Harry Shearer, Leave it to Beaver, Lumpy

Harry Shearer, the voice of Mr Smithers, Mr Burns, Reverend Lovejoy, and a number of other characters on The Simpsons, writer-director of Teddybear's Picnic, novelist, host of Le Show on public radio.

Turns out Shearer played Eddie Haskell in the pilot to Leave it to Beaver, and he could have played him in the series. Fortunately, his parents didn't want him to do it. He was a child actor and had appeared on The Jack Benny Program among other things. But his parents felt that an occasional role was one thing---doing a series could wreck his life. And it probably would have.

Of course it was years before Eddie Haskell's character got it's, well...would you call it a cult following? It was years before anyone was impressed that the guy who played Eddie Haskell played him.
The one I feel sorry for is Lumpy. Poor devil. Played such an unattractive character. Not that anyone else on the show was very appealing. I came across a book he wrote, Call Me Lumpy: My Leave It To Beaver Days and Other Wild Hollywood Life. He was into hot rods as a young person, something which they incorporated into the character he played.

I don't know. I liked the idea of Lumpy. But not the grim reality.