I used to visit the Stage 5 offices a good deal, and I well remember the impressive amount of Rick's fan mail. Every day at least one and sometimes two or even three Postal Service bags stuffed full of envelopes would arrive. They were from all over the world, even from countries behind the cold war's 'iron curtain' -- Hungary, Russia, Czechoslovakia, and the various Balkan states. I had quite a stamp collection.
The door you see led from the prop room to the Stage Five set. Note the red warning light between the telephone handset and the door. It was turned on to keep people from walking in when shooting was in progress. When that red light was on, lifting the telephone handset you see on the wall caused another light on the stage manager's telephone to flash, so he could answer (in a whisper) without having it ring and ruin the shot. When the light was off, the phone's bell would ring aloud inside the stage and anybody nearby would answer it.
For some reason, I still remember after 40 years the (partially visible) drawing on the door behind my mother. It was a hand-drawn illustration of three lazy-looking guys sitting with their feet up on a table. The table was covered with 'Ozzie & Harriet' scripts. The caption read, "One of these days, we've got to get organized."
The chicken wire you see in the background was used to hold canvas-covered soundproofing material against the stage wall. The shiny doorbell-shaped objects arranged vertically on the chicken wire were specially made washer nails used to attach the chicken wire and the soundproofing to the wall studs.
The wooden cabinet belonged to the property master and every drawer was filled with the most unlikely combination of materials. Cans of vegetable shortening (used to imitate ice cream, as it did not melt under the hot lights), green spray paint (for artificial shrubbery losing its gloss), and false light switches that could be nailed into place.
Across the midway was the set for the Addams Family, two stages to the east was the set for 'Mr. Ed', and two stages west was the stage for The Beverly Hillbillies. On pleasant days, the giant stage doors were left open to allow the sets to cool. Unless the stage was labeled as a 'hot set,' meaning nothing could be moved or continuity would be ruined, nobody minded if I wandered in to look at things and meet the cast members.
What a place it was for an 11-year-old kid.
--Mike Griffin
Thanks very much to Michael Griffin for this section of information.
Thank you very much, Connie Nelson and Michael Griffin, for the above picture.
Thank you very much, Connie Nelson and Michael Griffin, for the above picture and the information. Connie is Michael's mother.
"Whenever my friends find out my mom is married to your brother," I said to Ozzie, "they always want to know two things -- what the Nelsons are really like, and what Ozzie did for a living on the show. I can tell them more or less what I think you're like, but I have no idea what to say about the second part."
Ozzie laughed and said, "Tell them whatever you want to about us, but you have to remember never to mention our third son, Igor, who we keep chained in the basement. As for the other thing," he continued, "I've heard all the jokes about what I did for a living. All that everybody saw me do was hang around the house in a cardigan and wait to get into some trouble or other. They couldn't help but guess and make jokes about what I did to earn a living. It amused the heck out of me to hear what people came up with."
Harriet smiled and rolled her eyes up in an ironical "No kidding" expression.
"The funny thing is," he went on as he leaned forward on the sofa, "it wasn't really a secret at all. It's true that I was never seen at work or going to work or coming home from work. Also, none of the other characters ever mentioned what I did.
"But that was entirely intentional. If you think about it, you'll see the answer is right there along with the so-called mystery. Ozzie leaned back in his seat. Apparently it did amuse him to make people guess at what "wasn't really a secret at all."
"Oh, all right," he relented, when he saw my frown of incomprehension. "It's Christmas, and I'll give you another hint. Besides, you're too young to have heard our radio show, so that means you're missing part of the history," Ozzie explained. "You see, when the series on the air, we based the shows on the real-life premise that I was the leader of my band and Harriet was the singer."
"Then big band music went out of style, and I had to fold up my band. We could hardly pretend it was still going, so we wrote it out of the show. Then radio started to go out of style. Television was the new big entertainment form, and that's where we went. Anyway, to answer your friends when they ask what I did, tell them it's hidden in plain sight."
I sat back in my chair, determined to puzzle it out, or at least try to. Ozzie and Harriet resumed chatting with each other about how the evening had gone.
