To the editor: When I watched TV shows like “The Cosby Show,” “Leave It to Beaver” and “Family Matters,” I always enjoyed the “regular boy” characters in them. For me, Theo has always represented the average boy struggling to survive in an accomplished family (“Malcolm-Jamal Warner carried a heavy load for Black America,” July 26). How many times has one read about the children of wealthy and highly talented parents (like Bronny James, for example) who are doing the best they can to thrive under the pressure?
Then you have “the Beave.” Another regular kid trying to survive in an otherwise perfect (or so it seems) family. And finally, there was Steve Urkel. He was my favorite TV kid, someone truly gifted and either resented or envied by the adults and kids around him.
I want to thank Theo, Beaver and Urkel, and the actors who played them, for representing the good-hearted “lost boys.” They gave the lost boys of their generations hope.
Mark Walker, Yorba Linda
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.