Anybody remember the old Sitcom "Hazel"?

It was weird they got rid of the nice theme song in the third season.

I always forget Whitney Blake was Meredith Baxter's (supposedly cold and withholding) mother.

Are you 80 OP?

I remember hating her, unfortunately. I was around 5 years old.

I sleep with the TV on and it used to be on when I woke up, but before I was really to get out of bed. So I mostly listened to it with my eyes closed. I found the whole show insufferable. Finally had to change to a new overnight TV station so I wouldn't wake up to those horrible people.

I don't remember much of it, other than Shirley Booth's annoying voice. I think I read somewhere that they made a musical version of Hazel that premiered in Chicago, but not sure if it happened.

Yes, I remember it vaguely. I think it was reruns though. Not sure. I was born in '64 but I do remember being very young.

R2 No fuckface, I saw it in a thing called re-runs and all you Bitter Hazel Haters need to stand back and regroup!

Shirley Booth was to the 50s what Marie Dressler was to the 30s.

Unappealing and unbearable.

I remember all the new Fords they would showcase every new season

I saw this in reruns when I was 5 or 6 and thought that somehow Hazel must be related to Nancy and that to win the best housekeeper award, she must have eaten some of Mrs. Howell's special sugar beets.

Even that bitch Deidre had a fabulous Thunderbird

Oh Mista B!!!! Mista B!!!!! …. Bobby Buntrock died as a teenager - I think he was riding his bike. A few years ago I fell down the rabbit hole reading about his death but I can’t remember the details. I remember that there was supposed to be more to the story - something sinister that was going to be revealed. Does this sound familiar to anybody?

^ I don't know, but even as a kid I knew there was something "off" about Harold. I actually thought it was because his parents were so elderly. My grandfather looked younger than George

R8 You are one opinionated Asshole fo sho. She was appealing and bearable enough to have her own Sitcom that lasted for 3 Seasons, tell us about YOUR Show Dear. How many Seasons did it run?

How dare you, R8!

Both of those were two fine examples of American Womanhood. Both of them were Oscar winners!

Nothing can top that!

A few years ago I watched the entire series, from the first episode to the last, on one of the sub stations, (maybe Decades or Antenna)

One and done was enough, no desire to ever watch an episode twice.

But I am glad I saw it.

Long Live Hazel!

Yes, I sort of do, but my memory is not that great. I turn a 157 years young next week.

Loved it. To this day, my brother and I refer to cleaning as Hazeling.

R19 Me too!!! It's Hazled, or Hazling or a variety of such that refers to hardcore cleaning

R20, Yes! Few people get that reference.

Unbelievably grating. MR. BBBBBBB....MR. BBBBBBBBBBB

🎼"Pack up all my care and woe, here I go, singin' low, bye bye blackbird....."🎶

I'm gettin' all misty.

I always found this show depressing. And it certainly hasn’t aged well. Hazel was a drudge with no family of her own so she pretended the Baxters were her family. But she wasn’t family to them. They left her behind when they left town and dumped her on some relatives where the husband was even pissier than George. They also dumped Harold!

In real life Shirley Booth dumped all of them.

^ She had Sam the butcher... Oh, wait 🤔

I remember Hazel. I also remember it as depressing, but I loved the character. She had no place in the world. It was kind of dark.

Hazel was a nosey old busybody. I’d tell her to mind her own fucking business.

"Hazel was a drudge with no family of her own"

She was fine, she had her lifelong "special" friend Rosie

It’s on AntennaTV. I watch it on Saturdays after Dennis The Menace. Jay North-the second worst kid actor after Larry Mathews.

I grew up in the South at a time when many families had black maids.

A white household maid just did not make sense to me. I never knew ANY white family with a white maid.

Therefore I thought the whole show was stupid, never watched it.

I hated the way TV treated people like "Alice" and "Hazel". Like they were of a lower tier then the wealthy white families they worked for. Even as a kid I thought it was degrading

Hazel was based on a cartoon character. But the cartoon Hazel was not really funny, or even warm hearted, and was a completely different type. I remember being puzzled when Shirley Booth’s version of Hazel showed up on TV because she was NOT Hazel. I was only a kid but even I knew the difference. But nobody else ever even mentioned it.

Hazel had no life of her own. She had a group of maid friends but even that was weird. Like R30 said, who had live in white maids like that in those days? And here was a whole neighborhood of them! I wasn’t raised in the south but I’d never heard of such a thing. Yes, they were of a lower tier but they wanted it that way.

Mr. French was the same way. But he was a man. Nobody called him by his first name.

How very DL! The opening credits had everyone literally smelling cookies!

I think I saw reruns when I was about 5. I remember back then thinking that when I grew up I wanted to have a white lower class chatty gossipy maid just like Hazel! Unfortunately, all the ones I can find these days are Hispanic with no sense of humor or knack for neighbors goings on.

Isn't it funny how back then men had so much leisure time from work that they could come home at 5 on the dot, have time to read the paper, have a couple drinks, smoke and wait for dinner from a wife who didn't work but still needed a full time maid?

Men could still be doing that. They are mostly playing a stupid game whereby the amount of time you spend away from your family is supposed to = your value to the economy.

Before Harvard invented the MBA the world of work was a good deal more rational. Remember that many of those men who were home at 5.30 on the dot were also drunk as skunks after lunch every day, so really, not a whole lot of work was getting done in the 50s and 60s except by the secretaries -- a point well made in 9 to 5.

Hazel was no lazy ass maid, but she sure kept running off at the mouth. And that voice, honking like an excited goose! Maybe that family didn't give her much respect because there was rarely any peace and quiet in the house.

I watched it in syndication when I was a little kid.

I loved watching reruns of Hazel when I was a kid, but now I see what a rude and passive aggressive cunt she could be. She had some nerve telling Mista B that he’s fat all the time, She also creepily wanted to go to a teenage slumber party. Was she Lebanese?

