Tune In

I don't talk about it much, but when my mom's family moved to the Valley in the late 1950s (from the duplex they'd lived in on Washington Blvd. since moving from Pennsylvania in 1955), both she and my aunt had small parts in several TV shows, among them Wagon Train and Leave it to Beaver.

My mom's current boss is very fascinated by this; me, not so much.  Perhaps that comes from having supported an actress's son in an inclusive environment and getting to know her just as M's mom.  And, by extension, realizing that celebrities are Just People too.  Or seeing her excitement when her show as on hiatus for the summer and she could actually pick up and drop off M at school, and realizing that acting, like everything else, is a job -- and a hard one at that.

Or perhaps it's because I've only ever seen one of my mom's episodes.

If you tune into TV Land next Saturday, you'll see the Leave it to Beaver episode where Beaver sneaks out to a movie theater and, in true sitcom form, promptly wins a bike -- which, of course, it hard to explain if you were supposed to be grounded.

In the movie theater scene, my mom is the blonde behind Beaver who is eating popcorn.  She would have been between 9 and 10 at the time of filming.

I'm not a huge Leave it to Beaver fan (nor do I enjoy Wagon Train or (I think) Gunsmoke) so I probably won't watch, but I figured it was worth mentioning.