02/07/2025
A Hollywood Story,
If it wasn't for a simple twist of fate, Tony Dow may have never played the part of "Wally."
Jerry Mathers, the Beaver explains:
“As most people know, Tony Dow was my big brother on Leave it to Beaver,” Mathers wrote. “Ironically, he was really ‘the Beaver’ in his real life family because he only had an older brother and he was the youngest. I on the other hand was the eldest of my four siblings so I actually was the ‘Wally’ in my real family.”
But Dow might have never landed the role were it not for someone else’s teenage growth spurt, Mathers added. Dow wasn’t in the original pilot for the show, which was called “It’s a Small World.” It was only when the original Wally shot up in height before production began that producers searched for a shorter star.
“The boy who played Wally grew about 5 inches between the time the pilot was filmed and [when] we went into production of the series,” Mathers wrote. “He was almost as tall as Hugh Beaumont [who played father Ward Cleaver] so the producers decided to put out another casting call for a boy who was more height appropriate for that age. Tony’s true life ability as an athlete was a perfect fit for Wally, he was cast for the part, and the rest is television history!”
