In the book “The Fifties,” David Halberstam shares his thoughts on the impact that the show had on the growing Nelson boys. The boys lived under a lot of pressure from their father. He blames Ozzie Nelson for robbing the boys of their childhood and essentially using them for commercial purposes. For the sake of money, he took some of their most private and personal moments and made them public.
Halberstam claims that through the research he had done, there was a general agreement that people blamed Ozzie Nelson for taking his family’s most personal moments and making them public. In many ways, the Nelsons were America’s first relationship with reality TV. Yes, the Kardashians definitely weren’t the first reality TV family in America.
The Boys Play Themselves
By the fifth year of the show, David and Ricky began to regularly play themselves for the first time on the radio. At this point, David was 12 and Ricky was eight. By the time The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet came to television in 1952, David and Ricky played alongside their parents at the ages of 16 and 12, respectively. America watched Ozzie and Harriet raise their two sons. The last episode of the show aired on television in 1966.
As mentioned, Ozzie was very hands-on with his show, both on the radio and on T.V. He was the producer and director of most of the episodes. He also co-wrote many of them. His brother, Don, was also a co-writer. Don was perhaps the most underrated member of the Nelson family. The audience didn’t meet this more silent family member as he didn’t work in front of the camera. He also coined Ricky’s famous catchphrase, “I don’t mess around, boy.”
Bing Crosby Convinced Ozzie to Include the Boys
As mentioned previously, Ozzie wanted to allow his young boys to grow up a bit before starring on their family's hit series. In 1949, he finally agreed to let his 8-year-old and 13-year-old sons, Ricky and David, take over their pivoted roles.
Bing Crosby was the one who ultimately convinced Ozzie that his kids were ready to be in front of a nationwide audience. Crosby had once had a guest appearance on Ozzie’s radio show and brought his own boys along for the live broadcast. After Ozzie and Harriet’s boys were introduced to television, they became big stars and the show's devoted audience loved them.
"Here Come the Nelsons"
After having such success with their radio show, Ozzie and his brother Don wrote a comedy movie together called "Here Come the Nelsons." The movie introduced the Nelsons to American audiences. Ozzie successfully persuaded Universal execs to produce the feature film and it also became a pilot for the TV show "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet."
The film featured, of course, the Nelson family as well as a slew of other big stars like Rock Hudson, Barbara Lawrence, and Jim Backus. The storyline of the movie is as such; Ozzie and Harriet get into a misunderstanding before Ricky is kidnapped by bank robbers. In the film, Ozzie played an advertising executive, although he was known in America to be a bandleader.
First Double Bed That Was Seen on TV
Ozzie and Harriet's double bed was the first to be seen on television. During those times, it was very scandalous for a man and his wife to be sleeping in the same bed. Before their double bed debut, on-screen couples' bedrooms on TV usually had two twin beds that were separated by a nightstand. The Hays Code was the unofficial name for The Motion Picture Production Code. The code was adopted in 1930 but not seriously put into action until 1934.
The Code was a set of rules governing American filmmaking that cultivated and in many ways limited American cinema for more than three decades. The code regulated what could and couldn't be shown in films. Among their rules and regulations was that a man and a woman couldn't be seen in the same bed together. If they were, one of them had to be seen with a leg firmly planted on the floor. Bonus fact, this rule led to the popularity of foot popping.