Still the Beaver

This movie was heartwarming and funny when appropriate. I used to tune in to the original show on the Antenna channel. It came on twice, at 8 and 8:30am. I would watch it while I got ready for work. Now I've changed jobs. I don't get up until 8:50, so I no longer watch it, but I enjoyed it when I did. Looking at old TV shows from the perspective of someone in their 20s, I find many of them to be formulaic and boring. However, this is one of the few vintage TV shows that doesn't annoy me. Still the Beaver is like the all grownup version of the show. Ward has passed (he actually wasn't alive when this film was made), and June is living alone. Wally is a successful lawyer. He and his wife, his high school sweetheart, are trying to have a baby. Beaver is divorced with two sons, and he moves back to his childhood home to live with his mom. Eddie owns a construction company. Beaver wants custody of his kids. Later in the film his ex-wife tells him she's going to veterinary school in another country, so he gets to have the kids full time. I thought the movie was great when I was watching, but thinking about it now, it seems kind of silly. I say that because all of the characters have the same personality as they did in the show, which is why I took off 1 star. Wally is still a jock, and Eddie is still a shyster. It's hard to believe Beaver is a father, let alone married in the first place. He has no life skills. He doesn't have a job or a car. Never mind - I think he has a car at the beginning of the movie, but after moving back home, he buys a 1965 Mustang, which didn't really make sense. It's never stated outright why his wife wanted a divorce, but it's not hard to figure out the reason. He doesn't carry himself like an adult. He's awkward and has low self-esteem, which is really no different than how he was as a kid - hence the title. She did point out they got married too young, and that increases the likelihood of divorce. It would've been nice to see more character development. Overall, this was a lovely film. It might make some people cry, especially if they were kids when this show first started coming on TV and/or one of their parents is deceased. It's sad how my generation has gotten plagued by overly negative movies and TV shows. Still the Beaver focuses on real life problems without sounding preachy. The audience walks away having learned valuable lessons that are still relevant in modern times. I feel like the topic of divorce was addressed exceptionally well, unlike Mrs. Doubtfire, which contained a lot of sexual jokes and bathroom humor. If you loved the show, then you will thoroughly enjoy this movie.

I am not a fan of "reunion" shows, in general. They always fall short and disappoint.

This one is not the greatest TV movie of all time by any means, but as an "update" or "reunion", it's decent. At least the main characters (Beaver, Wally, Eddie, et. Al) were middle-aged as opposed to the usual seniors-trying-to-recreate-30-again of most of these types of shows (Return to Mayberry being a glaring example). These characters now had kids and faced the problems their parents had faced 20 years earlier. Maybe because of that, the show worked reasonably well. I enjoyed it.

It was a pleasure for me to see this movie when it was first released. Unfortunately, I did not get my first VCR until 1984, so I was not able to tape it.

While I believe that the movie was a wholesome update, I feel that the absence of Hugh Beaumont (who passed away a year earlier) detracts from the 'luster' of the movie somewhat.

Nevertheless, Barbara Billingsley as the matriarch June Bronson Cleaver, does a good job of holding the family together.

I have to agree with jwalsh67 on this. Why couldn't we have been allowed to rest in the fantasy that our favorite characters grew-up to be better than they were? There was simply no reason for the makers of this to have insisted that "Beaver" Cleaver's character not be allowed to do so.

And they didn't. Indeed, he's still whining, still clueless. And as has been noted, towards the end of the original series, Beaver was already on the road to maturity.

If I remember correctly, in the last episode Ward says to June, "We've either raised them right or we haven't." The answer to this was a resounding "You failed" from the producers.

Growing up in the early sixties, I always believed that the Cleavers were just like my family. Ward was like my dad in many ways, June was like mom, and Wally was like my older brother. The mannerisms, attitudes, clothes and even the hairstyles were all too similar.

Forty years later, the similarities and relevance remains strong. Since my dad passed, mom has become the matriarch of the family, just as June has become the matriarch of the Cleavers. What's more relevant than Ward Cleaver passing away, as my dad did, leaving a legacy, affecting the hearts and minds of his wife and kids?

I believe there is something seriously twisted about an individual who can knock this 1983 pilot of "Still The Beaver". There is so much garbage on TV and in the movies that is much better off not paying any attention to. There is truly something creepy about some of the post on this thread knocking the black and white episodes or the 1983 movie memorializing Hugh Beaumont.

Perhaps these people would prefer dorks like Cedric "The Entertainer" and Martin Lawrence playing Wally and The Beaver!