The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Biography Special (1952) Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Nelson, Ricky Nelson | Hollywood classic movie - video Dailymotion

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Ozzie and Harriet Nelson raise their two sons Ricky and David. As the sons age, they experience teenage dating problems, marriage and careers.  #hollywoodclassics #classichollywood #hollywoodclassicmovies #oldhollywoodclassicfilms #classichollywoodmovies #hollywood #classic

Transcript

00:00:00Your name's Carolyn, isn't it?

00:00:02Yes, it is.

00:00:03Oh, my name's Dave Nelson.

00:00:05The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, starring the entire Nelson family.

00:00:10For 22 years, they've visited our homes on radio and television.

00:00:15What we had with the Nelsons family was the ordinary problems that people still face today.

00:00:22Say, have we got any Tutti Frutti ice cream out in the freezer?

00:00:25Not unless you put some in there. Why?

00:00:27That's why when I watch Seinfeld, I think of the Nelson show a lot.

00:00:31Because they just take a very simple thing, and who stole the cookies? Where are the cookies?

00:00:35And they could do 20 minutes on cookies, you know.

00:00:37You sure you want to hear it? It's rock and roll, you know.

00:00:40I'm walking. Yes, indeed, I'm talking.

00:00:44I wonder if people today realize that, how really big he was.

00:00:48It was overwhelming. It really was.

00:00:50I could never...

00:00:53I spent my whole life trying to fight that fairy tale.

00:00:56First trying to be it, and then trying to just tell the truth.

00:01:00There's a huge discrepancy between what was real and what people think was real

00:01:04about the Nelson family and about the people involved.

00:01:15The television Nelsons, who many considered the 1950s ideal American family,

00:01:20were in fact patterned after the family of Ozzie Nelson's turn-of-the-century childhood.

00:01:29George Waldemar Nelson, the father of the father of America's favorite family,

00:01:33was the first American-born son of Swedish immigrants.

00:01:37He made a living as a clerk at Chase National Bank in New York City,

00:01:41but he made his mark in his off hours as a tireless public servant,

00:01:45semi-pro football player, boxer, and amateur entertainer.

00:01:51Billed as Jersey City's honey boy, George Nelson appeared in minstrel shows,

00:01:55doing material made popular by Broadway's first black star, Burt Williams.

00:02:05Jack of all trades George also took a correspondence art course,

00:02:09probably to impress a girl he'd met at an amateur show.

00:02:13Ethel Irene Orr pounded her own brand of ragtime piano and sang in a husky voice.

00:02:21George and Ethel formed the act of Nelson and Orr,

00:02:24and performed boy and girl duets all over New Jersey.

00:02:28In March of 1903, it became Nelson and Nelson.

00:02:32A year later, son Alfred joined the act, and on March 20th, 1906, so did Oswald.

00:02:40The family settled at 370 Teaneck Road in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.

00:02:50Ozzie enjoyed a boys-will-be-boys childhood,

00:02:54distinguished by the constant presence of music.

00:02:57At age five, Ozzie joined his brother to perform singing sketches

00:03:01between acts at their parents' amateur shows.

00:03:04Shortly before his 13th birthday, he had already made Eagle Scout.

00:03:09I was not quite big enough and not quite fast enough,

00:03:12and there always seemed to be other guys who had more native talents than I did,

00:03:16and it seemed to me that I had to try that much harder.

00:03:21My brother Al, who was much more mechanically inclined, built this elaborate erector set,

00:03:27and when it came time to have himself photographed,

00:03:30Ozzie insisted on being in the picture.

00:03:32And as he tells it on himself, he didn't want to be upstaged that much by Al.

00:03:38So he was looking out for himself from the very beginning.

00:03:46Ozzie Nelson's future wife was born Peggy Louise Snyder

00:03:50on July 18th, 1909, in Des Moines, Iowa,

00:03:53the only child of professional entertainers.

00:03:57Her father, Roy Snyder, who used the stage name of Roy E. Hilliard,

00:04:02directed and starred in stock theater companies throughout the Midwest.

00:04:07One of those companies featured a doe-eyed Iowa girl, Hazel Dell McNutt,

00:04:12soon to become Mrs. Roy Snyder.

00:04:16When young Peggy Louise joined her parents on the road, she performed.

00:04:20For the most part, the future symbol of American family stability

00:04:24was raised by an aunt and grandmother,

00:04:27but mostly by the sisters of St. Agnes Academy in Kansas City.

00:04:32Her family, they were actors, and they were traveling actors.

00:04:35And rather than look at it and, you know, be in therapy for 50 years

00:04:39because your parents weren't around when you were a kid,

00:04:42Harry would say, you know, it was so fantastic

00:04:44because I was around creative people all the time.

00:04:47Any illusion of stable family life ended when Roy and Hazel permanently separated.

00:04:53In 1925, 16-year-old Peggy Louise Snyder and her mother

00:04:58pulled up stakes for New York City, where Peggy Lou attended school

00:05:02and took dance and acting lessons.

00:05:05Along the way, she adopted the stage name Harriet Hilliard

00:05:09and quickly became the family breadwinner.

00:05:16The year before Harriet arrived in New York,

00:05:18Ozzie Nelson had won a scholarship to Rutgers University.

00:05:22He was an excellent student, but weighing a slight 131 pounds,

00:05:27he considered his biggest achievement three seasons on the varsity football team.

00:05:34Ozzie spent his 21st birthday at the bedside of his father.

00:05:38George Nelson died on March 20, 1927, of complications from a rare bone disease.

00:05:45He was 48.

00:05:47A local paper called his multifaceted life applied religion.

00:05:52Ozzie called him his lifelong inspiration.

00:05:57Ethel Orr Nelson suffered a nervous breakdown after her husband's death,

00:06:02and Ozzie and Al took turns caring for their two-month-old brother Donald

00:06:06until she recovered.

00:06:08And she never had another caller.

00:06:12There was never a date.

00:06:14She said to me on numerous occasions,

00:06:17I had the best, and that's all.

00:06:21Ozzie was a decent student at Rutgers Law School

00:06:24who supported himself and his family by leading a band,

00:06:28remarkable because he couldn't read music.

00:06:31Constant bookings forced him out of law and into entertainment full time.

00:06:36My days have grown so lonely

00:06:40When Ozzie Nelson sang, he styled himself after Rudy Valli,

00:06:44the most successful crooner of the day.

00:06:47Ozzie's facsimile act landed him on a New York radio show.

00:06:56I never tried to say what do I think the public would like.

00:07:00I tried to have us play the music that I liked,

00:07:03and fortunately, enough of the public liked it too.

00:07:09All of these bands would come out, you know,

00:07:11the Benny Goodmans and the Casa Loma,

00:07:14and these bands would come out and they'd bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,

00:07:17and the kids would come and stand around the dance floor,

00:07:20and then they'd go home.

00:07:22With Ozzie, Ozzie used to say,

00:07:24look, I'll tell you what we're going to do,

00:07:26we're going to play, oom-chink, oom-chink, oom-chink,

00:07:29because those people can dance to that, oom-chink, oom-chink.

00:07:32So that's the style that made us famous.

00:07:35I've got those, oh, what an easy job you've got,

00:07:39all you do is wave a stick through.

00:07:45And he really wasn't that much of a musician.

00:07:48I mean, he played a little saxophone and he played a little banjo,

00:07:53and he didn't really read music.

00:07:56And yet, you know, here's a guy making his living with an orchestra.

00:08:02It was incredible.

00:08:04Ozzie Nelson always balanced a renegade spirit

00:08:08with a moral conservatism.

00:08:10A lifelong teetotaler,

00:08:12he did not tolerate heavy drinking or smoking,

00:08:15particularly with women.

00:08:18Harriet Hilliard, who smoked and later enjoyed a vodka before dinner,

00:08:22appeared in her first Broadway play at 16,

00:08:26then sang, danced, and acted her way through New York.

00:08:30She worked four times at the legendary Palace Theatre,

00:08:33known as the Taj Mahal of vaudeville.

00:08:37She was a babe in the 30s, you know.

00:08:39She hung out at the Cotton Club

00:08:41and wore bias-cut dresses on the bandstand without any underwear,

00:08:44because you couldn't wear underwear, you'd have panty lines.

00:08:47And, you know, she had platinum blonde hair

00:08:50and smoked Marlboros from the time she was 13,

00:08:53and she took care of herself, and she took care of her mom,

00:08:56and she knew how to take care of herself.

00:08:59In 1930, Harriet Hilliard married vaudevillian Roy Sedley,

00:09:03a baggy-pants comedian with a fondness for alcohol.

00:09:06She left him after one year.

00:09:09And you'll remember, you'll remember me

00:09:15On New Year's Eve 1931,

00:09:17the Ozzie Nelson Orchestra performed at New York's Edison Hotel.

00:09:22Announcing the act and performing a specialty dance was Harriet Hilliard.

00:09:27She must have made an impression.

00:09:29Four months later, she and Ozzie met at Sardi's Restaurant,

00:09:33where he hired her to become the first girl singer in a big band.

00:09:38His idea was to perform boy-girl duets,

00:09:41just as George and Ethel Nelson had done.

00:09:45While Joe is sailing through space,

00:09:47Harriet and I will sing Put On an Old Pair of Shoes.

00:09:52During their run on the radio show,

00:09:54Ozzie and Harriet began to engage in little comedy bits with comedian Joe Penner.

00:09:59Ozzie somehow got his eight-year-old brother Donald into the act.

00:10:05It was just, I wasn't a professional.

00:10:07I wasn't, you know, and Oz just had the confidence in his family

00:10:12so that he felt that they could do anything,

00:10:14and you might as well get used to doing it

00:10:17because that's what was going to happen.

