Hazel was the first name of a suburban housekeeper, Hazel Burke (Shirley Booth), who worked for a pleasant little family consisting of George Baxter (Don DeFore), Dorthy Baxter (Whitney Blake), and their son Harold (Bobby Buntrock). George was a corporate attorney in a modest little New York town and Dorothy was a part time decorator. George was set in his ways, like attorneys tend to be, and Dorothy would generally allow him to make all the decisions like a good wife was supposed to do. This worked out just fine except for Hazel. You see, Hazel was the type of woman who was used to getting what she wanted and would work every available angle until things turned out her way. She had a working knowledge of medicine (Hazel Plays Nurse), played matchmaker on occasion (George's Niece, Hazel the Matchmaker), and liked the modern conveniences which typically made George the source of financing (What'll We Watch Tonight, Heat Wave). While George was the king of his castle, Hazel was the real source of authority; the show set up to have them bump heads pretty much every episode.

That was the dynamic of the show; Hazel would usually want to do something George disapproved of and he would stand up to her right up until the point where circumstances made it difficult to stand his ground (and the way Hazel worked the circumstances, he always came around by the end of the episode). The first season set the standards of the show up and while it was originally based on the famous Saturday Evening Post cartoon by Ted Key, it evolved over time beyond the single panel strip's ability to convey a story (though the biggest criticism of the show was how formulaic the episodes tended to be).

When Hazel wasn't getting in George's way (she always called him "Mr. B." out of a quasi-respect that belied her passive aggressive nature), she'd almost always be getting on the nerves of his ever numerous "important clients" that filled up every other episode. This way, things were mixed up a little in terms of not having to make George the heavy all the time. In Hazel Plays Nurse, for example, she sends George to bed with a cold when he's due at the office to meet a client whose nickname is "Steamroller"; a man that doesn't cater to the needs of anyone as a hardnosed businessman. Needless to say, when he comes over to the house to get the mollycoddling lawyer out of bed, Hazel takes control and the next thing you know, he's in the bed next to George (he had a cold too). The writers just took the firm stance that Hazel always got her way, sometimes leaving out how they got from point A to point B in terms of making her adversaries either her friends or at least more pliable in terms of following her lead.

It should be noted that Hazel was a pleasant woman who only used her many connections and insights for the overall good of the household in that New Yorker way of hers. She had a heart of gold in that she had worked for Dorothy's parents previously ("since I was 8 years old" according to Dorothy) and always considered what was best for the family, making sacrifices like moonlighting to buy Dorothy (who she called "Missy") a present in Hazel's Christmas Shopping, or making George look good for a nuisance client in Hazel Quits. Hazel would tackle all sorts of situations that everyday people faced like a wrongful parking ticket in A Matter of Principle, or challenging a wealthy socialite by working to get a playground in the neighborhood even when it's George's client she's fighting against in Hazel and the Playground. There's a reason why so many episodes had her name in them; she was the show, first, last, and always. Unlike the obnoxious Mr. Belvedere, the magical Phoebe Figalilly in Nanny and the Professor, or the nasty Florence in The Jeffersons, Hazel didn't need anything but her hard work and determination to solve whatever problem came her way in the allotted half hour of the show.

I loved the show in syndication when growing up and saw a great many episodes back in the day but one thing I noticed about this piece of fluff when watching all ~900 minutes (that's 15 hours!) was that more than most television shows, watching more than a handful of episodes at a single time proved more than a little annoying. The relative sameness of them tended to wear me down since the interchangeable nature of the foils (bad guys like bureaucratic pencil pushers, the wealthy who always got their way before they tangled with Hazel, or the omnipresent "important clients" of George's law firm where he wasn't even a full partner if you go by the name on the door) and situations. I'm sure people thought "what would Hazel do?" when confronted by an human obstacle given the straw man manner in which she fought the good fight, and always won in the end, be it getting a color TV, an air conditioner, a mink collar, or whatever other modern manner of keeping up with the Joneses she invoked.

