 On graduating from high school, Thaxton enlisted in the Navy, "barely hours" before he would have been drafted.Thaxton came to Los Angeles from Toledo, Ohio, in 1957, becoming, in his words, a "freelance announcer" and host of the highly rated "Leave It To Lloyd" talk show on KHJ-TV.He casually coined the term "freelance announcer" since his work in commercials was most active toward the end of the era of live television; Thaxton would go from venue to venue performing the commercials live, since videotape was not in wide use then.