Wally gets more than a little help from his dad and an understanding maitre'd when girlfriend Julie Foster picks a new, and very expensive, restaurant for their first dinner date.
Beaver stubbornly refuses to put on a suit for his school's father and son football awards banquet after he and the other team members secretly agree to wear casual clothes to the formal event.
Newly seventeen-year-old Wally's anticipation of getting his driver's license is dampened by mom June's worry that he's still too young and know-it-all classmate Shirley's back seat driving.
Inspired to become a reporter by a visiting foreign news correspondent, Beaver runs to the local newspaper after school to apply for the open delivery boy position. But the job goes to a boy who pretends to be sick to get out of school early and Beaver, unwilling to "rat" on the dishonest kid, hopes that the new carrier will make so many mistakes that the paper will fire him.
Eddie's plans to butter up the loading dock foreman at Mayfield Dairy blind him to suspicious activity involving missing ice cream, jeopardizing the new week-end job Ward wangled for him and Wally.
When he is punished for staying out too late on a school night, Beaver writes a letter to popular advice columnist "Ella" hoping that a sympathetic response from her will convince his parents that he is being treated unfairly.
When Eddie Haskell moves into a place of his own after a fight with his parents, best friend Wally and a kind landlady join forces to try to get the unhappy, but stubborn, teen to go back home.
To teach his youngest son the importance of a budget, Ward lets Beaver join a record club; but the real lesson in financial responsibility comes after Wally's warnings to return the weekly selection refusal cards are ignored and Beaver winds up with more music...and a bigger bill... than his allowance allows.
Wally accidentally breaks a headlight on his dad's brand new car after Eddie Haskell convinces him to give Lumpy Rutherford's broken down jalopy a jump-start push.
Beaver takes it personally when schoolmate Shirley makes fun of his hair; but when his efforts to tame his unruly locks don't go as planned, Beaver decides instead to follow troublemaker Eddie Haskell's advice to give Shirley a taste of her own medicine.
Beaver encourages pretty classmate Betsy Carter's crush on him to get her to help him write his autobiography for a school assignment; but when Betsy finds out that Beaver has been calling her names behind her back, her assistance turns to sabotage.
Feeling ignored after Wally doesn't invite him to a party, Beaver is convinced by his sneaky pal, Gilbert Bates, to get even by sabotaging his big brother's evening.
When Wally's girlfriend, Julie, stands him up to go out with an older boy who sports a moustache, Wally thinks that growing his own moustache will make him look more mature and help him win her back.
Ward's offer to help Wally pay for the high cost of automobile insurance hinges on several conditions, including the concerned dad having final say on the excited, but naive, teen's choice of used car.
Ward and June are concerned when Wally is hired to park cars at a wedding reception, especially when they learn that he'll be asking unpredictable duo Eddie Haskell and Lumpy Rutherford to help.
Beaver wins a 14K gold locket at the carnival ring toss and gives it to his friend Donna, after putting a picture of each of them inside; but Donna's angry dad won't let her keep the expensive gift and mails it back to Beaver without a note of explanation. Confusion reigns when June finds the locket hidden in Beaver's dresser drawer and thinks Donna gave the gift to Beaver.
After Ward reprimands him for being rude and inconsiderate, Beaver tries to do a good deed for Jeff, a hungry hobo with a hard luck story, who knocks on the Cleavers' kitchen door while Ward and June are out. Jeff convinces Beaver to make him a sandwich and let him take a bath but Beaver finds himself in hot water when his wily guest sneaks out of the house in one of Ward's good suits leaving a pile of dirty clothes for June to find when she comes home.
Showing off his new credit card, Eddie Haskell foots the bill for a new battery when Wally's car breaks down on the way home from a school function. Wally pays Eddie the cash to cover the charge but Eddie spends the money instead of giving it to his father and both boys are in trouble when George Haskell calls Ward to complain about the unpaid credit card bill.
Beaver's classmates and family plan to watch him "live" when he is chosen to appear as a panelist on the popular TV show "Teen Age Forum." But when everyone, including Beaver, misses an announcement that his episode will be taped for airing the following week, no one believes Beaver was really on the show...not even Beaver himself!
When Wally is notified that the State College scholarship he applied for went to Lumpy Rutherford instead, he graciously throws a party to celebrate with his friend and secretly helps out after Lumpy gets disappointing news.
Sulking because June made him do an errand for her instead of letting him help Wally and Eddie install a radio in Eddie's car, Beaver only speaks to her when necessary and starts playing up to his dad.
June isn't sure it's a good idea when eccentric Uncle Billy comes to stay with the boys while she and Ward spend the weekend at the lake with friends. But when Beaver is caught trying to sneak his friend Gilbert through the back door of the movie theater, he's glad that it's his good-natured uncle who gets the call from the theater manager and not his parents.
As grammar school graduation approaches, Beaver is torn between accepting Aunt Martha's offer to send him to a prestigious prep school in faraway New England or going on to Mayfield high school with the rest of his friends.
Ward is happy to write a letter of recommendation to his old fraternity, Alpha Kappa, when Wally decides to attend his dad's alma mater, State College; but Wally finds himself in a real dilemma when he's told that Alpha Kappa has a bad reputation and even Eddie Haskell doesn't want to join it.
Best friend Eddie gets jealous and girlfriend Julie thinks the worst when Wally innocently agrees to be the model for a sweater that Eddie's girlfriend, Cindy, is secretly knitting for Eddie's birthday.
Daunted by the length of "The Three Musketeers" that he chose to read for a school book report, Beaver writes his report from a film version of the story (The Three Musketeers (1939)) instead, not realizing until too late that the film that he watched was a musical farce.
Ward's dilemma over which son to take to a major league baseball game after he's only given two tickets seems solved when Beaver decides to go with Gilbert to the movies...until Gilbert's parents take him with them on a trip and Beaver tells his dad that he can go to the game after all.
When Eddie Haskell's uncle gets his nephew a summer job on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska, Eddie makes it sound so exciting that Wally and Lumpy want to go too...until Eddie's interview with the boat's captain bursts everyone's bubble.
Beaver worries that he won't graduate with his grammar school class when he doesn't find his diploma while he and Gilbert are snooping around in principal Rayburn's office.
After Lumpy Rutherford puts exploding smoke bombs in Wally's and Eddie's cars, Eddie coaxes Wally into retaliating against Lumpy with their own practical joke. But real damage is done to Lumpy's car when the joke goes wrong and Wally doesn't know that evidence left at the scene will lead the Rutherfords straight to the Cleavers.
Wally gets his parents' permission to attend his all-night high-school graduation party, but he finds that if he wants to escort his new girlfriend to it, he must make a good impression on her father, who thinks that all teenage boys are reckless and irresponsible.
Beaver is excitedly planning a 6-week summer bus trip to see famous sites in America until he sees Gilbert Bates making a move on girlfriend Mary Margaret Matthews.
June sends Ward to the principal's office to explain to Mrs. Rayburn how three of his good suits got mixed in with the old clothing donation that won Beaver the grammar school's "Good Citizen" award...and tell her that he wants them back!
