I learned about a lot of things I didn't know about the show, the other cast members, and Jerry Mathers. He talks very candidly and doesn't seem to hold back. This autobiography was better-than-good and wasn't too long (not that that really matters). Leave it to Beaver is one of the few sitcoms that I've actually had a lot of respect for. It's a show that is a complete classic in every aspect. I actually rate this book 3.5 stars. Well worth a read.

As a baby boomer, I grew up watching "Leave It To Beaver". Jerry Mathers does a great job of describing his life as "The Beaver" on the show and how it compared with his personal life away from the studio. He gives the reader a thorough description of the ups and downs of being a child actor and how it has affected his adult life. What a trip down memory lane!! If you ever wondered what happened to all those wonderful characters on the show, then I encourage you to buy this book. It's a "Where are they now?" readers dream. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. I now look forward to reading Frank Banks book about his acting days on the set of "Leave It To Beaver".

Although Jerry Mathers' autobiography had great potential, it took a wrong turn early in the development of this book. The chronological order of events is often so out of whack that it's almost as if someone tossed the manuscript pages into the air and then reassembled them in the wrong order. The reader gets the impression that someone turned on a tape recorder, let Jerry ramble, and then transcribed the tape verbatim. The book is also crippled by run-on sentences, misspellings, and repeated use of the word "nice" in place of more stimulating adjectives. There is no attempt to make a smooth transition between one topic and another, so the story line jerks around like a runaway bumper car. Like other reviewers on this site, I, too, was put off by Jerry's expounding on the despicable morals of other people in his generation even as he talked about cohabiting with his girlfriends and described his first encounter with his second wife, whose "body was designed for sin." Furthermore, while glimpses into the production of "Leave It to Beaver" are interesting and often amusing, there is too much insignificant detail in the rest of the book. (Does the reader care that "the dinner was delicious" at Jerry's parents' 50th anniversary celebration?) The compelling sections of Jerry's story can be picked out in a quick scan of the pages. Riffle through a copy at the library, but don't bother buying this book.

This book is excellent for people who enjoy the show "Leave It to Beaver" or who are interested in American popular culture and television. Jerry Mathers shows that he has kept a lot of common sense through the years of being a celebrity and the general turmoil in America during the past few decades. While he admits his own mistakes, he shines through as a decent person--just what we'd expect from "The Beav." In addition to his life story, the book has background on the show "Leave It to Beaver" and some interesting extended quotations from other members of the cast. The book shows how "Leave It to Beaver" was a top quality TV show and how it provided elements of realism that are missing from today's supposedly more realistic programs. It is written in a very down-to-earth way, and it is a refreshing read.

I am happy that I purchased this book used because I would've been very disappointed shelling out [the money] for 213 pages of self-aggrandizement by Jerry Mathers. I didn't expect a Tolstoy novel in regard to writing style, but this was barely literate. It is riddled with misspellings and typographical errors which is very annoying (Tony Dow's mother's name is misspelled three times and three different ways). Perhaps more of a comment on the talent of today's "proofreaders" than anything else.

Mathers describes his father as a strict disciplinarian, but a wonderful loving man, and curiously he thanks everyone in his family and outside his family on the acknowledgements page except his father. He describes Hugh Beaumont as a "kind, wonderful human being" but in the same breath says that Beaumont treated his role in the show as just another paying job, attributing this attitude to an automobile accident that happened when Beaumont's son was driving from their home in Minnesota to California in which Beaumont's mother was killed. He mentions that Beaumont had numerous illnesses near the end of his life (without going into any detail) but chose to highlight the fact that one of them was Tourette's Syndrome, with an ugly aside in regard to meeting Beaumont at a grocery store one day in which he unleashed a flow of four-letter vulgarities that he was powerless to stop (he apologized for it). The other people who overheard this tirade Mathers surmises, "would've walked away with a less than high opinion of Beaumont after hearing this" (I am paraphrasing here). This was totally unnecessary. Mathers spends a lot of time talking more about Beaumont's detractions than his attractions. Curiously again, his co-stars have nothing but praise and good things to say about Hugh Beaumont. But Mathers also delivers a few back-handed slaps at his other co-workers that may have been too subtle for the other reviewers on this page to recognize. He spends way too much time talking about how great Bob Mosher and Joe Connelly were to him (writers and producers of the show), leaving one with the impression that they meant more to him than his own father.

