TV notes: ‘Beaver’ observes the big 5-0
“Gee, Wally, can you believe that our show is 50? I bet that’s even older than Dad.”
One can only imagine Beaver Cleaver saying that to his older brother as “Leave It to Beaver,” the quintessential 1950s sitcom about a family who’s as white bread as a loaf of Wonder, marks its golden anniversary this week.
To celebrate, TV Land is airing a 24-hour “Beaverthon” on Saturday (5 p.m., cable channel 163 in Spokane; 8 p.m., cable channel 23 in Coeur d’Alene), which kicks off with the rarely seen pilot episode.
It stars Barbara Billingsley as June in all her pearl-necklaced glory, Casey Adams instead of Hugh Beaumont as dad Ward and Paul Sullivan rather than Tony Dow as Wally.
And, of course, Jerry Mathers as the Beaver.
Still, it’s the classic “Beaver” moments that will have fans tuning in: Beav giving himself a haircut; Wally growing a mustache to impress a girl; and, best of all, Beaver getting stuck in a billboard’s soup bowl.
TV Land also is featuring “Best of Beaver” clips on its Web site (www.TVLand.com), along with streaming video of the pilot and four other episodes, a photo gallery, “Beaver” trivia and a chance to win DVD sets of the show.
‘Desperate’ on defensive
A scene from Sunday’s season-opening episode of “Desperate Housewives” that poked fun at medical education in the Phillipines is drawing fire from Philippine officials.
In the show, Teri Hatcher’s character, Susan, suspicious about advice from her gynecologist, tells him: “OK, before we go any further, can I check these diplomas? Just to make sure they aren’t, like, from some med school in the Philippines?”
Reports of the incident and the government’s reaction topped Philippine news shows and drew newspaper headlines, and more than 30,000 people signed an online petition demanding an apology from ABC.
The network issued an apology and said it was considering editing the episode for rebroadcast.
‘Family Guy’ grief
The owner of the classic tune “When You Wish Upon a Star” is suing over what it calls unauthorized use of the song as part of an anti-Semitic ballad on the animated TV series “The Family Guy.”
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting Co., the Cartoon Network and others, music publishing house Bourne Co. aims to stop the program’s distribution and seeks unspecified damages.
The suit says an episode of “The Family Guy” produced in 2000, titled “When You Wish Upon a Weinstein,” included a parody song called “I Need a Jew” that draws musically from “When You Wish Upon a Star.”
According to the lawsuit, Fox initially withheld the episode from distribution because of its content but eventually distributed more than 1 million copies of it in various home video formats.
The suit says the Cartoon Network first aired the episode on Nov. 10, 2003.
‘Moon’ on the rise
CBS has picked a premiere date for “Comanche Moon,” its prequel to the wildly popular 1989 miniseries “Lonesome Dove.”
The network has scheduled “Comanche Moon” for broadcast on Dec. 30 and Jan. 1 and 2 from 9 to 11 p.m. each night.
It follows Woodrow F. Call and Augustus McCrae (Karl Urban and Steve Zahn, in the roles played by Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall in the original 1989 miniseries) as younger men who enlist with the Texas Rangers in pursuit of several outlaws.
The cast also includes Val Kilmer, Rachel Griffiths and Linda Cardellini.