![]() And no one in the outwardly pedestrian yet insightful plots was more misunderstood than Eddie Haskell. It was more like the drama of “The Twilight Zone” - young boys making their way in an alien land that happened to be postwar suburbia. It was a better-written and better-acted show. The TV legend passed away May 18 at his Los Angeles home surrounded by family, his son, Eric, tells. It was not in the same vein as the insipid sitcoms of the day (“My Three Sons,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Father Knows Best,” etc.). 'Leave it to Beaver' star Ken Osmond has died at age 76. In the same way the era is misremembered, the most representative sitcom of the period, “Leave It to Beaver,” is misunderstood. Television actor Ken Osmond died May 18, and if the name is not familiar, the memorable character he created probably is. A culture that in hindsight can look pasty-faced and intolerant in fact included idiosyncratic voices of protest and anti-majoritarian values. Commentary: Eddie Haskell was totally misunderstood. It was, after all, the era of, among others, Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, Thelonious Monk, Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, Rosa Parks and Central High in Little Rock. In many ways, that’s a mischaracterization. In today’s culture, the 1950s and early 1960s are portrayed as a white-bread era of bland conformity and racism. Perhaps the most telling thing Eddie ever told Wally was, “if you can make the other guy feel like a goon first, then you don’t feel like so much of a goon.” At heart, he was a decent and likable person. It was that insecurity that made him the way he was. If you watch the show carefully, you discover Eddie was actually a sensitive, insecure kid who grew up in an unhappy home. In a number of shows, the writers attempted to explain the essence of Eddie Haskell and, by extension, why people like him behave the way they do. He was a far more complex character than he is thought of today. Ken Osmond, who rose to fame playing the role of Eddie Haskell on the TV show Leave It to Beaver, died on Monday, according to Variety. ![]() He never used physical violence and even his taunts were generally more good-natured than mean. Many of the obituaries and tributes to Ken Osmond called Eddie Haskell a bully - he was anything but. The writers took great pains to flesh out the personalities of the boys and their parents. Contrary to popular opinion now, the characters on “Leave It to Beaver” were not cliches. Yet for all that familiarity, Eddie Haskell is also one of television’s most misunderstood characters. ![]()
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