Witch Hazel?

If you've spent enough (OK, too much) time watching Screen Gems sitcoms of the 1960s, you've probably noticed the frequent use of exterior shots filmed on the Columbia Ranch. Looking closely during those outdoor scenes of our favorite TV families, it appears that Hazel and the Baxter family are neighbors of Bewitched's Sam and Darrin Stephens.

Back then, crossovers between shows weren't as common as they later became. And in this case, George, Dorothy, and their irrepressible maid were residents of NBC's subdivision, while Samantha's spells were cast over ABC. But I found myself imagining the chaos that could result if our two heroines met and became pals.

Sam, especially in the earlier episodes, could have picked up a few tips on cooking the mortal way from the maid whose meals always won raves. But while Hazel was already renowned for her take-charge ability to get things done, imagine how she could up the ante with a little help from everyone's favorite witch?

HAZEL (as George walks in from another tough day) "Ain't it hot today, Mr. B? But don't you worry none. While you was at the office, I installed a swimming pool in the backyard."

As for that nasty Deirdre, just let her try insulting Hazel now! "How'd you like a free trip to outer space, Miz Thompson?"

Aren't you glad I wasn't a TV producer in the Sixties? Maybe I'd better go lie down for a while.

Before Hazel, There Was Jenny

Shirley Booth on TV, playing a domestic servant? Gotta be Hazel, right? Wrong!

Only a few months before her popular sitcom premiered on NBC, Shirley starred in "Welcome Home," a one-hour drama presented on the critically-acclaimed anthology series The U.S. Steel Hour. N. Richard Nash's script cast the star as Jenny Libbett, devoted housekeeper to the suburban Austin family for 25 years. Now the Austins have raised their children, and are eager to sell their house and travel. Only one question remains -- what to do about Jenny, whom they no longer need? As Shirley noted, "They can't just discharge her after all these years."

Reviewing "Welcome Home" when it aired in March 1961, columnist Cynthia Lowry called it "a gentle wisp of a story. But it became warm and funny and sad with Miss Booth's acting magic ... It was a sentimental and delightful hour, and even had a happy ending." And it surely left viewers wanting more. Luckily, a lady named Hazel Burke was waiting just around the bend.

You can read more about this intriguing actress, her hit series Hazel, and the rest of her illustrious career in my book Shirley Booth: A Biography and Career Record.

Dorothy Baxter, Meet Ann Romano

The best role on Hazel was, of course, the sometimes maddening yet always endearing maid played by Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award-winning Shirley Booth. Next in line was Don DeFore, as the boss with whom she regularly butted heads. That sometimes left co-star Whitney Blake, as the mistress of the household, bringing up the rear. "I have had to build the character," the actress told TV Guide in 1963."No one knew anything about Dorothy -- not even Ted Key, the cartoonist who created Hazel ... It's hard to create a role with so few lines." Nevertheless, she made herself a key element of a show viewers embraced. Of Hazel's popularity, she said, "We make people happy. We don't deal with deep problems. People tell me it's refreshing to see our show, that they never miss it because they feel good afterwards."

Written out of the series in 1965, Miss Blake continued to act periodically, but also brought to light other gifts. She hosted a local talk show, Boutique, on Los Angeles' KCBS-TV. And in 1975, she attained new recognition as co-creator of the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time. It depicted family life quite differently than Hazel. The premise -- a divorced woman raising children -- came from her own experience. Not only had she been a child of divorce, but she went on to be a single mother to her own kids (including daughter Meredith Baxter) after splitting from her first husband.

It was a situation that TV up until then had mostly ignored. "This country swarms with divorced women having to be both mother and father to their children," she told the Los Angeles Times' Cecil Smith in 1975. "But as far is television is concerned, they don't exist." Blake and her third husband Allan Manings, who was then producing Good Times, successfully pitched the concept to Norman Lear. The result was a hit show that ran nine years. 

Whitney Blake died of esophageal cancer in 2002, but she is remembered for the way she helped depict family life on classic TV -- both as actress and writer. For more on Hazel and its cast, please see my book Shirley Booth: A Biography and Career Record. 

