The State Versus Beaver

Say it isn't so... Beaver and Wally put together a cool go-cart and it's trouble from the start.

A very relatable episode; how many of us big kids at heart at one time or another did about the same thing back in the day. Building go carts was lots of fun -- but there's also the rules of the road.

Beaver is --of course -- coaxed by Larry to just "take it around the block" for a spin and a cop just happens to be hanging around too. Beave is the unhappy recipient of a big, fat TICKET. By the way, in a previous episode, wasn't it Larry who talked Beave into letting a strange kid ride his new bike and disappear?

An episode you won't forget, it all rings so true. Look for Frank Wilcox as the judge. One of those terrific actors who was everywhere, often on the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES. He usually played businessmen or doctors, in tons of classic movies and tv shows for decades.

Memorable Beave in big trouble stuff. From SEASON 1 EPISODE 24 remastered dvd box set. Super color box cover pix for all us fans. Collectors item.

Ward helps the boys build a go cart but very explicitly commands them to never use it unless he is there to supervise. Beaver invites Larry Modello over to surmise his prize possession, and Larry goads Beaver into taking it out on the street. A cop stops and tickets them and of course Larry is nowhere to be found when the consequences come due.

Beaver tells Wally about his ticket and Wally agrees to appear in traffic court as Beaver's "guardian". Beaver is almost in tears by the time his turn comes before the bench, because the judge appears to be a "hanging judge" as he has spent the afternoon sending defendant after defendant to jail.

No way would a judge today be OK with Beaver appearing with his big brother rather than a parent, but in a small town the judge could probably count on there being some kind of consequences at home plus he could believe the tears of the small fry defendent as real and not some act by a sociopath in training. How will Ward and June take the news? Watch and find out.

I watched this as a kid and I still have to applaud the realism - Waiting for whatever it is the adults are going to do is usually far worse than what they actually do as punishment.

Ward helps Wally and Beaver build a "one lunger" go-cart, and we see the earliest example of Larry Mondello urging him to do something stupid. Also the first example of Wally acting in loco parentis, only this time in front of someone who knows legal terms dead cold.

Just another episode of Beaver not being held responsible. Greatest movie ever made was 'Still the Beaver'. It was always obvious he'd wind up living with his mama with everything in shambles when he got too old for others to cover for him.

Even then June gives him a house and bails him out.