Thanks for posting, Ron. I've been binge watching Hazel these past two weeks, isolated at home with a cold. Loved your dad in this show - his facial expressions spoke volumes! Growing up in the '60's this was my world, where kids had manners and neighbors were polite and friendly, helpful and considerate. This long draught of nostalgia has been a healing balm.
Your dad was such a delight in his films. He had that kind of goofy all American man thing going. He seemed like a real mensch. Thanks for posting this.
Loved this show as a kid and still watching in my Senior years...wonderful memories! I thought your dad, Don DeFore, was a great actor of remarkable range. I loved the Westerns and WWII movies he made in the 40s and 50s, and the Christmas classic, "It happened on 5th Ave", is one of my favorites. Also, he was great as "Thorny" on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet". The scenes with "Ozzie" and "Thorny" were truly brilliant and wonderfully funny. After he left the show no one was able to fill his shoes and have the same chemistry as he and Ozzie. Thank you for sharing!
The episodes with Don DeFore and Shirley Booth were the absolute best. They had so much chemistry as Hazel and Mr. B. The show wasn't nearly as good with the different cast in the last season.
I feel like I knew Mr. DeFore and Shirley Booth. They were down to earth people! I can’t wait to meet them in heaven someday!!! God bless you for sharing this clip. 😊
I still watch Hazel. Mr. B and Hazel had such a special relationship, really loving and hilarious. I loved Don in It Happened on Fifth Avenue, too. He was one of the greats in my book...a natural.
I was 6 when Hazel premiered, and our family always watched it. It just brings back such fond memories. Your dad was a very fine actor, and I did not like the last season since “Mr. B and Missy” were replaced. It was so tragic what happened to Bobby Buntrock.
I love Hazel just love the tv show. I remembered your father was In the movie My Friend Irma with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin with Marie Wilson as Irma. He was great interacting with Shirley Booth. Hard to believe all the cast on this iconic tv show are gone. Oh and another thing I just love the Baxter's kitchen. R.i.p to your dad, Shirley Booth and the rest of that great cast.🌹🌹🌹🌹
I used to watch this as a wee girl but what brought me here tonight was I was watching your father in a movie called Too Late for Tears. I was intrigued by his acting and looked him up. Where I saw he was in the tv show Hazel. Then it dawned on me and remembered him in it. So I had to watch another episode. I hadn’t seen them since they aired. I really enjoyed watching your dad on screen and thought not only was he a talented actor but he was also quite handsome and there was this comforting feeling from him as well. Thank you Ron and may you be singing with the Angels in the Heavens above. 🥰😖
Thank you for this post Ron. I loved your Dad in everything I’ve seen. The first time I remember watching him was in “A Guy Named Joe” and I still love that film. I’d be very interested in reading your book. I have read many biographies of actors from classic Hollywood. I was a film student years ago in Los Angeles and read everything I could get my hands on! Of course Hazel is a favorite and I have my 27 yo son addicted, as well. Your Dad was the perfect Mr. Baxter. I saw the pilot without him and I am so glad that he was chosen for the part. How I would love to sit down with you and listen to the stories about your Dad’s life. Of course the book will have to do and I’m very happy to know that it’s being published soon. All the best....Jan
For all"Hazel" fans, you might be interested in my upcoming book, "Growing up in Disneyland" about my Dad, Don DeFore, who played Hazel's boss, "Mr B." I've posted a short video about the book: @3bHo
EXCELLENT video!! and yes, I'm VERY interested in that book, I know your Dad ran a great restaurant there at Disneyland for several years! Would also love to see any kind of a book or even a video about your years at that marvelous house your Mother and Father designed there in Brentwood. Saw a video awhile back with Helen O'Connell where she interviewed your Dad and the entire family and I became fascinated with that gorgeous place! Any thoughts on that idea?
@@MrCJ-qz9dl I think I’m a little disappointed in Hazel. I hear she wanted to get rid of Don & Whitney for that other couple that I really don’t care for. The younger couple didn’t have it. I love everything that Don Defore was in, including his politics. I’m sure he was a good Christian man.
We love your Dad! We especially love the movie, “ It happened on Fith Ave.” He was such a handsome, wholesome man. Sadly, we live in a World with many uncouth people. Looking forward to seeing your dad, one day.
Another great part of a "Hazel" episode....that 🏈 he kicked ended up in The Johnson's chimney....AGAIN in same episode.....thanks for the slide in of your info in this of something we never knew back then. I as a kid was a watcher from the very 1st episode of Hazel as it aired. I am now 72. Your Dad & Shirley Booth's chemistry together was the secret to the show's success. I still watch Hazel EVERYDAY...... on my cable's Antenna TV channel. I do recall my family could not believe when your father & Whitney Blake were dropped by the show, I always wondered if Shirley Booth had anything at all to do with this??---I do know what the history books say about this situation.
I agree, "The Johnson's" were a great couple and very funny. I believe that the actress playing Mrs. Johnson also played the widow who was killed by Tyrone Power in the classic movie, "Witness for the Prosecution", directed by Billy Wilder. The movie also starred Marlena Dietrich (my spelling may be incorrect, Lol) and it's a must watch.
