Leave It to Beaver
Lumpy Rutherford
TV Flash files “Lumpy Rutherford” as hour 16 of 234 in the TV Flash guide — Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963) on CBS/ABC, season 1, episode 16, aired 1958-01-24, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E16: listed hour 16 of 234 in the Leave It to Beaver guide, hour 16 of 39 in season 1. It aired 1958-01-24 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Party Invitation” (S01E15). Next is “The Paper Route” (S01E17).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The local bully, Lumpy Rutherford, has been picking on Beaver and Wally. Thanks to a story Ward tells them, the boys decide to play a joke on Lumpy. However, their ploy catches the wrong person. Lumpy's father and Ward's co-worker Fred Rutherford, is caught in the trap.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Lumpy Rutherford sit in the Leave It to Beaver guide?
S01E16 is listed hour 16 of 234 — hour 16 of 39 in season 1, season 1 episode 16.
When did Leave It to Beaver S01E16 air?
Lumpy Rutherford aired 1958-01-24 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with the 1957 spelling opener, then Captain Jack. Those two teach kid logic versus adult panic — the show’s real camera height.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Child-height sitcom before the wrecking ball: small crimes, large speeches, kids aging in public while the myth pretends they don’t. Watch Mayfield as a broadcast contract — then decide whether later satire was answering the blocking or just the pearls.
October 1957: a boy gets spelled, a father prepares a speech, and CBS (then ABC) sells America a suburb that never had to survive a zoning meeting. Leave It to Beaver is not a documentary of the 1950s. It is a contract. The camera sits at child height. Trouble is a fib, a borrowed boat, a crush, a haircut that will not behave. Ward Cleaver talks like a man who has read the network’s idea of a civic handbook. June is costumed as calm. Wally is the rehearsal for adulthood. Beaver is the nation’s stand-in for the…
Filed against
- Jerry Mathers as Theodore 'Beaver' Cleaver
Jerry Mathers was Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver, the suburban innocence brand later generations loved to rewrite. Child-star perfection met real growing pains the tabloids never forgot. The camera sat at child height; he…
- Tony Dow as Wally Cleaver
Tony Dow’s Wally Cleaver is Leave It to Beaver as a broadcast contract — six seasons of child-height sitcom, Ward’s speeches, June’s pearls, kids aging in public while the myth pretends they don’t. On TV Flash he is the older brother the…
- Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver
Barbara Billingsley’s June Cleaver became Leave It to Beaver’s pearl-necklace emblem of suburban innocence — later the punchline every “not like that anymore” think piece steals. She sold calm as a national brand. TV Flash files her under…
- Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver
Hugh Beaumont’s Ward Cleaver is Leave It to Beaver’s polished father — speeches at child height, a suburb sold as destiny, counsel as the three-act button. The sitcom family myth later decades spent decades rewriting starts in that living…