My review of Hazel's final season

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Hazel Anyday

Well, a couple of comments. The reason they couldn't have had Steve & Barbara living in Hazel's old house was that the old Hazel house in 1965-66 was now being used as Gidget's house, the living room slightly changed but the kitched remaining almost exactly as it was in Hazel. The house itself was the same Hazel house used as Gidget's in '65-66.

Also that Gidget/Hazel house was right next door to the Bewitched house used in seasons 2 thru 8. And that house was the same house used as the Hazel next door neighbor's house with Elliott Reid the father and his 3 kids, the teen girl who was hot and the dopey teen boy who had a crush on Missy in the first season.

Also the house zapped up by Jeanie mentioned previously was also the same Steve & Barbara house zapped up by Endora now supposedly across the street from Sam's house in Bewitched when she & Uncle Arthur were feuding.

Also the I Dream of Jeanie Tony Nelson house & living room is the same house & living room used in season 1 of Bewitched as Sam & Darrin's 1st house. This was supposed to be their first house before they moved away in season 2. Season one of Bewitched came a year before Jeanie started. Probably why Darrin "moved" away in season 2 as that house was then the house for Jeanie in her season 1.

Also just watched a Hazel a couple days ago "New Man In Town" s2.12 and in that show Hazel walks over to Rosie's house and you see Hazel walking in front of a white house which is next door to Mr. Wilson's house which is now supposed to be where Rosie lives. Hazel then goes to the Wilson house to see Rosie. By the way the "New Man" is played by Robert Lowery (a sort of Clark Gable lookalike) and he played Batman in the 1940's serials.

ALSO I just saw a 3 Stooges episode with Curly "A Bird In The Head" and in it you see Barney Hatfield the mailman in Hazel and in Dennis The Menace playing a guy who hires the Stooges to wallpaper a room. "You'll never recognize the place." In the Stooges short Barney has slicked black hair on top of his head. I've seen him in western movies and he is actually bald, he never had hair when he was doing Hazel either.

Also Gus, Hazel's cab driving boyfriend, was actually toothless and looked like a real old man without his choppers. He was also the real life father of "Newly" on Gunsmoke. Come to think of it I don't think Barney had teeth either as I've seen him playing old men in westerns toothless.

Also, never mind that's enough illusion popping for today.

Was the move to the new house actually mentioned in Bewitched?

Also, what about the Kravitz house across the street, did they move, as well?

[Hazel Anyday]

The Kravitz house was always the same, as far as I can remember. It was supposed to be across the street from Samantha's. You may also have noticed once in a great while Sam out in the park walking Tabitha and there she is by a water fountain. NOW, that water fountain was the same water fountain often seen in Dennis the Menace & also in Hazel too. All Columbia shows. I even remember seeing that same water fountain in some TV show from the '70's. I wonder if it still exists?

As for mentioning the new house in the 2nd season of Bewitched, I'm really not sure, I think it was mentioned as an aside comment in the first or second season of Bewitched, but I'd have to watch it again to be certain.

Also something funny, in one of the Hazel color shows she goes to town and is seen standing out in front of stores in the background you see "Quigley's Market" from Dennis The Menace including the signs he had in the window announcing the "Blizzard of Sales". Store still had the "Quigley's Market" name too, wouldn't it have been great if Willard Waterman (Quigley & also the Great Gildersleeve in the Sounds Like Radio shows) had come outside the store in the background of Hazel. Willard Waterman is one of my favorite actors hear him weekly on Sounds Like Radio as The Great Gildersleeve along with some great songs to go with the theme of the Gildersleeve show. It's here, it's free and no annoying ads either:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2MN8ST8m2eI1MwO1cpUVEN

Or search for "Sounds Like Radio with Your Humble Host" and it's everywhere podcasts are.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Hazel Anyday

The Kravitz house was always the same, as far as I can remember. It was supposed to be across the street from Samantha's. You may also have noticed once in a great while Sam out in the park walking Tabitha and there she is by a water fountain. NOW, that water fountain was the same water fountain often seen in Dennis the Menace & also in Hazel too. All Columbia shows. I even remember seeing that same water fountain in some TV show from the '70's. I wonder if it still exists?

As for mentioning the new house in the 2nd season of Bewitched, I'm really not sure, I think it was mentioned as an aside comment in the first or second season of Bewitched, but I'd have to watch it again to be certain.

