Couldn‘t you at least let us try, Mr. Merkle?
We‘ll work real hard. We sure will.
Now, you‘re only on trial, and remember something—
You make one mistake, and I‘ll skin ya alive,
both of you.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
[Announcer] Leave It To Beaver.
Starring Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow...
and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver.
[Knocking]
[Knocking Continues]
[Knocking]
That‘s a fine place to spend the day.
I was straightening up the closet, and you shut me in.
I‘m sorry. I didn‘t see you.
I have a sneaking suspicion you did, but I can‘t prove it.
The boys home yet? Uh-huh. They‘re waiting for you.
They want to talk to you about something.
What do they want to talk to me about?
They didn‘t say, but it seems, whatever it is, it‘s for your ears alone.
Well, I can understand the boys wanting to confide in their father.
They know their old dad can solve any problem.
They know that, given the opportunity— I think they want something.
I should have left you in the closet.
Dinner will be ready in a half an hour.
Let me see it again, Wally.
Take it easy!
Here he comes!
Well, hi, fellas. Hi, Dad.
Hi, Dad. Have a nice day at the ofﬁce?
Yeah, a pretty nice day.
That‘s good, isn‘t it, Wally? Yeah.
Boys,
your, uh, mother said you wanted to see me about something.
Yeah. Well, you know, Dad,
we‘ve been late for school the last couple of mornings now.
Late for school, huh? Well, we can‘t have that, can we?
Yeah, we‘ve been late ever since the tire fell off our old bike.
Oh. Well, I think we could arrange to put a new tire on your old bike.
Wouldn‘t it be better to put a new bike on the old tire?
— A new bike? — Yeah, Dad.
Well, that‘s, uh, certainly a very nice—looking bicycle.
Should be for $52.98.
We‘ve been saving for it for a long time, Dad.
You mean you boys have saved enough money to buy this bike?
Well, not exactly, but we thought maybe you could chip in a little.
Well, I think I could help out a little. How much have you saved?
I think around six dollars, almost.
We went to the movies a couple of times. That kind of ate into it.
Well, now, wait a minute, fellas.
I can‘t just give you almost $50. [Wally] Oh, we’ll pay you back, Dad.
I‘ll cut the grass for the next ﬁve years.
And I‘ll pick up my room for the rest of my life!
That‘s a very tempting offer, boys, but, after all, I can‘t just hand you over $50.
You know, your old dad‘s not made of money.
Well, gee, Dad, how else are we gonna get the bike if you don‘t buy it for us?
Fellows, um,
let me tell you a little story.
Everything all right upstairs? Oh, sure.
I was, uh— I was just telling the boys a little story about my college days.
About the time you fumbled the ball on the one—yard line?
Well, no, of course not. Why would I tell them that?
No, they, um— They were asking me for a bicycle,
so I told ‘em about the time I wanted a car, and went out and got myself a job and earned it.
Ward, I wish you wouldn‘t tell the boys things like that.
They take everything you say so seriously.
Well, uh,
I don‘t think you have to worry about it.
I don‘t think they want a new bicycle badly enough to go to work for it.
Uh, I don‘t know If I oughta give you guys no paper route.
Your clothes are too good.
You look like the kind of kids who‘d quit after the ﬁrst week.
Gee, Mr. Merkle, we never quit any other job.
We never even had no nother job.
Who sent you guys down here?
Jack Pistell. He used to work for you.
Pistell.
Ain‘t he the kid who moved away without paying me?
No, sir. He fell off his bike and broke his leg.
Oh,yeah. I knew he did something to mess me up.
Couldn‘t you at least let us try, Mr. Merkle? We‘ll work real hard.
We sure will. And we won‘t break our legs.
And we‘ll even wear old clothes, won‘t we, Wally? Yeah.
We‘ll dump the papers off at your house every day.
You fold them and wrap them and have them delivered by 5:00.
On Saturday, you turn in your refunds, and we make our collection.
Now, you‘re only on trial, and remember something—
You make one mistake, and I‘ll skin ya alive, both of you.
Yes, sir.
Now, you sign these papers here, and you can start tomorrow night.
Here you are.
Oh! A present for me?
Uh—huh. It‘s the shelf paper you asked for three days ago.
Oh, darling, you shouldn‘t have done it.
And I do mean you shouldn‘t have done it.
I bought some at the market this morning. Oh.
