June 7th was Ken Osmond’s birthday and he turned 76 years old. It’s hard to believe Eddie Haskell is that old when he is frozen in time in the never-ending reruns of Leave It To Beaver. There were rumors that Osmond was Alice Cooper. Another rumor was that Ken was Porno Star, John Holmes.
In reality, Ken Osmond joined the LAPD in 1970 and later Osmond retired from the police department in 1988, eight years after being shot by a suspected car thief. Two bullets reportedly hit his bulletproof vest and he was protected from the third bullet by his belt buckle.
Eddie Haskell was one of the great characters of television. Not likable… pretty much the opposite but he was very familiar because we probably all know our own Eddie Haskell.
Eddie was always so nice to adults…Really too nice. The Ward Cleaver character once said…”The boy is unamerican…he is just too nice.” and always tormenting his friends and kids. Eddie was the ultimate two face… all smiles and yeses to authority, but quite the trouble-maker with his peers.
We all probably had an Eddie Haskell in our friendship circles. A guy who was always trying to grow up faster than anyone else. Someone who would give you advice and then criticize you when you took the advice and things went sideways. You stay friends with them because occasionally they will do something decent and you will think… he turned a corner… only to be fooled yet again.
Sometimes I guess we need an Eddie Haskell to blame our troubles on.
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You couldn’t have worded this any better! Yes, we all know an Eddie Haskell.
Leave it to Beaver remains to this day one of my favorite shows. The acting was supreme, sincere, honest, but not forced. It is nice to know Ken was able to make it into a career after leaving the show.
Thank you for this post!
My 54 year old cousin and I have watched it on weekends when he comes down. I had forgotten how well it was written. I missed that part when I was a kid.
I enjoyed reading about what he did after the show. A bit of irony there, that he became the kind of authority his TV character shamelessly patronized, ha! I wonder if as a cop he recognized whenever he was dealing with an ‘Eddie Haskell’.
He said in an interview that he grew a mustache and that helped people not recognize him. Imagine be pulled over by Eddie.
That’s funny about the ‘stache. Wow, I think I’d still recognize him if he pulled me over.
I know right… He IS Eddie. He had to be recognized…Going home and saying I was pulled over by Eddie Haskell. That would be worth the ticket.
No kidding! I’d frame that ticket.
It was great how Eddie could turn on a dime from being nice- in front of an adult to rotten the second the adult was out of sight. My favorite character on the show.
My favorite also… he added some spice to the show. I watched one episode that took me by surprise. He told Mrs. Cleaver he was allergic to mayonnaise and after he did something rotten to Wally…guess what Mrs Cleaver slapped on his sandwich?
mayonnaise! lol… recently they started from season 1 on a station here- the older ones weren’t as good not enough Haskell or Lumpy.
I agree…iLumpy was always good for a laugh and Eddie added spice. You know looking back at it. The show wasn’t hugely successful at the time…I guess because every other show was a western at that time but I think it still works because it was written from a kids viewpoint more than the other family shows.
Eddie Haskell was a cop? Wow, the pop culture possibilities are endless.
Yes the irony of it all.
Eddie Haskell was the biggest kiss ass, suck-up, bootlicker there ever was when it came to him being around parents, but when he was with kids his own age he was a rebel.
He is probably the best remembered of the show.
I remember the show pretty well and I remember Eddie being Eddie, but I remember Beaver and Wally and their relationship best. I also loved the parents, they seemed light-hearted compared to my own.
Oh yea it would have been great to live in Mayfield. I know what you mean. That and the Brady Bunch… life was far from that…. the show was great because the writers knew the kids point of view and wrote that way.
A little before my time but I just came across that Alice Cooper rumor a few days back when working on the ‘School’s Out’ piece
Oh it was before mine… syndication is where I saw it… after school with Gilligans Island.
Can you imagine Alice Cooper lol or John Holmes
RE-posted on twitter @trefology
Thanks Tref!
Ultimate ass-kisser. I forgot he was an Osmond. I can’t help but wonder if he is distantly related.
His cop story reminds me of Peaches and Herb. Herb was a cop for quite while.
He was so dispicable on that show…but he added some spice. Funny about the rumors about him being Alice Cooper.
Eddie Money was either a cop or training to be one also.
I read it differently. The rumor was that Alice Cooper was Eddie Haskell because of a crack he made, not that Osmond was Cooper:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Osmond#Urban_legends
Yep:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Money#Early_years
When I read he had become Alice Cooper that’s where I got it… but I did hear that rumor in school but I didn’t know that is how it began.
You know, I never heard the rumor. I guess I was under a rock at the time.
Also Jerry Mathers being killed in Vietnam…. that one had legs… it was announced! It was still around when I went to school. It was of course a mistake between a similar named soldier.
Heh. I don’t remember that one, either. Yeah. I was under a rock.
It was announced on the Tonight Show by Shelly Winters I believe in the 60s… All of his former castmates started to send letters of condolences… I still heard it in the 70s that he got killed.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-05-06-0405060089-story.html
Hm. An hysterical Hellyweird actress spews a lie. Fancy that. Nothing changes.
Nothing lol…I never liked her
Yeah. I remember her being mouthy and obnoxious.