00:10:19On October 8, 1935,

00:10:21Ozzie Nelson married Harriet Hilliard in his mother's Hackensack apartment.

00:10:27One week later, Harriet left with her mother for Hollywood

00:10:31to make her screen debut in a film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

00:10:43In 1936, Harriet Hilliard came to Hollywood

00:10:46thinking she was going to make a low-budget potboiler called Twelve O'Clock Courage.

00:10:51Instead, she replaced Irene Dunn as Randolph Scott's love interest in Follow the Fleet,

00:10:57which became an Astaire-Rogers classic for its studio RKO.

00:11:03Harriet and Ginger became lifelong friends,

00:11:05the latter writing on her photograph,

00:11:08To that blessed child Harriet, whom I predict but tremendous things.

00:11:14There were many times that she wondered what would have happened to her career

00:11:18if she had, you know, not married,

00:11:21if she had done what her friend Ginger Rogers did, for example,

00:11:24and stayed at RKO and, you know,

00:11:27but she was ultimately happy with the choice that she made.

00:11:30Obviously, she really loved her family.

00:11:33David Ozzie Nelson was born in New York City on October 24, 1936.

00:11:39Most newborn babies don't look too good, Ozzie wrote,

00:11:42but David looked good right from the start.

00:11:45Put a cigar in his mouth and you had Winston Churchill.

00:11:49Two months after David's birth, Harriet returned to Hollywood to make a pair of musicals.

00:11:55In her absence, trumpeter Holly Humphreys, a camera buff,

00:11:59produced a short film starring David Nelson.

00:12:03Worried that his son is bald-headed,

00:12:06Ozzie enlists a doctor with a miracle tonic for hair growth.

00:12:15Doing Right by David qualifies as the first Nelson family situation comedy.

00:12:24The year after David's birth, the Nelson family and band moved to Hollywood

00:12:29to appear in a new radio show called Seeing Stars,

00:12:33where Ozzie and Harriet engaged in a friendly banter with celebrities.

00:12:39Trumpeter Holly Humphreys recorded an extraordinary procession of talent,

00:12:44but Seeing Stars ended after one season.

00:12:49The Ozzie Nelson family and orchestra once again called New York home,

00:12:54but the band continued its grueling tours around the United States.

00:12:58In its 14-year run, the Nelson orchestra scored 38 hits.

00:13:06The winning on-stage rapport continued during off hours.

00:13:11Between gigs, the band members and their wives stayed together,

00:13:15often at the beach because athletic Ozzie loved the ocean.

00:13:21No big band was ever healthier than the Nelson band.

00:13:25Ozzie had a rule that you couldn't get drunk before 11 o'clock.

00:13:29That was a rule.

00:13:31If you did, you could find $50.

00:13:34But this drummer, you could always tell when he'd had a drink

00:13:38because he'd start hitting the bass drum too hard,

00:13:41and Ozzie'd say, Joe, $50.

00:13:47In the little novelty songs he wrote, Ozzie drew on his experiences.

00:13:52Like the time he needed a musician right before a show.

00:13:56It became a minor hit and still has the longest

00:13:59and probably hardest to remember title of any record ever made.

00:14:03I'm looking for a guy who plays alto and baritone

00:14:07and doubles on a clarinet and wears a size 37 suit.

00:14:14Two months after Ozzie recorded that song,

00:14:17Harriet gave birth to Eric Hilliard Nelson.

00:14:20On May 8, 1940.

00:14:22It was an era when many thought

00:14:25singing stars and motherhood didn't mix.

00:14:28I know when Harriet was pregnant with Ricky

00:14:31and we were just on a very successful theater tour

00:14:34and our then manager said,

00:14:36that's going to wash you right up in show business,

00:14:39you know that, don't you?

00:14:41Ricky celebrated his first birthday

00:14:44by taking his first tentative steps

00:14:48into the outstretched arms of Brother David.

00:14:51It was one of those things where it's the older brother

00:14:54is responsible for the younger brother, and I always got it.

00:14:58You know, if something happened to Rick

00:15:01and I was quote-unquote in charge,

00:15:03so I became Mother Nelson for a long time.

00:15:08From the beginning, Ricky created his own private world.

00:15:12He spent hours beside a living room heating vent,

00:15:15and beneath a radio console listening to classical music.

00:15:22Oh, you men, big and little, you're all alike.

00:15:25I cook and I bake for you, and what do I get?

00:15:28Nothing.

00:15:29You're lucky, we get tummy aches tonight.

00:15:32For 3 seasons, Ozzie, Harriet, and the band

00:15:35appeared on the Red Skelton radio show.

00:15:38Harriet shined playing straight man

00:15:41to Skelton's soon-to-be classic cast of characters.

00:15:44The Skelton show ended when Red received his draft notice.

00:15:48Ozzie, pushing 40 and too old to enlist,

00:15:51looked for a radio show of his own.

00:15:54This time, a radio show where he and Harriet

00:15:57could just be themselves.

00:15:59A novel concept, considering other radio shows

00:16:02starred former vaudevillians doing their schtick on the air.

00:16:07But another up-and-coming talent

00:16:09shared Ozzie's belief that real people are funny too.

00:16:14We always felt the closer you got to the personality of the guy

00:16:18in real life who was doing the part or the key role in a show,

00:16:23the better off you were, because you could be natural.

00:16:27And Ozzie was always natural. He was a great talker.

00:16:30The Ozzie Nelson Orchestra toured for the last time

00:16:33in the summer of 1944.

00:16:36On October 8th, their 9th wedding anniversary,

00:16:39The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

00:16:42premiered on coast-to-coast radio.

00:16:45What didn't you like about being a bachelor?

00:16:48Well, I had to sew my own buttons on,

00:16:50wash out my own shirt, eat dinner alone.

00:16:53But things are different now.

00:16:55Yeah, I don't have to eat dinner alone anymore.

00:16:58For the first five seasons of the radio show,

00:17:01Ozzie Nelson employed actors to play his sons.

00:17:05Beginning on February 20th, 1949,

00:17:08sons David and Ricky would play David and Ricky

00:17:12for the next 17 years.

00:17:26David and Ricky gave ample evidence

00:17:28that they had inherited the Nelsons' athletic talent.

00:17:33And when they heard that Bing Crosby's son

00:17:36had appeared on their parents' Christmas show,

00:17:38David and Ricky figured it was time to see

00:17:41if they had inherited any show business genes.

00:17:44Ozzie tested them in a rehearsal before a live audience.

00:17:48Rick got so many giant laughs.

00:17:51I mean, it had been a horrible temptation,

00:17:53even though my father would say,

00:17:55well, I don't want my kids in show business.

00:17:58You know, I mean, here's somebody

00:18:01who's a goldmine.

00:18:03David, we're not trying to pry into your personal affairs,

00:18:06but why don't you just tell us about it?

00:18:08Maybe we can help you.

00:18:09It's kind of silly, I guess.

00:18:11See, Grace Johnson invited me to her party Friday night,

00:18:14and I told her I'd come.

00:18:15Well, that sounds very nice.

00:18:16Yeah, but our team is supposed to play basketball Friday night,

00:18:19so I gotta tell her I can't make it.

00:18:21Is David a dope pop?

00:18:23Ricky, read your comic book.

00:18:25When they first came around,

00:18:27they were kind of pains in the butt

00:18:29They were sitting back there fooling with the drums

00:18:31and all like that, you know.

00:18:33So the musicians didn't like it too much.

00:18:35But they became professionals after a while.

00:18:38They were nice kids, both of them.

00:18:40The Nelson family had moved to California in 1941

00:18:44for the Red Skelton radio show.

00:18:47Ozzie bought a house in the Hollywood foothills

00:18:50at 1822 Camino Palmaro.

00:18:54The boys attended local public schools,

00:18:57played with the neighborhood kids,

00:19:00and ate home-cooked meals with both parents.

00:19:03All they seemed to dread were long lectures from a driven dad.

00:19:08And he talked and he talked and he had strong opinions,

00:19:11and he was sweet about it.

00:19:13He wasn't arrogant or he wasn't unpleasant,

00:19:17but he was persistent.

00:19:19He talked.

00:19:21In 1951, Ozzie Nelson talked Universal Pictures

00:19:25into shooting the script he and brother Don

00:19:28had written for the Nelson family's screen debut.

00:19:37Say, don't I know you from somewhere?

00:19:39Good morning.

00:19:40Don't tell me you finally decided to get up.

00:19:46Make a simple statement, right away Dave gets belligerent.

00:19:49The word is belligerent.

00:19:51Big man owns a dictionary.

00:19:54Right from the start,

00:19:55Ricky performed like a scene-stealing natural,

00:19:58but David was painfully self-conscious.

00:20:01They had this cowboy outfit that I wore and Rick wore one too,

00:20:05but mine had starch right in here,

00:20:08and plus thinking of myself as fat,

00:20:10every time I sat down the starch in the shirt

00:20:13would just stick out like that, you know,

00:20:15which I thought gave me a couple more inches of badness.

00:20:19Without being too darling and too cute or anything,

00:20:24they were real people,

00:20:26and the picture, Here Come the Nelsons,

00:20:30showed them that way.

00:20:32You and millions of other radio fans

00:20:34have wanted to see the Nelsons in all their hilarious glory,

00:20:38and here they are, the most listened to,

00:20:40the most laughed at, best loved family in radio.

00:20:44Ozzie Nelson worked out an unprecedented 10-year contract

00:20:48with the fledgling ABC network.

00:20:51He would be the show's producer, director, and head writer.

00:20:55To this day, no one has controlled one show so much for so long.

00:21:01We had a clause in our contract

00:21:03that gave us total artistic control.

00:21:05I don't think I could function without artistic control

00:21:09because I think it's devastating

00:21:11to try to do any sort of entertainment by committee.