2 episodes run every day at 11am OP on Antenna TV.

Hazel always outsmarted Mr. B in the end. She was a clever one.

[quote]I think I read somewhere that they made a musical version of Hazel that premiered in Chicago, but not sure if it happened.

It did. One of Helen Lawson's biggest failures. Producers covered up the fact she was caught teaching the child actor who played Harold "Sport" Baxter the facts of life in her dressing room. And I'm not talking about the television show.

I was too young to stay up and watch it on primetime.

And when it was in syndication, I thought it was a boring old people show with no cute guys or cartoons.

Anyway, I could be wrong, but I swear, when this show was on, we had a doll like this on our tv. set.

IIRC Hazel was a faithful family retainer from Dorothy's childhood? As so, she'd been with her a very long time and I suppose felt more like one of the family and took liberties where other servants wouldn't have. By the time 'Missy' married and Sport came along, Hazel was well-ensconced and felt it was her purview to dispense homey philosophies and good advice, even if no one appreciated it(which they usually eventually did)

I think the fact that Hazel was tight with Mr. B's boss gave her license to continue as she had always done. I loved when she put that crusty/cantankerous gentleman in his place.

Deirdre was Phyllis Stephens on steroids. Hazel was pretty good at sidelining sister dear.

I remember Shirley Booth and Burt Lancaster in Come Back Little Sheba.

Did Hazel ever marry?

Punchy Players version

R46 She had nieces and nephews and was devoted to her beloved cats. What type of sick innuendo are you trying to infer??

"On November 23, 1929, Booth married Ed Gardner, who later gained fame as the creator and host of the radio series Duffy's Tavern. They divorced in 1942. She married William H. Baker Jr., a corporal in the U.S. Army, the following year. Booth and Baker remained married until his death from heart disease in 1951. She never remarried and had no children from either marriage."

Loved the series and Shirley Booth. William Inge is one of my faves too. Ms. Booth had a stunning penthouse apàrtment on 57th St. and was quite a sophisticate, not at all like her onscreen persona. She did Sheba in summer stock theatres in New England as an older actress. when i was on the Cape for vaca as a teen i'd see posters around for the show.

Shirley Booth brought legal action against Colgate-Palmolive company for their use of "Hazel" in promoting their detergent "Burst"

LOL, R33, I never noticed that before! Thank you for the laughter!

The Baxters and the Lawrences (the Gidget Lawrences, not the Kate Lawrences) had the same kitchen.

Hazel if written by Eugene o'Neill

part one

part two

Mrs. B, Whitney Blake, was the mother of Meredith Baxter Bireny and co-created One Day at a Time. Maybe we can forgive her for those two things and just remember Hazel?

Shirley Booth was primarily a live theatre stage actress. Though she did several films, Ms. Booth ultimately dropped that media in favor of concentrating on stage work.

However like many stage and or screen actors by 1960's Ms. Booth couldn't ignore money being offered by television studios. While she loved the theatre, playing Hazel was her "insurance" Ms. Booth often remarked.

Initially television show "Hazel" did well enough, and lasted four seasons on NBC. It was subsequently dropped and picked up by CBS for one more season before being cancelled totally.

If you look carefully you'll see the Baxter's house is right next door to Darrin and Samantha Stephens (Bewitched).

I remember having a temper tantrum with my mother about Hazel. After watching the show a few times, I asked my dad to trade in mom for Hazel, as she was a better housekeeper and cook than Mom. was.

One remembers Shirly Booth more as an actress than "Hazel".

Ms. Booth as Lola in film Film "Come Back Little Sheba" was a master class in acting.

Scene where after Lola's husband (played by Burt Lancaster) roughs her up she telephones her parents house to ask if she could stay for a bit. Ms. Booth displays in Lola a range of emotions; happiness, hope, despair, then crushing sadness and loneliness. Her father still hasn't forgiven Lola for her past sin (and likely never will), and as such her mother tells Lola she's not welcomed in her father's house.

Shirley Booth had an elegant apt on 57th i heard she was zophisticated not at all like characters she played.

I think Hazel was a lezzy.

OF COURSE I remember Hazel. Watched it faithfully. The way she charged into a room.......

Before Barbara Streisand bumped and grinded her way through "Hello Dolly" the musical film there was Shirley Booth doing same role in "The Matchmaker".

Shirley Booth sings!

Clip from film "About Mrs. Leslie".

That show was ALL WHITE therefore it was RACIST therefore it needs to be CANCELED (if it wasn’t already canceled).

Shirley Booth guest appearance on the Andy Williams Show.

Shirley Booth was considered for the part as the OLD MAID secretary in Summertime (1955) the role she had played on Broadway 🎭 but the director felt she was too old to play the same part in the movie.

I can’t imagine a good looking Italian man LUSTING over Shirley Booth- I can’t imagine a good looking Italian man lusting over ME.

I vaguely remember maybe seeing part of an episode or two, enough that I knew what George Costanza was talking about in the scene below, but that's it:

Hey, your mother's uglier than Hazel.

I loved that old lesbian Hazel, and I miss her still.

You know, she was the leader of us, the Sunshine Girls.

We did little bowling, helping each other with chores, and every once and a while we rub each others nubs - it was really a great group of gals!

All 5 seasons of Hazel are on the Roku channel.

That last season was so weird where they gave the lead male role to a complete unknown, who basically disappeared after the show got axed. When was the last time you saw a lead in a major network series be billed as "introducing?"

Hazel wore combat boots!

Shirley Booth misrepresented her age - as many actors in Hollywood feel pressured to do, and the pressure on a woman in the 1960s would've been even more intense.

Shirley was actually10 years older than her stated age, so instead of being in her early 60s during the run of the show "Hazel", she was in her early 70s.

