This was the first episode in TV to deal with divorce and they do it in such a genuine way, Beaver thinks it's cool that his friend Chopper gets sets of presents from his parents and step presents but as the episode progresses we see that Choppers home life is abusive with his parents both using him to hurt each other, it was a shocking episode at the time that has aged beautifully.
In 1960 divorce was a taboo subject Beaver at age 11 had never had of it and Wally who is 15 has only heard of it in movies, while this may seem unrealistic to us nowadays it was actually quite common back then.
No show would touch on the subject but like all taboo subjects that no show would touch on a sitcom had to do it first, the episode gets a lot more serious toward the end and Beaver realises that it's better to have two parents that don't have much money but love each other than two that hate each other but give you lots of presents and think that their kid is a burden, this was by my count the only episode so far to have a scene that didn't use the laugh track.
In 1960 divorce was a taboo subject Beaver at age 11 had never had of it and Wally who is 15 has only heard of it in movies, while this may seem unrealistic to us nowadays it was actually quite common back then.
No show would touch on the subject but like all taboo subjects that no show would touch on a sitcom had to do it first, the episode gets a lot more serious toward the end and Beaver realises that it's better to have two parents that don't have much money but love each other than two that hate each other but give you lots of presents and think that their kid is a burden, this was by my count the only episode so far to have a scene that didn't use the laugh track.
