"In the Soup" is one of the best remembered and oft-cited episodes of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER. It is - dare I use the cliché - iconic. The central concept is the wackiest and most surreal in the entire series: on a dare Beaver climbs into the "soup bowl" of a roadside billboard and has to be rescued by the fire department, to the embarrassing scrutiny of a gathering crowd. Postwar consumerism, 15-minutes-of-fame celebrity, and the pop art of Andy Warhol come to mind when watching this comic tale. As Beaver sits in the bowl overwhelmed by steam, it's as if he's in one of the circles of Hell.
Interestingly, the episode comes from Season 4, a bit past the show's prime and from a period when one would have expected Beaver to be fast outgrowing these sorts of shenanigans. Beaver's "tempter" on this occasion is not his main pal Larry Mondello (who had disappeared from the show by this point) but his more peripheral buddy Whitey Whitney. Whitey was a sort of junior Eddie Haskell, and had the cute kid/wiseguy angle all figured out. It's also worth mentioning that before the episode gets around to the main plot of the soup bowl, there is a good deal of seemingly irrelevant buildup involving a party Wally is having. This has the effect of building suspense.
"In the Soup" is a metaphor for life on a number of levels. The way Beaver and Whitey's argument escalates out of nothing is a perfect spoof of many adult conflicts, on the political stage and elsewhere. The moral of the episode, brought out as usual by Ward in the concluding scene, is that we should go through life "improving ourselves, not proving ourselves" - a good lesson for any stage of life.
As LITB episodes go, this is quite an elaborate production. Imagine constructing that billboard, contriving to make steam come out of the bowl, and filming Beaver climbing into the bowl and sitting inside of it. And is that a stunt double filling in for Jerry Mathers hanging precariously from the bowl? I believe so. In any case, all this is typical of the care and artistry that went into the production of this beloved series.
Interestingly, the episode comes from Season 4, a bit past the show's prime and from a period when one would have expected Beaver to be fast outgrowing these sorts of shenanigans. Beaver's "tempter" on this occasion is not his main pal Larry Mondello (who had disappeared from the show by this point) but his more peripheral buddy Whitey Whitney. Whitey was a sort of junior Eddie Haskell, and had the cute kid/wiseguy angle all figured out. It's also worth mentioning that before the episode gets around to the main plot of the soup bowl, there is a good deal of seemingly irrelevant buildup involving a party Wally is having. This has the effect of building suspense.
"In the Soup" is a metaphor for life on a number of levels. The way Beaver and Whitey's argument escalates out of nothing is a perfect spoof of many adult conflicts, on the political stage and elsewhere. The moral of the episode, brought out as usual by Ward in the concluding scene, is that we should go through life "improving ourselves, not proving ourselves" - a good lesson for any stage of life.
As LITB episodes go, this is quite an elaborate production. Imagine constructing that billboard, contriving to make steam come out of the bowl, and filming Beaver climbing into the bowl and sitting inside of it. And is that a stunt double filling in for Jerry Mathers hanging precariously from the bowl? I believe so. In any case, all this is typical of the care and artistry that went into the production of this beloved series.