His dislike of the '60s generation is barely restrained, with his rabid condemnation of dope, drink, and acid-rock. Oh, but he loves good old-fashioned rock-and-roll music and once had a band with Richard Correll (Richard Rickover on the show), Beaver and the Trappers. They had a few regional "hits" that they both either wrote or co-wrote. Even Mathers had to admit that it was embarrassing to listen to his recordings now. His favorite bands are the Turtles, Cream (but weren't they acid-rockers?), and The Doors, which he and Correll supposedly saw at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in L. A. when the Doors were first starting out. He conveniently ignores the fact that The Whiskey was a notorious dopers' hang-out in the late '60s, with people both smoking and selling dope there, leaving the reader scratching their head as to why he would go there in the first place.

Of course Mathers was also a great lover too. There were many women who just "hung all over him," especially at UC Berkeley where he obtained a degree in Philosophy. Leigh Steinberg, the sports agent, and one of his classmates, said that it was due mostly to the fact that he had money and drove a Porsche, not because he was anything to write home about.

The ones who came off looking the best were Barbara Billingsley and Tony Dow who seem to be down-to-earth individuals with a real sense of who they are. Mathers reads too much into his alleged importance as an "American Icon". There are very few insights into the other characters on "Leave It To Beaver," and the reader gets the overwhelmingly strong impression that if it wasn't for Mathers, they would've been nowhere yesterday and today (this may or may not be true, but Beaumont and Billingsley had acting careers before they met "The Beaver"). He alludes frequently to his love of fast and expensive cars, that he is a gun nut, and that his divorces weren't his fault. He seems to delight in that he won't do another "Beaver" series in the 21rst century because it is better left in the 20th century where "Beaver" belongs (in his mind), thereby foiling any hope of the other characters who may want to do another reunion for a few extra bucks. Some of them don't have the marketing agreements that he and Tony Dow have. Well, I don't see him burning up the TV screens lately doing other things, in fact he never did anything else BUT the "Beaver" for over 40 years! If you are expecting rich, colorful reminiscing of life on the "Beaver" set, forget it. On the other hand if you are into reading about an egotistical, one-dimensional actor, than this book is for you. Beaver, How Great You Aren't.

It would be quite irresponsible to ignore the pop culture that surrounds us from our birth to our death. And certainly ignorant to belittle it. Though many do...ignorantly. From music to movies, plays to novels, magazines to television, the time in which we live IS the time we are given to live. For baby boomers LEAVE IT TO BEAVER is as important to who they are as Elvis, Kennedy and the Space Age. It defined an optimistic decade that was secure in its moral center, struggling in its quest to seek right over wrong, and boundless in its dreams. The record of the man at the center of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER is a record of post-World War 2 America. To understand that period is to understand the pop culture, to understand life as it was back then, and to understand the standards and expectations thrust upon those that lived back then. Whereas the show LEAVE IT TO BEAVE aptly laid out those standards and expectations by example and decree, the book demonstrates that the lives of those that made the show were not exempt from those standards or expectations in their personal lives and leaves a lasting record of that period of time for us to study.

Not bad it was better than Lumpy's book.
Jerry did give us more info on the show and stories about the cast.
the book takes us through Jerry's life from a small boy to being a man. i did love the stories about all the cast members and what they are doing now. leave it to beaver was a great show!
if you are a leave it to beaver fan I think you will enjoy this book. it is not the best book I have read but not bad.