Hazel (TV series)

Infobox Television
show_name = Hazel


caption = Title screen from a first season color episode
genre = Sitcom
creator = Based on a comic strip by Ted Key
director = E.W. Swackhamer
William D. Russell
starring = Shirley Booth
Don DeFore (1961-1965)
Whitney Blake (1961-1965)
Bobby Buntrock
Ray Fulmer (1965-1966)
Lynn Borden (1965-1966)
Julia Benjamin (1965-1966)
theme_music_composer = Jimmy Van Heusen (music)
Sammy Cahn (lyrics)
opentheme = Hazel
endtheme =
composer =
country = USA
language = English
num_seasons = 5
num_episodes = 154
list_episodes =
executive_producer =
co_exec =
producer =
supervising_producer =
asst_producer =
co-producer =
editor =
story_editor =
location =
cinematography =
camera =
runtime = 26 minutes
network = NBC (season 1 – season 4)
CBS (season 5)
picture_format = Full screen
audio_format =
first_run =
first_aired = September 28, 1961
last_aired = September 5, 1966
related =
website =
production_website =
imdb_id = 0054545
tv_com_id = 2556::"For the British television series of a similar name, see Hazell (TV series)."

"Hazel" is a Screen Gems television series about a fictional live-in maid named Hazel Burke (Shirley Booth) and her employers, the Baxters. The five-season, 154-episode series first aired September 1961-April 1966. The first four sesons aired on NBC, and the final season on CBS. The show was based on a popular single panel comic strip by cartoonist Ted Key that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. The first season of "Hazel" was released to DVD in 2006.

Plot and characters

Hazel is a competent, take-charge, live-in maid in the home of corporate lawyer George Baxter (Don DeFore), his interior decorator wife Dorothy (Whitney Blake), their schoolboy son Harold (Bobby Buntrock), and the family dog Smiley. The series humorously dramatizes Hazel's life with the Baxters and her friendships with others in the neighborhood such as postman Barney (Robert Williams), taxi-driving Mitch (Dub Taylor), and Rosie (Maudie Prickett), another maid in the area.

Many episodes focus on the perennial contest of wills between Hazel and her boss over issues around the house; "Mr. B" usually concedes defeat and grants Hazel's wishes when she tortures him by serving meager portions of her mouth-watering desserts. Some episodes take Hazel outside the Baxter house and follow her life in the community. In the first episode, for example, she spearheads a drive for the construction of a neighborhood playground.

Hazel's life is sometimes complicated by George's snobby Boston sister Dierdre Thompson (Cathy Lewis) and his gruff boss Mr. Griffin (Howard Smith. Dotty neighbors Herbert and Harriet Johnson (Donald Foster and Norma Varden) often call upon Hazel's expertise in household matters.

In the show's final season on CBS, George and Dorothy depart for the Middle East in conjunction with George's work (DeFore and Blake were dropped from the cast) while Harold and Hazel move in with George's younger brother, Steve (Ray Fulmer), a real estate agent, Steve's wife Barbara (Lynn Borden), and their daughter Suzie (Julia Benjamin). Hazel provides housekeeping services for her new family.

Production notes

The series was filmed at Columbia/Sunset Gower Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The show aired on NBC for its first four seasons (in black and white for the first, and in color for the next three), and then in color on CBS for its final season.

Reception

The show was considered to be an instant hit when it debuted, and its first season was fourth in the 1961-1962 Nielsen's ratings. Shirley Booth received two Emmys, (1962 and 1963) for "Hazel" and an Emmy nomination for her third season (1964). The actress received a Golden Globe nomination for Best TV Star (1964), and two nominations for the TV Land Award, Favorite Made-for-TV Maid (2004 and 2006).

In its first season, "Hazel" won such ratings as to force the cancellation of its principal competitor, the new ABC sitcom "Margie", starring Cynthia Pepper, set during the Roaring Twenties.Fact|RL7/08|date=July 2008

ABC loosely copied the "Hazel" theme in the 1962-1963 series "Our Man Higgins" as an English butler to a suburban American family. Stanley Holloway played the lead role, along with Audrey Totter and Frank Maxwell. [TV Guide.com website:http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/man-higgins/203600]

References

The story of how Hazel came to be made is told for the first time in "Love Is The Reason For It All...The Shirley Booth Story" by Jim Manago, with radio research by Donna Manago, and foreword by Ted Key. BearManor Media, ISBN 978-1-5939-3146-9

General

* [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/H/htmlH/hazel/hazel.htm Kim, Lahn S.. "Hazel". Museum of Broadcast Communications.]
* [http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/hazel/100203 "TV Guide". "Hazel".]