A half-century ago in early television ‘sitcomland,’ Theodore (Beaver)  Cleaver, his brother, Wally, and parents, June and Ward, lived in a very different world than ours. When the series, "Leave It to Beaver," first reappeared in reruns,  suburban life still hadn’t changed a lot. It has now.

A stay-at-home, apron-clad housewife, June Cleaver dutifully deferred to her husband in most decision making. She ran a perfect household, baked perfect pies and was involved in her perfect  family’s activities like PTA-sponsored pot-luck suppers. She  watched well-mannered little athletes - who didn’t spit or scratch crotches -  playing Little League baseball games.

Although she (June, as played by Barbara Billingsly) had an admirable figure, it was always covered up; there was no cleavage for Mrs. Cleaver.

Mothers in the ’07 era, who are apparently in the same age bracket as June Cleaver (30-40-year-olds),  are seldom seen wearing aprons, but far more of them are not just seen, but really out there. They wear low cut necklines and halter-style tops. They wear what my generation calls "revealing" clothes. Their midriffs are bared. Their skirts are amazingly tight and  extremely short and their jeans are  even tighter and worn slung very  low, plumber-style, on their hips.

Aired during  early evening  hours as family fare, "Leave it to Beaver" never centered on sex, unlike the current crop of  8 p.m. sitcoms. There was no boy-gal groping on screen, no conversations about condoms and no "sleeping" with several different mates. At that time, of course, there was a dress code that accompanied the censor’s code. No one appeared wearing only underwear and no character yanked the clothes off another, let alone his or her own. Even the commercials carried soap-clean messages rather than hawking products for erectile dysfunction and relief from incontinence.

It was announced recently  that Jerry Mather, who played Beaver – and  who just marked his 59th birthday - has accepted a role on Broadway  in "Hairspray."

Finally, there was Cleaver, the movie within a TV show,  made by Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos. Cleaver was a mob-theme film involving a meat cleaver used  by Mafia hit men to whack guys that got in their way.

That, along with an aging Mather  now appearing in "Hairspray," is only further proof that we’ve come a long way in entertainment in the last 50 years.