"HA!" I exclaimed several minutes later, loudly enough to cause them both to look suddenly in my direction. "I've got it -- or I think I do. When the TV series was on the air, in real life you were the producer and director and one of the stars of 'The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.' But you couldn't show yourself going to work.. because you were already at work. And you couldn't leave work and come home, because the set was a duplicate of this house.. so whether you showed yourself at work or at home, the audience couldn't have told the difference and would get confused. And none of the rest of the cast could talk about what you did, because you were the only one playing himself. The others didn't play themselves -- Harriet was a housewife, Dave was a lawyer, and so on."
Ozzie looked at Harriet. "Smart kid," he said to her, and winked at me. Then Harriet spoke. "Usually I could tell the difference, though," she said. "Usually."
Thank you very much, Michael Griffin, for the above story.
A Beatles song started playing on the car radio. I asked Ozzie what he thought of them.
"I hate them," he said.
"Really? You do? You told me once you liked rock and roll."
He laughed. "You didn't let me finish. I think Lennon is an excellent rock and roll creator. McCartney writes lovely ballads. That's why they're a good partnership. It's a combination that shouldn't work, but it does. And Ringo may not be the greatest drummer in the world, but he keeps such a solid beat you could drive a locomotive on top of it. None of them has a great voice, but for what they do, they..."
I interrupted him. "So then why do you hate them?"
"It's not hate," he said, then chuckled. "I used to say I hated them, and that their songs would never last. I'm sure I meant it at the time. But you know, looking back, probably 'annoyed' or 'aggravated' would have been a better word than 'hate.'
"See, I did what I could to give Rick a good start," he explained. "I put his performances in the shows, helped him with the business side, like negotiating contracts. But the thing is, he's truly a talented musician, and that's not just his father talking. Maybe I helped at the beginning, but he had million sellers and a stack of gold records without my help.
He went on. "And then along came the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and the rest of them and knocked Rick off the charts. So, I don't really hate the Beatles. I just hated what happened, for Rick's sake.
"But you're right, I said I like rock and roll and I really do," he added. "You know, I started in this business as a musician and I've never lost interest in what's current. After all, good music is good music -- rock.. pop.. symphonies.. jazz..." Ozzie stopped speaking and thought for a moment. "Well," he said, frowning a little, "Well, maybe not Dixieland jazz."
Thank you very much, Michael Griffin, for the above story.
Sponsors: Eastman Kodak Company, Coca-Cola
(long running TV situation comedy, 435 episodes)
Ozzie and Harriet was filmed at Hollywood Center Studios, formerly called General Service Studios.
HOME: 822 Sycamore, Hillsdale USA (it was an exact copy of the Nelsons' real Hollywood home )
The highest Nielsen rating for Ozzie and Harriet came in 1963-64, when it was the number 29 program.
Ozzie and Harriet was listed in Entertainment Weekly, The 100 Greatest TV Shows Of All Time, Collector's Edition which was published by Entertainment Weekly Books, a division of Time Inc. Home Entertainment.
Bob LeMond was the announcer on some of the Ozzie and Harriet episodes.
The camera operator was Fred Gately. When he left for another show, Ozzie chose William Mellor as a replacement. He was impressed with his work as the cinematographer on the film A Place In The Sun, especially the scenes filmed at Lake Arrowhead.
Steve Reeves, Mr. Universe 1950, was on Ozzie and Harriet in the early years. Does anybody know which episode he was in?
Out of the 50 greatest TV dads of all time, Ozzie Nelson was selected as number 21, according to the June 20-26, 2004 issue of TV Guide.
This school is on a street that has Ozzie Nelson's name.
"And once again I thanked the Lord for being so good to me-for bringing me Harriet and David and Ricky and all the blessings that have made my life such a happy one." (from the book "Ozzie" by Ozzie Nelson)
Thank you very much, Connie Nelson and Michael Griffin, for this picture.
When Harriet was pregnant with David, Joy Hodges filled in for her and sang with Ozzie Nelson's band at the Palmer House in Chicago.
Thank you very much, Connie Nelson and Michael Griffin, for this picture.
In 2003, David Nelson was mentioned in the news. He was stopped by a ticket agent in Orange County, California, at the John Wayne Airport. He was going to visit his daughter in Salt Lake City. Later, police officers recognized him and allowed him to get on his flight. The search for terrorists has caused men with David Nelson's name to be removed from airplanes and questioned by the FBI. David is a film producer in Newport Beach.
David directed several episodes of Ozzie and Harriet. He started his own commercial production company.
