• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, April 8, 2025

How strange it was this week to feel so emotional over the news that Jay North had died.

His obituaries all led with the TV role that made him famous -- 6-year-old Dennis Mitchell, aka Dennis the Menace (photo above).

Mind you, “Dennis Menace” premiered 66 years ago in 1959. It ran for four seasons and ended 62 years ago in 1963. 

That was a long, long time ago. And yet, his death on Sunday at age 73 aroused a palpable sense of loss among those of a certain age who formed a community of the bereaved via texts and social media after they heard the news.

In TV terms, “Dennis the Menace” -- indeed, all of TV as it existed then -- represents a civilization gone with the wind.

I felt sad when I heard the news. But why? To my knowledge or recollection, I have no idea when I last gave a fleeting thought to either Jay North or “Dennis the Menace.”

And yet, the very first word that came to mind when I heard the news was “jeepers.” In my head, I actually heard it in the voice of Dennis, who said it often. Where did this memory come from? 

One theory is that this show, like so many others of its era, still enjoy a certain emotional connection with many people who were there at the time.

The simple reason is that these shows had huge audiences owing to the fact that there were only three networks to choose from. This is my theory, anyway. 

“Dennis the Menace” is a good example. It was a Top-20 show for its first three seasons. Moreover, it was about a little boy who other little boys and their parents could identify with. 

Now the little boys of the “Dennis the Menace” era are grown up and on Medicare.

Plus, everyone knew the one-panel newspaper comic “Dennis the Menace,” from which the show was adapted. 

The comic created by Hank Ketcham was born on March 12, 1951. Jay North was born four months later, on August 3.

Maybe this week’s mourning for Dennis the Menace is just straight-up Baby Boomer nostalgia.

I write occasionally on some of the bygone eras of television, but I am not nostalgic by nature. In fact, I try and ward it off, but not always successfully.