“There is an old saying that blood is thicker than water.”
We’ve had Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Gene Simmons with his Family Jewels, and even Snoop Dog’s Father Hood. It’s become a bit of a trend to follow these celebrity families around and watch the drama of their privileged lives unfold on our television screens. You might think it’s a relatively recent phenomenon, but would you believe they were doing it back in the infant days of television when we followed around a musician named Ozzie and his wife way back in 1952? No, we’re not talking about Ozzie Osbourne and his family. I’m talking about Ozzie and Harriet Nelson. They were television’s darling family before we ever heard about Lucy and Desi. The show actually started on radio like many of the fledgling industry’s early hits including the likes of Gunsmoke. Four years after the radio brought us The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet, they moved to television. While their two sons were played by actors on the radio, both David and Ricky Nelson joined the television show, and it went on to make television history, breaking records, some still held today. It was the first television series to ever hit 10 seasons, finishing with 14 still a sit-com record. It lasted from 1952 to 1966 with 436 episodes. Until The Simpsons, it was the longest running scripted television comedy and remains still the longest live-action scripted comedy ever on television. And while the stories were, of course, fictional, most aspects of the show were quite real. Their television home was modeled after their real home. Many of the family’s life stories found their way to the series. The four family members were quite real, and you just couldn’t fake these relationships.
As time went on, the series would change. In the 60’s, now-teenaged Ricky would go from the little brother to the star of the show and become television’s first teen idol. Long before David Cassidy or Davey Jones, there was Ricky Nelson. The show started to take advantage of his status and began to work his performances of his own music into the episodes. Ricky would have a pretty solid career. He was in the middle of a 1980’s comeback after a hit with Garden Party when his airplane crashed and killed him and his wife, who would also be a part of the show as Ricky’s wife toward the end of the series. The series found a new life in syndication in the 1970’s, which is where I first encountered the series. The syndication packages often ignored the early shows before Ricky took off for stardom, so I only got to see those episodes, and that was many years ago.
Ozzie and Harriet’s grandson and Ricky’s son Sam Nelson went on a 7-year journey to hunt down the original elements to all 436 episodes and begin to restore them. He found them often in horrible climate conditions and in great need of restoration, and so he took on that task as well. I had a chance to talk to Sam about that process, and you can listen to that conversation Here.
The 9th season begins with a new show sponsor in Coca Cola. We’ll get a few new intros from Coke and an early Anita Bryant role in one of the ads. There’s also a ton of product placement for the soda. They enjoy a lot of cokes over these two seasons. Another big change sees David getting married. It starts out with an episode where David ends up “helping” brother Rick out by pinch-hitting on some dates for his girl. Turns out she was really interested in David all along. The truth is that David was dating actress June Blair, and over the season break they married in real life. Nepotism was a way of life for this show, and it wasn’t long before they married the couple on the series and had her join the television as well as the real life family. Mostly I like the fact that it’s a real family connection, but honestly I found June a bit irritating. It could be her voice; it’s kind of like nails on a chalkboard for me. Season 10 would change the family dynamic with the newlyweds, to be sure.
Another change in Season 9 is we go quite a few episodes without Ricky singing at the end. They more than make up for it in the 10th season when Young World was his big single. They often played it several episodes in a row. When each comes a week apart is one thing. When you’re binging the show in a way they never could have imagined back in 1961, it can get a bit weary.
Over these two seasons you’ll actually see a little less of Ozzie and his buddies. There are plenty of those episodes, but most of them now featured Rick at college with the fraternity brothers, particularly Skip Young as Wally. A bit of trivia for you: Wally’s last name is Plumstead, which was the actor’s real name.
The 10th season also sees a lot of young Barry, who was played by Barry Livingston, who would go on to have a long and successful career next as Ernie on My Three Sons but also appearing on several films and television shows, and he’s still at it 60 years later with appearances a few times a year. He was the voice of Linus in You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown and has appeared in everything from The Orville, Hart To Hart, Ally McBeal, The Lucy Show, The West Wing, Veronica Mars, Monk, and both NCIS and CSI. Barry adds a bit of cute factor to the show that got lost when the Nelson brothers got older. I think they were trying to recapture a little bit of that. The 10th season ends with Ozzie and Harriet remembering an incident with Ricky from those early days which includes footage of the brothers back then. It was a little nostalgia from a show that today is all about nostalgia.
With the release of these two seasons we have four more to go. The last was in color. It’s my hope that the interest remains high enough for them to cross the finish line. You have four more seasons to look forward to. “That’ll give you something to shoot for.”