Still, the show was then, and remains today, an endearing look at the white picket life so few people really had but almost all aspired to back 45 years ago. Rating such a show is especially tough since you can pretty much say you've seen 95% or more of the episodes after watching just a handful, though the writer's did get more tricky at handling the character as the first season when on. George was written as a two dimensional character much in the same way Mr. Wilson from Dennis the Menace or any number of contemporary antagonists were written. The purity of the characters was never in question (they always played true to form, never considering stealing, swearing, or causing anyone harm) but Harold and Dorothy were so limited in what they were allowed to do (a wife that didn't cook, clean, or do much of anything else struck me as all too contemporary except that she did look good and the son was as nice as could be, quiet unlike the children on Leave It To Beaver). If you're a fan, you'll want a copy of Hazel: The Complete First Season, especially since there were no obvious edits and the prints used were so clean (not to mention the episodes being in order and all present) but if you just like clean, wholesome television shows from the past, at least consider it worthy of the rating of Rent It, just don't take the entire set at once or you'll be rooting for the bad guy. Here's an episode guide as confirmed by several online resources, with original airdates, from the DVD cases:

Hazel: Season 1

1) Hazel and the Playground 9/28/1961
2) Hazel Makes a Will 10/5/1961
3) Hazel Plays Nurse 10/12/1961
4) A Matter of Principle 10/19/1961
5) Dorothy's New Client 10/26/1961
6) What'll We Watch Tonight? 11/2/1961
7) A Dog for Harold 11/9/1961
8) George's Niece 11/16/1961
9) Everybody's Thankful But Us Turkeys 11/23/1961
10) Winter Wonderland 12/7/1961
11) Hazel's Winning Personality 12/14/1961
12) Hazel's Christmas Shopping 12/21/1961
13) Dorothy's Obsession 12/28/1961
14) Hazel's Dog Days 1/4/1962
15) Replacement for Phoebe 1/11/1962
16) Hazel's Famous Recipes 1/18/1962
17) Hazel's Tough Customer 1/25/1962
18) Hazel's Secret Wish 2/1/1962
19) Hazel, the Tryst Buster 2/8/1962
20) The Investment Club 2/15/1962
21) Hazel's Mona Lisa Grin 3/1/1962
22) Hazel and the Gardener 3/8/1962
23) Dorothy's Birthday 3/15/1962
24) Number, Please? 3/22/1962
25) Them New Neighbors is Nice 3/29/1962
26) Hazel's Pajama Party 4/5/1962
27) Three Little Cubs 4/12/1962
28) Bringing Out the Johnsons 4/19/1962
29) Hazel Quits 4/26/1962
30) Hazel the Matchmaker 5/3/1962
31) Rock-a-Bye Baby 5/10/1962
32) The Burglar in Mr. B's P.J.'s 5/17/1962
33) Heat Wave 5/24/1962
34) George's Assistant 5/31/1962
35) Hazel's Day 6/7/1962

Picture: Hazel: Season 1 was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame black in white that it aired in 45 years ago. The prints used for the DVD set were almost all very clean and held up well compared to some contemporary shows at the time with very little pattern noise displayed. I've seen the show in syndication off and on for decades and I don't believe it ever looked this good, though I'll be the first to admit my rose colored glasses may be impacting my observations. The running time of the individual episodes were far longer than the edited versions I've seen on cable and UHF channels too, with the episodes all placed on dual layered discs (single side).

Sound: The audio was presented in the original monaural as cleaned up with Dolby Digital processing. The music was not observably changed and the vocals were as clean as ever with no separation or significant dynamic range to speak of. The sound effects used when Hazel put one over on an unsuspecting soul out to foil her plans were the same cheesy effects used on most shows back then, adding that sense of nostalgia so many shows from our youth seem to have.

Extras: The only extras in the four disc, thin pak cases was a brief synopsis of the episodes.

Final Thoughts: Hazel: Season 1 will not be for everyone but if you're reading this review, you're probably a fan of the show and considering how well it did when it aired on NBC, I'd like to think this will be an entertaining change of pace from the majority of material finding it's way to DVD these days. The sit-com has evolved in many ways over the years but the simple formulas used to keep folks watching can almost all be traced back to the roots of TV, and even radio for that matter. Hazel the character was the type of common sense driven working stiff that most people saw themselves as, fighting against the wealthy, the uncaring, and the nameless powers that be simply by being nice and matter-of-factly acting as though there was only one way to do things (her way of course). If you liked the show in your younger years, pick up the value priced set and ration out the 35 episodes accordingly, knowing that another piece of pure Americana has now found it's way to DVD.