Leave It to Beaver (TV Series) A Horse Named Nick (1959) User Reviews

Horsing Around

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 25 January 2007]

Wally and Beaver get a job for two days after school and on Saturday at the traveling carnival that's in town. They clean out animal cages, rub down the horses, etc., and come home each day smelling as such. Ward is pleased but June isn't thrilled. (She's always worried about something. although sometimes she has good cause to worry!).

Anyway, Ward encourages the boys but warns them than carnivals have been known to pick up and leave before paying their bills. Wally answers, "Gee whiz. One of the owners has a tattoo of the flag on one arm and his mother on the other. A guy like that wouldn't gyp us."

Well, they didn't exactly gyp the boys, but the carnival people didn't do them a favor either, giving them an old horse named "Nicholas" instead of the cash. June and Ward freak out when Benji's mom calls up and tells June she saw a horse in the Cleavers' garage. To make matters worse, the horse likes to lay down all the tine! They thought the animal was sick, but old Gus from the fire hall explains that sometimes horses do that sort of thing. (Gus - Burt Mustin in real-life, is the wisest man in Mayfield. As Beaver says, Gus knows the answers to anything.)

Even the boys know they have to get rid of the horse so they put an ad in the newspaper want ads under "Used Horses." A man comes to get him but the boys find out he's going to turn Nicholas into glue, so they rush out to the street before the man drives away and demand their money back.

As you can tell, this was a funny episode....and a very warm one in the final few minutes. Hugh Beaumont (Ward) wrote this story, by the way.

Mr. Ed would have talked to Ward

[pensman · 8/10 · 31 July 2017]

Beaver and Wally are looking for a job at a traveling carnival at Metzger's Field. Ward doubts they will find anything but both boys rush in the front door looking for Ward. They got jobs sweeping up, carrying water, and rubbing down the horses and they both will get ten dollars each for the weekend. That night Beaver is disappointed that June washed their clothes, Beaver wanted the kids to smell them to prove they were working at the carnival. Ward takes a small edge off their mutual happiness by making them promise to be very careful. Wally tells Ward not to worry as the carnival owner warned them to be careful because the carnival doesn't have insurance.

Ward tells the boys to be wary because it was known in his day for carnivals and circuses to skip town without paying their bills. Even though June isn't happy, Ward tells the boys he is letting them keep the jobs because he knows what he himself felt when he was a kid and the circus came to town. June fears the boys will get ideas and then run away with the circus. Sometimes you really have to wonder about June.

After their second night of working at the carnival both boys are getting excited about the money they will be getting Saturday. It's Saturday and suppertime and June is wondering where the boys are. The boys get home claiming they're late because they stayed to watch the carnival pack up but their enthusiasm seems down more than expected. They didn't get paid and they have a surprise for their parents and figure they should wait until after supper before springing it on them.

It's not going to be the surprise they though as June gets a call from a neighbor who says there is a horse in the garage: that's the payment, a horse named Nicholas. Ward has bad news for the boys, they can't keep a horse. And June is going to make sure Ward doesn't back down.

Next morning at six a.m., Wally is knocking on his parents' bedroom door. Something seems to be wrong with the horse, he's just lying on the garage floor and wheezing. Ward figures he better call a vet. When Ward is having difficulty finding a horse vet, Beaver suggests Ward call Gus the fireman. He had horses who pulled the old fire wagons.

Gus tells the Cleavers the horse is lying down because he is an old horse, but the horse will get up when he wants to. The horse does get up for some oats and hay but lays down again. When the doorbell rings, it's a man from the board of heath who has been called by the neighbors who have reported a dead horse. Ward explains the horse isn't dead, but now he's told it's illegal to keep a horse in a residential neighborhood.

What to do? The boys design an ad to sell the horse but they feel they will miss the horse. They find a buyer who takes the horse for twenty-five dollars. Ward and June aren't home so the boys don't know at first that they sold Nick to a rendering facility. But suddenly Wally recalls what the man is planning for Nick so they take their money back, and Nick.

Ward has found a solution, Mr. Peyton, Billy's father, is taking the horse for his farm up at Crystal Falls and the boys can visit and ride him whenever they are visiting. Beaver asks if they can have supper and spend the night in the garage with Nick. June is no, but Ward is yes. And it only cost Ward ten dollars a month for room and board for Nick. June says Ward is a nice man; no, Ward says he is just a sentimental old farm boy.

I like the story but am surprised Ward didn't call the police and report the carnival for swindling the boys and abandoning the horse. The story could have had the same resolution but at least the carnival owner would have been fined. Most kids when I was growing up wanted a horse. My neighborhood was the first to spring up after WW II as a development meant for service men. We still had some working farms around us. When I was about 10, I exchanged mucking out a horse stall for some riding lessons. I did learn to ride but the romance of a horse quickly vanished. The farms rapidly disappeared as additional developers moved in over the years. I did miss the farms though. We always had fresh vegetables, eggs, and milk. I always think of those days as when food was "real."

A Horse Is A Horse (Of Course!)

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 3 November 2020]

(*Beaver to Gus, the fireman, quote*) - "Gee, Gus! - What's the matter with him? Has he got some kind of horse disease!?"

Well-well. It looks like the jolly Cleavers have unexpectedly acquired a new pet (thanks, of course, to Wally & Beaver). And his name is Nicholas. And Nicholas is a full-grown horse (who likes to lie down every once in a while).

And even though the Cleaver clan cannot keep Nicholas in their garage - His presence has (in a roundabout sort of way) brought this somewhat disjointed family together in a temporary lull of happy harmony.

Anyway - In the end - All turns out for the best for both Nicholas and the Cleavers.

Better the second time around.

[LukeCoolHand · 5/10 · 30 June 2022]

The first time I saw this episode of Leave it to Beaver I didn't care much at all for it and gave it a pretty bad review. On second viewing I liked it better and deleted my first review. I am finding out that on second viewing my opinion changes on some episodes - I find some better and some worse. Kind of odd I think.