View Full Version : Miss Downs


Smartboy
01-31-2014, 07:56 PM
I realize that in the past, I have written quite a bit about the appearances of Hazel Shermet on this show and how fond I am of her. However, because of how redundant my posts seemed to be and because of how may complaints I got from people who were tired of the topic, I took a rest. I would say that, by now, it has been about a year since I have written about her on this page. However, on this very evening, something new happened regarding her that I would like to mention. I was over on You Tube watching an uploaded episode of "Facts of Life" called "Shoplifting". In this episode, our friend Hazel was a saleslady. This was her first of two appearances that she made on that series. Her second was one season later and the episode was called "Green Eyed Monster". In this episode, she played a music and drama teacher at the girls' school. Her name was Miss Downs. I read a comment by a fellow poster that said, "It's Miss Downs"! I responded to that post saying that I am aware that both, one-time, characters were played by Hazel Shermet. I then went on to mention that she also was in three episodes of "Gimme a Break!" and how good a job I thought she did. In all of these episodes, she played a rather snobby lady that I do not think the audience was supposed to like very much. Even though her behavior in all of these episodes was that of a woman who was quite full of herself, I thought that her appearance and her body movements were quite sexy and sophisticated. I mentioned how, although I liked her in all of these episodes, the one that I really thought that she outdid herself was in the first-season "Gimme a Break!" episode known as the "Emergency". If anyone here would be willing to go over to that video, I would be very interested in what you think of my post!

Wawwie
01-31-2014, 10:12 PM
Even though Hazel Shermet"s roles in Gimme A Break were supposed to be snobby, I found her to be quite funny. I especially liked her when she was the door to door sales lady trying to come on to the chief. :lol:

Smartboy
02-01-2014, 02:17 PM
Even though Hazel Shermet"s roles in Gimme A Break were supposed to be snobby, I found her to be quite funny. I especially liked her when she was the door to door sales lady trying to come on to the chief. :lol:


I agree that a lot of Hazel's roles were quite funny. I think that she has a real knack for playing slapstick. In my initial post, I mentioned my favorite appearance by her being in the "Emergency". I thought it was great when she went charging down the corridor of the hospital hoping to catch up with her purse! You mentioned her as the door to door saleslady. That was in "Mom's Birthday" which was a little bit earlier in that season. I thought she did a great job in that too. Even though her hair was obviously a wig, I thought it was quite appealing. On top of that, I thought she did some very nice facial expressions. However, my favorite part of that episode was the site of Julie when they went out to eat. That was one of several episodes in which she wore an outfit that included boots. In my opinion, the site of her in boots is to die for! One year later we have "Katie Steals Julie's Jock". This is the time that I thought that Julie really outdid herself! When she had her study date with Steve, I thought that her whole attire was very beautiful. However, it was her designer boots that made it my favorite episode of the whole series!