Critics generally found Hazel mildly amusing, though they complained that it was often contrived and repetitive. Despite the mixed reviews, the program stayed in the top 25 for the first 3 years of its 5-year run. It ranked number 4 in 1961-62; number 15 in 1962-63; and number 22 in 1963-64. It also held some value with at least a few network producers, since after NBC dropped the show, CBS quickly picked it up. Perhaps CBS was relying too much on the capabilities of stage actress Booth. Nevertheless, Hazel held the attention of the American public.

     Based upon the popular Saturday Evening Post cartoon strip, Hazel presents stories of Hazel's humorous involvement in both the professional and household business of George Baxter. In the television version, Hazel becomes the figure who, though seemingly innocuous, ultimately holds the household together: the servant, though in a marginalized position, is at the same time central to marking the well-being of the nuclear family. George, the father figure, competes with Hazel, who often ends up being "right." Dorothy, described by one critic as "dressing like and striking the poses of a high fashion model," follows in the tradition of glamorous TV moms living in homes where the housework often gets done by the maid. Also keeping with television tradition is Harold, who plays the part of the "all-American" kid. Completing this family portrait is Hazel. She is characterized as "meddling" and as causing "misadventures" in her attempts to run the household, but ultimately it is her job to keep order, both literal and ideological, in the house.

     Following in the footsteps of Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best, Hazel also proffers an American tale of the suburban family. Furthermore, in the decade that saw more American families bring televisions into their homes than any other, perhaps Hazel brought a sense of stability and appeasement, for this was also a decade of great civil and women's rights advancements.

     Throughout television history (as well as the history of film), the representation of the American family is often made "complete" by the presence of the family housekeeper figure. Generally, the "American" family is specifically white American, although a few exceptions have existed, such as The Jeffersons and Fresh Prince of Bel Air, in which African-American families employ an African-American maid and an African­ American butler, respectively. For the most part, however, "family" has been portrayed as white and therefore the ideology of the family has also been conceived in terms of dominant, white social values. The presence of a household servant, therefore, serves to reinforce the status (i.e., both economic and racial) of the family within society.

     The significance of Hazel, then, is that it stands in a long history of television programs focused on American families and including their household servants. Beulah in Beulah, Mrs. Livingston in The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Hop Sing in Bonanza, Florida in Maude, Alice in The Brady Bunch, Nell in Gimme a Break, Mr. Belvedere in Mr. Belvedere, Dora in/ Married Dora, and Tony in Who's the Boss? are all characters who occupy the servant's role. Differences in connotation among the various television servants serves to mark the status of the family for whom they work. More specifically, there are differences between a British butler and an Oriental houseboy, between a Euro-American nanny and a woman of color working as a domestic, marking subtle lines of hierarchy within the family and, ultimately, within the larger community. Hazel is yet another program in which the household servant demarcates the different roles played within the family according to such factors as gender, age, race, and class.

     A popular program of the 1990s, The Nanny contin­ued this tradition. In this series a Jewish-American woman worked for a wealthy British man and his three children living in New York City. Unlike either maids of color or white maids older than their employers, this household servant was portrayed as fashionable, attractive (though still a bit loud), and more significantly, as a potential mate for her employer (indeed, the nanny and her employer were married and had a child by the series finale). It will be interesting to observe and analyze the continuing representation of servants in American television, because, although shifting in form and style, the servant continues to mark the status of a house and the roles of the people working and living under its roof.