Well, a person can‘t have too much shelf paper. What‘s up?
I planted some marigolds. Man at the nursery said it was the wrong time of year.
[Horn Honking]
Oh, Ward!
Get his number. He did that on purpose.
It‘s too late now, dear.
What do you suppose these are? They‘re newspapers.
Oh, those are for us, Dad. Yeah, those are for us.
Yeah, thanks a lot.
Hey, boys! Wait a minute.
— What‘s this all about? — It‘s our paper route, Dad.
We‘re gonna earn our bike and surprise you, just like you did your father.
But, boys, you get home from school pretty late as it is.
Isn‘t that a lot of papers to deliver?
[Beaver] Only/58. But, Beaver!
Gee, Mom, there‘s nothing to deliverin‘ papers.
You just fold ‘em up and throw ‘em at people.
[June] Wally! Let‘s go and wrap ‘em.
But, Ward!
I think it‘s a good idea. Gives them a sense of responsibility.
Ward, every time the boys start something like this, you end up doing the job for them.
Like the time they were gonna sell that perfume to get a movie projector.
That was just that one time.
How ‘bout the time they were gonna get two dollars for cutting the Donaldsons‘ lawn?
You rented a power mower and went over and did the job for them. They were a lot younger then.
Believe me, this time I‘m not gonna so much as lift a hand to help ‘em.
Ha.
Oh, Ward. Well, look.
That‘s the saddest thing I‘ve ever seen.
Oh, Ward, I just think it‘s gonna be too much for them.
Ah, they‘ll be all right. That‘s the way Bernard Baruch got started.
How was that, Wally? Hey, that was pretty good.
Lucky the window was open.
Shouldn‘t we get that one, Wally?
Nah. The bushes are the ﬁrst place people look.
Well, Beaver, what are you doing out here all by yourself?
Folding newspapers, Mom. Where‘s Wally?
He had to stay after school for a makeup test.
Well, Beaver, you can‘t deliver all of these newspapers by yourself.
I‘ve gotta, Mom.
If I don‘t get these papers out by 5:00,
Old Man Merkle from the newspaper is gonna skin us alive, both of us!
But, Beaver, it‘s getting late.
Why, you‘ll never get all of these newspapers folded By yourself in time to deliver them.
Then I guess I gotta get skinned alive. I don‘t think I‘m gonna like that.
Look, Beaver, why don‘t you try folding one like this?
See?
Like that.
That‘s real neat, Mom. Let me try another one.
Gee, Mom, you fold papers real swell. Were you ever a paperboy?
No, I was never a paperboy,
but at school I used to fold napkins for the sorority house.
There.
—What time is it, Mom? — My goodness. It‘s almost 5:00.
Uh—oh. If we don‘t get these papers out by 5:00,
Old Man Merkle from the newspaper says he‘s gonna ﬁre us.
Well—
Well, Beaver, your father isn‘t home yet, but—
Come on. I‘ll help you. Gee, thanks, Mom.
But, Beaver, your father wanted Wally and you to do this job,
so, uh, well, let‘s not mention it, huh?
Okay.
Boy, will I be glad when Wally has the route tomorrow night.
Wally.
Why didn‘t you come in the back way?
‘Cause I didn‘t want to get the kitchen wet, Dad.
Water doesn‘t show so much on rugs.
Of course not.
Well, Old Man Merkle called from the newspaper.
He said you forgot to deliver nine or 10 papers tonight.
Yeah, my list got all wet, and some of the customers ran together.
But I got another list upstairs.
Well, he seemed pretty upset about it.
Yeah, that Old Man Merkle, he‘s a mean guy.
He‘s always ﬁring kids. I‘d better get the other list and go out again.
Wait a minute. You mean you‘re going out in this rain?
Gee, Dad, I‘ve gotta do my job, like you said.
Yeah. Well, look, I‘ll tell you what.
You go and get the list, and I‘ll get the car out of the garage. Gee. Thanks, Dad!
Yeah. Hey, did you get all your papers wet?
Well, some did, but that‘s okay. They always give us a lot of extra ones.
Oh, Wally, uh.
about my helping you this one time—
No need for your mother to know about it.
Okay. I‘ll tell her you didn‘t help me. No, no, no, no.
Don‘t be dishonest. Just don‘t mention it, that‘s all.
June , what‘s this check for 6.20 from the City Cab Company?