Mistress of Mean: Cathy Lewis of "Hazel"

Cathy Lewis as Hazel's best nemesis.

As many actors and actresses learned over Shirley Booth's long career, it wasn't easy to hold your own in scenes with the star of Broadway, film, and the hit TV comedy Hazel (1961-66). One clearly up to the task was Cathy Lewis (1916-1968), the recurring guest player who created the memorably haughty character of Deirdre Thompson, George Baxter's sister. Deirdre was not a very likable lady; she looked down her nose at Hazel for being a domestic, coldly snubbed any attempt at familiarity, and told her sister-in-law Dorothy, "Why you and George persist in keeping that woman, I'll never understand!"

Cathy (left) and Marie Wilson in My Friend Irma.

Before coming to Hazel, Cathy Lewis was one of radio's most highly respected and versatile actresses. As she told an interviewer in 1952, "It isn't an easy medium, either. It takes less time, perhaps, than television, but don't let anyone fool you that you just read words off a page of script. Projecting a strong characterization into [a] microphone with the voice alone is hard work all the way." Her biggest claim to fame was the role of Jane Stacy on My Friend Irma, the level-headed, somewhat sardonic pal of the harebrained lead character played by Marie Wilson. That job helped her transition into television in the 1950s, where her other roles included the female lead in an unsuccessful video adaptation of radio's Fibber McGee and Molly.

Sadly, Cathy's life was cut short not long after Hazel came to an end, when she died of cancer in 1968, only 51 years old. Like Shirley Booth, she was quite a trouper. Mean as Deirdre was to poor Hazel, it's a safe bet Miss Booth knew full well what a valuable contribution this fine actress made to her classic television series. You can read more about Hazel and its cast in my book Shirley Booth: A Biography and Career Record.

The Many Faces of Mala

Mala Powers, born on this date in 1931, was never content to be just one woman, or even to have just one career. A protégé of pioneering female director Ida Lupino, she won acclaim for her performance as a rape victim in Lupino's Outrage, and enjoyed plum roles in Edge of Doom and Cyrano de Bergerac. 

As Mala explained to columnist Bill Dunn in 1971, "I always see what is different between the character and myself. I can't help the similarities. It's much more interesting to impose the opposite characteristics." That eagerness to transform herself made her versatile to cast. She was a favorite guest star on shows like Perry Mason (where she made five appearances), and had a recurring role as the slightly snobbish, petulant Mona Williams, best pal of Barbara Baxter, in the final season of Hazel. She also co-starred with Anthony Quinn in the 1971-72 series The Man and the City. 

When not in front of the cameras, she had a second career as an acting teacher, and became a published author whose books included Follow the Year: A Celebration of Family Holidays (1985). Powers died in 2007, busy and productive as ever until shortly before her passing.

She packed quite a bit of living into 75 years.

Happy Labor Day!

In honor of our national holiday celebrating hard-working Americans, here are a few gainfully employed folks from classic TV:

Enjoy your weekend!

Goodbye Lynn Borden

The new Baxter family of Season Five.

I was sorry to hear of the death last week of actress Lynn Borden, who played Barbara Baxter in the fifth and final season of Hazel. 

Many Hazel fans, loyal to original co-stars Don DeFore and Whitney Blake, were displeased to see the long-running series change so much. Researching Shirley Booth: A Biography and Career Record, I learned more about what happened in 1965, when NBC canceled the show, and how it ultimately found its way to CBS that fall, with a largely different cast. Despite the backstage drama, I thought Lynn Borden made Barbara likable and sympathetic, and the revamped version of the show was still enjoyable. (She's pictured here with fellow newcomers Ray Fulmer and Julia Benjamin).

To learn more about Ms. Borden's life, pick up Eddie Lucas' book Close-Ups: Conversations with Our TV Favorites, which features a lengthy interview he did with Ms. Borden, and some fascinating reminiscences about Shirley Booth and Hazel.

Award-Winning Birthday Girl

Happy birthday to the one and only Shirley Booth, born August 30, 1898. With a career that lasted more than 50 years, and the proud possessor of an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Emmy Awards, she may still be best-remembered as the goodhearted, busybody maid of TV's Hazel. 

