To quote singer Tommy Roe's 1966 Top 40 hit, “Hooray for Hazel!” Academy Award-winning actress Shirley Booth added an Emmy to her shelf with her portrayal of Hazel Burke, the spunky, feisty live-in maid for the Baxter family: corporate lawyer George (Don DeFore); wife Dorothy (the glamorous Whitney Blake), and son Harold (Bobby Buntrock). In TV land, maids traditionally serve up comic relief: think Alice on The Brady Bunch, Florida on Maude, or Florence on The Jeffersons. However, on this 1961-66 series, based on Ted Key's Saturday Evening Post cartoons, Hazel was top banana. "Who's the gal who's everybody's pal?" goes the theme song penned by the legendary Sammy Cahn. That's Hazel, who insinuates herself in "Mr. B's" professional and family life. "Hazel can do anything," gushes Harold. But in doing so, she usually winds up "in the soup," as in the opener, "Hazel and the Playground," when she unwittingly antagonizes one of George's important prospective clients. But by each episode's end, she ultimately finds a way to manipulate matters to her or the family's advantage, whether it's getting George to buy a new color television set (in "What'll We Watch Tonight?", the first season's one and only color episode) or rounding up enough voters to pass a local school initiative (in "Bringing Out the Johnsons"). While Hazel can be overbearing at times, she has a good heart and is devoted to the Baxters. Hazel was ranked among the top five shows in its first season, and baby boomers will take nostalgic pleasure in welcoming her back into their homes in these initial 35 episodes presented on an extra-less four-disc boxed set. Recommended. (D. Liebenson)
Hazel: The Complete First Season
Sony, 4 discs, 898 min., not rated, DVD: $29.95 Volume 21, Issue 5
Hazel: The Complete First Season
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