Also something funny, in one of the Hazel color shows she goes to town and is seen standing out in front of stores in the background you see "Quigley's Market" from Dennis The Menace including the signs he had in the window announcing the "Blizzard of Sales". Store still had the "Quigley's Market" name too, wouldn't it have been great if Willard Waterman (Quigley & also the Great Gildersleeve in the Sounds Like Radio shows) had come outside the store in the background of Hazel. Willard Waterman is one of my favorite actors hear him weekly on Sounds Like Radio as The Great Gildersleeve along with some great songs to go with the theme of the Gildersleeve show. It's here, it's free and no annoying ads either:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2MN8ST8m2eI1MwO1cpUVEN

Or search for "Sounds Like Radio with Your Humble Host" and it's everywhere podcasts are.

With both Hazel and Dennis The Menace based on comic strips, interesting that they sort of share the same "universe", in a way.

I've never checked, but is there any creator cross over from the two shows, writers, directors, producers?

[stevea]

Yes, there are definitely some writers and directors shared, since they were both Screen Gems shows. Producers shared by both were James Fonda and Harry Ackerman.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by stevea

Yes, there are definitely some writers and directors shared, since they were both Screen Gems shows. Producers shared by both were James Fonda and Harry Ackerman.

Yes, there seems to be a similar, breezy, and far from the then-popular genre of "rural" sitcoms.

Hazel and Dennis The Menace ensembles were definitely city folk, and not a trace of a cornpone accent like the Mayberry and Hooterville faction.

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

...in fact, it went off NBC after the Ford Motor Company dropped their option to sponsor a fifth season (the alternate sponsor during the 1964-'65 season, Bristol-Myers, also passed on sustaining another season as well). Fortunately, CBS had a 9:30pm(et) "hole" in their Monday night schedule for 1965-'66: they were supposed to fill that time period with a Polly Bergen mystery series, "SELENA MEAD", but Jim Aubrey, the CBS executive who had tentatively "pencilled it in", was fired at the end of February, and the network decided to erase as much of his influence upon their upcoming fall schedule as much as possible [including "CORONET BLUE", a "FUGITIVE" clone that was eventually seen in the summer of '67]. The new president of the network, John Schneider, discovered that "HAZEL" was available, and decided it would be a perfect combination with "THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW" that fall. The network found new co-sponsors for it- Phillip Morris and Procter & Gamble- and the fifth season appeared on CBS.

However, because of tighter production budgets at Screen Gems {and they were always cheap- they wouldn't allow Sidney Sheldon to film the first season of "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" in color primarily because the special effects cost too much money....in fact, Screen Gems wouldn't have bothered to film "HAZEL" in color if Ford hadn't been their sponsor; they wanted their commercials to be seen in color, and they put out the extra money for color filming, when very few color programs were on network TV in 1962}, Don DeFore & Whitney Blake's contracts weren't renewed- and that's why Ray Fulmer and Lynn Borden (on Shirley's suggestion) became the new "Baxters". That's also why Donald Foster & Norma Varden no longer appeared as the "Johnsons" after the move to CBS. And if you take a good look at certain episodes....well, did you notice that "Tony Nelson's" living room from 'I DREAM OF JEANNIE" was redressed as an empty living room in a home waiting to be sold, in one episode?

Steve & Barbara's house appeared in both BEWITCHED & I DREAM OF JEANNIE as unoccupied houses, and the new Baxter living room was used as Jeannie's phony parents' living room. Also Tony Nelson's attic appeared in at least 2 different HAZEL Season 5 episodes, as Steve & Barbara's attic where Suzie was found w/ her black cat in "Kindly Advise" and as the artist's studio in "But Is It Art".

[stevea]

The Donna Reed Show interior downstairs set also appeared in a season 5 episode, as a house Steve was selling.

[OneWayFilms]

I've always enjoyed reruns of Hazel when I was a kid, but now, I'm buying each season once at a time, and discovering them all over again with great glee.

I never saw any episodes from season 5, and had no idea the Baxters moved to the Middle East and left behind their son. I mean....WHO DOES THAT???

It doesn't sound like this final season is up to par as the previous seasons before it, so I might just skip it and consider season 4 as my personal finale.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Will Dockery

Yes, there seems to be a similar, breezy, and far from the then-popular genre of "rural" sitcoms.

Hazel and Dennis The Menace ensembles were definitely city folk, and not a trace of a cornpone accent like the Mayberry and Hooterville faction.

I haven't checked into it yet, but recent viewings of Dennis the Menace have mentioned the Civil War at least once, apparently relatives of Dennis Mitchell and his father fought on the Confederate side


Has it been established where in the United States Dennis the Menace takes place?