Well, uh, you don‘t take cabs.
No. No, this one‘s yours, dear.
It‘s, uh, dated last Tuesday.
You been shopping over on the expensive side of town again?
Ward, you were so insistent that the boys handle this paper route by themselves...
that I wasn‘t going to tell you, but, well, the Beaver got stuck on Tuesday night,
and, well, I‘m afraid we delivered the papers by cab.
June , you delivered 58 ﬁve—cent papers in a $6.20 cab?
There was nothing else I could do.
June , we‘ve got to let the boys learn to stand on their own two feet.
Like the rainy night you took the car out and helped Wally deliver the papers?
Uh— Yeah, that‘s about as good an example as I can think of.
Guess we‘re both guilty.
Sometimes there‘s nothing else you can do.
Now, June , I still insist we shouldn‘t help the boys. I agree.
And, uh, when we do help them, we should help them without their knowing we‘re helping them.
I agree.
Eighteen, i9—
Wally, we‘ve got an awful lot of papers left over from last week.
Sure, Beaver. These are extras.
But these are old papers, and we already paid for ‘em.
Well, they call ‘em refunds.
We take ‘em back to Old Man Merkle tomorrow and get our money back.
You know, Wally? I don‘t like that Old Man Merkle, even when I get money back from him.
Have we made any mistakes yet?
I don‘t think so.
Would Old Man Merkle be mad about that dog rippin‘ your pants?
I don‘t know. We better not tell him about it.
You know, workin‘ isn‘t as much fun as I thought it‘d be.
I wonder why older people do it so much.
They have to. If they had fun like kids, people would say they were silly.
You think our refunds will be okay in here?
Sure. Who‘d ever touch a bunch of last week‘s papers?
Wally and the Beaver haven‘t been there, Mrs. Anderson?
Well, look, if Chester does see them, would you have them call us, please?
All right. Thank you. Good—bye.
June , you know what I found out in the garage?
Wally and the Beaver‘s newspapers all folded, wrapped and undelivered.
I know, dear. I saw them.
I‘ve been calling all over town, trying to find them.
It‘s Saturday. They‘ve been out playing and they‘ve probably forgotten all about the newspapers.
They picked a great day to forget. Saturday afternoon, with half the town waiting for its newspaper.
Oh, Ward, I hope they get here in time.
They‘ve had that job for a whole week, and I‘d hate to see them lose it.
You wanna know something else? I don‘t think Old Man Merkle is the type to listen to excuses either.
Oh, Ward, you know they‘re not gonna get here on time.
What are we gonna do about it?
I guess we‘re gonna get the car out and deliver those papers as fast as we can.
Thanks a lot for the lift.
We got worried about the newspapers. That‘s why we came down to the newspaper ofﬁce.
You kids are new. The Saturday edition is always late.
That‘s on account of it‘s got all the ball scores in it.
We‘ll remember that next time. What about our refund copies?
We got ‘em in the garage. You wanna take ‘em with ya?
No, you take ’em down to Merkle on Monday and he’ll give you your money back
You guys better get on the ball Old Man Merkle’s a monster.
Oh, no! It says it‘s gonna rain again tomorrow.
Again?
Dear, this is last Tuesday‘s paper they just delivered.
Wait’ll I call that crazy newspaper ofﬁce!
Sorry.
Well, how do you like this, Marge? They delivered last Monday‘s paper.
Yeah, well— Yeah, well—
Yeah, well, gee, Mr. Merkle, we haven‘t delivered the papers yet.
Complaints? I don‘t know what the people are talkin‘ about.
No, Mr. Merkle, we‘re not being wise guys.
Oh. Well, all right. Okay.
What‘s the matter, Wally?
Mr. Merkle just ﬁred us.
Fired us? What‘d we do?
He was yelling so loud, I‘m not sure.
I think he said we delivered last week‘s papers today.
How could we do that? They‘re out in the garage. Yeah.
I don‘t know what happened.
Well, I didn‘t think we‘d make it.
Neither did I, especially when we ran short and had to buy extra copies at the newsstand.
Look at those nails.
Well, there you are.
Oh, hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. Hi.
Well, boys, I must say I‘m a little disappointed in both you and your paper route.
So‘s Mr. Merkle. He just ﬁred us.
He ﬁred you? What for? [Wally] Gee, Dad it wasn’t our fault
Somebody delivered last week‘s papers. Yeah, to all our customers.