00:21:16The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,

00:21:18starring the entire Nelson family...

00:21:20The television series premiered on October 3, 1952.

00:21:24America finally saw the Nelsons they heard on radio.

00:21:29Here they are, America's favorite family, the Nelsons.

00:21:33You better watch out, David.

00:21:35I may be small, but I'm awful mean.

00:21:38Hey, take it easy, will you?

00:21:40What's all the noise about?

00:21:42I'm in high school now, and I'm getting a little bit too old

00:21:44to get in these silly arguments with you.

00:21:46Oh, yeah? Yeah.

00:21:47Oh, yeah? Yeah.

00:21:48Oh, yeah? Oh, calm down, will you, fellas?

00:21:51You better tell them to be careful, Pop.

00:21:53I'm getting pretty strong, boy.

00:21:55That's a laugh.

00:21:56Oh, yeah? Have you seen my muscles lately?

00:21:58What's the matter? Can't you find them either?

00:22:01Roles were carved in granite.

00:22:04Ozzie, the slightly befuddled but loving dad

00:22:07with no identified occupation.

00:22:10Harriet, the loving wife, mom, and perpetual straight lady.

00:22:15David, the earnest, by-the-book older brother

00:22:18and perpetual straight man.

00:22:21And Ricky, the irrepressible.

00:22:26We went to the show the other day,

00:22:28and this guy in the picture knew a secret.

00:22:30And he said to this other guy,

00:22:31you give me $1,000, and I'll tell you this secret.

00:22:34Now, just a second, Ricky.

00:22:35That's blackmail or extortion or something.

00:22:38You know what this guy in the picture said?

00:22:40What did he say?

00:22:41Leave us, or I'll call it a gift.

00:22:44What people watching the show got from the Nelsons

00:22:49was this feeling of reality that these were real people

00:22:53really in love with each other, a good family,

00:22:56a family that cared about one another.

00:22:59And that's what most people do want out of their family life.

00:23:04But most people don't have a version of their family life

00:23:07beamed weakly to 30 million Americans.

00:23:10The line between fantasy and reality blurred further

00:23:14by Nelsons playing Nelsons watching real-home movies.

00:23:20Is it over yet?

00:23:21Oh, now, David, those were very nice pictures of you.

00:23:24I certainly enjoyed them.

00:23:26Weren't you a chubby little rascal?

00:23:29The Russian government, at the height of the Cold War,

00:23:33filmed the Oz and Harriet show

00:23:35because they felt that it represented the American culture.

00:23:40Ozzie Nelson insisted on superior production values

00:23:45and assembled a loyal, well-paid staff.

00:23:49Employees became extended family

00:23:52and joined in family celebrations,

00:23:55like surprising Rick on his 14th birthday.

00:23:59Happy birthday to you

00:24:02Happy birthday dear Ricky

00:24:05Amid the genuine love and affection

00:24:08came the brutal demands of television production

00:24:11and a fishbowl existence.

00:24:14Something had to give, and for Rick, it was school.

00:24:19Rick was very conscious of not having an education,

00:24:22so for him to sit and actually write a letter

00:24:27took him a long time,

00:24:29and he was very conscious of the spelling being incorrect

00:24:32and the grammar being incorrect.

00:24:34Everybody did have a definite responsibility

00:24:37because if I ever did something that was really not right

00:24:41or out of line or whatever,

00:24:43it would have involved other people, you know?

00:24:46The clause I remember was the morals clause,

00:24:50which was read often to us by my father,

00:24:54and we realized that if we screwed up,

00:24:57we could put 40 people out of work real fast,

00:25:00plus their families wouldn't eat.

00:25:02Mindful of the morals clause,

00:25:0414-year-old Ricky would lose his virginity

00:25:07on a family vacation in Europe,

00:25:09with some help from a friend.

00:25:12He took us to an area that had some lovely ladies

00:25:15that used to walk around, right?

00:25:17He loaned Rick his derby hat and a cane,

00:25:20and I thought that was the last time I was going to see

00:25:23a man who was disappearing down this alley in London,

00:25:26twirling his cane with his derby hat with his big blonde

00:25:29that he couldn't get his arm over his shoulder.

00:25:33How old was he?

00:25:3514.

00:25:3714.

00:25:39You're kidding.

00:25:40This is what you were doing,

00:25:42and we all thought that you were playing football.

00:25:45I was. Well, I was.

00:25:47Irrepressible Ricky, right?

00:25:49By the mid-1950s,

00:25:51television and the adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

00:25:54had become fixtures of American culture,

00:25:57but the power each had to influence public behavior

00:26:00still came as a shock.

00:26:03Say, have we got any tutti-frutti ice cream out in the freezer?

00:26:06Not unless you put some in there. Why?

00:26:08Oh, I was just wondering.

00:26:10Did you want some now?

00:26:11Oh, no, not necessarily.

00:26:13We had a fine big dinner.

00:26:15It's just we didn't have any dessert.

00:26:17How about getting some tutti-frutti ice cream?

00:26:19I thought we all agreed we could do without desserts for a few days

00:26:22and cut down on our calories.

00:26:24It's all right with me if Pop can take it.

00:26:26If Pop can take it? Are you kidding?

00:26:29Ozzie's tutti-frutti rhapsody and ensuing goose chase

00:26:33sent millions of Americans in search of the flavor,

00:26:37but the rush on ice cream would be nothing compared to the stampede

00:26:41created by one of the Nelsons themselves.

00:26:45Hey, Mom, Pop, Ricky's on television.

00:26:48Even down in the basement?

00:26:49No, he's really on television.

00:26:55The older of the Nelson boys, David, appears as David Nelson.

00:26:59He was presumably playing himself,

00:27:01but from the beginning, the real David Nelson,

00:27:04a typical self-conscious teenager,

00:27:06looked upon his television character as a separate invention.

00:27:10I had to have some kind of protecting facade as an actor

00:27:16to be able to do some of the stuff that we were asked to do,

00:27:20even in the name of a lot of money and humor.

00:27:24For Dave, it was a little harder.

00:27:26David had to really study his lines.

00:27:28I had to go over his lines a lot with David.

00:27:30He'd get them, and he'd do them, and Ricky just...

00:27:34I think I admired my father so much, and he was such a doer,

00:27:39and he had accomplished so many things in his life

00:27:42that I was really trying to live up to an image that I admired.

00:27:49And in doing that, I probably tied myself up in a few knots occasionally.

00:27:55Sold to the public as Ricky, but known as Rick to his friends,

00:27:59David's brother responded to pressure by appearing oblivious to it.

00:28:04He was shy and distant and retreated into his love of music,

00:28:09intent to listen, play, or sing all by himself.

00:28:14When we'd go over for dinner on Sunday night,

00:28:17he would sometimes hide in the closet

00:28:19and put mattresses up so we couldn't hear him

00:28:22and practice his guitar or drums or something,

00:28:25and he wouldn't even show up.

00:28:27Ozzy sensed the rock & roll title wave

00:28:30and wrote a show where Rick briefly impersonated his hero,

00:28:33Elvis Presley.

00:28:36Rick always said he decided to record

00:28:38when a date paid more attention to Elvis than to him.

00:28:42Whatever the story, his first recording wound up on national television.

00:28:50Folks, may I have your attention?

00:28:53Ricky Nelson's going to sing I'm Walking.

00:28:56APPLAUSE

00:28:58I'm walking, yes, indeed, I'm talking for you and me

00:29:03And I'm hoping that you'll come back to me

00:29:08I'm lonely as I can be

00:29:11And I'm waiting for your company

00:29:14And I'm hoping that you'll come back to me

00:29:18I was there, I mean, the set was amazing.

00:29:22I mean, it was like a dream come true.

00:29:26I was there. I mean, the set, everyone just kind of went wild.

00:29:29They just kind of applauded him.

00:29:31I think the first week he had like 10,000 letters.

00:29:34There were bags of mail being delivered to Stage 5.

00:29:37Just mail, mail, mail.

00:29:39This thing just went right through the roof.

00:29:41They said that it was the largest amount of mail,

00:29:44and this was over a period of years,

00:29:46ever received by any celebrity in Hollywood,

00:29:49way surpassed Elvis, because he was the boy next door,

00:29:52because 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds could sit down

00:29:55and write those loving letters, and it was wonderful.

00:29:58It was just beautiful.

00:30:00You didn't get any adverse mail when you...

00:30:02We got, strangely enough, we got quite a few at the beginning,

00:30:06we got quite a few letters from people who said

00:30:08they never thought that a nice American family like ours

00:30:11would show anything as low down as rock and roll.

00:30:15A few weeks after Ricky's appearance,

00:30:17Ozzy had written a thinly-veiled response to the critics.

00:30:22Hey, Mom?

00:30:23Yes, dear?

00:30:24What's your honest opinion of rock and roll?

00:30:26Well, I'm not a good one to ask.

00:30:29Your father and I have been pretty well brainwashed by now,

00:30:31so I can at least stay in the same room with it.

00:30:34Mom, I know you like some of it.

00:30:36Well, I must admit there's a lot of excitement to it.

00:30:39I guess it's the musical expression

00:30:41of the modern teenager's enthusiasm or something.

00:30:44I'm not gonna knock it, I'll tell you that much.

00:30:46I think teenagers like to feel that they're just people

00:30:49with normal, average reactions,

00:30:51and rhythm and blues records usually tell a story

00:30:53or express an emotion.

00:30:54Oh, I agree with that.

00:30:56In fact, it leads right into your song.

00:30:58Here, I'll give you a downbeat.

00:31:03It's late, it's late

00:31:05We gotta get on home

00:31:06It's late, it's late

00:31:08We've been gone too long

00:31:09Too bad, too bad

00:31:11Ozzy Nelson was a goofball only on the show.