Hazel was a hit on NBC, but the ratings slipped somewhat over its four season run. By 1964, the show had fallen from the top 10 rated shows, but was still in the top 30. When the show primary sponsor Ford pulled out in 1964, NBC decided to cancel the show.

The show still had good ratings and a strong following, so CBS picked up the show for the 1965-1966 season. The producers and the network took advantage of the opportunity to recast the show, replacing George and Dorothy Baxter with George's brother Steve and sister-in-law Barbara, played by Ray Fulmer and Lynn Borden. Bobby Buntrock stayed on playing Harold, and George and Dorothy's absence was explained by an overseas job.

This must have something of a relief for Shirley Booth - to have the show focus more on the younger actors and allow her to work less. The show never returned to top of the ratings, and the show officially ended in 1966. Some sources say, CBS wanted to renew the show for a 6th season, but Shirley Booth declined.

I can imagine the grind of a weekly series for a woman in her 70s, pretending to be a woman in her 60s. Cast and crew generally loved and spoke highly of Shirley Booth (with the possible exception of Whitney Blake).

Ray Fulmer, who often complained about the poor-quality of the writing, said Booth had a gift for taking a throw-away line and giving it magic with her delivery.

IIRC, one actor who worked with Shirley Booth in summer stock also spoke of her ability to transform the written dialogue for the audience.

Shirley was in a play, where her character was supposed to ask a younger character about a "Love-In". The line wasn't written for laughs, and was originally something like, "So you went to a love-in'?".

When Booth delivered her lines on stage, she improvised something like, "So was it a nice 'love-in'?" And the audiences roared...Booth was a so gifted.

And if you haven't already, you should watch her in "Come Back, Little Sheba".

on Dick Cavett...

We've had this argument here before, I say Hazel was a bitter cunt. She acted like the house was hers. She fed the neighborhood on Mr B's money. She talks him into buying a TV and she gets a color set then proceeds to invite everyone over to watch Perry Como. She bullies Mr B into buying his wife an expensive negligee (creepy) for Xmas. she puts a homeless guy who broke in into the guest room and the family wakes up to a stranger in the house. She steals her best friend's Italian crush. Episode after episode of her being selfish.

So she had opinions!

She wasn't nearly as annoying at that sociopathic bitch over at DesiLu who was shoving the bit players, shouting at everyone, and making their lives a living hell...

The fashion show episode is my favorite...

@r77, Show us on the doll where Hazel hurt you 😂

Although Hazel never married, she was in a long-term relationship with Alice. They would bump pussies in Tiger's dog house after Wednesday bowling league. Sam whacked off while he watched through the dog window.

Hmmp, that Alice wasn't no cook or housekeeper - hamburgers, frozen pizza, and Swanson frozen dinners is all I ever seen her dish up for those kids.

And I was sorry for them kids, you know being let down like that...

But I had my own family to take care of, you know.

Booth/Parker

R80 Nasty Nasty Nasty Shameful you are.

R80 You are being a nasty gutterwhore sacrilege for the things you say...for Shame!

Not really shameful, just...puerile.

I always thought Mr. B. was hot. That slicked back hair, big chest, broad shoulders....

It Happened on Fifth Avenue was on yesterday...

When Shirley died in 1992 at 94, she was blind and living in a house in North Chatham on The Cape.

Shirley auditioned for a radio series about a high school teacher, along with a few others. Eve Arden became "Our Miss Brooks."

I liked Hazel in reruns as a kid, family viewing and she was a hoot, folksy, earthy. Shirley Booth had quite a long interesting life, stage, screen, TV, music, she had a very good elongated run here on earth.

The only shows I liked with sassy domestic help were Maude, The Jeffersons, Gimme a Break, and The Nanny.

I really liked It Happened On Fifth Avenue - except for Don Defore. I've always found him to be unappealing and coming across as a blowhard no matter what he plays.

Yes, r92. Whenever I hear the word "gasbag," I get a mental picture Don DeFore.

I tried to watch Hazel every Thursday night in its original run, though I skipped it a lot one year when I had to alternate with my father, who wanted to watch McHale's Navy. We only had one TV.

During the pandemic, I found myself whistling or humming sixties sitcom themes a lot, particularly The Patty Duke Show and Hazel.

This thread is a real doozy!

Well,it was no Nanny and The Professor but I didnt mind her so much.

Booth owned the show and called all the shots. When it was canceled after season 4 by Screen Gems it was then picked up by CBS. They wanted a show that appealed to a younger audience and that's why they moved Hazel & Harold over to live with Mr. Baxter's younger brother and his young wife and daughter. Ray Fulmer, who played Steve Baxter said that Shirley Booth taught him more about acting in that one year than he had ever learned before or since.

If she was so great, why didn’t they let her sing the theme song?

R29 If Jay was that bad as an actor, the show would not have lasted. He was the lead and played off of Joseph Kerns brilliantly. In the last season Jay was too sickly sweet and polite. But in the first three seasons he had a charm that was largely gone by the last season. Of course Gale Gordon was a very poor substitute for the great Joe Kerns.

My mother hated being on this fucking show. Thank God she later created One Day at a Time!

Shirley's lawsuit

Left the link oiut, damn.

Looks like Shirley won that lawsuit for the unauthorized use of her likeness and her character - I wonder what kind of award she got - the full $4 million?

Lottie's specialty

I watched the he entire series during the pandemic. I found it restful. Hazel’s can-do attitude was very reassuring.

[quote] Of course Gale Gordon was a very poor substitute for the great Joe Kerns.

Grrrreat Scott! Martha, you would think if he thought me to be so great he would at least spell my last name correctly. Oh, fiddle faddle. Where is my nerve medicine?"

I have been reading Ron and Clint Howard's joint memoir about their childhood and Ron mentions how sad he felt for Jay North. He said North looked absolutely miserable the way he was being worked.

