This episode is so true to life. How many of us kids who had paper routes, usually ended up with everybody helping us! The scene with Ward driving around and delivering papers himself -- is what any good dad would surely do! That scene I will never forget.
In order to buy a new bike --for $50.00 -- Wally and Beave get a job delivering newspapers, of course on behalf of Ward's wise suggestion. A scowling guy called "Old Man Merkel" (played by famous radio actor Jackie Kelk) hires the boys, but there are conditions. They have to get the papers to all the customers on time. On time!
Naturally, everything goes wrong. Would you expect it any other way? June helps folding the papers, Ward naturally lends the transporation and its one, big happy family?
A great scene when Mr. Cleaver has it out with arrogant Merkel. You knew it was coming.
Another gem, well written by show creators Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher. Jackie Kelk, who plays
Merkel, co-starred on the HENRY ALDRICH radio show and played Jimmy Olsen on radio's SUPERMAN series. A great trivia question.
By the way. The 50 dollars cost of a new bike, in todays money market would equal $530 dollars, which is about average for a mid-grade bike. That's a lot of bucks for two kids to earn!
From SEASON 1 EPISODE 17 remastered Universal dvd box set. 3 dvd set released in 2005. Expanded 6 dvd set released in 2014.