I'm always trying to find different things to do here on this site because why not? (Also our ratings might be down) So of course, the best idea is to *checks notes* write about an episode of a 1960's TV show. But I have done that before, and like I classic TV shows. Anyway, I wanted to write about a strange episode of the series Hazel.
Hazel is a sitcom from the 1960's based off a character from The Saturday Evening Post (which , should be read on Tuesday Late Nights) it's about a maid who lives with a family , named Hazel. Hazel was played by Shirley Booth. (Our Christmas post viewers will know her as the voice of Mrs. Claus in "A Year Without A Santa Claus" ) The basic premise was the maid was the main attraction to our normal American family (who have a maid) and hijinks ensue. It ran 4 seasons on NBC from 1961-1965, but then was canceled. But then... it was uncanceled, and a new season in 1965 on CBS.
Sometimes when a show gets canceled then gets uncanceled, it might not be the same. (It's like throwing your phone and then picking it up, it might look the same, but it's not.) Quickly, they changed the cast. Which is strange for a family sitcom, that'd be like watching Leave it To Beaver and then one day Ward and June have been replaced by a new couple named Chad and Donna. The actors who played George and Dorothy Baxter were replaced. They did keep the kid, Harold Baxter, played by Bobby Buntrock and Booth as Hazel. That's a sign of how things were going.
They didn't change the actors for Harold's parents, nah, they decided to have him live with his uncle and aunt, randomly made up here. Steve Baxter and Barbra Baxter. They also added a daughters named Suzie. Hazel became their maid. So how did they explain the parents being gone. (Spins will: Come on, they did in car crash) George got a new job on Baghdad, Iraq. This is 60's Baghdad, so it's a little different. George and his wife (not Jane) decided to go to Baghdad and leave their son at home because he can't miss school. (I guess 60's Baghdad didn't have schools)
Season 5, doing all that , might as well explain why this episode goes the way it does. This was the final final season, because I mean look at it. This is the 21st episode of Season 5, called "My Son, the Sheepdog" which is sadly not an episode about any kids turning into a sheep dog and going on adventures. (boo!) Which probably would have been a better episode.
I had been watching "Hazel" on Antenna TV as one does and at one point it got to season 5. I hadn't really watched the show before it airing on there, it's not one of classic shows I've watched compared to others. I picked this episode, just because it felt weird.
Harold is starting a band with some friends which is why he's come home late for dinner. (A big sin in family sitcoms) It seems to flow like a normal episode of sitcom. Harold asks if the band can practice at the house's garage and the uncle and aunt say it's fine. Also Harold using an accordion for a rock band, kind of cool.
One of the mother's of one of the kids named Jefferson Williams (no relation to Jefferson Airplane) shows up because she heard the music and hates it and is annoyed. Hazel and Mrs. Williams hates the boys' hair too, because there's somewhere this play is going. The woman doesn't want Jeff to play music like that because reasons.
It also keeps the sun from his eyes
Later, Mrs. Williams is still complaining about Jeff at card game with her husband and the NU-Baxters. Then the aunt says she doesn't mind the music, she's mad at how they want to dress and their hair. This episode aired in 1966, and was probably made in late 1965. The context is like older writers complaining about the young people, a very timeless thing. The men are joking about how Jeff was reading a Men's hair fashion magazine, surprised a thing exists. Hold on.... checks Bing... wait checks calendar...never mind. The aunt worries about how it might affect her daughter because of reasons.
Live reactions of people watching this episode, Susie is the writer.
The two men do have a thought that's just a fad for the band contest and think that when the boys lose things will go back to normal. (Uhh confidence?) It's the next day, Susie comes home and explains why she's late from school, because her music teacher took her class to see the boys practice. Also learned a new dance called "The Swim". Which is a real dance. (Someone was mad when they wrote this episode, but they seemed to doing their research) Jeff's mom is annoyed that he hasn't cut his hair and yells about him being on TV and looking like that.
