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Sat 1 Sep, 2007 09:21 am
Come on..you know you thought of this, or am I the ONLY perv here that has? How could the family-values iconic show "Leave it to Beaver" have a child named Beaver Cleaver? Ward, Hugh Beaumont, was even an ordained minister.
Come ON now? Was that name an accident?
Why is it that I think of Brit Spears err...huh...hand in these goings on?
Regman, I think your question could be well answered only if some information-gathering were done first.
Specifically:
1. What year was the TV show "Leave It to Beaver" first shown?
2. Approximately which year did the word "beaver" acquire its current slang meaning?
If you know and will give us the answers, then the discussion can continue on a rational basis.
aa....beaver has been used for a long, long time.
ragman, I thought about that for the last 30 or more years, and am convinced t was an inside joke, that got past the censors.
beaver
O.E. beofor (earlier bebr), from P.Gmc. *bebruz (cf. Low Ger. bever, O.H.G. bibar), from PIE *bhebhrus, reduplication of base *bhru- "brown" (cf. Lith. bebrus, Czech bobr, Welsh befer, see bear (n.) for reason for this). Gynecological sense ("female genitals, especially with a display of pubic hair") is 1927 British slang, transferred from earlier meaning "a bearded man" (1910), from the appearance of split beaver pelts.
Ah...but was it American slang at that time?
oh yeah...I know it was around before The Beav. I remember my brothers joking about it.
"That's a lovely dress you're wearing Mrs Cleaver. May I see the beaver?"
That's the idea.
I posted this to be a light-hearted thread with the holiday weekend and all. The show is so oriented towards high moral values and "lessons" that it is the perfect show to parody. They were very good actors, too, weren't they?
it's been a long time since i've seen an episode, and so many people make fun of this very idea that now it's hard to tell fact from fiction
did june chastise ward for being "a little hard on the beaver", or is this just some entertainment urban legend
You know what?
I really, really like Leave it to Beaver.
Sometimes I'll catch an episode on TV Land, and it always makes me feel good.
I think there was a lot of good life lessons in the show....sure, it was done in a more innocent way, but so what?
I can't see anything here that was critical. It's just humor. I liked it, too. Not intending to trash it - it's all tongue-in-cheek.
you know what chai, me too
no cable or dish, so i haven't seen it in recently, but some of the small local stations would play it a few years back and i always looked forward to seeing it
Gee, Lumpy. Are you just glad to see me?
Mrs. Cleaver never had a hair out of place.
Mrs. Cunningham had the secret hots for the Fonz.
Joe(and don't get me started on Marsha)Nation
Ragman wrote:I can't see anything here that was critical. It's just humor. I liked it, too. Not intending to trash it - it's all tongue-in-cheek.
oh, wasn't being argumentative, sorry if I came off that way...
still, it's a great show.
No problem, Chai. I was just making sure. You can't see expressions here, of course. If you could ... Oh wait, that would be a topic for a horror show, not TV family shows.
{Edit: That would be a horror show over seeing MY expression...not your lovely countenance.}
Actually, this is one of my favorite shows. The world of LITB is "better than real." It's another case in which something may not really be achievable, but it's a great goal. My wife and I often speculate about how great it would be to be able to visit Mayfield.
I have known several teenagers and Gen Xers from very bad homes who treat LITB as some kind of religious icon and write letters to Barbara Billingsly. They say that Hugh Beaumont's real family is a bit freaked out by the parade of people who visit his grave.
The origin of the term "beaver", used as a reference to a specific anatomical part of the female persuasion, can be traced to the early days of the fire departments and the dramatic high ladder rescues which took place in those high rise wooden buildings.
As the occupants of the burning buildings, and more specifically the womenfolk, were working their way down the ladder, and said women had hastily thrown on some flimsy cotton dress and had time for nothing else, and when the fireman below her looked up and saw the object in question, clearly visible from below, he would want to let his fellow firemen know of such an event, but, fearful that screaming "pussy!" would label him as a pervert and such an event may lead to chastisement by the religious community, he had to come up with a code word for such an event.
Thus one night, in a quiet corner of a fire station, the word "beaver" was decided upon for use in such situations and it is still being used by firemen to this day.
(The poor bastards have no idea that we are on to them.)
gustavratzenhofer wrote:The origin of the term "beaver", used as a reference to a specific anatomical part of the female persuasion, can be traced to the early days of the fire departments and the dramatic high ladder rescues which took place in those high rise wooden buildings.
As the occupants of the burning buildings, and more specifically the womenfolk, were working their way down the ladder, and said women had hastily thrown on some flimsy cotton dress and had time for nothing else, and when the fireman below her looked up and saw the object in question, clearly visible from below, he would want to let his fellow firemen know of such an event, but, fearful that screaming "pussy!" would label him as a pervert and such an event may lead to chastisement by the religious community, he had to come up with a code word for such an event.
Thus one night, in a quiet corner of a fire station, the word "beaver" was decided upon for use in such situations and it is still being used by firemen to this day.
(The poor bastards have no idea that we are on to them.)
Ah! Did I read this in Vonnegut's brilliant prologue to Breakfast of Champions?
Yes, my friend, you did indeed.
How did Ward know June was experiencing menopause?
One night she said to him: "Ward, i'm really worried about the beaver."
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