Hazel: A Hazel Forum

tvking1
[1]Aug 22, 2007
member since: 11/08/05
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I'm posting this message with the intention of starting a thread for this classic 1960s sitcom. I'm shocked there wasn't one already. It's like that on a lot of classic shows of yesteryear, which is too bad. Whether that's because people today have different tastes or fading collective memory, I don't know. Any takers?
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tvking1

[2]Sep 25, 2007

member since: 11/08/05
level: 40
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tvking1 wrote:

I'm posting this message with the intention of starting a thread for this classic 1960s sitcom. I'm shocked there wasn't one already. It's like that on a lot of classic shows of yesteryear, which is too bad. Whether that's because people today have different tastes or fading collective memory, I don't know. Any takers?

I guess not. Oh well! I tried. This forum is still open, just in case someone, somewhere, should stumble upon it. I have a few things to say about the show, but I'll save them for now, when no one is listening.

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crazyrhythm
[3]Sep 30, 2007
member since: 07/22/05
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I'm listening.
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tvking1
[4]Sep 30, 2007
member since: 11/08/05
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Thank you. Sorry if my last post seemed whiny. It just gets a little lonely on some of these more obscure show boards sometimes.
Hazel's first season was its most popular. That year it finished at # 4 in the Nielsen's, and was the most popular non-western that season. It quickly descended after that. TV Land aired that season's episodes a few years back.
It's hard to believe that all the cast members (excluding the last season, when Hazel went to work for Mr. B's brother and his family) are all deceased. Tragically, the boy, Bobby Buntrock, was the first to die, in a car crash in 1974.
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crazyrhythm
[5]Oct 1, 2007
member since: 07/22/05
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I didn't know that the original cast were all gone. I can remember watching Hazel with my grandmother when I was a kid. Shirley Booth was an old pro with a great sense of timing.
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crazyrhythm
[6]Oct 8, 2007
member since: 07/22/05
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Hazel came from a single-panel comic that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, and The Addams Family from one in The New Yorker. Dennis The Menace came from the syndicated comic by Hank Ketcham. Can you think of any others?
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tvking1
[7]Oct 9, 2007
member since: 11/08/05
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I knew that about Hazel and Dennis The Menace, but not The Addams Family. Blondie? It had a couple of short-lived TV incarnations, one in the late 1950s, and another in the late 60s. It was much more popular in the comics, and in the movies. If comic books count, The Adventures Of Superman began as a hit comic book in the 1930s, then a radio program and theatrical cartoon, before moving to television. There are probably others.
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crazyrhythm
[8]Oct 10, 2007
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You should check out Charles Addams' work for The New Yorker. I think he started drawing those characters in 1937, and the tv folk really stuck with the look he created.
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lecagr
[9]Nov 6, 2007
member since: 06/03/05
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Hazel was a different type of show, it wasn't your usual laugh out loud type of sitcom. Many episodes revolved around some event taking place, there were misunderstandings and someone's feelings eventually got hurt but by the end of the show everything was patched up and everyone was smiling again. The show is a little sappy for today's times, but it's good to watch for nostalgia value. I like the last season the best with Ray Fulmer and Lynn Borden. I recently bought the complete Hazel series on DVD for 38 bucks. It's a bootleg set, the quality is so so, but to get all the episodes for just 38 bucks is a pretty good deal. There are other places that sell the exact same set and want more money for it. Sony has issued the first season on DVD and it appears they've given up on the rest of it. I think the black and white episodes (first season) are not as good as the color episodes. The color episodes overall are a little better.
Which episode is the one where Mr. B wants to watch a golf tournament at home on the TV? I've been trying to locate that one on the DVD, haven't found it yet.
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dramafreezone
[10]Dec 24, 2007
member since: 08/03/05
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Another Hazel fan here, but unlike the previous post, I've never seen any Hazel DVD's yet that are closed captioned for the hearing impaired. Does the bootleg copy which you speak of have captioning.
I also remember watching it a few years back on TVLand or Nick, Shirley Booth was just too magical to not watch. The show used to run early in the AM when I was a kid and from how I remember the shows ( I have very good recall) TVLand really chopped alot of the show out (some of them, I remember, were merely 14 minutes long, that's major amputation).
Would be great for one of the "class" tv stations to show these older shows, just to pay homage and respect to the pioneers who paved the way for all the crap that's on the tube now.
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lecagr
[11]Feb 13, 2008
member since: 06/03/05
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lecagr wrote:

Which episode is the one where Mr. B wants to watch a golf tournament at home on the TV? I've been trying to locate that one on the DVD, haven't found it yet.

I think I located the episode, it's the one titled Stop Rockin Our Reception. Mr. B. wants to watch a golf tournament on TV, but the reception is poor and they try to find out what causes it.
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Sammybfine
[12]Jun 14, 2008
member since: 06/14/08
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Does anyone recall noticing that the set for the Baxters house was completely different in the episode "Them New Neighbors is Nice" I think it was that episode. It was right around that episode. I already sent the disc back to netflix so I can't double check. Regardless, the floor plan was the same but the living room, dining room, kitchen and entry hall were different. Different furniture, different architectural elements. Very bizarre. Hazel's room and the Den were the same though. If anyone has any insight regarding this I'd love to know why their set wasn't available for that episode. The house was back to normal for the next show though.
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tv60
[13]Jul 13, 2008
member since: 07/14/08
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As I get older, the 60s TV shows that I grew up with become increasingly important to me. I feel good watching them and Hazel is one of those that I would like to reconnect with. I had looked for episodes in the past but didn't find too much. According to one of the postings, only the first season has been released. I had assumed that there would be quite a demand for the show, and that all of the episodes would be out there. In fact, I thought that many of them would be available for free. By today's standards, Hazel is laughably cornball. But to those of us who grew up watching it, it is a pleasant return to the innocence and naivete that were very much a part of entertainment back then. Wouldn't we all love to have had our own 'Hazel' growing up? And I can imagine no one but Shirley Booth giving the character such a wonderful quality of goodheartedness.
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rgreen09
[14]Sep 18, 2009
member since: 09/18/09
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TV.com doesn't even have a picture of the show - what's up with that? I have a faint recollection of watching this show in the mornings and I know I really liked it, but I can't recall much detail. I was hoping to see a snapshot of the cast.
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ChristinaArcher
[15]Nov 5, 2010
member since: 10/21/09
level: 1
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Yes, I'm all for it. Hazel was a.great show.
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KarenSala
[16]Apr 8, 2011
member since: 06/29/10
level: 1
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hazel is one of my favorite old tv shows!
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