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.
Actors Played the Boys
Ozzie worked as both the developer and producer of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. The show quickly took off in the 1940s. Ozzie, realizing that his boys were still too young for prime-time, decided to cast two different boys to fill in for them. Before you open the IMDB database to try and locate the original actors who played the two boys, we'll disappoint you by telling you that you won't have much luck.
The original actors only played the voice roles on the radio version of the show. After the show's first five-year-run on the radio, in 1944, it came to television. Ozzie wanted his whole family to be in the show. So, he prepared his sons for their on-screen debut and when they were ready, David and Ricky appeared on camera. The radio show, meanwhile, continued for another two years.
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.”
Did Ozzie Sabotage His Kids' Childhood?
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.
"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.