Surprisingly, she was never the subject of a full-length biography until I published Shirley Booth: A Biography and Career Record in 2008. It was a privilege to spend more than a year researching her impressive career, and talking to colleagues like actresses Joyce Van Patten and Elizabeth Wilson, television producer Saul Turteltaub, and child actor Pat Cardi (Jeff Williams on Hazel), among others. All were happy to share their memories of this legendary leading lady of the American theater, and shed light on both the actress and the woman they knew off-stage.

Though her Oscar-winning performance in Come Back, Little Sheba is still a classic, I'm also quite fond of her lesser-known star turn in About Mrs. Leslie, opposite Robert Ryan. Her film performances are few in number, since she focused largely on her stage career, but those that endure are well worth your time to seek out and enjoy.

Mr. B's Birthday

Happy birthday to film and television star Don DeFore, born 101 years ago today, on August 25, 1913. Perhaps best-remembered as George Baxter, alleged boss of TV's Hazel, DeFore also had a recurring role in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in the 1950s, and before that a thriving movie career.

DeFore is looking aghast (again) at Hazel (Shirley Booth).

As everyone including its top-billed star readily acknowledged, DeFore was an integral element in Hazel's success. "I admit it was pretty strange at first," he said during the show's run. "Here was Shirley Booth, the great and Oscar-winning Shirley Booth (Come Back, Little Sheba), as Hazel, and here I was shouting at her in the role of her boss. This Baxter is quite a guy. At the office he's a lawyer, successful, logical. Then every night he comes home to Hazel, the most illogical thing he ever ran into. Total frustration!" DeFore played that frustration beautifully, giving Hazel a worthy adversary yet never letting his character become unlikable or unkind. A family man himself, DeFore worked long and hard to take care of his wife and five children.

But to focus only on Hazel would be overlooking DeFore's accomplishments as an actor in dozens of feature films. One of my favorites is the holiday-themed It Happened on 5th Avenue. If you haven't seen it, and you'd like to celebrate Christmas with a warm, endearing movie, put it on your to-view list this year. Other film credits include Romance on the High Seas, A Guy Named Joe, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Mr. DeFore died in 1993, at the age of eighty, but is still fondly remembered by many fans, as seen in such Facebook groups as The Don DeFore Fan Club.

Throwback Thursday: What I'd Be Watching

On Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere, people often celebrate "Throwback Thursday," in which they post pictures, memories, or comments that take a nostalgic look backward. When it comes to television, I often wish I could throw back some of the inane reality shows of today, in favor of some of my favorite Thursday night classics. 

Marx and George Fenneman.

Thursdays were always a good night for comedy -- if you worked a 9 to 5 job, you were probably coming into the homestretch of a long week, and could use a good laugh. For much of the 1950s, NBC "and your DeSoto-Plymouth dealers" had you covered with Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life. Although the contestants did compete for prize money, the real appeal here was Groucho's trademark wit, and his wry exchanges with the quirky people who turned up each week. Who else would interview a tree surgeon and ask, "Tell me, have you ever fallen out of a patient?"

In the 1960s, Screen Gems (later to be known as Columbia Pictures Television) was one of the world's most successful sitcom factories, and gave birth to two Thursday-night favorites. Hazel, seen on NBC, was a warm, gentle show about the suburban Baxter family, whose lives were completely dominated by their maid. The lead character, who always knew what was best for everyone, could have been hard to take if she hadn't been played by the Oscar, Tony, and Emmy-winning Shirley Booth, who made her endearing even when she was in the midst of driving the Baxters nuts.

And what Baby Boomer kid didn't look forward to Thursday nights to see Samantha Stephens twitch up a good time on ABC's Bewitched? I don't know about you, but the only thing better than having Hazel clean up my messy house would be developing my own magic powers, like the beautiful witch of Morning Glory Circle. I've been hoping for those powers for years, and I haven't given up yet.

What were your Thursday night classic TV favorites?

The Art of Being Mr. B

Aside from Gale Gordon's Mr. Mooney (The Lucy Show), he may be classic TV's most frustrated boss. But Don DeFore (1913-1993) told a reporter in 1965 that he loved playing beleaguered George Baxter (a/k/a "Mr. B") on Hazel.

