Urban Legends Told Disturbing Futures of ‘Leave It to Beaver’ Stars
Sitcoms don’t get much more wholesome than the 1950s comedy, Leave It to Beaver. But its squeaky-clean reputation didn’t stop rumormongers from creating a laundry list of salacious urban legends around the fates of its stars. In particular, Jerry “The Beaver” Mathers and Ken “Eddie Haskell” Osmond suffered disturbing futures, at least according to the whispers on the pre-Snopes streets.
Here are three Leave It to Beaver urban legends that are equally untrue…
The Beaver Was Killed in Vietnam
When the stubbornly living Jerry Mathers appeared on Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow Show in the mid-1970s, Snyder noted that viewers hadn’t seen much of Mathers on TV lately. Most people chalked up his absence to the persistent rumor that the Beav was killed “in the war in Southeast Asia.”
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The origins of the legend are twofold. First, Mathers did sign up for military service as part of the Air Force Reserves. He was never called to action, however, as he only served in the United States.
Second, legitimate news sources like the Associated Press and UPI reported that Mathers was indeed killed in Vietnam. That was poor reporting, mistaking a real dead soldier, 21-year-old Sgt. Steven Mathers, for the kid actor. Everyone bought the false narrative, including Shelley Winters, who shared the news on Johnny Carson, and TV brother Tony Dow, who sent flowers to Jerry’s parents.
Eddie Haskell Grew Up to Be Shock-Rocker Alice Cooper
Ken Osmond became a police officer after he left showbiz, though rumors of higher-profile jobs persisted. One time, he was on the job when a fellow patrolman yelled out, “So I hear you’re Alice Cooper now.”
Cooper himself explained how that fabrication got started in Osmond’s memoir, Eddie: The Life and Times of America's Preeminent Bad Boy: “When people asked me what I was like as a kid, I would say I was like a ‘regular’ Eddie Haskell, meaning that’s the type of kid I was,” he said. “Of course, I was really nothing like that, but it was such a cool reference, I said it. But the press interpreted the statement as I WAS the real Eddie Haskell!”
eBay
eBay sellers are out there hawking prints of Cooper wearing a T-shirt he used to wear, proclaiming, “No, I’m not Eddie Haskell.”
Eddie Haskell Grew Up to Be Legendary Porn Star John Holmes
Osmond wasn’t an adult film star either. But that didn’t stop Internal Affairs from calling in Osmond based on rumors that he led a double life as porn legend John Holmes. To prove his innocence, Osmond had to drop his pants, confirming that while he might have resembled Holmes in the face, that’s where the likeness ended.
Blame Holmes for this one, who did brag to porn producers that he’d starred on Leave It to Beaver. Adult film distributors didn’t spend much time researching his tall tale, but had no problem marketing their porn as starring the sitcom kid. Osmond got a lawyer and tried to sue the porn distributors, but those companies often folded soon after they started up.
The one consolation prize: As the Holmes rumors picked up steam in the 1970s, Osmond began receiving fan mail and autograph requests again, decades after Leave It to Beaver had left the air.