00:31:14A shrewd businessman and number-one hitmaker himself,

00:31:18he made certain that record stores

00:31:20had Rick's latest single in stock

00:31:22by the time he sang it on the show.

00:31:25And when Rick performed the song,

00:31:27Ozzy made sure he had an enthusiastic audience.

00:31:32I was asked to be a head bobber for Ricky,

00:31:35so if he were doing a scene for his singing,

00:31:38he always had a girlfriend in the singing joint,

00:31:40I was one of those heads going like this,

00:31:43and I loved it.

00:31:45By 1958, Rick had assembled a tight band

00:31:48that included future legend guitarist James Burton.

00:31:53Each summer between television seasons,

00:31:55Rick and the band went on four- to six-week tours.

00:32:00While other rockers performed together

00:32:02in variety show reviews,

00:32:04only Elvis Presley and Rick Nelson

00:32:07performed as single acts,

00:32:10and James Burton played for both.

00:32:15I mean, the girls, screaming girls,

00:32:17would get in front of the limousine,

00:32:18just lay down and say,

00:32:19please run over me, Ricky.

00:32:21You know, just crazy.

00:32:23They had to put a fence

00:32:24all the way around Ozzy and Harriet's house

00:32:26at Camino Pomero

00:32:27to keep the little girls out there

00:32:28climbing up and climbing through the window.

00:32:30Was there ever any jealousy between the two of you?

00:32:33None whatsoever.

00:32:37No, I don't think so.

00:32:40I don't know.

00:32:41Well, he was successful, right,

00:32:42and I was kind of applauding in the background.

00:32:45But I love that.

00:32:46I mean, when girls started screaming

00:32:48and tearing his clothes,

00:32:50I mean, that was a joke.

00:32:52I mean, that was incredible.

00:32:55During the two years Elvis served in West Germany,

00:32:58Rick Nelson challenged him for chart domination,

00:33:01outscoring Presley 12 to 11 in top 20 hits.

00:33:06Rick was barely 18,

00:33:08and selling records as fast as the people he idolized,

00:33:12people whose company he now kept,

00:33:14if just for a moment.

00:33:16And I said to Rick,

00:33:17there he is, let's go over and introduce ourselves.

00:33:19We're making ourselves,

00:33:20weaning our way through the people,

00:33:22and we get up to Jerrely Lewis,

00:33:24and Jerrely Lewis is standing there in the corner,

00:33:27relieving himself,

00:33:29on the rug,

00:33:31right in front of everybody,

00:33:33for which Rick took my arm,

00:33:35and I looked and said,

00:33:36guess we're not going to meet him, huh?

00:33:38He said, we're leaving.

00:33:41Back on television,

00:33:42all was right with the Nelsons.

00:33:44In 1959, due largely to the success of Rick's music,

00:33:48ABC committed to another five years of adventures.

00:33:52But the Nelsons were no longer alone,

00:33:55having spawned a host of happy, thriving sitcom families.

00:34:01Those were the model families

00:34:03that you wished, that the world wished,

00:34:07their family would be,

00:34:12and that most families were not.

00:34:14Those of us who actually created family television

00:34:17were keenly aware of our power and our responsibility.

00:34:21We were cognizant of the fact

00:34:23that our shows were not being beamed into perfect families.

00:34:26And in the absence of a good family,

00:34:28it's okay to watch a television show

00:34:30that gives you values and ethics

00:34:32and passes on a small, I grant you small, moral lesson.

00:34:37That's okay.

00:34:38It never achieved a number one rating,

00:34:41never won a single Emmy Award,

00:34:43but The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

00:34:45stood alone as an icon of American culture.

00:34:49Perhaps because of moments like this,

00:34:51which Ozzie singled out as a favorite

00:34:54in his catalog of 435 episodes.

00:34:59You know, Dave, sometimes parents like us

00:35:02are a little reluctant to let you guys go.

00:35:06So if we seem to hang on to you,

00:35:08you've just got to be a little understanding about us.

00:35:11See, we want you to grow up and get along without us,

00:35:15and yet we hate to lose our little boys.

00:35:20Seems like yesterday,

00:35:22when I'd go into your bedroom at night,

00:35:25and two little toe-headed guys would be sleeping there,

00:35:30and I'd go over and kiss you good night.

00:35:35Now I have to shake hands.

00:35:39Yeah, I know what you mean, Pop.

00:35:41Well, you better not keep the others waiting, dear.

00:35:44Okay, and thanks again, Mom.

00:35:46Good night, dear.

00:35:47Good night, Dave.

00:35:48Good night, Pop.

00:35:51You wouldn't dare.

00:36:06The Television Nelsons were an ideal American family

00:36:10living in an unnamed but ideal American neighborhood.

00:36:14It isn't sex you're afraid of.

00:36:16You can say yes or no to that.

00:36:18It's love.

00:36:19That's what you can't have.

00:36:20Peyton Place, which showed even small-town America

00:36:23had its share of rape, incest, and murder,

00:36:26was the best-selling book of the 1950s.

00:36:29Ozzie and Harriet it wasn't.

00:36:33But the film version did include David Nelson

00:36:36in the role of Ted Carter,

00:36:38whose girlfriend is raped by her stepfather,

00:36:41whom she later kills while David is off at war.

00:36:46Yes, there'll never be another like Rio Bravo.

00:36:49Rick took off from boy-next-door duties

00:36:52to play Colorado, a gunslinger who kills six men.

00:36:56This has been one of the few peaceful scenes

00:36:58from the picture Rio Bravo

00:37:00with John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Walter Brennan here.

00:37:05Tell them about Ricky Nelson.

00:37:08Oh, yeah, that's me.

00:37:11In their films, Rick and David relished the chance

00:37:13to play against their squeaky-clean TV personas.

00:37:17Doing so in their real lives just came naturally.

00:37:27At least you could have tried to talk him out of it.

00:37:30I didn't know about it any more than you did.

00:37:32Besides, he doesn't have to discuss everything he does with me.

00:37:35In fact, he doesn't have to discuss anything.

00:37:37Why doesn't he?

00:37:39Because he's old enough to make his own decisions.

00:37:43That was the thing I loved about Ozzie and Harriet.

00:37:46Wherever their interests led them, they tried it out.

00:37:52They weren't cautious.

00:37:54They didn't say, oh, don't kill yourself, don't do that.

00:37:57They let the boys do whatever.

00:38:04Nice work, Dave.

00:38:07Whenever you're ready, fellas.

00:38:09What are you going to do first, Rick?

00:38:11I'm going to perform a solid cross and a pirouette back.

00:38:13Good luck.

00:38:15David became smitten with the trapeze,

00:38:17playing a psycho killer in a film called The Big Circus.

00:38:21Rick was game for anything,

00:38:23and Ozzie was game to make a show about the boys' latest interest.

00:38:28David later spent five years

00:38:30touring with the best trapeze acts in the world.

00:38:41I knew Mary Lou

00:38:43I knew Mary Lou

00:38:45I knew Mary Lou

00:38:47I'm so in love with you

00:38:50I knew Mary Lou

00:38:53We never part

00:38:55So hello, Mary Lou

00:38:57Goodbye, heart

00:39:00Rick Nelson tried his hand at a lot in his youth,

00:39:03fast cars, the trapeze, even bullfighting.

00:39:08The one thing that stuck was his music.

00:39:11But what also stuck was his image as a teen idol,

00:39:15a moniker he hated almost as much

00:39:17as being lumped with synthetic confections like Fabian.

00:39:21One of the reasons I think the records hold up today

00:39:24is that Rick was conscientious.

00:39:26We would never accept a take

00:39:28until everybody's playing on each take was perfect.

00:39:31Mary Lou

00:39:33We never part

00:39:35Goodbye, heart

00:39:38By sheer force of personality,

00:39:41Ozzie could exert a Svengali-like hold over his sons,

00:39:45pushing them to achieve his goals.

00:39:48Rick drew the line with music.

00:39:50Joe Byrne remembers when he kicked his father out

00:39:53of a recording session.

00:39:55I was there.

00:39:57He said, best that you leave, Dad.

00:39:59We gotta get this done. I appreciate it.

00:40:03Oh, that hurt, Ozzie.

00:40:06Oz left.

00:40:08He bit the bullet, and Ozzie respected Rick for it.

00:40:12He liked rock & roll and everything,

00:40:15but he always thought I should have, you know,

00:40:18saxophones and things like that, you know,

00:40:21and I just couldn't relate to that.

00:40:24I'm a traveling man

00:40:26Made a lot of stops

00:40:29All over the world

00:40:32And in every part

00:40:34I own the heart

00:40:36Of at least one lovely girl

00:40:39Travelin' Man became the biggest hit of Rick Nelson's career.

00:40:43Because of its success,

00:40:45Ozzie Nelson brought the song back on the show,

00:40:48this time with pictures,

00:40:50making Travelin' Man television's first music video.

00:40:55Pretty Polynesian baby

00:40:58Over the sea

00:41:00I remember the night

00:41:03When we walked in the sands of Waikiki

00:41:07And I held you oh so tight

00:41:12Oh, I'm a traveling man

00:41:14They all looked at him, you know, is he really that talented,

00:41:17or is it just because he has so much money and he's so good looking

00:41:20and he has all this exposure on television?

00:41:22Sometimes the depth and quality of Rick's music

00:41:25got lost in the white bread context of the show.

00:41:29Here, he sings a song about suicidal depression,

00:41:32Baker Knight's classic Lonesome Town,

00:41:35to a bunch of dreamy-eyed prom goers

00:41:38munching finger sandwiches in the Nelson's Den.

