Child stars are commonly believed to be a necessary evil in Hollywood. While there are prestigious actors today who got their start as children on family-focused television, without the proper watchful eyes on them, children in television can miss out on a happy adolescence in the face of stardom.

The proper way to cast child actors in television is to prioritize them in exactly that order; they're children first, actors second. Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher were responsible for one of the best television shows of all time, Leave It to Beaver, and viewers may rejoice knowing that the entertainment they get from the series is that much sweeter with the knowledge that the children on the show were actually having fun.

Jerry Mathers, known for playing the Beaver himself, explained that it was a kid's paradise to film Leave It to Beaver. Mathers explained in his memoir, And Jerry Mathers as the Beaver, that in addition to specifically having time reserved for academics, the children on the series were given recreation time to hang out and play, and often spent time outside playing sports. Mathers also delighted himself exploring various areas of the film lot Leave it to Beaver was filmed on, with one of his favorite areas being the makeup department.

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In fact, Connelly and Mosher once restructured the Leave It to Beaver filming schedule so the children could have a proper summer break.

"Most of the kids on the other big series would get no real vacation," wrote Mathers. "Connelly and Mosher said this wasn't fair. The writers were always very concerned about us, and they felt we should have a real summer vacation. So they re-did the schedule. It cost them a lot of money because they had to shoot on shorter schedules at unusual times."