The news we've been waiting for, Shout! Factory have announced the release date for HAZEL - The Complete 4th Season DVD.

The final 26 episodes featuring the original Baxters George (Don DeFore) and Dorothy (Whitney Blake), originally aired on NBC during the 1964-65 TV season, will be out two weeks before Christmas.

The region 1 set will include 4 discs. The Shout! price is currently set at $29.98. Here's the link to the announcement on Shout! Factory's newly re-designed website:

http://www.shoutfactory.com/?q=node/215701

Hopefully, the final 5th season with the new Baxters will then follow at some point in the spring of 2013.

http://www.shoutfactory.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/product_full/HazelS4Cover72dpi.jpg

WOW! Finally!........and TVSHOWSonDVD.com hasn't even posted this yet!

Great news, and hopefully S5 will come out as quickly as S3 followed S2. I want this one done soon!

Great picture of Hazel and the Baxters...

Mikeamplifier, thanks for the heads-up. I usually rely on tvshowsondvd.com to email me when new seasons are coming out but they haven't done this yet!

I'm so glad to get season 4 because once I get this one, my Hazel collection will be complete. I won't buy S5 if it comes out because I like George and Dorothy Baxter much better than the younger ones.

Shout has had very limited choices when it came to cover art for these HAZEL sets. All the pics used were recycled from Sony's S1 release. I wonder if they have access to pics for Season 5?

I wonder if they have access to pics for Season 5?

I hope so. They should probably use this one:

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/60s-Rare-Old-Vintage-7x9-Color-CBS-TV-Photo-HAZEL-Shirley-Booth-and-Family-/00/s/MTYwMFgxMzAx/$%28KGrHqR,!ngE-5bghZ3lBP5bVd,MUQ~~60_57.JPG

Or this one (the little girl never seems too happy):

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/60s-Rare-Vintage-8x10-CBS-TV-Photo-HAZEL-Shirley-Booth-Family-w-press-info-/00/s/MTYwMFgxMzA0/$%28KGrHqYOKpEE+c%29ciTyqBP5bHwcUD!~~60_57.JPG

Yes I have a transparency of that pic but it all depends it they have legal rights to use it for cover art. It would make sense to if they have the rights to it.

does this mean this is a Shout! website only offering?

I am beginning to think so. TV Shows on DVD still hasn't posted anything about this and Amazon hasn't listed it either. Didn't Shout! do the same with the final two seasons of "Father Knows Best"?

does this mean this is a Shout! website only offering?

No, it doesn't say it's going to be Shout! Select.

If it ends up being a Shout! Select item, does that mean we can only purchase it from Shout! Factory and no other source?

Either way, I'm going to buy season 4.

Yes, Shout! Select are the titles you can only get from them. The Shout! Website does not say Hazel is going to be excluisively from their online store, so it should be on Amazon, Strange its not listed, yet. I don't think it'll be in stores. I don't think I've seen seasons 2 and 3 in stores.

It's listed by tvshowsondvd.com now--here it is:

Hazel - 'The Complete 4th Season' is Scheduled by Shout! for the Holiday Season

4-DVD set of the sitcom's penultimate year on TV will be available this December
Posted by David Lambert
8/27/2012


Oscar and Emmy Award-winner Shirley Booth returns as Hazel, the sassy and energetic live-in maid who runs her employers' household with a little havoc, a lot of style and lot more laughter!

Based on the original cartoons in The Saturday Evening Post, and starring Academy Award-winner Shirley Booth (Best Actress, Come Back, Little Sheba, 1952) with Don DeFore (The Adventures Of Ozzie & Harriet), Whitney Blake (Strange Homecoming), Bobby Buntrock (The Virginian) and Maudie Prickett (Andy Goes Wild).

During the course of this past weekend, the folks at Shout! Factory have unveiled a shiny new version of their website, and along with it they've revealed how on December 11th they will release Hazel - The Complete 4th Season. These 26 episodes from the next-to-last season include guest appearances with Harold Gould, Ken Berry, Francine York, Virginia Gregg, and more joining Shirley Booth in this classic '60s sitcom. Priced at $34.93 SRP, the 4-disc set can be pre-ordered from the Shout! online store at their updated website using the button link below. Underneath that is the cover art for this title; our thanks to one of our readers, "Lee," for letting us know about it!

Order this title directly from Shout! Factory

Hazel - The Complete 4th Season

Taken from: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Hazel-Season-4/17421#ixzz24mb4gAl0

I'm proud to say I'm the Lee that TVshowsonDVD thanks for the tip. I emailed them on Friday and sent them the Shout website announcement. He emailed me back and said he'd post it on Sat. as it was too late on Friday to post. As a long time Hazel fan from way back I felt a little proud when I read that acknowledgement. :tiphat:

Yes, I could make a complaint about a first season pic being used, but I complained about this subject before and I regret doing so. I'm just so glad to be getting uncut S.4 episodes they could put a picture of Hazel's shoes on the cover. :eek:

Hazel Season 4 is now up on Amazon for pre-order. So its not a Shout! Select item afterall!