00:41:42Goin' down to Lonesome Town

00:41:48Where the broken hearts stay

00:41:55Goin' down to Lonesome Town

00:42:00To cry my troubles away

00:42:06If you really want to find an interesting chapter

00:42:10on being subtle, it's Rick Nelson

00:42:13and the brilliance of that subtlety.

00:42:19Maybe down in Lonesome Town

00:42:25I can learn to forget

00:42:31He harbored that hurt for most of the rest of his life.

00:42:38He just could not be accepted by his peers.

00:42:41There was always that wall of that little Ricky or the teenager

00:42:46from television in front of him.

00:42:50I could never be loved

00:42:55By anyone sweeter than you

00:43:01Kristen Harmon, a typical 11-year-old girl,

00:43:04had a mad crush on a boy she had never met.

00:43:08He was really funny and he was cute

00:43:11and I just always felt very possessive of him.

00:43:15I'm sure there's a trillion other women around my age

00:43:18that felt exactly the same way,

00:43:20but I felt like we had something special together,

00:43:23although I didn't know him.

00:43:25Kristen's father was a bona fide American hero.

00:43:29Tom Harmon, old 98, won the Heisman Trophy

00:43:33rushing for the University of Michigan.

00:43:36He later served, with distinction,

00:43:38as a fighter pilot during World War II.

00:43:41He married actress Elise Knox,

00:43:44and gave up her career to become a full-time wife and mother

00:43:48to Chris, Kelly, and Mark Harmon.

00:43:52I harangued my parents mercilessly

00:43:55to get an invitation to meet Rick,

00:43:58so that pushed them into knowing the Nelsons

00:44:02probably better than they would have had I not been so insistent.

00:44:06Twelve-year-old Chris met 17-year-old Rick

00:44:09at a basketball game he was playing against her father's team.

00:44:13She put the photograph of them together on her wall,

00:44:16under which she wrote in block print,

00:44:19Nothing is impossible.

00:44:21Rick asked her out three years later.

00:44:24She had a big crush on Rick.

00:44:26You could just see it. She was just, you know, like that.

00:44:29She was a beautiful girl.

00:44:31Chris was very attractive.

00:44:33I think that Rick was in love with her,

00:44:38and I think by that time that he probably wanted a family.

00:44:43Almost 23-year-old Rick Nelson

00:44:46married 17-year-old Chris Harmon on April 20, 1963.

00:44:52Their plane ride to the Bahamas

00:44:54marked Chris's farthest trip away from her parents.

00:44:57She felt queasy, tearful, and homesick for most of her honeymoon.

00:45:02She was also three months pregnant.

00:45:09Tracy Kristen Nelson was born in Santa Monica, California

00:45:13at St. John's Hospital on October 25, 1963.

00:45:18And my mom told me this outrageous story.

00:45:21I mean, in my mind, it's fairly outrageous,

00:45:24about how because Ozzie didn't want people to think

00:45:27that my parents had had sex before they were married,

00:45:30he and Tom kind of got together

00:45:33and decided that they were going to change my birth certificate weight,

00:45:37and they did that.

00:45:39They were very obliging at St. John's and did that,

00:45:42and I was put in an incubator.

00:45:57Since they first came to California,

00:46:00the Nelson family took weekend getaways by the ocean.

00:46:04In 1951, Ozzie and Harriet built a home in Laguna Beach.

00:46:09Away from Hollywood, surrounded by friends and family,

00:46:13it was a world apart.

00:46:18It was the meeting place of all of us.

00:46:20It was a wonderful life.

00:46:22It was probably the happiest that anybody could be, was that life,

00:46:25when everybody was whole and happy.

00:46:28We all missed those days at the beach when everyone was there,

00:46:31and it was a cohesive group.

00:46:33It was so much fun.

00:46:36It's a shame things fall apart like that.

00:46:51Chris Harmon married Rick Nelson

00:46:54and also played his wife for three years on television.

00:46:57Role-playing was something she had done a long time.

00:47:02I spent my whole life trying to fight that fairy tale,

00:47:05first trying to be it,

00:47:07and then trying to just tell the truth

00:47:11and to get away from that perfection that everybody was insisting on,

00:47:16which is completely impossible.

00:47:18In real life, Ozzie was a workaholic,

00:47:21quite authoritarian, really dictatorial,

00:47:24wrote, directed, and produced all these shows,

00:47:27used his own children in the shows.

00:47:30And really, in some ways, you could argue,

00:47:32took away part of their childhood,

00:47:34particularly with Ricky,

00:47:35took away the one thing that really mattered, his music,

00:47:37and put it into the show,

00:47:39so that, you know, Ricky, I think, was always unhappy with that.

00:47:42You could make the argument that, in the end,

00:47:44the Nelsons were something of a dysfunctional family,

00:47:46even though they were the ideal

00:47:48to all those other American families back in the 50s.

00:47:51You know what, I'm always amazed

00:47:54that my dad could keep everything together like he did.

00:47:59You know, like keep the show together,

00:48:02keep the family together,

00:48:05you know, because that's a whole other thing of having to coexist.

00:48:11The 1960s hit the Nelson family with a vengeance.

00:48:15David, pushing 30 with a wife and two boys,

00:48:19was now a lawyer on the show

00:48:21and still seemed to spend as much time with his parents

00:48:24as he did with his own family.

00:48:27America's favorite singing son, Rick Nelson,

00:48:30rocks the motion picture screen

00:48:32and his gal, Chris, in Love and Kisses,

00:48:34the hilarious story of marriage, teenage style.

00:48:37We're married.

00:48:38The Ozzie-produced Love and Kisses

00:48:40seemed out of touch with the times.

00:48:43And for Rick, the hit parade ended

00:48:46as America turned its attention to four boys from Liverpool.

00:48:51The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, episode number 435,

00:48:56was filmed on January 1, 1966.

00:48:59A few months later, ABC cancelled

00:49:02what would have been a 15th season

00:49:05and filled the time slot with...

00:49:08...Batman.

00:49:11The 1960s spirit of rebellion

00:49:14seemed a direct rejection

00:49:18of an idealized 1950s world

00:49:21that no one could live up to,

00:49:24a world symbolized by the television Nelson family.

00:49:28Look, there was a lot of people who pretended,

00:49:31starting in 1966, that they never, ever watched shows

00:49:34like the Nelson or Donna Reed show or My Three Sons.

00:49:37These are the same people who, in the late 90s,

00:49:39pretend that they never did a drug in their life,

00:49:41that they were not part of the culture,

00:49:43that somehow the 60s and the 70s escaped them.

00:49:46And they tell this lie to their children,

00:49:49and the children act out because they know it's false.

00:49:52Well, a lot of people, parents maybe,

00:49:55don't want to blame themselves

00:49:57for the shortcomings that have occurred in their family.

00:50:01And so, you know, blame Ozzie and Harriet.

00:50:05We get big shoulders.

00:50:07The hyperactive Ozzie Nelson

00:50:09never settled into a life of leisure.

00:50:12When he wasn't playing games at the beach,

00:50:14Ozzie and Harriet appeared on stage

00:50:16and played against their image in The Impossible Years.

00:50:20When Harriet sees Ozzie's character hung over,

00:50:23she pours herself a tumbler of whiskey

00:50:26that she promptly drains.

00:50:29David, who had directed several episodes of the TV series,

00:50:33started his own commercial production company.

00:50:40The summer after the show ended,

00:50:42Rick appeared on stage with Rudy Vallee

00:50:44in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

00:50:48His biggest achievement during this period

00:50:50was the birth of twins, Gunner and Matthew.

00:50:53But for the most part, he spent two years adrift.

00:50:58The teen idol days were over and done with.

00:51:01The television show was over and done with.

00:51:04I think he had to look at himself in the mirror one day

00:51:07and say, Who am I? Who is Rick Nelson?

00:51:09And the answer that came back was,

00:51:11Rick Nelson is a rock and roll musician.

00:51:14Did you ever want to go

00:51:18Where you've never been before?

00:51:22In 1969 at L.A.'s Troubadour,

00:51:25Rick Nelson presented his new group,

00:51:28the Stone Canyon Band.

00:51:30Critics came expecting to laugh

00:51:32at what had become of little Ricky.

00:51:35They left impressed by a new country rock sound,

00:51:39a new career, a new life had begun.

00:51:45He started really opening up and expressing himself

00:51:47right around 69, 68, 69,

00:51:50when he started writing his own songs,

00:51:52getting his band together

00:51:54and taking off the suit and the tie.

00:51:59The Eagles get more credit for it.

00:52:02Poco gets more credit for it.

00:52:05But if you listen to the recordings

00:52:07by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band,

00:52:09they were as good as anything

00:52:11anybody else was doing at that time.

00:52:15There was always a band room in the house.

00:52:17There was always music everywhere.

00:52:19With our mom, our mom was such an incredible artist.

00:52:21There was always art and music.

00:52:23There was never a TV on.

00:52:32He was a terrific father.

00:52:34He didn't get up very early in the morning,

00:52:36but other than that, he was very patient with the kids

00:52:39and very sweet with them.

00:52:45Do you think you can relate to the young and very hip people

00:52:48who like a different form of music

00:52:50and people with long hair and different clothes

00:52:53than what you wore as a youngster?

00:52:55Well, I don't think I've done my job

00:52:57if I haven't changed that image after I've performed.

00:53:00In other words, there's not a whole lot I can do about it

00:53:03if they walk away and still think,

00:53:05well, he's still a little ricky

00:53:08and doesn't have much to say,

00:53:11but I feel I do.

00:53:15In October of 1971, to promote his latest album,

00:53:19Rick reluctantly agreed to sing some oldies

00:53:22at a rock revival show at New York's Madison Square Garden.

00:53:26The event inspired his first top ten hit in nearly a decade.