^ I read where Jay North was kept in a bubble and wasn't allowed to interact with the other kids

[quote] tried to watch Hazel every Thursday night in its original run, though I skipped it a lot one year when I had to alternate with my father, who wanted to watch McHale's Navy. We only had one TV.

You were just jealous that Hazel had a color TV and you didn't.

I'm glad to see "Hazel" and Shirley Booth are getting the props from all, well mostly all, of you hateful bitches! "Hazel" for President!

Well, yes, r108, there's some truth to that. But I must also admit I never minded seeing Virgil (Edson Stroll) on McHale's Navy.

I have a vague memory of this show....the father was really mad and told Hazel off, saying something like "you're a meddling busybody!", cause her to retreat in tears. Someone in the show later admonished him "You made Hazel cry!" That's all I remember from that show. Oh, and that I couldn't stand the sound of Shirley Booth's voice.

[quote]the father was really mad and told Hazel off, saying something like "you're a meddling busybody!", cause her to retreat in tears.

That was a great episode, where she got her revenge by trying to smother him with a pillow and then blamed the kid..

Past and now there are plenty of well meaning but never the less nosy, bossy, meddlesome busybody fraus.

Seen as well intentioned is what saves those women usually from getting what's coming to them, but every now and then someone just isn't having any of it and speaks their mind. Predictable reaction from now offended frau is to blub.

[quote]Shirley Booth sings! Clip from film "About Mrs."

Shirley Booth's Broadway credits included a few musicals.

A lot of really mean-spirited characters on that show, all of Mr. B's clients were just plain dickheads. His sister too, Jesus.. What a relentless fucking bitch. Hazel was a real meddling cunt.

When Hazel crashed that high level mob boss meeting, was my favorite.

Literal cookie smelling in that first opening. Hazel would save the day with her macaroons, if not with a chocolate cake or her cookies. She was a wonder. She was much more sarcastic in the cartoons. Booth, herself, thought that she gave the character heart.

Don DeFore read about being fired in the trades, I believe. Booth had an ownership stake in the show but in those days sponsors could overrule the cast or the studio. Later, networks gained control, so it's difficult to know what role she played in the unwatchable final season.

Love is the reason...

That Hazel woman wouldn't have made it past first interview.

Look to the Lilies

Young...

R12, Actually, he drowned when the car he was driving went into a pond.

Only in fiction would any household put up with Hazel as domestic staff.

It is natural to accommodate trusted and long time servants to some extent, but there are limits.

Pilot episode, watch it on for free while you can...

Yes, Hazel was a nosy buttinski, and not the best maid in world, but by end of show she often came through saving her boss or someone else's hash. That's why she was so loved and kept on...

Excuse me...excuse me, what about my episode?

Partner is a decade older and described this show to me a while back. Finally caught an episode on ME TV a year or so ago. Something that struck me is the show seemed to portray Hazel as "on the spectrum." Was Hazel what we would now call autistic ?

Imagine the nasality of a '64 Broadway show with Shirley as the grandmother, Judy Holliday as the daughter, and Lainie Kazan and Madeline Kahn (if she'd debuted several years earlier) as the granddaughters.

R126

*LOL*

No!

Hazel was just a good old fashioned nosy, bossy, busybody (possibly Jewish) that was once quite common. Especially in say New York or other urban areas.

I've worked with or otherwise known older or even middle aged women exactly like Hazel. As someone mention nanny Fine from show "the Nanny" was a more recent incarnation along same theme.

Though perhaps you might be onto something. Those sort of women did or do seem incapable of reading clues from others indicating what they are saying or doing is causing distress. In clips above Hazel just keeps yapping away even as it is clear her boss is becoming quite angry at her interference.

All these angry bitches...who here would have fired Hazel and would you have given her severance and what would you tell her was the reason?

To R129 and tagging onto R128...

If you meet and get to know women like Hazel there is also a flip side; they are usually lonely and perhaps slightly depressed.

No husband (or one who is distant), no family and so forth; they need an outlet for maternal affection. This usually manifests itself in their wanting to be helpful to the extreme. Not shutting up is also another trait of the lonely. You know the sort; you meet them on street or maybe in corridor at office; say one word "hello", and it's off to the races.

Often no, women like Hazel aren't fired or told off because people just don't have the heart. They realize things for what they are, so simply suppress whatever rage and put up with things.

[quote]Look to the Lilies

Those nuns' wimples make it seem as though they could become airborne, like Sister Bertrille. Singing nuns worked wonders for "The Sound of Music," but not so much in this flop.

R131

You are referring to cornette or headdress, not wimple.

Head dress of RC religious order for women the Daughters Of Charity Of Saint Vincent De Paul, perhaps one of the more famous and instantly recognizable in world.

As such it was often parodied (if that is proper word) for all sorts of fictional habits for nuns or sisters. This included famous "flying nun"

Prior to Vatican II which prompted changes in all religous habits, that huge winged cornette was causing issues.

While it was great for keeping custody of eyes, those wearing it didn't have full use of peripheral vision, and or hearing was effected. As world moved from horse and carriages to motor vehicles this had dire and sometimes deadly consequences. Sisters who didn't see nor hear a fast approaching motor car were struck/run over.

In days before modern washing machines or dry cleaning laundering, starching and ironing that head gear consumed quite a bit of time.

Those old enough to remember such things, graduates of Saint Vincent's hospital various schools of nursing in NYC wore caps slightly modeled on Daughters of Charity cornette

Playbill for "Look To The Lilies".

Even in 1970, some people didn't full understand the power of television...

Shirley thought she could reinvent herself as she done so many times in her career...

I don't think she realized the enduring power of the character she'd created that would overshadow all her other work

^ As a kid I remember how shocked and disappointed I was that Shirley Booth wasn't always "Hazel" when I saw her in other rolls

Which is one of reasons Elizabeth Montgomery took every role she could post Bewitched that was totally opposite of Samantha Stephens.

