The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

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The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

As television's longest running situation comedy, airing from 1952 to 1966 on the ABC network, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet provides a window into that era's perception of the idealized American family. The program portrayed the real-life Nelson family as they faced the minor trials and tribulations of suburban life: husband Ozzie (1906-1975), wife Harriet (1909-1994), and their two sons, David (1936-) and Ricky (1940-1985). Its gentle humor was enhanced by viewers' ability to see the boys grow up before their eyes from adolescents to young adulthood. Although Ozzie had no apparent source of income, the family thrived in a middle-class white suburban setting where kids were basically good, fathers provided sage advice, and mothers were always ready to bake a batch of homemade brownies. Critic Cleveland Amory, in a 1964 review for TV Guide, considered the wholesome program a mirage of the "American Way of Life." Behind the scenes, however, the Nelsons worked hard to evoke their image of perfection.

The televised Ozzie, who is remembered, with Jim Anderson and Ward Cleaver, as the definitive 1950s TV dad—a bit bumbling but always available to solve domestic mishaps—stands in stark contrast to Ozzie Nelson, his driven, workaholic, off-screen counterpart. The New Jersey native was a youthful overachiever who had been the nation's youngest Eagle Scout, an honor student, and star quarterback at Rutgers. Upon graduating from law school he became a nationally known bandleader while still in his twenties. In 1935, he married the young starlet and singer Harriet Hilliard. The couple debuted on radio in 1944 with The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, a fictionalized version of their own lives as young entertainers raising two small boys. The children were originally portrayed by child actors, until the real-life Nelson kids took over the roles of "David" and "Ricky" in 1949. Eager to translate their radio success to television, Ozzie negotiated a deal with ABC and wrote a film script titled Here Come the Nelsons. The 1952 movie, in which the radio show's Hollywood setting was transformed into an anonymous suburbia, served as the pilot for the durable television program.

Ozzie's agreement with the ABC network gave him complete creative control over the series. Throughout its fourteen-year run on the television airwaves, he served as the program's star, producer, director, story editor, and head writer. He determined his show would be less frenetic than other sitcoms, like I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners, where zany characters were continually involved in outlandish antics. Rather, his series would feature gentle misunderstandings over mundane mishaps, such as forgotten anniversaries and misdelivered furniture. The Nelsons never became hysterical, but straightened out their dilemmas by each episode's end with mild good humor. The focus was strictly on the Nelsons themselves and only rarely were secondary characters like neighbors "Thorny" Thornberry and Wally Dipple allowed to participate in the main action. This situation changed radically only late in the series after the Nelson boys married and their real-life wives joined the show to play themselves.

As the years went on, the show's focus shifted away from the parents and toward David and Ricky's teen experiences. David was portrayed as the reliable older brother, while Ricky was seen as more rambunctious and inclined to challenge his parents' authority. The younger brother's presence on the program was greatly expanded in 1957 with the broadcast of the episode "Ricky the Drummer." In real life, Ricky was interested in music and asked his father if he could sing on the show to impress a girl. Ozzie, who often based his scripts on the family's true experiences, agreed and allowed the boy to sing the Fats Domino hit "I'm Walkin"' in a party scene. Within days Ricky Nelson became a teen idol. His first record sold 700,000 copies as fan clubs formed across the nation. In 1958 he was the top-selling rock and roll artist in the country. To capitalize on the teen's popularity, Ozzie increasingly incorporated opportunities for Ricky to sing on the show. Filmed segments of Ricky performing such hits as "Travelin' Man" and "A Teenager's Romance" were placed in the final segment of many episodes. Often the songs were unconnected to that week's plot. The self-contained performance clips reveal Ozzie as a pioneer in the development of rock videos.

The TV world inhabited by the fictionalized Nelsons was a much different place than that occupied by the real-life family. Ozzie was an often distant and authoritarian father who demanded his boys live up to their squeaky-clean images. Family friend Jimmie Haskell commented that Ricky "had been raised to know that there were certain rules that applied to his family. They were on television. They represented the wonderful, sweet, kind, good family that lived next door, and that Ricky could not do anything that would upset that image." Critics have charged that Ozzie exploited his family's most personal moments for commercial profit. The minor events of their daily lives were broadcast nationwide as the family unit became the foundation of a corporate empire. Tensions grew as Ricky began to assert himself and create an identity beyond his father's control. Their arguments over the teen's hair length, bad attitude, and undesirable friends foreshadowed disagreements that would take place in homes around America in the 1960s. It is ironic that Ricky's triumph as a rock singer revitalized his parents' show and allowed Ozzie to assert his control for several more years.

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is not remembered as a particularly funny or well-written comedy. In many respects, it is a cross between a sitcom and soap opera. The incidents of individual episodes are enjoyable, but even more so is the recognition of the real-life developments of the Nelsons that were placed into an entertainment format. In the words of authors Harry Castleman and Walter Podrazik, " [The Nelsons] are an aggravatingly nice family, but they interact the way only a real family can … This sense of down to earth normality is what kept audiences coming back week after week." Perhaps the greatest legacy of Ozzie, Harriet, David, and Ricky is their continuing effect upon the American people. They and similar shows, such as Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, and The Donna Reed Show display an idealized version of 1950s American life free from economic problems, racial tensions, and violence more severe than a dented fender. Ozzie and his imitators perpetuated an idyllic world where all problems were easily resolved and all people were tolerant, attractive, humorous, inoffensive, and white. David Halberstam, author of The Fifties, cites such shows as creating a nostalgia for a past that never really existed. The New Yorker captured this sentiment when it published a cartoon of a couple watching TV, in which the wife says to her husband, "I'll make a deal with you. I'll try to be more like Harriet if you'll try to be more like Ozzie." The senior Nelsons returned to television in the short-lived 1973 sitcom Ozzie's Girls. The plot revolved around the couple taking in two female boarders—one black and one white. The attempt to add "relevance" to the Ozzie and Harriet formula proved a failure. Audiences preferred to remember them as icons of a simpler past and not facing an uncertain present.

—Charles Coletta