00:53:30I went to a garden party

00:53:33To reminisce with my old friends

00:53:37A chance to share old memories

00:53:41And play our songs again

00:53:44When I got to the garden party

00:53:47They all knew my name

00:53:50But no-one recognized me

00:53:54I didn't look the same

00:53:57This booing started happening

00:54:00and I thought, oh, yeah, I gotta get out of here.

00:54:03I mean, there are 22,000 people booing you.

00:54:06It's a real frightening thing.

00:54:08I still really don't know what it was,

00:54:11other than maybe we didn't dress like the 50s.

00:54:14It was like a game that people were playing on the show,

00:54:17and I didn't know about it.

00:54:19He wouldn't pretend that Madison Square Garden

00:54:22was the biggest malt shop in the world,

00:54:25and he wouldn't pretend that he was a jukebox

00:54:28that hadn't been tampered with since 1961.

00:54:31But it's all right now

00:54:34I learned my lesson well

00:54:37You see, you can't please everyone

00:54:41So you got to please yourself

00:54:44The garden party was a blindside to everybody in the world

00:54:49when that came.

00:54:51He took a slice of his own experience,

00:54:54and the garden party, actually, he was doing in song

00:54:57what he'd been doing all his life.

00:54:59Brilliant song, and Rick wrote it.

00:55:02Yeah, very, very talented boy.

00:55:05Should have had a lot more credit.

00:55:08You gotta play garden parties

00:55:11I wish you a lot of luck

00:55:14But if memories were all I sang

00:55:18I'd rather drive a truck

00:55:21The garden party to me was the quintessential nugget.

00:55:25That was my dad encapsulated in one song and one experience.

00:55:30And it's all right now

00:55:34I learned my lesson well

00:55:37You see, you can't please everyone

00:55:41So you got to please yourself

00:55:45By the 1970s, Ozzy and Harriet Nelson

00:55:49had lived and worked in Hollywood for more than 30 years.

00:55:53But they had always kept their distance from the Hollywood scene.

00:55:57Ozzy often expressed a disdain for the culture of celebrity

00:56:01and the obsession with age.

00:56:03I think there's an unnatural fascination

00:56:06with remaining young that I hope we don't have.

00:56:09Like many people have said to Harriet,

00:56:12Are you ever going to have a facelift?

00:56:15And Harriet said, No, I don't think so.

00:56:18In 1973, Ozzy returned to television with Ozzy's Girls,

00:56:22where Rick and David's old rooms

00:56:25were rented out to a pair of college students.

00:56:29The boss gave his daughter-in-law's brother his first break

00:56:33when Mark Harmon appeared on the program.

00:56:36But production on Ozzy's Girls was halted after 24 episodes.

00:56:41Ozzy was the picture of superb health,

00:56:45but his life hadn't been disease-free.

00:56:49Secretly, in 1967,

00:56:52doctors removed a malignant tumor from his colon.

00:56:56Seven years later, a 12-hour operation

00:56:59where doctors thought they had removed another outbreak of cancer.

00:57:03In October of 1974, Ozzy Nelson, who never drank,

00:57:08was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.

00:57:11He moved into David's old bedroom at the house on Camino Palmaro.

00:57:15He lost 70 pounds in six months

00:57:18and saw no one but immediate family.

00:57:21Nobody talked about the fact that he was dying.

00:57:24And I asked my grandmother Harriet about that when I was sick

00:57:28and said, You know, tell me, did Grandpa talk about it at all?

00:57:32Nobody talked about it. Nobody talked about it at all.

00:57:35And I found that to be astounding.

00:57:37But I can recall he couldn't get up to go to the bathroom.

00:57:41And one night he asked me if I'd walk him to the bathroom.

00:57:45And, of course, he had his hospital gown on,

00:57:48but I walked him in and I had him around the waist.

00:57:52You know, and he had to go to the bathroom and he was standing there

00:57:56and he said, You know, it wasn't too long ago

00:57:59when these positions were reversed.

00:58:03So his sense of humour was still there.

00:58:08As David stood vigilant at his father's bedside,

00:58:12Ozzie Nelson died on the morning of June 3, 1975.

00:58:17He was 69 years old.

00:58:22Ozzie was a guy who said,

00:58:24I don't have to do this because everybody does it.

00:58:28That was his theory in almost everything he did.

00:58:32And it probably had a great deal to do with his success.

00:58:36He was original.

00:58:38Throughout the run of the television show,

00:58:40Ozzie had offered production jobs or bit parts

00:58:44to troubled or financially strapped teenagers.

00:58:47Dennis Holt went on to run a major media company.

00:58:51Miss Nelson basically said,

00:58:53Any time you need money, we'll put you on the show.

00:58:55So they supported our family for seven years.

00:58:58Without Mr. Nelson, I don't know where I'd be or what I'd be doing.

00:59:03So I'm grateful to the family and will be forever grateful.

00:59:11I think Ozzie was proud of his show and proud of his family.

00:59:15And he was always trying to live up to the good things.

00:59:18He was a Boy Scout.

00:59:21Harriet Nelson never fully adjusted to life without Ozzie.

00:59:26For five years, she lived alone in the house television made famous.

00:59:30But the world and the neighborhood had changed a lot.

00:59:34In 1979, a prowler broke in and got to Harriet's locked bedroom door.

00:59:39If you can imagine how frightening that would be,

00:59:42if you thought there was someone outside the door.

00:59:45But apparently, he had left.

00:59:48You had to open the door and go down the stairs

00:59:51and let the security people in the house.

00:59:54So she was very brave to live in that house,

00:59:57but she decided that was enough.

00:59:59So then she moved, sold that house.

01:00:03I know she couldn't find a direction.

01:00:06She did a couple of television shows,

01:00:09but she never was quite, never had the, you know,

01:00:14she would look over her shoulder and Ozzie wasn't there.

01:00:19In 1975, David divorced his first wife June

01:00:23and married Yvonne, adopting her three children from a previous marriage.

01:00:29Rick's life began to unravel slowly.

01:00:32He saw his mother and brother only on holidays

01:00:36and his own family when he wasn't on the road with the band.

01:00:40Whatever money he made,

01:00:42Chris spent at home on decorating, parties and psychotherapists.

01:00:48Even though Pop was trying to make his own mark constantly

01:00:51through his music and through his acting

01:00:53and through all his career moves from a certain point of his life on,

01:00:56he always, I think part of him always was a kid

01:01:00and always expected his dad to be there.

01:01:05I just was so tired of trying to take care of everybody else

01:01:10and find some time where I could do what I wanted to do for me.

01:01:14And I felt put upon and bedraggled and victimised

01:01:21and I expressed that.

01:01:23And I said he really needed to stay home

01:01:27and not be gone as much as he was.

01:01:30There's always this sort of little kind of guilt thing involved

01:01:36about being away for the length of time.

01:01:41But anyway, I'm lucky that I can at least spread it out a little bit.

01:01:46But lately I've been working a lot.

01:01:49Our parents both effectively lost their minds at a certain point

01:01:53and it was very difficult.

01:01:55And yeah, we got pushed under the carpet

01:01:57or we got in the way wrong place, wrong time a couple of times

01:02:01when Mom chose to drink to deal with what she was going through

01:02:05or Pop did whatever he was doing and changed personally.

01:02:08We have some rough memories of that.

01:02:11Rick and I were both leading unhealthy lives

01:02:13and I really had a feeling that either both of us would die

01:02:18or one of us would die if someone didn't leave.

01:02:21We were very, very self-destructive.

01:02:29In October 1980, Chris Nelson moved out and filed for divorce.

01:02:34Eight months later, Rick filed for custody of his four children

01:02:38which now included Sam, born shortly before Ozzy died.

01:02:43Chris's attorney responded by claiming Rick had a severe cocaine problem

01:02:49to which Rick's attorneys responded that Chris had a drug and alcohol problem.

01:02:55And somehow when something fails, you have to blame somebody.

01:02:59And I think, of course, Chris blamed Rick

01:03:02for things that had happened.

01:03:04And if it didn't quite work, then she blamed somebody close to Rick.

01:03:09He was making choices that were really intolerable to my mom.

01:03:12I understand them more now than I did.

01:03:15A lot of drugs on both sides.

01:03:17They were both doing a lot of drugs.

01:03:18They were both hurting each other a lot, trying to hurt each other,

01:03:21trying to get the other person to pay attention, like children.

01:03:25The divorce was finalized in 1982.

01:03:28Nineteen-year-old Tracy, an adult free to do as she pleased,

01:03:32chose to live with her father.

01:03:34The fifteen-year-old twins remained with their mother

01:03:37until their legal adulthood.

01:03:40Young Sam was put in the care of Chris's parents, Tom and Elise Harmon.

01:03:44He lived with them for six years.

01:03:48My mom made an effort to keep me out of the mesh

01:03:52and to keep me away from the chaos and the publicity.

01:03:59And my dad, unfortunately.

01:04:01So I never got the chance to know him, you know.

01:04:08It was difficult getting to know Rick Nelson.

01:04:11He loved his children but felt most at home on the road.

01:04:16Free of responsibilities except to entertain.

01:04:23By age 40, his hair had turned gray, but Rick colored it himself.

01:04:30Where Ozzy disdained Hollywood's obsession with youth,

01:04:33his own son saw himself as forever young.

01:04:41I don't. I don't see myself growing older.

01:04:45Now, whatever that means, I don't know what it means, but I can't...

01:04:50I don't know.

01:04:52I don't know.

01:04:54To anyone sweeter than you.

01:05:11I'm a traveling man.

01:05:13Been a lot of stuff.

01:05:15All over the world.

01:05:18In the late 70s and early 80s,

01:05:20Rick Nelson performed as many as 250 times a year.

01:05:24He would appear virtually anywhere the promoter could make an advance down payment.

01:05:30His breakneck schedule no doubt fueled unhealthy habits.

