Oscar-winner Booth shines in 'Hazel' DVD

An early TV sitcom starring an Oscar-winning actress leads off this collection of new-to-DVD programs, scheduled to be in stores on Tuesday.

• "Hazel: The Complete First Season" (Sony, 1961-62, not rated, $39.95, four discs). Based on a popular panel comic strip in the Saturday Evening Post magazine (and still running in some newspapers around the country), the title character is the maid to a lawyer, his wife and their young son.

Don't ask why a homemaker with one child needs a maid. Just enjoy Shirley Booth (1952's best actress for "Come Back, Little Sheba"), who shines as a wisdom-dispensing, cleaning-and-cooking member of the family.

The show is a soft domestic sitcom in the tradition of "Ozzie & Harriet" and "Father Knows Best" — "Maid Knows Best," if you will. And Booth is a delight.

Extras: Full frame, 35 episodes, optional English subtitles, chapters.

• "La Femme Nikita: The Complete Fourth Season" (Warner, 2000, not rated, $99.98, six discs). Peta Wilson returns for a fourth season of this thrilling basic-cable series, a precursor to "Alias" and from some of the talent now working on "24." This season includes Nikita being coerced into marriage and more of the unexpected twists we've come to expect from this fast-paced show.

Extras: Full frame, 22 episodes, audio commentaries, deleted scenes, bloopers, subtitle options (English, French, Spanish), chapters.

• "Broken Saints: The Animated Comic Epic" (Fox, 2001, not rated, $49.98, four discs). This visually arresting animated fantasy is actually an online series. The apocalyptic sci-fi/horror stories are interesting, but the style takes some getting used to, with still pictures in the manner of a comic book, complete with thought/speech balloons (that are also verbalized).

Extras: Widescreen, 24 episodes, audio commentaries, featurettes, fan films, subtitle options (English, Spanish, French), chapters; DVD-Rom applications.

• "Star Trek Klingon Fan Collective" (CBS/Paramount,1967-2001, not rated, $42.99, four discs). Another collection of character-specific episodes from the many "Star Trek" TV series. These focus on Klingons and how their personalities and physical look have changed over the years.

Extras: Full frame/widescreen, 11 episodes, audio commentaries, text commentaries, optional English subtitles, chapters.