One odd thing about Hazel's 4th season is the number of episodes was reduced to 26, down from 32 for seasons 2 and 3. 26 episodes is a tad low for 1964-65, either there was a dispute with the writers or NBC was losing interest in the show and ordered a lower number of episodes. When the show went to CBS for the 5th and final season, the episode number increased to 29, 30 episodes were originally planned but one didn't go into production. Just like in the 1st season when 36 episodes were planned but one didn't go into production, so the season ended up with 35 episodes.

Yes, I think that's a good assumption about NBC losing interest in the show as to why there were only 26 episodes. Normally there would have been 28 to 30 in an average season back then. Some shows then even had 32 or more per season.

Season four is my second favorite of the whole show. Here is my order of favorites:

S1
S4
S3
S2

Yes, I think NBC was going to get rid of the show, so they ordered the minimum number of episodes they could. Based on Bobby Buntrock's contract (which was discussed in an article the link to which I posted in another thread), I assume 26 episodes was the minimum they were required to order each year.

It just occured to me that the music score for Season 4 of Hazel is the same as the for the original opening for The Flintstones! This was used before the "Meet The Flinstones" theme.

It just occured to me that the music score for Season 4 of Hazel is the same as the for the original opening for The Flintstones! This was used before the "Meet The Flinstones" theme.

There might be subtle similarities, but the two themes are not exactly the same. There are differences in the melodies, and The Flintstones original theme is faster and more upbeat than Hazel's 4th season theme, which is more mellow and laid back.

There might be subtle similarities, but the two themes are not exactly the same. There are differences in the melodies, and The Flintstones original theme is faster and more upbeat than Hazel's 4th season theme, which is more mellow and laid back.

You're right, its not the same music. I went back and listened to them both.
They ARE very similar, though.

It just occured to me that the music score for Season 4 of Hazel is the same as the for the original opening for The Flintstones! This was used before the "Meet The Flinstones" theme.
I never really cared for the S4 Hazel theme that much because it pales so much in comparison to the upbeat, boppy S2-3 theme. I do love the S5 theme--the "telephone" one which is snappier and has tighter drumming than the "rainwear" opening, which is still much better than S4.

Received my 4th season DVD today. First thing I did was scan all the episodes for the run times. There's fairly good news this time, all the episodes seem to be uncut and run between 25:15 and 25:30 except for one, It's A Dog's Life, which runs about 24:15. This episode may be edited, but it's also possible the script ran a minute shorter than normal and the episode is complete. When I watch this episode I'll see if anything looks unusual where something might be cut. At least there are no episodes running 23:30 or 22:30 this time around, which is what happened on the 3rd season DVD.

One cool thing worthy of mention, the closing credits of the episode Champagne Tony have the latest Ford model car driving down the road, and has the Screen Gems S from hell logo at the end instead of the dancing sticks.

A note of trivia: The Hazel house was used in the Columbia Pictures 1945 serial Monster And The Ape, the house is also seen in Columbia's 1951 serial Captain Video. I'm pretty sure about this, from the outside it looks like the same house, except in the serials there are more shrubs and bushes planted in the front yard. It would make sense because Columbia and Screen Gems were basically one and the same, Screen Gems being the TV offshoot of Columbia.

UPDATE: I watched the episode It's A Dog's Life, and unfortunately it looks like a scene was indeed cut. There's a scene in the episode that begins with Hazel and the dog in Hazel's room, and the dog sees Hazel's TV set and starts barking like it wants to watch TV. At that point the scene fades out and fades into the next scene. This doesn't look right at all. So it appears the rest of that scene in Hazel's room was edited out, what probably happened was Hazel turned on the TV and some music started playing or someone was singing a song, so they cut the scene out because of music rights. Absolutely ridiculous. So sad to say, as the 3rd season DVD was flawed with 2 edited episodes, the 4th season DVD is flawed as well. Aside from this one blemish, it's a good DVD set.

FURTHER UPDATE: The episode Welcome Back Kevin is also edited, but this edit is very minor, it amounts to only about 10 seconds or so. The edit occurs as Mr. B is going up the stairs to talk to Kevin in his room. As Mr. B walks up the stairs, the scene then cuts quick to Mr. B already standing outside the door to Kevin's room and he is in the middle of saying something. This edit is possibly a result of damage to the episode master and that small part of the episode is now lost.

The 2nd season DVD of Hazel has some audio issues, audio has a soft and muffled tone, but the 4th season DVD audio is pretty good, audio quality is crisp and clear. However, the video quality on the 4th season DVD is not all that great, there are some episodes with imperfections in the video, causing the picture in those episodes to jump around a bit. Colors generally look faded and pale. Obviously, no restoration work was done on these episodes, but in the condition they are it is still adequate for viewing.