The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

I concur with the previous posts that Ozzie and Harriet was really a show "about nothing," and was quite funny until the boys got married (even then, it had its moments). Rather than showing how dull and boring the perfect traditional family could be, it celebrated the humor and fun in everyday life and its quirks. Most underrated was the comic talent of Ozzie. Not only was he hilariously adept and creative in his efforts to avoid work around the house, but when the situation resulted in physical comedy he was nothing short of amazing. I remember seeing a rerun 35 years ago, in which Ozzie has to swallow a big wad of ice cream. Just watching him, I could FEEL the brain freeze he got, and I still feel it just remembering. Personally, I like the 1952-1955 episodes with Don Defore as Thorny. The situations were believable but still funny-- Ozzie trying to convince everyone that he bought spot cleaner to help out an old lady instead of buying it to help out her sexy daughter, Ozzie scouring the town for tutti-fruity ice cream, Ozzie fretting over the rain damage that he knows he will get if he permits a nest of birds to remain in his rain gutter, Ozzie trying to send back a pair of chairs sent by mistake, Ozzie having to sleep apart from Harriet because she misinterprets Ozzie's support for separate rooms for the boys. In a way, Ozzie is a more functional and less stupid Homer Simpson. Since some of the shows can be obtained in the bargain DVD bins at Walmart and other places, do yourself a favor and give a few episodes a try.

I really liked the series- a true American Classic. I agree with another poster about Wally Plumstead- he provided many humorous moments and actually carried the series for many of the episodes. I think I recall that there were some episodes where only Wally appeared and Rick was featured at the end in a separate filmed performance of his band. Also, the episodes with Thorny and the situations with Ozzie were definitely the most humorous in the series. Just one thing on your stats as far as appearances for each of the main characters. It says Harriet, David and Ricky each appeared in 172 episodes, where Ozzie was in 171. How could this be, since there were at 435 episodes total?

"Ozzie and Harriet" is often used as a buzzword for white-bread America: Husband runs the family spouting words of manly wisdom, while the wife stays home with the well-behaved kids. Funny thing is, the show really isn't like that. Ozzie is a guy who apparently never goes to work - it's a running gag throughout the show. His "great ideas" usually lead to disaster, and usually it's Harriet who quietly gets everything to turn out all right in the end. The kids, especially Ricky, often shoot off at the mouth. It was even Seinfeld-esque (and I say that as a rabid Seinfeld fan) - most episodes could fairly be described as being "about nothing".

In truth it's one of the funniest shows ever on television. It was even cutting edge, for its time: Ozzie and Harriet slept in the same bed, which was unheard of. Ever see anyone on a TV show "break the fourth wall" (start talking to the camera)? This started on O&H - first with Ricky's end-of-show shrugs, and later with full-blown conversations directed to the camera. My personal favorite example of this is when Ozzie pretended to be a mind-reader (who of course no one recognized because of a cheesy goatee). When he gets exposed at the end, just about every character quips something or other straight into the camera.

Do yourself a favor though. Don't start off with the late episodes where the boys are grown up and married. Those can be quite funny, but the show at times was just coasting on its reputation by then. Watch the earlier stuff from when the boys were little, when Thorny still lived next door. Give yourself time to get to know the characters, and you certainly won't regret it!

I think that The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, not unlike its counterparts (i.e. Leave it to Beaver), were what they were because that's what people wanted at the time. Many accounts of the 1950's are not the most interesting, but that's the way things were-culturally. With out these programs, however mundane you may find them, there would have been no examples for the family sit-com following the cultural revolution of the 1960's. I think that in today's society it is nice to look back, and see a family living together, enjoying life, and running into the occasional plot conflict. To hate Ozzie and Harriet is to hate Americana- after all that's what they were at the time of their program.You'll notice that the show ended in the late 1960's, when due to the cultural unrest in the United States, their brand of entertainment became, sadly enough, obsolete. Conclusion: take it for what it is (or was), it's a glimpse into a bygone era: a time of homemakers, fresh-baked cookies, pipe smoking dads, the milkman, and no use for the modern vulgarities of the medium.

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet stands as the longest-running live action sitcom in history. Many people over the years have put down this program as being corny and too "white-bread" for modern consumption. Just like The Donna Reed Show and other "family" shows of that era. O & H is really a charming time-capsule of what we wanted to be back in those days, just like Donna Reed. What sets O & H a tad above the other shows is the fact that the family portrayed here was, in fact, a real family. Ozzie Nelson himself oversaw practically every aspect of production, and let's not forget that, starting in 1957, Ricky was singing genuine "rock and roll" on the show. The plots may be as simple as a late-night search for Tutti-Frutti ice cream, but there is an easy-going flow to the lightweight stories that make them charming. Don De Fore is featured in the early shows as "Thorny" the next-door neighbor, and Lyle Talbot and Mary Jane Croft are in the later ones as the Randolphs. Ozzie and Harriet featured background music taken from the Capitol HiQ music library. This music was used in many shows, cartoons and industrial films of the period. Just hearing this music takes me back to the "old days" and gives me a warm feeling. The performances by the family are all polished and good, especially Harriet with her wise-cracks which always crack me up. The show is in the process of being fully restored, all 435 episodes (!), by Sam Nelson, son of Rick. There has been much said about the quality of the Shout! Factory "best of" set. I own this and I enjoy having 24 episodes which cover the series from the earliest shows to the last. Yes, these are the edited-for-syndication prints, but as I don't remember what was cut from the shows, I don't miss these scenes. In addition, the prints used here are in pretty good shape, better than the ones featured on the public domain DVDs which have been around for many years now. For someone like me, who grew up in the O & H era, it is fine to see this program and relive "the good old days" when situation comedy didn't rely soley on sex jokes and off-color humor. Call me old-fashioned, but I like these classics of early television.