TV’s David Nelson of ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ Passes

January 12, 2011 by PaulM Posted in Culture, History, Lowell 1 Comment

Another icon of the early TV years has passed away: David Nelson of the “Ozzie and Harriet” program. This show was a reality show of its day, with the family playing itself in scripted episodes, but this Ozzie was a world away from Ozzy Osbourne and his family in his recent TV show. The times they really did change, Bob Dylan.

David Nelson, back right, with Ozzie, Harriet, and Ricky in their television home (web photo courtesy of NYTimes)

One Response to TV’s David Nelson of ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ Passes

  1. Nancye says:

    Ozzie and Harriet was my favorite show growing up in the 1950s in a typical middle class family on the East Coast. And while I admired David, I loved Ricky. I played his hit 45 “A Teenagers Romance” until it nearly wore out on my old 45-rpm record player. And I begged my uncle, Tom McKnight, who was the producer of the Live of Riley in Hollywood, to arrange a meeting between Ricky and me when I visited him and my actress Aunt Marge in the summer of 1957. Uncle Tom had a few connections, but, alas, he couldn’t wangle a meeting between my hearththrob and me. I was crushed, of course, but survived. But then I was devastated when Ricky died so many years ago in a tragic New Year’s Eve plane crash. Now David is gone and the Nelson family is no more. Another sad passing to mark the passage of time and our own mortality. Thanks, Paul, for posting and reviving an old, old memory