A FRIEND recently claimed that “Seinfeld” is already the most enduring, cherished and ingrained sitcom in TV history.
“Consider,” he said, “that it ended in 1997 and I still go out of my way to watch at least one rerun every day. Consider the strength of its characters. In 20 years people will describe someone as being like Cosmo Kramer and everyone will know what they mean.”
Okay, fair enough. He may be right. Still, get back to me in 20 years. “Seinfeld,” brilliant as it was and as it remains, has a ways to go.
Consider the legacy of “Leave It To Beaver.” Some of us still go out of our way to catch an episode or two, every day on TV Land. Consider that there were 180 “Seinfeld” episodes over nine seasons. “Leave It To Beaver,” which ran from 1957 to 1963, aired 210 episodes.
And for endurance of timelessly funny, off-kilter characters, there’s no one like Eddie Haskell, a pioneer in the TV genre.
Today, watching Eddie Haskell (played by Ken Osmond, who become a Los Angeles motorcycle cop) sucking up to Ward and June Cleaver before baiting Beaver with insults, it strikes us that nearly 50 years later, Eddie Haskell rarely needs introduction or explanation.
“Leave It to Beaver” also provided “Seinfeld” with more inspiration than you would think. George Costanza had a direct predecessor in Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford, the flabby and wildly insecure friend of Wally Cleaver’s.
Like Jerry Seinfeld’s character, Wally was a reasonably well-adjusted fellow who inexplicably surrounded himself with friends who had many neuroses.
For endurance as a lovably detached TV character with an aversion to employment, Cosmo Kramer has a long way to go before catching up with Maynard G. Krebs, the beatnik played by Bob Denver on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gills” (1959-63). No doubt, the real-life character Kramer was based on was compared, in real-life, to Maynard.
Same goes for Ward Cleaver. For pure staying power, Hugh Beaumont’s fatherly father character may be unsurpassed. Ward Cleaver is now more an adjective than a pronoun.
Don’t get me started. Ah, too late.
Beaumont, who died in 1982, was an ordained minister who also appeared as one of Alan Ladd’s sidekicks in the 1946 murder mystery classic, “The Blue Dahlia.” Watch that movie with people who weren’t even born when “Leave It To Beaver” aired and the moment Beaumont appears you’ll hear, “That’s Ward Cleaver!”
Frank Faylen also had a role in “The Blue Dahlia.” He later co-starred as Herbert T. Gillis, the grumpy grocer and father in “Dobie Gillis.”
Faylen had a role in another 1946 film classic, “It’s A Wonderful Life.” He played Ernie, the cab driver and pal of George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart). Ward Bond, who later starred in the TV series “Wagon Train,” played Bert, the cop. It was those characters – Bert and Ernie – who served as the namesakes for Bert and Ernie of “Sesame Street” fame.
“Dobie Gillis” served as a launch pad for two other actors: Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld. Both had recurring roles, Beatty as Dobie’s undefeatable competition for girls, Milton Armitage, and Weld as the beautiful and unrequited target of Dobie’s affection, Thalia Menninger.
Milton Armitage, Thalia Menninger, Eddie Haskell, Ward Cleaver, Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver – those are brilliantly plucked and slightly bizarre names that preceded “Seinfeld'”s Art Vandalay and David Puddy by 30 years.
