How to Watch ‘Leave It to Beaver’ in Honor of Tony Dow

The news of Tony Dow’s passing surely hits multiple generations of TV viewers right in the heart. Dow’s passing is particularly emotional because of the part he played in the formative classic sitcom Leave It to Beaver. By playing the Beav’s older brother Wally Cleaver, Dow literally grew up in front of the first-ever TV generation. And because Leave It to Beaver premiered in the fall of 1957, right as television sets became an essential part of every living room, Tony Dow was among the first actors to spend their teen years on a TV set.

While Leave It to Beaver was only on the air for six seasons, the series produced a staggering 234 episodes. This enormous output — which was more or less commonplace during the early days of TV — ensured that Beaver would remain on TV lineups for the next six decades, allowing for generation after generation to view Tony Dow’s Wally as their own older brother.

If you’re looking for a way to commemorate Tony Dow’s life and his importance to the medium, there’s no better way to do so than by paying a visit to the Cleaver household.

How to stream Leave It to Beaver

You can currently find every episode of Leave It to Beaver streaming on Peacock. It also streams for free on Tubi and The Roku Channel, although it may stream with commercial breaks.

Additionally, you can purchase episodes of Leave It to Beaver (albeit only Seasons 3-6) for $1.99 each via Amazon’s Prime Video store. And the iTunes store carries several Leave It to Beaver “best of” collections that can be purchased for $9.99.

Best episodes of Leave It to Beaver to stream

If you’re looking for somewhere to start and the idea of committing to 234 episodes feels like a lot, you can revisit a few of the episodes of Leave It to Beaver that fans have proclaimed to be among the show’s very best. Here are 10 such episodes, in order:

• 1×10 Wally’s Girl Trouble
• 1×19 The Bank Account
• 2×34 Wally’s Haircomb
• 2×39 Most Interesting Character
• 3×9 Teacher Comes to Dinner
• 3×20 Beaver and Andy
• 4×32 In the Soup
• 5×1 Wally Goes Steady
• 5×6 Wally’s Weekend Job
• 6×35 Wally’s Practical Joke

Who is still alive from Leave It to Beaver?

Dow’s passing leaves only the show’s star, Jerry Mathers (b. 1948), alive from the show’s main cast. Barbara Billingsly, who played matriarch June Cleaver, passed in 2010; and Hugh Beaumont, Beaver’s father Ward Cleaver, passed in 1982. Ken Osmond, who had a recurring role as Wally’s friend Eddie Haskell, passed in 2020. A few of the actors who had recurring roles as Beaver’s friends are still alive, including Robert Stevens (Larry) and Stephen Talbot (Gilbert).