"I'd like to write a book about what Hazel has done for me," DeFore said. "For the first time the show gave me comedy with a follow through. She's perfect for me because I'm always on the hook of exasperation, and that's the kind of comedy I like." It also gave him a chance to work closely with one of America's finest actresses, Tony and Oscar winner Shirley Booth. DeFore admired the versatility she brought to her sitcom role: "I keep wondering how we can play another scene in that dining room that's different and every time she comes up with something new."

After a lengthy and successful film career, DeFore was used to public recognition, but Hazel took it to a new level. "It's such a different public. You meet strangers and because you come into their homes, they act as if they know you personally. I'm Mr. B, not Don DeFore, and it's a nice, warm feeling."

Although he didn't know it at the time of the interview, DeFore's work as Mr. B was near its end. After the show's fourth season, NBC canceled Hazel. Trying to spruce up the show to sell it to another network, Screen Gems executives introduced a new family for Hazel to serve, meaning that DeFore and co-star Whitney Blake (Dorothy) lost their jobs. The show did win a fifth season, moving to CBS, but many fans still prefer the original cast.

You can read more about this classic sitcom in my book Shirley Booth: A Biography and Career Record, which includes a detailed episode guide. If you appreciate DeFore's work in film and television, you might also visit his fan club page on Facebook.

Confessions of a Cord-Cutter

Did you know there's a name for people like me? (Be nice!) I am what trend-watchers call a "cord-cutter." To put it another way, mine is what the Nielsen company calls a "Zero TV" household. That means that, although, there is a television set in our house (more than one, in fact), we currently don't subscribe to any cable TV service, and watch nothing in real time on broadcast TV. You can read more about the phenomenon in a USA Today article from earlier this year.

Remember "rabbit ears"?

Like many Baby Boomers, television has been a constant in my life since sometime in the 1960s. However, I've lived through a lot of changes in the way we watch TV. I remember rabbit ears atop the set, renting videocassettes from the local video store (R.I.P. Blockbuster), and the excitement that went through our neighborhood when it was wired for cable TV sometime in the 1970s. But nowadays, my TV viewing is pretty much confined to Netflix rentals, library checkouts, and DVD boxed sets, with an occasional online foray. We dropped our subscription to cable TV about a year ago, and I can't honestly say I miss it.

Although I could wax nostalgic about the old days when you eagerly awaited the prime time broadcast of your favorite show on NBC, CBS, or ABC, I'm still watching plenty of TV -- and, in many cases, the same shows I've always liked. In the last week or two, my viewing lineup has included episodes of Hazel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, and The Lucy Show. Writing books about the stars and shows of yesteryear, after all, makes a terrific excuse for that tube time. It's research, you see?

Here Comes Hazel!

Ted Key's Hazel likes her TV counterpart.

More than fifty years later, it's hard to picture anyone but Shirley Booth (1898-1992) playing the starring role in television's Hazel. Here, in a vintage magazine ad taken out by the show's sponsor to promote its NBC debut in 1961, you can see how Shirley shaped up to Ted Key's cartoon character familiar to readers of the Saturday Evening Post. When Screen Gems acquired the TV rights to the character, executives considered Thelma Ritter and Agnes Moorehead, but thought Miss Booth was the ideal choice. Other studios bidding for the rights had wanted to cast The Honeymooners' Audrey Meadows, or Ann B. Davis (Schultzy on The Bob Cummings Show) as Hazel.

Already an Oscar and Tony winner, Miss Booth was considered by some an unlikely candidate to want a sitcom job, and indeed she'd told her agent she wasn't available for television series work. But she liked the pilot script, and thought the character was one she'd enjoy playing. Soon enough the Ford Motor Company signed on to sponsor her new series, describing her in ads like this one as "the most improbable maid you've ever seen." After her first season in the role, Miss Booth found herself not only the star of a hit series, but also the possessor of an Emmy for Best Actress to add to her award shelf.

For the complete story of Miss Booth's illustrious career onstage, in radio and film, and as TV's most beloved maid, check out my book Shirley Booth: A Biography and Career Record, which also features a detailed episode guide to Hazel.