19 Facts About Wally Cleaver

Wallace "Wally" Cleaver is a fictional character in the iconic American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver.

Wally Cleaver is an intelligent, polite teenager, who is trusted by his parents, popular with his peers, and liked by his teachers.

Wally Cleaver is an athlete with track, basketball and baseball being his three favorite sports; and, he excels at all.

Unlike his brother Beaver, Wally Cleaver is popular with the girls and has many girlfriends during the course of the series' run.

Wally Cleaver's dating life is sometimes frustrating as he tries to deal with the thoughts and emotions of teenaged girls.

Wally Cleaver is more astute and experienced than his brother and often puts parental communications in simpler terms for Beaver's comprehension.

At the age of five, Wally Cleaver gave a newborn Beaver his nickname while trying to pronounce his given name of Theodore.

Wally Cleaver spends his time in the bedroom at a small desk doing school assignments, the boys entertain their friends in the bedroom, and the room is often the scene of Ward's disciplinary lectures.

Wally Cleaver is rarely seen doing regular chores around the house.

In one episode Ward is out of town and Wally Cleaver is asked to play the man of the house.

Wally Cleaver carves the roast at dinner and monitors Beaver's behavior.

Wally Cleaver arrives home and finds his mother preparing dinner; he regales her with teenspeak banter about the day's events at school.

Wally Cleaver is a good student, who, unlike his brother Beaver, rarely gives his parents or teachers cause for concern.

Wally Cleaver spends school nights at home glued to his textbooks and scratching out essays in his composition tablet.

Wally Cleaver's age permitted the writers to place him in dating situations with his school friends.

Wally Cleaver then becomes romantically involved with Mary Ellen Rogers, though the viewer often hears about her rather than sees her.

In one episode, Wally Cleaver grows a moustache over the summer, thinking Julie will be enchanted with his debonair look, and then the poor boy is humiliated when she laughs at it when he arrives back to school.

Producers took advantage of Dow's popularity and scripted episodes delving into Wally Cleaver's dating life, his after school jobs, his pals, and his car.

In Still the Beaver and The New Leave It to Beaver, Wally Cleaver is married to high school-sweetheart Mary Ellen and is an attorney engaged in private practice.