The maid of the year is back on DVD with Hazel - The Complete Third Season! There was a long five year between the first and second seasons, but it only took a few months to get season three, and here, we get all 32 episodes of the 1963-1964 season in a four disc set.

Much like Screen Gems earlier successful series, Dennis the Menace, Hazel is yet another series based upon a comic strip, though Hazel ran in the Saturday Evening Post in the 1960s, and to this day, continues on to this day as a daily syndicated single panel comic through King Features (though good luck finding it in your local newspaper, it isn't widely distributed). The series takes Ted Key's creation, along with the Baxter family, and places them in a weekly sitcom, which aired for five seasons--four on NBC, then the final season as a retooled sitcom (with a new cast) on CBS. In this four disc set, we get the "middle" batch of episodes of this classic series.

Read our review by skees53 here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/hazelseason3dvdreview.html

Please post any questions or comments about this set.

Thanks for the information on this review! Let's hope the sales are strong for season 3.

I was watching the episode titled Everybody's A Comedian on the DVD, a couple scenes have a quick fade out, it looked suspicious to me, and sure enough when the episode ended the running time is only 23:30. This episode is edited, so now that makes two known edited episodes on this DVD set. This is really bad, Shout Factory has screwed up again issuing a DVD set with edited episodes. They have been guilty of this in the past, I doubt they will ever learn. :mad: I will have to check the run times of all the episodes and see if I find any more that are edited.

skees53 has in the review that Everybody's A Comedian runs the full 25 1/2 minutes, but it does not, it's an edited version running only 23 1/2 minutes. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up, sorry to be the bearer of more bad news for this DVD set. Shout Factory should be ashamed, they dropped the ball once again. Knowing one episode is edited was bad enough, I was willing to live with that but now I found another edited episode, so I can't put a positive spin on this DVD set anymore. Fact is, the Hazel season 3 DVD is a big disappointment.

Quote by retrotvfan4ever: I was watching the episode titled Everybody's A Comedian on the DVD, a couple scenes have a quick fade out, it looked suspicious to me, and sure enough when the episode ended the running time is only 23:30. This episode is edited, so now that makes two known edited episodes on this DVD set.
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Yes, I noticed this also. I have now completed watching the whole third season and these are the only two episodes that I noticed that end earlier than the others. At least on this one, unlike Campaign Manager, we get the opening teaser.

It is unfortunate that both of these episodes shorter but I am glad to at least have season three on DVD. It was a fantastic season in my opinion. In fact, my two favorite seasons are #1 and #3, followed by #2 and then #4. I don't even plan to purchase season 5 if it comes to DVD. But I eagerly await the release of season 4 to DVD.

What puzzles me is, Shout Factory didn't seem to have problems getting uncut episodes of Dennis The Menace which is also a Screen Gems show. I don't have the DTM DVD's, but I haven't seen complaints of any episodes being edited. So I don't know why there is a problem now with Hazel, we have to live with two edited episodes on the season 3 set. I'm sure the complete episodes exist, with a little more effort Shout Factory could have given us these two episodes uncut instead of putting that disclaimer on the DVD case. If seasons 4 and 5 come out, I won't buy them if any episodes are edited.

The episodes on Disc 4 really go downhill in terms of visual quality--wow, talk about using faded prints from the 16 mm era. It's not enough to make me regret buying this but it's just really jarring.

I'm not familiar with the series at all but I've read the thread where there are sections of some episodes where the picture may be a little softer than others. There are several episodes of the Brady Bunch like that. I haven't watched them in a while so I don't know specific scenes. I remeber thinking at the time that it may have been because the 35mm elements were lost or damaged so they used a dupe print or something from 16mm. It is a little jarring.

I'm always grateful when shows I've liked over the years enough to put in my collection are released on DVD. In many cases I've upgraded them myself over the years to get the best possible quality. I do find it somewhat irritating when scenes are cut, especially if they were intact on another format (a previous VHS release) however I've just learned to live with it as nothing is perfect and we tend to get a little spoiled as consumers. Even though these shows look and feel new, it is possible that with their age - elements and scenes get lost We know the shows we love so well that when there is an inconsistency somewhere, we catch it and it may be something so minor only someone hardcore with the show would.

That being said - and by no means do I understand how the business works - I don't know if people at Shout! know these shows all that well to know if a few minutes are missing here and there. Maybe that is the way they received it from Sony. Maybe that is the best material that is in the vault. I often wonder why there seems to be so many different prints of a show circulating. You'd have one print on one tv channel, another on DVD, and a third on another channel all with deficiencies and various degrees of quality.

I'm not familiar with the series at all but I've read the thread where there are sections of some episodes where the picture may be a little softer than others. There are several episodes of the Brady Bunch like that. I haven't watched them in a while so I don't know specific scenes. I remeber thinking at the time that it may have been because the 35mm elements were lost or damaged so they used a dupe print or something from 16mm. It is a little jarring.

