My review of hazel's final season

[Robert 13]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

I actually enjoy this episode rather well. This was 1966, I imagine many parents might have reacted this way if their kids tried to form a rock band. The use of reverse psychology is amusing with the way they dress themselves up, especially Hazel!

I agree. I always found this episode a riot, especially for (as retroTVfan4ever mentioned) Hazel's outfit. But it totally wouldn't hold up for today's audience unless you keep it in perspective with the sign of the times.

[Hazel Anyday]

Keep in mind, this is a TV show. I remember as a kid in the '60's everytime a prime time TV show tried to portray rock music, it was always lousy and goofball sounding, I remember thinking, this is the adult's version of what rock is. Same way when "hippies" were portrayed, always unrealistic and stupid. But these shows were written by adults at the time, who grew up with big band music or even tin pan alley '20's music, these shows weren't written by teenagers. To these narrow minded writers Tommy Dorsey was still the "bee's knees", & this is how they thought of rock music "it's just a fad" was the most common heard statement at the time.

Even the fact that they have all the adults in this Hazel episode dressing like beatnicks which to the apparently elderly writers is the same thing as hippies shows how out of touch the writers are in relating to any true culture of the then present day. Beatnicks and hippies are 2 completely different things, but to these stodgy writers with views from the '20's to '40's, they're the same. So I always excuse these type shows as being products of narrow minded out of touch writers and don't blame my favorite shows for these depictions.

Also this twist in the story (the straights dressing the way they think the "kids" are dressing to make them change to "normal") was a common storyline trick. Almost as common as the evil twin stroryline. I believe even I Love Lucy did a variation of this storytrick Lucy & Ethel acting sloppy to show Ricky & Fred how they look to them, the Flintstones did it, Father Knows Best, My 3 Sons did it to a degree and to the nth degree when it comes to an examples of really bad generic sounding "rock" that was supposed to be real rock. I think this was just a storyline trick that other shows shared.

And to whether Harold's hair and his "Leaping Lizards" buddies hair was long? I can remember quite well in 1968 my hair was a 1/4 of an inch over my ear and I was called a long haired hippie. Most boys had either crew cuts or very short hair at the time. So Harold's hair in 1966 could have been considered very long for the time. The funny thing is I also remember a year later the other boys hair was a lot longer than mine and these were the same jerks that called me a long hair.

[Ronny G]

While we're on the subject of Harold's "hippie" hair, I thought it looked odd that one side of his "bangs" was longer than the other side. I guess he grew one side longer for when he had it combed over and parted to the side.

It reminded me of those older, balding men who grow one side of their hair longer and comb it over their bald spot to cover it up.

[TeeVeeCloset]

Originally Posted by Hazel Anyday

Keep in mind, this is a TV show. I remember as a kid in the '60's everytime a prime time TV show tried to portray rock music, it was always lousy and goofball sounding, I remember thinking, this is the adult's version of what rock is. Same way when "hippies" were portrayed, always unrealistic and stupid. But these shows were written by adults at the time, who grew up with big band music or even tin pan alley '20's music, these shows weren't written by teenagers. To these narrow minded writers Tommy Dorsey was still the "bee's knees", & this is how they thought of rock music "it's just a fad" was the most common heard statement at the time.

Even the fact that they have all the adults in this Hazel episode dressing like beatnicks which to the apparently elderly writers is the same thing as hippies shows how out of touch the writers are in relating to any true culture of the then present day. Beatnicks and hippies are 2 completely different things, but to these stodgy writers with views from the '20's to '40's, they're the same. So I always excuse these type shows as being products of narrow minded out of touch writers and don't blame my favorite shows for these depictions.

Also this twist in the story (the straights dressing the way they think the "kids" are dressing to make them change to "normal") was a common storyline trick. Almost as common as the evil twin stroryline. I believe even I Love Lucy did a variation of this storytrick Lucy & Ethel acting sloppy to show Ricky & Fred how they look to them, the Flintstones did it, Father Knows Best, My 3 Sons did it to a degree and to the nth degree when it comes to an examples of really bad generic sounding "rock" that was supposed to be real rock. I think this was just a storyline trick that other shows shared.

And to whether Harold's hair and his "Leaping Lizards" buddies hair was long? I can remember quite well in 1968 my hair was a 1/4 of an inch over my ear and I was called a long haired hippie. Most boys had either crew cuts or very short hair at the time. So Harold's hair in 1966 could have been considered very long for the time. The funny thing is I also remember a year later the other boys hair was a lot longer than mine and these were the same jerks that called me a long hair.

from someone from the same generation and the same love of these series, VERY WELL SAID...I applaud your well thought out educated words...not a knock to the original poster.

BTW... spending most of the entire Memorial Day 2011 weekend transferring Hazel, Season 5 to DVD from my recent Antenna TV recordings.

[Tom_Clark]

Thinking back (I was a teenager at the time), I think I recall that CBS wanted to get rid of DeFore and Blake (and the Johnsons) and bring in a younger couple in order to improve the demographics of HAZEL. "Improving" always meant attracting a younger audience. You know, most advertisers really only want the 18-49 age group to see their commercials.

I don't think they achieved their goal. The next season, HAZEL was replaced with FAMILY AFFAIR.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by Tom_Clark

Thinking back (I was a teenager at the time), I think I recall that CBS wanted to get rid of DeFore and Blake (and the Johnsons) and bring in a younger couple in order to improve the demographics of HAZEL. "Improving" always meant attracting a younger audience. You know, most advertisers really only want the 18-49 age group to see their commercials.

I don't think they achieved their goal. The next season, HAZEL was replaced with FAMILY AFFAIR.

I think the primary reason DeFore and Blake were let go was to save money. Itr was cheaper to produce the series going with two unknowns in the roles of Mr. and Mrs Baxter. I think you are correct to suggest with the first piece of business out of the way (Defore and Blake not being renewed), the second piece of business was to take the show in a new direction by getting younger.

[Leslie Eckhardt]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

I actually enjoy this episode rather well. This was 1966, I imagine many parents might have reacted this way if their kids tried to form a rock band. The use of reverse psychology is amusing with the way they dress themselves up, especially Hazel!

I believe that the "inspiration" for this episode came from an episode of December Bride where Lily (Spring Byington) did a similar "beatnik" impersonation. She even read a similar type of poetry: "Bless-ed are the depress-ed. Caress-ed are the depress-ed. Surpress-ed are the Depress-ed. For they sleep on a bed of nails." The title to this show may have been "The Beat Generation" and it came late in the series. You haven't lived until you've seen Verna Felton in beatnik drag!