01:05:35He had to work to pay legal bills, alimony and child support.

01:05:39But Rick Nelson also felt safer on the road, insulated and removed.

01:05:45Still, it pained those who loved him to see Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band

01:05:50becoming Ricky Nelson Rock, Roll and Remember.

01:05:59Whosever idea it was and whoever started it, Rick certainly went along with it,

01:06:04which was to become a parody of himself.

01:06:06Change his name again from Rick back to Ricky

01:06:10and start wearing silly 50 clothes and singing his old songs,

01:06:16which is something he would never do.

01:06:18And it destroyed him.

01:06:22He just disintegrated.

01:06:25Rick Nelson, in many ways a little boy who never grew up, had grown up problems.

01:06:31A 1980 one-night stand caught up with him when a New Jersey court

01:06:35ordered he pay $400 a month to support a child a blood test said was his.

01:06:42In 1982, 27-year-old Helen Blair became his live-in companion.

01:06:47She was sweet, loved Rick, had endured a horrid childhood and abused cocaine.

01:06:54The drugs and stuff that were done by my parents in the 60s and 70s,

01:06:59I think kind of my brothers and I reacted in such a way that all of us,

01:07:06none of us do any drugs or drink or do anything like that

01:07:10and really never have and never have had an interest in it.

01:07:13What the twins did pick up from their father was a lifelong love of music.

01:07:18At one of his own shows, Rick presented his sons in their first public performance.

01:07:24And the curtains opened up, and we're sitting there, 14 years old,

01:07:29looking straight up at 3,000 people.

01:07:32And it was scary, and we played the songs that we did know at that particular time

01:07:38at warp speed, which you do when you get nervous, and it was just so much fun.

01:07:42And it was a great thing. I looked over at the side of the stage,

01:07:44and I saw him there smiling and laughing and having a good time with his band.

01:07:48And it really, from that point on, I was definitely hooked.

01:07:53We were never really allowed to, you know, I had asked him to live there once before,

01:07:56and he lost his mind and said, no, your mom's going to have the cops come after me,

01:07:59and it's going to be terrible.

01:08:01But after we turned 18, it was, I'm sure I've been waiting for you guys to ask me,

01:08:05you guys take the upstairs, I'll take the downstairs,

01:08:08and we won't get in each other's way, and it'll be fun.

01:08:11And that was it.

01:08:12I was scared to death. I didn't know what was going to happen.

01:08:15I would call up there, and I'd ask to talk to one or both of them,

01:08:19and either they wouldn't answer the, Rick and his girlfriend wouldn't answer the phone,

01:08:23or they would answer the phone and not know that the boys were even there.

01:08:27Matthew and Gunner moved in with their father at the end of summer 1985.

01:08:32By that time, Rick had shown a renewed interest in his craft,

01:08:36and he looked back to his Rockabilly roots to find his future.

01:08:41He was writing a lot more. He was taking more of an interest in what he was doing

01:08:46instead of just going out and playing.

01:08:50He wanted to make some records.

01:08:52On December 26, 1985, Rick Nelson went into the recording studio

01:08:57to lay down his vocal to a song he long admired, Buddy Holly's True Love Ways.

01:09:04Two nights before, he had celebrated Christmas, his favorite holiday, with his family.

01:09:10The family that had somewhat disintegrated was starting to come back together again,

01:09:14and I saw my dad having more of a center than I've ever seen him have before.

01:09:20Just you know why

01:09:27Why you and I

01:09:33Will by and by

01:09:39No true love ways

01:09:45I feel tremendously blessed because Gunner and I both shared a conversation with him in the kitchen

01:09:51about a week before he died.

01:09:53We were all sitting there, and he said,

01:09:55You know, I just want to let you know that I don't just love you as my sons,

01:09:59but I admire you as my peers.

01:10:01And I can't really think about many father-son talks

01:10:05where you get that kind of a vote of confidence from your parent.

01:10:07It was really a magical moment.

01:10:10And I started crying, and he started crying,

01:10:12and it was this huge, this moment that I'll never forget for the rest of my life.

01:10:17Sometimes we'll sigh

01:10:22Sometimes we'll cry

01:10:28And we'll know why

01:10:32Just you and I

01:10:34No true love ways

01:10:40Imagine, you know, just sitting in your house,

01:10:45and one of those bulletins comes on, and somebody says,

01:10:49You know, your father has just died in a horrible plane crash.

01:10:53When I found out New Year's Eve that his plane had crashed and he had died,

01:10:57it was like I didn't believe it.

01:10:59I honestly didn't believe it.

01:11:01It was more than just losing a parent.

01:11:03It was learning about losing your parent on the radio

01:11:07and coming home to a driveway full of reporters

01:11:11that were saying horrible things,

01:11:13and you don't have time to collect your thoughts.

01:11:15And when someone sticks a microphone in your face and says,

01:11:18How do you feel about your father's death?

01:11:20Where do you go with something like that?

01:11:22I mean, what do you do?

01:11:23But it kind of comes with the territory.

01:11:25Her family has always been public.

01:11:31She was numb,

01:11:33and I think the way Harriet dealt with that

01:11:36after Rick had passed away

01:11:39was by thinking he was on the road.

01:11:41I think she chose not to believe that he was gone.

01:11:43He was just on the road.

01:11:46And it was shocking.

01:11:52I mean, she was in agony when he died

01:11:54because of the fact that she hadn't tried harder

01:11:56to get to know him as a human being,

01:11:58but he was kind of hard to get to know.

01:12:01Two weeks after the crash,

01:12:03this headline in the Washington Post

01:12:05helped to fuel speculation

01:12:07that the fire aboard the aircraft

01:12:09was caused by passengers smoking or freebasing cocaine.

01:12:14Traces of cocaine were found in Rick Nelson's body,

01:12:17but the National Transportation Safety Board

01:12:20attributed the fire to a malfunctioning gas heater.

01:12:24Horrendous that when it was proven to be false

01:12:28that the media would not come forward

01:12:31because it was boring.

01:12:33The other story was much more exciting,

01:12:36that there were drugs involved.

01:12:38It was boring to say, well, it was proven false

01:12:40and it was a heater that exploded.

01:12:43He had those years to either get on with it

01:12:46and pick himself up or to choose not to,

01:12:49I mean, it was his choice.

01:12:51I'm just, the whole thing makes me so sad.

01:12:53He was such a good person.

01:12:56He truly was a good person.

01:12:59And he was funny.

01:13:01And I miss him.

01:13:04Throughout the day

01:13:10Our true love waits

01:13:15You do in fact remember without that pain that you felt.

01:13:24And I think that it's the Lord's time that we're here on

01:13:30and it's His clock

01:13:32and when He decides it's up, it's up.

01:13:35And I think that if you learn one thing,

01:13:38it's you have to live every day to the fullest.

01:13:41You have to get the most out of life.

01:13:43Just you and I

01:13:46No true love waits

01:13:54True love waits

01:14:16Tracy Nelson has always said she felt at home on a set.

01:14:20No wonder.

01:14:21Baby Tracy was a regular visitor to the Ozzie and Harriet set

01:14:25and even appeared in a couple of episodes.

01:14:30I want you to know that I'm onto you, Jerry.

01:14:34You're very attractive in a sick way.

01:14:36You're charming, iconoclastic.

01:14:38You're a sociopath.

01:14:40See, I'm a psych major, you see,

01:14:41so I know all about people like you.

01:14:43Now, my parents, on the other hand,

01:14:45they are kind, compassionate, totally naive people

01:14:49and you are taking advantage of their kindness and their naivete.

01:14:53By the time she played a cynical but straight-talking anorexic

01:14:57in Down and Out in Beverly Hills,

01:14:59Tracy Nelson had already appeared on weekly network television

01:15:04playing a valley girl on Square Pegs.

01:15:07Grandmother Harriet, who had spent most of her career playing herself,

01:15:12admired and perhaps envied Tracy's range of roles.

01:15:17She used to call me up.

01:15:18She'd see something I did and she'd call me up and she'd say,

01:15:23that was good.

01:15:25I like that.

01:15:26I like that choice you made.

01:15:28And it'd be really simple.

01:15:29What she'd have to say would be really simple

01:15:31and she didn't call, she didn't gush,

01:15:33and she didn't call all the time

01:15:35and she only called when she really meant it

01:15:37and when she did, it really, really, really meant a lot to me.

01:15:40Tracy's mother, Chris, began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 1983.

01:15:46In 1987, she entered a drug rehabilitation clinic

01:15:50for a dependency on diet medication.

01:15:54Shortly after her release,

01:15:56Chris attended Tracy's wedding to actor Billy Moses.

01:16:00Just a week later, she entered into a custody battle

01:16:04with her brother, Mark Harmon, over her son, Sam.

01:16:09Mark and his wife, actress Pam Dauber, supported by his parents,

01:16:14claimed his sister's drug dependency made her an unfit mother.

01:16:18Harmon suddenly ended the trial on the fourth day.

01:16:22After his sister's attorney posed an embarrassing

01:16:25and potentially damaging line of questioning to Pam Dauber,

01:16:30Harmon initially agreed to be interviewed for this documentary

01:16:34and then declined, saying,

01:16:36for a lot of reasons, I would rather not comment.

01:16:39You don't take someone's child away

01:16:41unless there's a reason to and there was not.

01:16:44And people got very confused that that was a husband taking away his son

01:16:51when, in fact, Mark is my brother and Sam's uncle

01:16:54and an uncle that wasn't in his life before Rick died.

01:16:59I haven't really had a father figure, per se, in my life,

01:17:03but as father figures go, he's pretty much been my father.

01:17:07I mean, he's been more than an uncle.