I'm always grateful when shows I've liked over the years enough to put in my collection are released on DVD. In many cases I've upgraded them myself over the years to get the best possible quality. I do find it somewhat irritating when scenes are cut, especially if they were intact on another format (a previous VHS release) however I've just learned to live with it as nothing is perfect and we tend to get a little spoiled as consumers. Even though these shows look and feel new, it is possible that with their age - elements and scenes get lost We know the shows we love so well that when there is an inconsistency somewhere, we catch it and it may be something so minor only someone hardcore with the show would.

That being said - and by no means do I understand how the business works - I don't know if people at Shout! know these shows all that well to know if a few minutes are missing here and there. Maybe that is the way they received it from Sony. Maybe that is the best material that is in the vault. I often wonder why there seems to be so many different prints of a show circulating. You'd have one print on one tv channel, another on DVD, and a third on another channel all with deficiencies and various degrees of quality.

Shout Factory needs a quality control department that will check episodes of TV shows before putting them to DVD. If any edited episodes are found, then they need to contact the issuing studio and ask them for the unedited print. If the studio claims they don't have the unedited print, then I guess there's nothing else they can do but at least an effort would have been made. I think Shout Factory just takes what the studios give to them and creates DVD's without checking first for errors or edits in the episodes. A little extra effort on their part might eliminate these annoying instances when edited episodes appear on their DVD sets. The two edited episodes on the season 3 Hazel set have obvious cuts, whoever worked on this set was asleep on the job or does not know enough about the show to notice two episodes were edited.

I don't pretend to know how such things work; how the material is received, how it is processed on to DVD and timed etc. I highly doubt the people working on these things are as intimate to these shows as its biggest fans are. I can honestly say if it were me, I wouldn't have any idea if a sequence was missing or not as I'm not familiar at all with the show. Other shows I would catch for sure.

In todays time where shows run shorter than they did in the 60s, a 21/22 minute running time probably looks acceptable to someone who isn't aware of the difference. I have to give Shout! the benefit of the doubt that they do the best they can with what they are provided to work with and they have been a pretty straight up company to their customers. Even when people have become very rude and insulting on their old message board, they still reached out and answered questions on there. Given that they are working with a third party to release this stuff to begin with, I am grateful that some of these titles get put out in the first place.

Is it somewhat annoying? Yes. Is Shout! always perfect with their releases? No However nothing is and these days It all depends on perspective. Where this would have mattered more to me 15 years ago, it doesn't today as there are always alternatives to fill the gaps if needed. Again is that annoying? Sure - but the alternatives are out there.

^

While it's not the end of the world two edited episodes are on the Hazel season 3 DVD, I just feel with a little extra effort Shout could maybe have avoided this and obtained the uncut versions. They didn't have problems getting all uncut episodes of Dennis The Menace, so why can't the same be done with Hazel? Shout Factory has put some good old TV shows on to DVD, but they need to make every effort to put out a complete product. Too many times edited episodes have found their way on to Shout Factory DVD's, there is no excuse for that. But I still enjoy Hazel's 3rd season DVD despite the two edited shows. 30 of the 32 episodes are complete and have scenes not shown in syndication.

So you are making the assumption that they haven't made every effort? I think it is more of a Sony thing than a Shout! issue.

Here are some other Sony properties I'm aware of:

-There is a tag missing from a season one Partridge Family episode that is seen in syndication (released through Sony)

-One epsidoe of Archie Bunkers Place is cut (again the cuts can be seen in syndication)

-There are two episodes of All in the Family (one released through Sony, one released through Shout!) that have cuts that can be seen in syndication.

I believe there were major cuts or syndicated prints used on one of the seasons of Mister Ed as well. Was that owned through Sony? I'm not sure as it wasn't a show I followed (followed? I type that like it was the Sopranos or something) :lol:

I think it just happens and again, some of the companies who own the product can't keep it straight themselves. I do believe Shout! does the best they can. I think you need someone really really familiar with these things to make sure there are zero cuts and that is highly unlikely to happen.

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I believe Mister Ed is an MGM property. DVD's were issued by (guess who) Shout Factory, the 1st season DVD has several edited episodes but seasons 2 to 5 have the complete episodes.

Other studios have been guilty of putting edited episodes on their DVD's, it's not just Shout Factory. Sony's I Dream Of Jeannie DVD's have several episodes that are edited. However, Bewitched and Flying Nun also issued by Sony, have the uncut episodes. There might be a couple episodes of Bewitched that are edited, I don't know for sure but a couple episodes have a shorter than normal run time.

The studio that is probably the most notorious for editing their TV show DVD's is CBS. They really hacked to pieces the DVD episodes of Gomer Pyle USMC, several episodes have the music segments removed, I guess CBS was too cheap to cover the music costs. Consumers who bought DVD's of My Three Sons and The Fugitive complained because CBS messed with the music in those shows too.

In the case of Shout Factory, they are just a distributor, they work with the various studios that own TV shows and negotiate for DVD release. I like what Shout does, they have put several favorite TV shows on to DVD. I just think they could do a little better job working with the studios to eliminate these occurances of edited episodes. Those two edited Hazel episodes that ended up on the season 3 set, I'm fairly certain Sony has the complete episodes, with a little more effort Shout could have obtained the complete versions, but instead they accepted the edited versions and put a disclaimer on back of the DVD case.