
With David Davis, Talbot wrote and directed "The Sixties: The Years That Shaped a Generation," a two-hour history special that aired nationally on PBS in 2005. Throughout his career of nearly 35 years in public television, Talbot has continued to produce history and arts documentaries, alongside his broadcast journalism work.
Gilbert on leave it to beaver series#
And he oversaw "Rough Cuts," a series of original videos for the "Frontline World" website.

He also went to Lebanon and Syria to produce his own report about Lebanon's Cedar Revolution, "The Earthquake" (2005) with correspondent Kate Seelye. From 2002-2008, Talbot was instrumental in recruiting new talent and in commissioning and supervising over 100 broadcast stories for 30 hour-long episodes of the Emmy award-winning series. When "Frontline's" executive producer David Fanning launched an international news magazine series, "Frontline World," in 2002, he named Talbot as the Series Editor with a mandate to increase global reporting in the wake of 9/11 and to develop a new generation of younger reporters and producers. It was the start of a long association with "Frontline," where he produced and wrote ten documentaries for the series, including "News War: What's Happening to the News" (2007) with reporter Lowell Bergman, "Justice for Sale" (1999) with Bill Moyers, "Spying on Saddam" (1999), "The Long March of Newt Gingrich" (1996) and "Rush Limbaugh's America" (1995) with Peter Boyer, and "The Heartbeat of America" (1993) with Robert Krulwich about the travails of General Motors.

Talbot began producing documentaries for the critically acclaimed PBS series, "Frontline," in 1992 with his film on the Bush-Clinton presidential race, "The Best Campaign Money Can Buy," which won a DuPont Award. Both films won George Foster Peabody Awards and established Talbot as someone who could do both investigative reporting and arts films. He had early success with two documentaries that set the tone for his career: "Broken Arrow" (1980) an investigation of nuclear weapons accidents, and "The Case of Dashiell Hammett" (1982), a biography of the mystery writer. He began as a producer and on-air reporter for KQED, the public television station in San Francisco.
Gilbert on leave it to beaver tv#
“He was at peace, but just not kind of doing much,” said Hallman, adding, however, that Fafara remained upbeat.Īmong Fafara’s survivors are a daughter and a grandchild.Born in Hollywood in 1949, the son of actor Lyle Talbot, Stephen Talbot became a child actor, appearing as Beaver's friend, Gilbert, in more than 50 episodes of the iconic baby boomer series "Leave It To Beaver." He also appeared in many TV shows of the late '50s and early '60s, including "Perry Mason," "Lassie," "The Twilight Zone," "Wanted: Dead of Alive" and "The Lucy Show."Īs an adult, Talbot turned to reporting and documentary filmmaking. Hallman said Friday that Fafara couldn’t work without losing his disability check. If I fail, I’ll have to set up shop on the street.” I’ve been to all kinds of clean-and-sober houses. “I want to see it every time I leave here and lock the door. When Hallman met him last year, Fafara was short and stocky, with slicked-back gray hair and a weathered face.Īs the two men walked up to Fafara’s room, Fafara stopped at the door, where a piece of paper inside a metal frame bore the words “Last Chance.” When he told street people he had once been Whitey on “Leave It to Beaver,” many didn’t believe the nearly toothless man who weighed less than 130 pounds.īut in 1995, he entered a detox center, then graduated to a clean-and-sober house for alcoholics and addicts. He moved to Portland with a girlfriend, lived in a motel room and shot up heroin. He was caught committing another burglary, convicted and sentenced to a year in jail.Īfter his release, he worked variously as a roofer, a waiter and a janitor before he began dealing drugs again. After his seventh robbery he was arrested and bailed out of jail by his parents. He married, but later divorced.īy the early ‘80s he was breaking into pharmacies.
Returning to Los Angeles at 22, he began dealing drugs. He started painting, but he continued to drink and use drugs. His parents sent him to live with his artist sister in Jamaica. I got all of them because I was Whitey,” he said.

He also started drinking daily and cashed in on his TV fame. He said he later lived briefly in a house with members of the rock band Paul Revere and the Raiders. After the series ended, Fafara went to North Hollywood High School.