01:17:09He's not necessarily a disciplinarian, but he's given me guidance

01:17:12and he's given me a firm shoulder to lean on when I need to,

01:17:16and he always has.

01:17:18The Harmon family is a competitive family.

01:17:21I mean, Tom was a football hero.

01:17:24I always got that feeling that there was always a real competition

01:17:27to be the best and to be the best Harmon there was,

01:17:30and I took the family element out of it, which is, for me,

01:17:34and what's in my heart, is family comes first beyond anything.

01:17:38And my brother especially had his own agenda.

01:17:40He was going to do it his way, and that was that.

01:17:43He wasn't going to listen to anybody.

01:17:46I had to go back and live with her after the trial,

01:17:49and that was interesting, but it wasn't necessarily bad.

01:17:53It was difficult, but it was a learning process,

01:17:55and we both learned to function, learned to be human with each other.

01:18:05A few months after her wedding and the custody battle over Sam,

01:18:09Tracy Nelson was diagnosed with cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma.

01:18:14She'd gotten ill while shooting a pilot for a new TV series,

01:18:18Father Dowling Mysteries.

01:18:20Remarkably, the president of NBC Entertainment, Brandon Tartikoff,

01:18:25decided to stand behind her.

01:18:27What I didn't know was that Brandon Tartikoff also had Hodgkin's disease,

01:18:34and that showed me two things.

01:18:36One, aside from his knowledge of the illness,

01:18:41he cared about Tracy having this.

01:18:47Tracy took over immediately.

01:18:49She found out everything she could about the disease,

01:18:52and she was a very radical treatment.

01:18:59I know how hard it was for her.

01:19:03I give it to Billy for standing by her the way that he did.

01:19:08I thought it was really wonderful, because he was there.

01:19:12A lot of guys that I know that don't want anything to do with it,

01:19:16no matter how much you care about somebody,

01:19:18you hire somebody to take care of.

01:19:22But he really had a hands-on.

01:19:25When Tracy went in for the first operation of what proved to be a successful treatment,

01:19:30Tom Harmon, a doer more than a talker, offered support.

01:19:35My grandfather quietly got up and came over to me,

01:19:41and he had a scapula, a Sacred Heart medal.

01:19:47He took it, and it was on a safety pin,

01:19:49and he pinned it to my gown, my hospital gown,

01:19:53and he said,

01:19:54T.N., this got me through the war,

01:19:59so it'll get you through the next few hours.

01:20:03In 1989, a healthy Tracy Nelson

01:20:06worked with her grandmother on an episode of Father Dowling Mysteries.

01:20:11I can't live without your love and affection

01:20:15I can't make another night on my own

01:20:19In 1990, Gunner and Matthew scored with their song Love and Affection,

01:20:24making them the third generation of Nelsons to have a number one hit.

01:20:29Grandmother Harriet looked on with pride.

01:20:32She made a point of getting to know her late son's youngest child.

01:20:36Sam showed her videos of his boarding school.

01:20:39She showed him Ozzie and Harriet outtakes

01:20:42and concert footage that Rick had given her.

01:20:45She had a personality about her, a way about her, a charm about her,

01:20:49and a humor that was really dry, but she was so witty.

01:20:53She was a perfect grandma, I have to say.

01:20:55I mean, I know that sounds ridiculous,

01:20:57but Harriet Nelson, the perfect grandmother.

01:21:00But she was. She really was.

01:21:03Harriet Nelson spent the last 15 years of her life

01:21:07living alone in the Laguna Beach home that she and Ozzie had built in 1951.

01:21:13Friends and family say she never recovered from the loss of her husband

01:21:17and relied heavily on David for support.

01:21:21In late August 1994, she was admitted to South Coast Medical Center

01:21:26suffering from congestive heart failure and emphysema.

01:21:30She stayed there for four weeks.

01:21:33I said, Mom, do you want to go home?

01:21:36And she just nodded, yeah.

01:21:39And she wasn't home maybe overnight, and she was gone.

01:21:45But she did not want to die in that hospital, obviously.

01:21:49She wanted to die, you know, with the waves

01:21:53and the water and the house that she built.

01:21:57Harriet Nelson died on Sunday afternoon, October 2, 1994.

01:22:03She was 85 years old.

01:22:11You know, people have said to me,

01:22:14what advice did your grandmother give you?

01:22:17Did you get from your grandmother about, you know, about anything?

01:22:21And I always say the same thing,

01:22:23because it sticks in my mind, and it's true.

01:22:26Take your makeup off before you go to bed.

01:22:35In his eulogy, David, the sole survivor of the television Nelsons,

01:22:40departed from his usual role of straight man.

01:22:43As he looked out upon the graves of his father, mother, and brother,

01:22:47he ad-libbed,

01:22:49Knowing my dad, he's probably got a production going.

01:22:52And now that they're all together again,

01:22:54I'm just wondering, who's playing David?

01:23:03David Nelson spent the better part of a decade

01:23:06putting his brother's debt-ridden estate in order.

01:23:09Through his efforts, Rick and Chris's four children

01:23:13reap a financial benefit from their father's music legacy.

01:23:17I'll always say that David really took care of me,

01:23:21and if Pop were around, he would be very proud of Dave,

01:23:25because he went above and beyond.

01:23:27I think David has really kept everybody together

01:23:30and kept everybody provided for.

01:23:32Gunnar and I went through some really rough times.

01:23:35We were living out of our car for a while,

01:23:38and it was because of the stuff that David got together, I think,

01:23:42that we're doing all right now.

01:23:48Nelson's and Harmon's reunited for Matthew's wedding

01:23:52to lingerie model Yvette Steffens.

01:23:55By the late 90s, he and brother Gunnar planned to re-emerge

01:23:59with the new country sound, just as their father had wanted to do.

01:24:03Their mother, Chris, clean and sober since 1987,

01:24:07married TV producer Mark Tinker a year later.

01:24:11Chris's 1997 autobiography, Out of My Mind,

01:24:15chronicles her life as a Harmon, Nelson, and Tinker

01:24:19through her paintings.

01:24:21As of 1998, she and her brother Mark Harmon had not reconciled.

01:24:27After four seasons of father-dowling mysteries,

01:24:30Tracy Nelson appeared on Broadway in the musical Grease.

01:24:34She put her career on hold to spend more time with her daughter, Remy,

01:24:38and in 1997, she and husband Billy Moses separated.

01:24:43Sam Nelson plans to graduate from Boston College in 1999,

01:24:48becoming Ozzie's first grandchild to receive a university degree.

01:24:53He takes pride in his heritage, but embraces his anonymity.

01:24:58I'm just in the fortunate position that I didn't have to be a part of that.

01:25:02I guess I'm kind of living what he would have wanted to live,

01:25:06which is, you know, to be my own person,

01:25:09and to be known for what I loved,

01:25:11or to be known for what I represented on my own,

01:25:14as opposed to, you know, what other people thought of me, you know?

01:25:19David Nelson, the commercial director,

01:25:21has been president of Casablanca Productions for two decades

01:25:25and married to Yvonne since 1975.

01:25:29In addition to his two sons by actress June Blair,

01:25:32David has raised Yvonne's three children by a previous marriage.

01:25:37He's just there, like unconditionally, just there for you.

01:25:41I feel like David is my father.

01:25:44Absolutely.

01:25:45No question in my mind, it's really frustrating to me

01:25:47when people say, you know, David is your stepfather,

01:25:50and I'm like, no, he's my father.

01:25:52I think he sleeps better at night.

01:25:55He seems happier to me than he has for a long time.

01:26:00Yeah, I don't think he'll ever, ever get over missing his family.

01:26:08The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

01:26:10was the first and longest-running family situation comedy

01:26:14in television history.

01:26:16Other shows followed that reflected the values

01:26:19and the sensibility of their times,

01:26:21some say with more realism than the television Nelsons.

01:26:25Harriet, in her last years,

01:26:27a big fan of The Cosby Show and Family Ties,

01:26:30privately said it was unfair to judge her show

01:26:33with a contemporary pair of eyes.

01:26:36Even when you do, and can see beyond the buzz cuts,

01:26:40the saddle shoes and the corn ball,

01:26:43gentle moments of truth reach across the years

01:26:46like the unforgettable pleasure of tutti-frutti ice cream.

01:26:51How's it taste?

01:26:52Delicious!

01:26:55That's why, when I watch Seinfeld,

01:26:57I think of the Nelson show a lot,

01:26:59because they just take a very simple thing,

01:27:01and who stole the cookies, where are the cookies?

01:27:03And they could do 20 Minutes on cookies, you know.

01:27:06But out of that conversation

01:27:07comes a lot of interesting sides of human beings,

01:27:10and Ozzie had that same type of talent.

01:27:14When they sold it to NBC,

01:27:16they said the show will be about nothing, remember?

01:27:18And you could say that about Ozzie and Harriet.

01:27:21They said, well, it's all, you know,

01:27:23what the heck, it's just all so homey.

01:27:27Well, home is where the heart is.

01:27:34What's wrong, David?

01:27:35You've hardly said a word all morning.

01:27:37It's nothing, Mom.

01:27:38Well, there's something bothering you, what is it?

01:27:41It's nothing, really, Mom.

01:27:43David. Harriet, please.

01:27:45You say it's nothing, David, is that right?

01:27:47That's right, Pop.

01:27:48All right, if it's nothing, it's nothing.

01:27:50Well, just forget it.

01:27:53What's here in the paper?

01:27:56Well, it is something.

01:27:58Oh?

01:28:00I kind of thought you'd like to tell us about it.

01:28:02Now, what seems to be the trouble?

01:28:04It's nothing, Pop.

01:28:08Now, is David a dope, Pop?

01:28:10Ricky, read your comic book.

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Biography Special (1952) Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Nelson, Ricky Nelson | Hollywood classic movie

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