In end it really didn't work, until her death and still afterwards Ms. Montgomery is mainly remembered for Bewitched.

This is often why many actors today don't want to remain with a television sitcom for long. Jim Parsons joined a not too short list of actors who bailed from very successful shows. Many still haven't wholly forgotten nor forgiven Dan Stephens from leaving Downton Abbey, which he did for some of same reasons.

The Baxter house on the Hazel show has an interesting history - it was located at the Warner Brothers Ranch studio (originally Screen Gems/Columbia) in Burbank

And it was also used as the exterior of the Cleaver house on "Leave it to Beaver".

It was located next door to the Stephen house used in the TV show "Bewitched" and can be seen clearly in many episodes of that show.

After both "Hazel" and "Leave it to Beaver" series ended, the house was modified by adding a porch across the front of the house, and it was used in many movies from the late 1960 and early 1970s.

And beginning in 1969, the Baxter/Cleaver house with the added porch was used for the home/office of Marcus Welby M.D.

^ Both the Baxter/Cleaver house and the Stephens house were front facades only - and have been rebuilt and modified many times over the years.

In the opening segment of the Hazel pilot episode above, you can see Hazel hop-scotch past the house known primarily as the Abner and Gladys Kravitz house in the "Bewitched" series.

Also in the Hazel pilot episode, when they cut to the exterior shot of the Johnson house - it's actually not even a house - it's one of the studio office windows.

Unfortunately, many of the sisters of Daughters Of Charity, Order Of Saint Vincent De Paul pictured in R132 became airborne and were subsequently injured due to strong wind gusts...and the lift factor and other aerodynamic features of their cornets...

^ Most sitcoms and a lot of movies were filmed at "The Ranch"

^ one of them even became stuck in the Johnson's chimney

but luckily Hazel climbed up and pulled her out...

(They became close friends and traveled frequently to the Dinah Shore LPGA tournament for many years after that incident)

[quote]A Great Neighborhood

If you don't mind all the crazy things that happen at 1164 Morning Glory Circle...

I think I need to take some of my medicine, Abner...

OP = I don't watch 1930s tv shows.

^ You're also poorly informed - there were no TV shows in the 1930s

I like the way Hazel rubs her hips after she takes off her coat...

and reveals to the councilman her floral-print dress that "shows off her figure"

Tagging onto R138

Difference seems to lay with classically trained actors versus say jumped up models, soap opera actors or whatever who happen to find themselves cast in a hugely popular show.

Jim Parsons for instance graduated from University of Houston (BA) and University of San Diego (MFA). He did the revival of "Harvey" back in 2012 which was very well received.

In UK actors go from stage, small and large screen all the time and no one bats an eye. Even some of the biggest names like Judi Dench, Patricia Routledge, and so forth.

Hazel was a long-running single-panel comic that ran in the Saturday Evening Post magazine.

Patricia Routledge mainly go back and forth between one all-you-can-eat buffet to another these days.

"Whose the gal who's everybody's pal?"

When Hazel died Mr B refused to pay for the cremation and never picked up the ashes so she was buried in potters field. Missy was upset for a little while but knew George knew best. Sport and Hazel never reconciled after she confiscated his nudie magazines she found under his mattress and he found them again under hers.

The show posted above that's called the Pilot is actually episode 1 of season 1 of the series.

There was a real unaired pilot filmed earlier with Edward Andrews as Mr. Baxter.

I don't find it to link to now - but it has been on YouTube and I'm sure it will be again.

The big difference I notice in that unaired pilot is that they shot it with Shirley Booth's real hair - that was much thinner and a different texture than the red wig she wore in all the subsequent episode.

R131

A wimple is what you see Sister Luke (Nun's Story film) being dressed in as part of receiving her holy habit as a novice.

See 0:56..

Here's a link to a FB post of the unaired pilot - unfortunately it doesn't start until about 0:32 on this video - it's preceded by the TV series intro with Don Defore as Mr. B.

Anyway, in this unaired pilot, you can see Shirley's real hair, which TV executives apparently decided to cover with a wig for the duration of the series.

My aunt and uncle sometimes complained about Hazel's poor grammar. They understood that the character used it because she was from a poor background, but they thought it set a bad example for young viewers.

My aunt and mother grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn in the 1920s and 30s and spoke with heavy Brooklyn accents, but their grammar, vocabulary, and writing were excellent. I think poor English was something they associated with their poor beginnings and felt it was something to overcome.

@r144, "If you don't mind all the crazy things that happen at 1164 Morning Glory Circle... "

Have you been to 1313 Mockingbird Ln? 😳

My childhood reaction was not a good one.

It seemed old-fashioned. Maybe it was that it was just daily runs of a series that probably felt a bit dated even before it had had wrapped up years earlier. Why can't the maid just mind her fucking business?

Mostly, though, it was Hazel and Shirley Booth. She was a raw wound of anxiety, all out of proportion to anything, flying off the handle to react to anything, everything (when she might simply have dug in a bit and done a little more vacuuming or polishing.) And that fucking voice, and that round chinless face like a slapped ass, like one of Van Gogh's potato eaters.

I sleep with the TV on, too R4. It's a bad habit, but am so used to it now.

[quote] Someone in the show later admonished him "You made Hazel cry!"

That was her friend and fellow maid "Rosey", played by the great character actress Maudie Prickett. She was a very busy actress from the 40s on into the mid 70s.

[quote]That was her friend and fellow maid "Rosey", played by the great character actress Maudie Prickett.

Oh yeah, I remember Maude from Bea Benaderet's "Only-Girls" parties.

She used to dance with Reta Shaw...

Mr. B's socially superior sister Deidre was a regular for the first couple of seasons.