David had two boys by June Blair, his first wife. Daniel Blair Nelson was born on August 20, 1962. David was in the Air Force Reserve but he flew in for the event. While Dave completed his duty, his wife and his child stayed with Ozzie and Harriet. James Eric Nelson was born June 8, 1966 in Burbank, California at St. Joseph's Hospital.
He married Yvonne O'Connor Huston in 1975, adopting her three children.
13 year old Dennis Holt's family had no savings and his father had a disabling heart attack. For 7 years, Ozzie Nelson gave Dennis stand-in work on the Ozzie and Harriet show. (Dennis played the character of George in the episode, "The Randolph's Niece".) This impressed Dennis. His tiny Western International Media Corporation grew into a multi-billion dollar business. Western established a division to produce television commercials, Casablanca Productions, which David Nelson ran for 25 years.
Thank you very much, Connie Nelson and Michael Griffin, for this picture.
In the episode His Brother's Girl, June Blair plays the character of Jane.
In the episode David Hires A Secretary, June (pictured above) plays the part of Kathy Carson.
Her father is Tom Harmon, 1940 Heisman Trophy Winner from the University of Michigan, her mother is actress Elyse Knox, her brother is actor Mark Harmon and her sister is actress Kelly Harmon (was married to John DeLorean, who left General Motors to develop a futuristic car).
In real life when Kris was 11 years old, she had a crush on Ricky. She influenced her parents so she could meet him. When Ricky was playing a basketball game against the team of Kris' father, Tom, they did meet. She was 12 and he was 17. Three years later, Ricky asked her out. They eventually got married on April 20, 1963, when Ricky was 22 and Kris was 17. The honeymoon was in the Bahamas.
This is the website of Kristin Harmon.
In real life, she handled Ricky's fan clubs and organized a department to handle the mail that was coming in from around the world (more than 15,000 letters a week). She was the Nelson's secretary as well. Joseph Harper, her father, married Cecilia de Mille, Cecil B. de Mille's daughter. Connie was married to Don Nelson, Ozzie's brother, and has been a real estate agent in the Los Angeles area for many years.
The storyline of the episode involved the Nelsons organizing a pet show for the neighborhood kids. When Ozzie realized he didn't want to disappoint any of the children, he made everyone a Grand Prize Winner (best rabbit, best orange cat, and so on). The grand prize was to have been a ticket to the movies, but since we were all winners, Ozzie ended up taking fifteen of us. (Or so I remember.)
Thank you very much, Michael Griffin, for the picture (above) and this information.
Rick had a friend, Wally, played by Skip Young, that was added to the Ozzie and Harriet cast, around the time the boys started college, which gave the show some good comic moments. June Blair and Kris Harmon, David's and Rick's real life wives, respectively, also joined the cast.
Ozzie and Harriet shopped at the Emporium.
Ozzie Nelson started his band in 1930 at the Glen Island Casino. Harriet was the first vocalist with the band.
Tim's TV Showcase page for Ozzie and Harriet
The Nelson Brothers Website
Morty's TV page for Ozzie and Harriet
The University of Wyoming has a website up on Ozzie and Harriet and family, with pictures and information.
Sitcoms Online page for Ozzie and Harriet
People Magazine, the Jan. 20, 1986 issue, has an article, the Life and Death of the Boy Next Door, Ricky Nelson.
The Journal of Living, the Aug. 1954 issue, has an article, We Have a Happy Family, by Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.
Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky Nelson are featured on the front cover of Look Magazine, the Nov. 11, 1958 issue, and there is an article inside, The Men In My Life, by Harriet Nelson.
Sing, with Ozzie Nelson (1937), features Ozzie on the front cover. The booklet has words to over 250 songs and also has a timeline of Ozzie's early life and career.
People Weekly, the Sept. 7, 1987 issue. Actor Mark Harmon tries to gain custody of his sister Kris's son, Sam Nelson. Kris was married to Ricky Nelson.
Life Magazine, the Nov. 11, 1940 issue. Tom Harmon ( the father of Kelly, Mark, and Kris Harmon ) is on the front cover and the article is Tom Harmon of Michigan is Great Football Player. He was #98, an outstanding halfback at the University of Michigan.
Leave Ozzie and Harriet Alone written by Gregory Curtis (New York Times Magazine, January 19, 1997)
A Night to Remember [ENHANCED]. This is music from Rick Nelson and Fats Domino.