R.I.P. Ken Osmond

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danfrank
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Re: R.I.P. Ken Osmond

Post by danfrank »

Leave it to Beaver was slightly before my time, though I certainly watched it in reruns as a kid. Eddie Haskell was certainly an indelible character and was such a specific type that he’s an ingrained cultural reference among people of a certain age. Hats off to the kid actor who played that character so memorably.
Mister Tee
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R.I.P. Ken Osmond

Post by Mister Tee »

I know Damien would have had the same deep reaction I had to this: Eddie Haskell is gone.

Eddie Haskell was the only role for which Ken Osmond was known, and it's almost 60 years in the past. But what an indelible one. Eddie Haskell was one of the most radical characters to which early-TV watchers were exposed: he was your son's best friend, and he was a complete phony -- sucking up to parents ("Good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver"), then turning into a snake the moment they were out of earshot. This was a shot of rotgut whiskey thrown into the tepid water of Eisenhower era culture.

Leave It to Beaver is in most people's minds a symbol of that seemingly-innocent era, but I'd argue the Edie Haskell character was signal of the more cynical days that were to come.

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