She was consistently disdainful of Hazel's behavior.

Then she just disappeared...

161- She was also Clara on the Andy Griffith Show.

Clara, Aunt Bee's friend on the Andy Griffith Show, was played by Hope Summers.

who also played one of the witches who helped impregnant poor Rosemary Woodhouse at the Bramford - I guess maybe she just wintered in Mayberry and lived in New York the rest of the year.

I haven’t ever watched it, though it was on in syndication now and then when I was a kid. I think there are tiers of sitcoms from that era as far as their longevity and imprint on the public memory.

Tier 1 would be I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith, Brady Bunch, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan’s Island Tier 2 would be My Three Sons, Green Acres, My Favorite Martian, Petticoat Junction Tier 3 would be Nanny and the Professor, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Courtship of Eddie’s Father

Tier 3 were syndicated in the 70s and 80s, but not well remembered and no one gets enthusiastic or very nostalgic for them. Hazel is about tier 2.5.

R164- Thanks for the correction, my mistake. I never did like the Hazel reruns because I found Hazel, Mr. B. , and that whinny kid annoying af.

^ That "whinny kid" could skip backwards and smell cookies at the same time...

^ But apparently he couldn't drive a car, dead at 21 in a car accident

[quote] there were no TV shows in the 1930s

Actually, there were. Not a lot of people had TV sets then, but they existed.

R162 Deidre, next door neighbors the Johnsons and Mr. Griffin were the reasons to watch Hazel. Hazel's nasally voice grated on the nerves after awhile.

R107

Jay North was horribly physically and verbally abused by his guardians (aunt an uncle) during his time as child actor. His fellow cast members on Dennis the Menace didn't know about the abuse, but everyone could tell that Jay North was quiet and introverted boy, and perhaps something wasn't right. But people didn't interfere with how others raised their children then, and of course there was money on table.

If word got out that their star Jay North was being physically abused all heck would have broken lose. JN never told his mother of the abuse he suffered because the aunt threatened him with more of same (quite common). Had she been informed it is likely Jay North's mother would have pulled her son out (and JN would have gone willingly), then were would the suits be? No Jay North, no DTM.

More about that "bubble" Jay North was kept in..

"Jay also revealed that he was forced to have his dark blonde hair bleached platinum every two weeks during the four years that he starred on the show, and that his aunt kept him sequestered from the rest of the Dennis the Menace cast. In fact, Jay was forced to eat lunch alone in a dressing room."

Happily Jay North's mother invested much of his DTM earnings wisely. When he came of age Jay North had a nice tidy sum, told Hollywood to go fuck themselves, left that place and never looked back.

Cathy Lewis, who played Hazel's nemesis Deidre Baxter Thompson, was married to actor, writer, producer Elliott Lewis for many years until their divorce in the late 1950s - just before she started working on "Hazel".

Elliott Lewis went on to be the producer/executive producer of Lucy's second series "The Lucy Show".

And he just happened to marry Mary Jane Croft - who played Lucy's friend/neighbor Mary Jane on both "The Lucy Show" and on "Here's Lucy".

Cathy Lewis died of cancer in 1968.

Refinement

"Hazey"

Mr. B's sister Deidre never disappeared from the sitcom. In fact she appeared in 17 episodes throughout the whole run from 1961 to 1966.

Deidre was a cunt. She'd get some kind of comeuppance and then in her next episode...cunting all over again.

A little trivia. In the final season, Barbara Baxter (played by Lynn Borden) and her next door neighbor & best friend Mona (played by Mala Powers) were actually best friends in real life as well.

It's also interested how few people know that Steve Baxter's secretary in his real estate office was a young Ann Jillian.

The scenes with Deidre and Hazel were the only ones that produced at least a semblance of comedy. Loved Diedre's reaction when she threw an upper crust party and Hazel would go around talking to the guests like they were her pals.

[quote]Why can't the maid just mind her fucking business?

Probably because there wouldn't have been a show if she had.

Penny for your thoughts...

I remember Bobby Buntrock from the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots commercial.

Shirley Booth, Humphrey Bogart … Hell’s Bells, 1925, her first Broadway play

Just saw this thread...

Hazel was on in reruns on weekday mornings in the seventies. I remember watching it as a kid, if I were home sick from school or on school breaks. I rediscovered it, once Nick at Night and its successors came along.

I'm sure this was mentioned, but Whitney Blake is the mother of Meredith Baxter (Birney).

And Ray Fulmer was much cuter than Don DeFore.

The show reflects the American Dream of sorts pushed on TV from the mid-fifties onward...white, upper middle-class, suburban aspirations. It's middle brow satire of the Dream.

WML?

In Meredith Baxter’s excellent autobiography, “Untied”, she wrote that her mother Whitney Blake (with whom she had a VERY complicated relationship), was initially very excited to be cast on “Hazel”, as it was a steady, high-profile gig in support of a respected actress. But that excitement soon gave way to disillusionment when she realized how little she would have to do on the show.

At first, Blake was little more than a pretty mannequin, then she claimed that her clothes were made more dowdy (reportedly at Booth’s insistence.)

[quote] And Ray Fulmer was much cuter than Don DeFore.

From far away Ray Fulmer looked like he might be cute, but when they went in for a close up, he wasn't at all.

R186- Very interesting. I wonder if that is true about the dowdy clothes?

The original Baxters were far more enjoyable than their replacements. But they didn't have to pay Ray and Lynn as much as they did Don and Whitney.

Everyone remembers Hazel. She was every lesbian’s first crush

I don't remember ever seeing the exterior of the Baxters' house, but if it was the same one as the Cleavers' second house (they had a different one in the first season than they did for the subsequent ones), then it was also the same one as Gidget's house (as mentioned before - Gidget and Hazel also had the same kitchen).

P.S. I love threads like this.

