Unlike the cliffhanger serials of the era, The Hazards of Helen is actually a film series made up of near autonomous single reel twelve-minute melodramas.

[2] Starring an independent, quick-thinking and inventive heroine, the series was filmed on location in the city of Glendale and in various parts of Tuolumne County in California.

The film offered repeated dramatic situations for "Helen," a telegrapher, using such props as a moving train, a runaway boxcar, a heroine in distress tied to the railroad tracks, and other dangers.

Along with Pearl White, who starred in Pathé's adventure serial The Perils of Pauline, Helen Holmes became a much talked about national celebrity and major box-office draw.

Prior to filming the "Night Operator at Buxton" (episode 18), Helen Holmes fell ill and Anna Q. Nilsson replaced her on that one occasion.