Oh Stewardess, I Used to be Alive
Or
June Swoon
Barbara Billingsley, best remembered for admonishing Hugh Beaumont for being too hard on the Beaver last night, has died of rheumatoid disease at the age of 94. Rumor has it she did something else, but basically, she was June Cleaver, Theodore and Wally’s vacuuming-in-pearls-and-high-heels mother on Leave it to Beaver (with reprisals on Amazing Stories, Baby Boom, Hi Honey, I’m Home, The Love Boat and Roseanne). Sure she was on Still the Beaver, but the less said about that the better. Yes, she was in Airplane!, but wasn’t that really just June on vacation putting to use the Jive class she took at the community center while Ward was out golfing? And OK, she was the voice of Nanny in Muppet Babies, but wasn’t that really just June’s experience with early-onset dementia talking to her furry friends? Although considered a classic today, Leave it to Beaver debuted to mediocre ratings in 1957 on CBS, which even then only wanted shows about the aged and infirmed, and was cancelled. ABC picked it up the next year, rode it for 5 seasons until the cast wanted to move on, and let the residuals roll in as it eventually was aired in more than 100 countries. Most of the rest of Billingsley’s career consisted of guest shots and cameos either playing along with her image or against it, and in the awful and needless 1997 film remake of Leave It to Beaver, with June played by the tedious Janine Turner, Billingsley kept her time to a minimum as Aunt Martha.
June Swoon
Barbara Billingsley, best remembered for admonishing Hugh Beaumont for being too hard on the Beaver last night, has died of rheumatoid disease at the age of 94. Rumor has it she did something else, but basically, she was June Cleaver, Theodore and Wally’s vacuuming-in-pearls-and-high-heels mother on Leave it to Beaver (with reprisals on Amazing Stories, Baby Boom, Hi Honey, I’m Home, The Love Boat and Roseanne). Sure she was on Still the Beaver, but the less said about that the better. Yes, she was in Airplane!, but wasn’t that really just June on vacation putting to use the Jive class she took at the community center while Ward was out golfing? And OK, she was the voice of Nanny in Muppet Babies, but wasn’t that really just June’s experience with early-onset dementia talking to her furry friends? Although considered a classic today, Leave it to Beaver debuted to mediocre ratings in 1957 on CBS, which even then only wanted shows about the aged and infirmed, and was cancelled. ABC picked it up the next year, rode it for 5 seasons until the cast wanted to move on, and let the residuals roll in as it eventually was aired in more than 100 countries. Most of the rest of Billingsley’s career consisted of guest shots and cameos either playing along with her image or against it, and in the awful and needless 1997 film remake of Leave It to Beaver, with June played by the tedious Janine Turner, Billingsley kept her time to a minimum as Aunt Martha.
posted by The Grim Reaper at 9:47 PM
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