One of the extras Barry Van Dyke (Dick's real-life sonny-boy) also appeared as Jan-Michael Vincent's replacement & successor on the hit TV show "Airwolf" and Dr. Mark Sloan's detective sonny-boy Steve on "Diagnosis Murder."
Ron, Am just about to finish your book and finally got here to your YT channel. Watch Hazel every morning. Loved the show, your Dad's movies (especially It Happend on Fifth Avenue), your book and all the stories of your wonderful Dad. Thanks
Yes, It Happened on Fifth Avenue was a GREAT movie, a must-see, especially at Christmastime. TCM shows is once or twice a year. Ron, your dad was one of my all-time favorites, I think I kinda had a crush on him!
I thought Don DeFore was perfect in the role of George Baxter in the tv show Hazel. George's interactions with Hazel were great when she did something to upset him. After four years on NBC, Hazel moved to CBS, and CBS made a big mistake letting Don DeFore and Whitney Blake go. The fifth and final season of Hazel was not nearly as good in my opinion.
The football landed in the Johnson's (the Baxter's elderly and clueless next door neighbors) chimney, forcing the smoke from the fireplace back into their house! The helpless old fools just sat there not knowing what to do. Incidentally, the Johnson mansion also doubled as a variety of other buildings, such as a hospital, city hall, high school, etc., not only in Hazel but also across the board in many other Screen Gems television series of the same era. The Johnson house was torn down sometime in the 1980's and replaced with two other "houses" that blended with the other house facades on Blondie Street, the "residential" area of the Columbia Ranch (now known as The Warner Bros. Ranch). The two replacement houses are most noted for appearing in Lethal Weapon, and the one directly adjacent to the Baxters as the brightly Christmas lit Griswold residence in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Why do you call elderly folks: "The helpless old fools?" I have relatives their age and one thing they are not is "Fools".. I watch Hazel reruns and find the show wholesome, we should make are kids watch it. One day you and all reading this will become old maybe. I would hate to think we will be thought of as "The helpless old fools".
@@dukeman7595 I'm not referring to elderly folks in general as "helpless old fools." Have you not seen the Johnsons? They were literally written as helpless old fools. They couldn't do anything for themselves.
@@retrounderground1 I understand, however, I don't like hearing young people slamming the elderly it's wrong and should be eliminated. In your case you were referring to a fictional elderly couple.
Your Dad, was a great actor . I had seen, most recently a flick of your dad, from before, Hazel... He, was in a movie, about a lady who had murdered, her hubby for the sake of some money, that was tossed into her car. Your dad, played the part of, the character who, had been married, to that person before, the murdered hubby.
I loved Shirly Booth and her playing the character was the best of the show. My family watched it off and on when I was little. Now that it is on again I noticed some things about the family she worked for was kind of upsetting to m e now. It seems like Mr. B was a real meany to her many times. And why did Mrs. B do nothing all day? I realize the times, but it Hazel was such a nice and loving character how could you get mad at her? As looking at it now I wondered how many fans thought the same thing back in those days. Love Shirly Booth ! She is deeply missed!
Oh, Sweet Boy. Let me tell you why I still brag on your daddy today. If I might quote Mr. B from an episode, "Perhaps he was unavoidably detained." I hold your father's interpretation of George Baxter as the gold standard for grammar and diction. I love me a linguistic world gone bent and 'ffrent, yo? I'll gratefully never keep up. But it's so nice to hear all the punctuation marks and such - the pauses etc., orated so perfectly. I'm born in 1966. All that stuff still mattered. It's ok things have changed since then, but your Pa's voice is reassuring to hear, via Hazel snippets. Through proper use of adverbs, we'll hold Society together. Bittersweet childhood memories from a grammar nerd.
I remember in the earlier days of Hazel's syndication, the rotation would start with the 2nd season, with my guess being, because it was in color. By the time it got to episode #1, 'Hazel and the Playground', this would had been episode #121, within a rotation of 154 episodes. When it finally rotated to the 1st season, the first episode to be aired was 'What'll We Watch Tonight', as episode #120 within the rotation. Except for 2 episodes, within the 1st season, the other 33 episodes had the cookie opening. I think the most interesting opening is S2E1, which wasn't shown until 1983, when the syndication package was reissued, with the Screen Gems endings being lopped off. Towards the end of the 1st season, that screechy back round music started to be phased in, which I disliked that music. Ron, did you ever watch Hazel or Ozzie & Harriet with your father, and he would be making commentary?
@@rhd4444 Ah - kinda like Casey Adams and Hugh Beaumont of "Leave it to Beaver." I loved the tv show "Hazel" as a kid & enjoy seeing the RU-vid videos offered! Thanks, best of luck.
Ron is Don DeFore's son. Did you read the synopsis of the video and watch?? Ron and his brother and Dick Van Dyke's sons were extras as Harold's football teammates.
Ron DeFore was a pretty good actor but in many different professions - read my book, "Growing Up in Disneyland" to learn more and more about Dad, Don DeFore.