Series Description

The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet TV show was a 30 minute family comedy series on ABC about the life adventures of Ozzie & Harriet Nelson and their sons Ricky & David. While there were scripts written to give some order to the filming, what audiences saw was pretty much the real lives of the Nelson Family. Due to the length of the series (14 years on the air), the Nelson boys were seen "growing up" on national television!

Ozzie and Harriet Cast

Ozzie Nelson .... Ozzie Nelson
Harriet Nelson .... Harriet Nelson
David Nelson .... David Nelson
Eric "Ricky" Nelson .... Eric "Ricky" Nelson
Don DeFore .... "Thorny" Thornberry
Parley Baer .... Darby
Lyle Talbot .... Joe Randolph
Mary Jane Croft .... Clara Randolph
Frank Cady .... Doc Williams
Skip Young .... Wally
Gordon Jones .... Butch Barton
June Blair .... June "Mrs. David" Nelson
Kristin Harmon .... Kris "Mrs. Rick" Nelson
Joe Flynn .... Mr. Kelley
Constance Harper .... Connie Edwards
Ivan Bonar .... Dean Hopkins
James Stacy .... Fred
Jack Wagner .... Jack
Charlene Salerno .... Ginger
Sean Morgan .... Sean
Greg Dawson .... Greg

Ozzie and Harriet Trivia:

The Nelsons' home on television was modeled after their actual home in Hollywood. Like many other family comedies, Ozzie's (the father's) occupation was never clearly defined. In the episode #160, "Rick, The Drummer", however, it was stated that Ozzie had at one time been an orchestra leader with his wife Harriet as the vocalist. That was actually also true during the 1930s in their real lives.

Before the TV show, there was an Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet radio show that aired from October 8, 1944 through June 8, 1954!. The radio and television programs were on the air simultaneously for two of those years! The boys were portrayed by professional actors in the beginning but were replaced by real life Ricky and David in 1949.

In the mid 1950s, Ricky Nelson had a very successful music career which also boosted the ratings of the TV show dramatically. All of his songs were either included during an episode or he would sing at the end of an episode.

For a very short time in 1960, the title of the series was changed to, "The Adventures of the Nelson Family".

When eventually both David and Ricky got married, their new brides joined the show.

In 1973 Ozzie and Harriet appeared on another short-lived TV show titled, "Ozzie's Girls" which appeared in syndication. The Nelsons took in two college girls as boarders in their home. The main plot-lines on the series were the differences involved in dealing with "daughters" rather than sons.

One of the sponsors for the series was the "Hotpoint Appliances" company. Some of their commercials featured an elf named "Happy Hotpoint". A very pretty young woman played the part of "Happy Hotpoint". In fact, it was her first role onscreen. Her name was "Mary Tyler Moore" who would later star on the "Dick Van Dyke Show (1961)" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)"!

The final episode of the series, "Ozzie's Game Room", dealt with the feelings that parents experience when there last child has left their home. Ozzie decided to remodel Ricky and David's room into a game room with a pool table but Harriet wouldn't hear of it. She wanted to leave it as their bedroom in some subconscious desire for them to never leave.