When Beaver buys a used mini race car from Eddie Haskell, Wally promises to help him fix it up and Penny offers him the wheels from her old doll carriage. Beaver then faces an awkward situation when he has to push the doll carriage home across his neighborhood.
This episode takes a bit of nothing and builds it into something akin to poetry - whimsical, wistful, and lyrical. The theme - as in "Wally and Dudley" - is the social price one has to pay for being "different." Beaver doesn't realize there's anything wrong or unnatural about pushing the doll carriage home - until he encounters the snickers and incomprehension of passersby. Two little girls laugh at him: "Hey little boy, do you have your dolly in there?" A pair of men look askance: "I can remember when boys played with coasters & bikes. We're really in trouble with this younger generation. They've gone sissy on us." Wally philosophizes: "Gee Mom, guys always pick on someone that's different. Don't you remember how it was when you were a kid? A thing like this could put a curse on the whole family!""I hope nobody slaughters the young fellow," remarks Eddie when he hears of the incident. Later, Eddie surprises us by being supportive and understanding: after Beaver unwittingly lets his pals Gilbert and Richard make off with the carriage, he offers to try to get it back; he also tells a story of the mockery he endured when as a child he went to school with a "home permanent." This is one of several glimpses of Eddie's vulnerable side which we get throughout the series.
Stephen Talbot ("Gilbert" in the series) has commented that the episode is a meditation on the "rigid gender roles of the 1950s." I don't share Mr. Talbot's social liberalism or his interpretation of the '50's, but the episode certainly makes a statement about those who dare to break out of the straitjackets imposed by society. "You know, I've been thinking," June says, "Beaver being so embarrassed about pushing that doll buggy - wouldn't it be nice if we could teach our children to be above that?" "Oh, I don't know, June," replies Ward, "I don't think we ever get above being laughed at."
The scene of Beaver visiting Penny at her home is charming. Here we have two young people on the verge of discovering the beauty of the opposite sex but not wanting to admit it. In the final scene, Beaver reflects that he might try again with Penny someday. Penny's mother is played by Jean Vander Pyl, best known as the voice of Wilma Flintstone in the eponymous cartoon series.
As an incidental note, for a long time the image of Beaver wheeling the doll carriage home reminded me of something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Finally it occurred to me what it was: the Norman Rockwell picture "Salutation," in which a young boy pushes a baby carriage through the streets to the jeers of his baseball-playing friends.