Leave It to Beaver (TV Series) Beaver's Pigeons (1959) User Reviews

Cases Of Chicken and 'Pigeon Pox'

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 20 January 2007]

Some of Beaver's friends are getting carrier pigeons as pets so he talks his dad into buying two of them at the pet store, two that he's had his eye on for a week. Since they are females, he names then "Miss Canfield" and "Miss Landers," his two best female teachers ever.

Ward brings them home and finds out Beaver was sent home early because he has the chicken pox. He doesn't want the birds to get "Pigeon Pox," so Wally gets stuck taking care of them while the sick and contagious Beaver stays up in his room.

The trouble starts when Larry Mondello - who else? - brings over his two pigeons and asks Wally to keep them for the weekend in the cage with Beaver's pigeons. Larry's family is staying in a hotel for the weekend, so Wally says okay and puts "Nate" and "Al" in with Beaver's birds

Complications arise, first with lice and then with a neighborhood cat killing two of them...but which two, and how to the Cleavers solve this problem without the Beaver getting all upset as he recovers from his illness?

Wally turns out to be the one who handles things diplomatically.

Was there ever a better brother than Wally Cleaver?

A show written for Ward and Wally for a change

[pensman · 8/10 · 12 February 2018]

Ward wants to get off to work but Beaver needs a dollar. Two fifty cent pieces as that must sound less than a whole dollar, and that will allow Beaver to join his friends in the pigeon club. Beaver can then get two pigeons to raise but Ward wants to stop by the pet store for the whole story. Apparently, the sell was a good one as Ward returns home after work with two pigeons. But he can't give them to Beaver as Beaver has contracted chicken pox. Who will take care of the pigeons? Wally agrees to care for the pigeons although when he had to take over Beaver's hamsters, they ended up croaking.

Things seem OK until Larry comes over with his pigeons. He has to go away for the weekend and needs a pigeon sitter. As Larry's birds look ill, it is a reluctant Wally who agrees and the pigeons are put together. When Wally checks the pigeons later, they all look sick. Did they catch something from Larry's pigeons? Will Wally be blamed for croaking Beaver's pigeons? Will Ward try to save the pigeons? Will all end happily?

An episode with an ending a lot of kids could no doubt relate to. Along the way they might have even gleaned something about responsibility and friendship. Looking back over the years, I sometimes wonder what I picked up from watching TV. It wasn't the babysitter it is now. Even on Saturday's writers did most of the shows like Fury and Sky King or Mr. Wizard using the same format they did for adults.

For a surprise, we find out that Larry can actually act in a rather mature manner. Who knew?

King Tut Buried in a Pyramid?

[dgkasmauskas · 8/10 · 14 September 2020]

About 25 minutes in...Ward Cleaver mentioned (after burying the pigeons) that the memorial is good for the kids. Just like the Egyptians who built a Pyramid for King Tut. I wonder if anyone ever told Ward that King Tut was NEVER in a Pyramid?

Exquisite Episode

[MichaelMartinDeSapio · 10/10 · 12 January 2016]

The other reviewers have recapped the plot of this exquisite episode more than adequately. Suffice it to say that "Beaver's Pigeons" touches on the acceptance of death, rather as the ANDY GRIFFITH episode "Opie the Birdman" does - albeit in a gentler and more lighthearted way, and with a touch of gallows humor. (At one point Wally tells Beaver that a cat ate "enough of (the pigeons) so that they're no good any more.")

Thematically, this is a rich episode. Beaver's illness is played out in parallel with the pigeons', and the frailty and dignity of human life and the link between human and animal life are explored. Wally's role as the link between the child and adult worlds is also emphasized; it's Wally who insists that the children hold the "funeral" for the dead pigeons, against the objections of Ward and June. It turns out to be the right thing to do in that it gives the children a sense of closure. The scene in which Wally announces the death of the pigeons to Beaver outside his door is evocative; Beaver lies in the dark and receives the news with shock. The scene of the "funeral," with Larry and Whitey (a favorite character of mine), is very sweet. And we are left guessing to the very end about Ward's phantom itching - is it psychosomatic, or is he really the one with the lice?

Ward Cleaver has lice?

[gisele8 · 10/10 · 14 November 2007]

This is a really cute episode of Leave it to Beaver where the Beav catches Chicken Pox and his pigeons catch lice from his friend Larry's infected birds (or so they think). They're in the Pigeon Club with Whitey. June doesn't let Ward go near his sick son, since he doesn't remember ever having anything with spots before, but he keeps complaining of itching. When June insists it's all in his imagination, he says his imagination has been itching in several places. After The Beaver's pigeons get mauled by a neighbor's cat, Wally (who was supposed to be watching them) apologizes to his brother through the closed bedroom door and sweetly sits outside of it in the hall while the Beaver struggles not to cry, because the doctor told him that rubbing his eyes would cause his spots to spread. Larry and Whitey hold a funeral for the pigeons and bury them outside The Beaver's house while he watches solemnly from the window. Ward and June realize that the kids' way of handling grief and loss is very healthy and touching. After The Beaver refuses his father's offer to buy him more pigeons for a while, Wally wonders what they're going to do with all that lice spray. As Ward hopes someday they'll get an eagle with lice, he walks away still scratching his neck and back while Wally stares at his dad wondering what's wrong. Though no one says it, I think Ward was the source of the lice!! Ewww!

Beaver And His Chicken Pox

[StrictlyConfidential · 4/10 · 1 February 2021]

(*June to Ward quote*) - "I guess this is what happens when you have pets."

Beaver, Whitey and Larry form a Pigeon Club so that they can teach these birds to do tricks and whatever.

Beaver becomes ill, tragedy strikes his birds and that pretty much puts an end to the Pigeon Club.