R191- So do I! I love the nostalgia of those shows.

Not really, R192, the same stuff was happening to people that happens now. We had neighbors who beat their kids and everyone knew ---we couldn't go to their houses because of the parents. Parents fought and beat each other--we'd see the black eyes. Nostalgia is a corruption of history.

(R50) She was wonderful in the movie, "Come Back, Little Sheba" co-starring with Burt Lancaster. A dramatic role quite unlike Hazel.

[quote]Nostalgia is a corruption of history

No it isn't, r193. People being nostalgic for drive-in movies or '50s TV shows doesn't erase the existence of domestic violence back then. We knew the TV shows weren't portraying real life. People are nostalgic for the good things not the bad.

I miss being able to watch and enjoy television without violence and profanity.

Stick to MeTV and Decades, r196.

R197- I have been loving the old Gunsmoke show and Dragnet, etc. Thanks for the recommendation because I had no idea they ran Hazel reruns.

@r196, TV was plenty violent back then. The Untouchables was very violent. Killing was fine, but no sex

I don't think they do, r198. I watch Hazel on Antenna TV.

She musta pretty popular, she was always coming up in conversations on the 60s.

"Kiss my Hazel!"

"Hazel You and that horse you rode in on!"

"OMG. She is as lying sack of Hazel!"

R201- I have always been a bit obsessive compulsive about cleaning and I remember being called Hazel all of the time, lol. " Slow down, Hazel!"

R178 Ann Jillan's Parents were Lithuanian

Well, just for fun

Bonnie Franklin appeared in both credited and uncredited roles on the last season of Hazel.

the time Hazel saw Les Miz

Yeah, yeah, Bonnie, we know. Also Gidget.

R24. Once, I Saw Bonnie Franklin in the Samuel French Book Store in Studio City. I didn't say anything to her. I wish I had.

[quote]She was wonderful in the movie, "Come Back, Little Sheba" co-starring with Burt Lancaster. A dramatic role quite unlike Hazel.

Best Actress Oscar winner for this movie. She created the role on Broadway in 1950.

Both the Tubi and Roku channels have tons of sitcoms from the 50s and 60s including most if not all the ones mentioned here, but probably all.

Next time you're at Disneyland, make sure to stop in at Don DeFore's Silver Banjo Barbecue!

R210- Excellent find!! I never knew he owned a restaurant. It looks very nice and in a lovely location. I wish I could afford that sign!

No. But my mother would randomly and angrily remind me that this wasn't her name growing up for reasons that, to this day, remain unknown.

It seemed to have something to do with dishes in the sink, though.

R212 Because Hazel was a maid, you lazy asshole. Slacking around while your poor Mother had to do everything. She should have whipped your ass.

^no, that was Hope Summers, who also had a bit in Rosemary’s Baby. Some of y’all know way too much about nun’s habits.

^um, strike that first sentence.

[quote][R212] Because Hazel was a maid

No shit, dummy.

I don't know how obvious I could've made that sarcasm.

Tell me, was your primary mode of transportation growing up yellow, compact, and bus-like?

[quote]TV was plenty violent back then. The Untouchables was very violent.

Given the time, it's actually shocking that The Untouchables was even allowed on the air given how insanely violent it was. In any typical episode, an entire row of people would get mowed down and that was probably before the first commercial break. In fact, IIRC, they cut way down on the violence in the show's 4th and final season and, as to be expected, it wasn't nearly as good as the first three.

But anyway, back to Hazel.

I loved Hazel but only the first few seasons with DeFore and Whitney. The last season when they got rid of them for the brother and his wife was just godawful. (And what terrible parents Mr. B and Missy turned out to be, dumping the kid with Hazel to run off and live halfway around the world.)

[quote]The last season when they got rid of them for the brother and his wife was just godawful.

That's one of the very, very few things that the entirety of DL agrees on, r218.

I was trying to find a pic of Ray Fulmer now and one site claims this is him but who knows:

Well, r220, it says he was born in 1933 so it could well be.

I wished they had done a Hazel reunion movie, say around 1970 or so. George joins the Nixon administration, Sport doses Hazel’s special eggnog with LSD, and Missy says “Fuck all of you” and runs off to join a feminist commune. Our Hazel copes by prescription shopping for Valium.

R216 That didn't come across as sarcasm. You comment was silly and not very witty or clever either. I think that R213 was just ribbing you., but obviously you re a bitter old cunt and need to retaliate w/ implying someone is mentally handicapped. I mean, it is a "Hazel" thread after all. Lighten up/

She was a wonderful actress. See Comeback Little Sheba or the Matchmaker. She was also a great stage actress. Hazel was TV pablum-

But it was comforting and entertaining pablum, you know!

Too many DL Shirleys: Booth, Feeney, Hemphill, Jones, Knight, MacLaine, Temple, Valentine

R225 Good Clean Fun!

No Anne Shirley, r226?

[quote][R216] That didn't come across as sarcasm.

Bruh...

[quote]It seemed to have something to do with dishes in the sink, though.

[quote]I think that [R213] was just ribbing you.,

Nah. That person legitimately didn't get the sarcasm; blatant reference to childhood kitchen chores be damned. My mental handicap suspicion is valid.

R229 Nah Bruh, you're just being Cunty! Not very Hazel of you.

R199

Says you!

Peter Gunn and Edie Hart were climbing all over each other every chance they got. True there wasn't "sex" per se, but the two of them pawing and slobbering over each other wasn't that far off.

Hell's Bells only ran for 120 performances before closing. Many today don't remember or ever knew Humphrey Bogart started out as a stage actor.

"Tennis anyone" was first used in "Hell's Bells"

Best modern reference to Hazel for me comes from "The Sopranos"

Always one to stir the pot, Tony S send kid to sweep up cheese and other trash on floor. Silvo already on edge because he's losing big at that poker game jumps up and yells "What the fuck are you doing? I'm losing my balls over here and this kid is playing Hazel?"

