What exactly did they do for a living? I know Fred Rutherford was Ward’s boss, and perhaps this was done for laughs but it would appear that Ward Cleaver would be a much more competent person to lead than Fred Rutherford. Any thoughts?
According to Wikipedia, he was NOT working under Fred Rutherford:
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]
Ward is an archetypical white collar, briefcase-toting professional of the 1950s. He wears a business suit, works in an office with a view of a metropolitan area, has a secretary named Grace, leaves home early in the morning and returns in the early evening. He works for a “big company” with main offices in New York City; more specifically, it was revealed in Season 3, Episode 19 that Ward works for a trust company under Mr. Anderson. He drives to work in his Plymouth unless June needs the car during the day for a specific errand. He is home on weekends for golfing at a local country club. Occasionally, Ward is required to do some office work at home. In one early episode, for example, he works at home on a women’s marketing survey. His co-worker is Fred Rutherford, a smug, pompous man who refers to the workplace as “the salt mine.” He is a Bank President as per S4:E10.
[/QUOTE]
It wasn’t until the first reunion (Still the Beaver) that Fred Rutherford was established as the boss, but Ward was dead by then.
During the original series, Fred once remarked that Ward had the corner office while he (Fred) had to make do with more plebian accommodations.
And yes, I’m ashamed to admit I know that off the top of my head.
Hold your head high !!!
I remember (hazily) an episode where an old co-worker of Ward’s had to retire because he was, you know, OLD, and that’s what you do with old people.
Eventually, the old guy and Wally “opened their own office”, and did… something, I guess. It was never explained exactly what they were going to do, but the successful resolution (brought to you by Chevy) was that the old guy now had a job with a 17yo office boy.
“Golly gee, Mr Sandusky, you want me to do what?”
But do you also remember that Ward was in the Seabees during the war?
Of course we remember that Ward was in the Seabees; from the episode where he hires an ex-navy handyman who shows the boys a “monkey fist” knot and Ward knows what it’s for (flinging ropes across distances). The handyman gets Beaver to give him the bottle of brandy that Ward only uses to soak fruitcake at Christmas, and gets drunk.
And that’s the episode where Wally gets to yell at Ward and June for using so many euphemisms like “condition” and “problem” that there was no way Wally or Beaver could possibly have any idea the handyman shouldn’t drink, so they had no right to criticize Beaver.
One of the few episodes where Wally gets to deliver the end-of-episode moral.
I think Fred and Ward were CIA undercover. Ward and June dressed to the nines around the house in case they had to leave on a moment’s notice to meet their fellow spies in a fancy restaurant.
I heard that they were KGB sleeper agents 