Last week‘s papers?
Uh—huh. We left them all out in the garage, on the workbench.
— All wrapped up in their raincoats. - Oh.
Oh. Uh—oh.
We better go see if they‘re out on the workbench.
Boys. They‘re not on the workbench. Then where are they, Mom?
Well, we—
I mean, we—
This is one of those things that a father can explain best.
Uh—Well, uh— Will you sit down, boys?
No, thanks. No, thanks.
I think I will.
[Clears Throat] Uh—
Did I ever tell you about the time I fumbled the ball on the one—yard line?
Well—
[Door Opens]
Boys, we‘ll have breakfast as soon as your father gets back.
Did Dad go someplace this early?
Well, he had to go on a little errand Okay, Mom.
Boys.
You know you have a very wonderful father, don‘t you?
—Oh, sure, Mom. —Oh, sure, Mom.
And you know the mistake yesterday was just as much my fault as it was his.
That‘s okay, Mom. It was just one of those things.
Yeah, it was just one of those things.
Thanks, boys.
Wally? What, Beave?
Yesterday you would have thought one of‘em would have looked at the dates on those papers.
They were just trying to help. Some parents wouldn‘t have even done that.
Yeah, I guess we can‘t get too mad at ‘em.
Uh—uh. And we can always get a new job.
Yeah. I guess that‘s a lot better than getting new parents.
Uh—
[Clears Throat]
I see ya,jack. I‘ll be with you in a minute.
Uh, son, I‘d like to speak to, uh, Old Man Merkle.
I‘m Old Man Merkle. Keep your shirt on.
Now, what‘s your problem,jack?
Well, uh, I‘d like to talk to you about the two Cleaver boys.
Cleaver? Oh, you mean those two kids who goofed up the route last night, huh?
You get last week‘s paper too? Oh, no, no, no. I didn‘t.
No, you see, uh, I‘m their father.
So?
Well, so, it— it wasn‘t their fault about the mix—up.
What do you mean, It wasn‘t their fault? It was their route, wasn‘t it?
Yes. Yes, it was,
but, uh— [Chuckling]
Well, you see, I delivered those papers. [Chuckling]
Why would you do a thing like that,jack?
My wife and I were trying to help the boys, and we got hold of the wrong papers,
and don‘t call me Jack.
Okay! Mister. What do you want me to do?
I want you to give the boys back their route.
It seems to me that even a man with your limited perspicacity should be able to see that‘s the only fair thing to do.
Are you trying to insult me,jack?
[Sighs] Uh—
Look, son, my company does a good deal of advertising with this paper.
Now, uh, do you think we should settle this here,
or should I go upstairs?
Well, what guarantee have I got that the route won‘t be messed up again?
You‘ve got my word for it,jack.
Well, okay.
Well, I got their job back. Good. How‘d you do it?
I let a fellow call me “Jack.”
Oh, Wally, Beaver!
Well, I got good news for you, boys. Got your job back.
Oh. Boys, what‘s the matter?
Your father went to a lot of trouble.
Yeah, I know, but, well, see, I just talked to Chester,
and, well, he‘s gonna take us down to the supermarket.
Yeah, we‘re gonna talk to the man about packing boxes on weekends.
Well, but, boys, your paper route— [Horn Honking]
That‘s Chester‘s father now. We gotta get goin‘.
Yeah, we don‘t wanna mess up another job.
Now, wait, boys. Look—
Well, what do we do now?
I guess you fold, and I wrap.
Hi. Hi!
Where are the boys? The new bike just came. They‘re out unpacking it.
Oh. [Chuckles] You know, it‘s funny.
I know I encouraged them to earn their bike, and I‘m proud they did,
but it does kind of put their father in a nonessential class.
Oh, don‘t be silly. Go on out and see if you can help them.
Well, maybe I will. I‘ll just sort of wander out that way.
[Exhaling]
Well, that‘s a mighty ﬁne—looking bicycle, boys.
Yeah, it‘s real neat, Dad.
You know, when my brother and I got our bicycle together,
we had a terrible argument about who was gonna get the ﬁrst ride.
We‘re not arguing, Dad. Uh—uh. We just decided that.
Oh? We want you to have the ﬁrst ride.
Oh, I guess you‘re kind of embarrassed riding a kid‘s bike, huh?
Me? Not on your life!