[quote]Deidre was a cunt. She'd get some kind of comeuppance and then in her next episode...cunting all over again.

Horseshit, Deidre was the only one who saw thru Hazel's selfish shenanigans.

Mrs. B #2 Lynn Borden would go onto A.I.P.'s "Frogs" starring Ray Milland and Sam Elliott and Pam Grier's "Black Mama White Mama" where she played a lesbian prison guard in the Philippines who would hide in a closet and masturbate while watching the girls shower.

@r231, " True there wasn't "sex" per se,"

Then you agree and I'm right as always 🙂

- r199

[quote]Mrs. B #2 Lynn Borden would go onto A.I.P.'s "Frogs" starring Ray Milland and Sam Elliott and Pam Grier's "Black Mama White Mama" where she played a lesbian prison guard in the Philippines who would hide in a closet and masturbate while watching the girls shower.

Wow, did not see that coming Mrs. B!

Guess that's why you liked to see Hazel try on uniforms that showed off her figure.

R232, I believe 120 performances for a play back in the day was considered a decent run. Even the Petrified Forest only ran 197 performances.

By the way, Hells Bells was a comedy.

[quote]Peter Gunn and Edie Hart were climbing all over each other every chance they got

No, we really weren't.

It's been a very long time since I saw Come Back Little Sheba. I seem to recall her teenage daughter bringing home a hot, blonde jock. And it seemed to me that the frumpy, overweight Shirley Booth character was sexually attracted to him. She didn't actually say it, or come on to him. but it was clear that he was arousing her, and she was ashamed of having those feelings. She played it pretty brilliantly, especially for 1952.

OK, reading a synopsis, it wasn't her daughter. It was a boarder who brought the hot young jock into the house. I'm recalling Hazel was no longer getting it from her husband, so she was frustrated.

She was lusting vicariously, r241.

She was rumored to have the hottest ankles in Hollywood.

That jock was Richard Jaeckel, and he was quite the hottie.

Here he is with fellow hottie, Tony Curtis.

In Sheba...

A young Cloris Leachman was originally cast as the sexy boarder Marie in the original Broadway production of “Come Back, Little Sheba”, but she quit the show on the road prior to opening when she received an offer to do Shakespeare with Katharine Hepburn.

Rally she did...

I’ve never seen it but I hate it. My eyes are hazel, and this show just gives them a frumpy association.

Time of the Cuckoo

I happened to come across one of the final season's episodes today on one of those cable channels. The guy who played Steve Baxter comes off as deranged. I see his career didn't pan out much.

That last season really was execrable -- so much so that they should strike it from the syndication package and just start over with the first episode once the 4th season is done.

Ray Fulmer wire his pants high and tight. I’ve spotted bulge!

^ wore

Does anyone remember Grindl with Imogene Coca? It ran one season, fall '63/spring '64, and everyone at the time considered it a rip off of Hazel. The set up was slightly different. Grindl worked for a temp agency and worked a variety of jobs but usually she ended up as some kind of domestic help, like a maid. It flopped but I liked it better than Hazel.

I stopped watching after Mr. & Mrs. B left the show, abandoning their child. I couldn't help but feel that Hazel had knocked up Mrs. B so they had no choice but to flee in shame.

R254 I remember Grindl. Imogene Coca was a brilliant sketch comedian playing wacky characters. I think it was more difficult to sustain her kind of humorous characters on a sitcom. She also played a cavewoman on the show “It’s About Time,” but as a gayling I had my eyes mostly on Frank Aletter and Jack Mullaney who played astronauts that went back in time to the era of cave dwellers.

Grindl's opening credits...

GRINDL needs to be rebooted as GRINDR.

Did Shirley deserve her Oscar or should it have gone to Joan Crawford for Sudden Fear?

Carol Burnett stole Imogene Coca's act.

I remember "Grindl." I always pair it in my mind with "Glynis," another failed sitcom that also debuted in the fall of 1963 and that also had a first name starting with G as its title. "Grindl" lasted the whole season, but "Glynis," starring Glynis Johns, was taken off the air in December.

[quote]Did Shirley deserve her Oscar or should it have gone to Joan Crawford for Sudden Fear?

Please. "Sudden Fear" is enjoyable as camp, but it's late-career Joan doing her bug-eyed overacting and using every melodramatic trick in her large bag of them.

Julie Harris should've won the Oscar instead of Shirley!

Shirley Booth was a great actress...an Oscar, an Emmy, multiple Tonys....the Triple Crown for actors....all she needed was a Grammy and she would have been an EGOT. She was one of the best.

^^^and Golden Globe^^^

But no People's Choice award? Loser Shirley!

Since they've both been brought up in this thread, are there any nudes (or near-nudes) of Ray Fulmer or Richard Jaeckel?

Ray Fulmer's career was so brief, I doubt there are even that many pictures of him fully clothed, R267.

r256...Peoples Choice wasnt created until AFTER she retired...or she would have one of them too

Sorry, r269 was for r266

Trying to track down a specific quick clip of this show. Hazels down with Mr B and Missy to watch TV and awkwardly positions herself between them. “I like to be in the middle,” she says, eating from a bowl of popcorn (as I remember it).

Anyone remember what ep this might be in?

Here ya go, R271.

You Yankees just don't know how to deal with the help.

No I don’t remember that shit

[quote] and awkwardly positions herself between them. “I like to be in the middle,” she says, eating from a bowl of popcorn

Thanks, R272, you had that for me in a jiff'!

[quote]Shirley Booth was a great actress...an Oscar, an Emmy, multiple Tonys....the Triple Crown for actors....all she needed was a Grammy and she would have been an EGOT. She was one of the best.

She was all of the above, that 's how she made a true cunt of a character lovable.