Hazel

This is not a spoiler review.I watched the show when I was a very young boy and still watch reruns on Antenna TV from time to time.

A full time live in maid, a rich successful husband, a kid in school all day Whatever did Mrs. B do with herself all day??

Last fall I found it. Not on regular TV or any cable network but on DVD at my local library.

Since this show predates my birth, I'm so happy I discovered it on two cable networks. The gifted Shirley Booth, who won two consecutive Emmys for her performance in this gem of a sitcom, always saved the day for the Baxter's, her employers, Harold, their son, and many others who passed through Hazel's world.

One summer evening, a group of friends sneaks over a fence into someone else's property, making the most of the fact that the owners are away for the night. They take a dip in the swimming pool and even find an outdoor bar with a selection of drinks on display.

Shirley Booth played an opinionated, talkative, even bossy maid for five seasons on "Hazel" -- but there was never a more lovable, or more loved, maid on television.As portrayed in the popular "Saturday Evening Post" cartoon by Ted Key, Hazel was almost a little too brash.

I recently discovered this little sit-com gem from the early 1960's (although it feels like the 1950's). I'd never even heard of this show before, but I'm glad that it's survived and some station director (Antenna-TV) decided to re-run it.

What I remember most about this show (and I have seen the show in reruns on Antenna TV recently) is that Hazel's world was one where everybody knew their place and knew that they could never rise above their stations. On the one hand, you had the masters who had the money and called the shots.

This show was in reruns on UHF when I was a kid. And like a bad case of the shingles after having chicken pox as a kid, it's back in reruns again.