Some writer knew the word Peruke and was really proud of themselves to have Jeff say that. [Peruke is an old term for a men's wig, used in the 17th/18th Century] Hazel, who funny enough is kind of just around this episode, comments about Harold's hair style, but at least seems supportive of his band.
The adults are watching the TV Show and are not enjoying these bands. Hazel says the kids on TV look like sheepdogs and there's our title- part of it. The 60's TV set for the music show is pretty cool though, and seems to have no concern for safety, good for it. The adults seem to be befuddled and confused that this happening. Also Jeff's mom says the title, there we go. Was I supposed to laugh?
Hey! This isn't My Mother the Car!
The guys think the boys will lose... but this is a sitcom so that means... that's right the boys won. (ha!) Later, the Leapin' Lizards band gets gigs with payment. The adults are bothered by everything. Jeff's mother is concerned about his hair being about as long as the girls that have surrounded him wanting autographs. Which is not factually true, source: my eyes.
The girls like rockers, what did the episode mean by this?
Hazel decides a new plan is to join them. So like Hazel has stopped doing the cleaning because this is a comparable thing to just being part of a band, making money, and still doing school work and keeping things on priority. Harold even told his uncle earlier he made sure they only do gigs on weekends and before 9PM, so they don't miss sleep. Then he and Jeff see their parents and Hazel dancing to music, being dressed weird, and doing strange stuff.
This isn't strange... you should see the Munster family down the street
The aunt and uncle are tired of pretending they've lost it because it's taking awhile. Then the boys find out the adults are going to perform at the PTA meeting and want the boys' band to be their band. The kids tell the adults to dress and act the way they used to , and the boys say they'll be cutting their hair and dressing normally and stuff.
As a time piece, this episode is kind of timeless, by how it shows generational disconnect. The episode isn't good. The Leapin' Lizard band really just dresses kind of funny, has long hair (in our context is more a normal boy hair style now) and plays strange music, but they weren't really doing anything of harm. Even the episode is like pointing and thinking it's wrong, doesn't even have them do anything that's wrong. The boys still seem to be doing their school work, it wasn't brought they weren't. It just seemed to annoy the adults by existing.
The adults actually act worse by putting off important things or pretending to. It's also strange as an episode for the show called "Hazel" about Hazel and she's barely there and is only brought in to be part of the moaning or to think up the idea that they should try to convince the kids turn away from rock n' roll stuff.
This episode could have been written better too, but I guess by this point, they just didn't care and the show was going to end again anyway. It would be really easy to beat up on an episode of a show from 1966, but that 1966 date is interesting alone. The 1960's around this point was building up turmoil, including generational. The hair styles the boys were trying to have, in away would become more normal later on. Look at like season 3 of the Brady Bunch. The idea of the guys saying they think it's just a phase and the boys going back to normal at the end, kind of feels to be the hope of the writers. If you read into it too much.
For Hazel, which wasn't a bad sitcom, it's a strange episode since the appeal is to see Hazel doing something and see what chaos ensues. This episode doesn't do much of anything like that. The adults acting like the kids could have been funny if the kids were actually shirking doing things they should be doing besides hair and clothing. This is also written the in context of modern times where I think it's silly to complain about a boy having longer hair, but that probably was a topic of the times or something.
1966 is also an interesting year for sitcoms , a lot of older mainstays were ending. The Donna Reed Show , The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet , and The Dick Van Dyke Show ended too, There was a shift happening as more modern , swish 60's feeling sitcoms were coming in. This season was done in color, in the hopes that that'd be something to make sure the people who also had maids could enjoy on their new color TVs. It's very much a sitcom episode , pointing out how it's confused about its contemporary times and not sure what to say. It kind of doesn't even aim to have a moral, a compromise, or even stick to being funny.
Well, that's it for now, tune in next time when we yell about modern kids and their I-pods and 1997 Dodge Caravans. (What?)
