ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET, THE [TV SHOW] - DVD review

For 14 years, Americans tuned in to watch "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet," a sitcom featuring former band leader Ozzie Nelson, his singer-wife Harriet, and their two boys, David and Ricky. It wasn't reality TV, and it wasn't a straight fictional sitcom, either. Their TV house on 822 Sycamore Road was built to look like an exact replica of the Nelsons' Hollywood home, and the episodes were often inspired by the Nelsons' real lives, especially young Ricky's, who had a propensity for lowering his head and driving full speed ahead, no matter what was involved. But it wasn't reality TV. The Nelsons played themselves, but there were still scripts to memorize and you always suspected that when the cameras stopped rolling there was a side to the family that you never saw. I mean, name two siblings in America other than David and Ricky that never really fought? These guys were as polite to each other as they were to their teachers or parents, whom they addressed as "ma'am" or "sir." As in "No, ma'am," or "Yes, sir." But I can't think of a better way to get a feel for the Fifties than by watching "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet."

Ozzie and Harriet remained pretty much the same throughout this squeaky clean-cut series. Ozzie was the ever-smiling, often bumbling or hapless father who had a good relationship with his wife and sons, and who never raised his voice or got angry. There seemed to be no secrets with this group, and no topic that was too small or too taboo to bring up. Ozzie always seemed to talk on a level that would have made him a great kiddie show host, especially when he wore those cardigan sweaters that Mr. Rogers later would discover. Harriet, meanwhile, was the always perfectly coiffed and poised matron who was the quiet voice of reason and the apron-wearing expert on social graces. It's the boys who did all the changing, Ricky especially. Viewers first saw him as a milder, 11-year-old version of Dennis the Menace--that twinkle-in-the-eye mischief-maker who was basically a good kid but had some pretty definite ideas about how to have fun. Then, before you knew it, Ricky was caught up in the brand new rock 'n' roll craze and dressed like Elvis Presley for one Halloween episode. The pre-teens went nuts. The family had always been musical, with the boys playing multiple instruments, so it was a no-brainer for Ozzie to figure out how to incorporate Ricky's playing into the show. His first musical outing aired on April 10, 1957, with "Ricky the Drummer." Quickly, Ricky Nelson became a teen idol, and his father, who had the same sort of control over this show as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz had over theirs, made sure to incorporate every single song somehow in the family sitcom. If there wasn't a way to work in the song during the show, then it was tacked on at the end, like an epilogue or a bonus scene.

By the time he reached the age of 21, Ricky Nelson had earned nine gold records for Imperial Records, with two of his biggest hits topping the Billboard charts. "Travelin' Man" was technically the first rock video, because Ozzie found a way to intercut location footage with Ricky's performance. "Hello Mary Lou" was Ricky's biggest hit ever, selling over 7 million records worldwide, and that song appears in this "Best of Ricky and Dave" collection. And so viewers watched Ricky go from an impish adolescent to teen to teen rock star to young married man, all in the span of 14 TV seasons. The quieter, more steady older brother Dave also grew up and got married by the show's end, with his wife June and Rick's wife Kris also appearing on the show. Because they were real people, Americans really formed an attachment to the Nelsons. It's as if they were part of all of our own extended families, we seemed to know them so well and watched them over such a long period of time.

A year ago I was looking to buy an "Ozzie & Harriet" collection and went to amazon.com, where there seemed to be differences of opinion about which was the best collection. Well, after making the wrong choice, I can tell you that the Shout! Factory releases, which are approved by Harriet Nelson, are the ones to buy. Some viewers groused that the episodes weren't complete and that they had been cropped. But the Brand X collection offered episodes that looked as if a spy had broken into the Ozzie & Harriet cabinet and photographed raw footage. There's no edge at all, with black irregular borders and a picture that looks like it was made from a VHS camcorder trying to record a VHS playback image. But the Shout! Factory releases have good production values and classy packaging. To me, it's no contest. If you want to buy "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," these are the collections to get. Fans might wish for complete season releases, but let's get real. Fourteen packages might seem a bit ambitious, especially when the show's wider appeal now is based on nostalgia for some and curiosity for others. At least these "Best of" collections span the entire series, so even if you purchase just one of them you're getting a taste of what made this show such a part of American's weekly television-watching.

As with many Fifties' and early Sixties' sitcoms, the pacing is slow, the dialogue so polite you won't believe it, and the plots based on a single, small thing-like a letter an uncle left for Ricky that's not to be opened until his 21st birthday, which has the whole family suddenly hyper-curious about what's inside. No one can wait two more days until Ricky turns 21 (and wants to celebrate by going out to dinner with his family, rather than having a party with friends). But the writing is actually pretty solid, and there's a surprising degree of inventiveness that goes into each episode. The twists that happen feel both real and surprising, whether it's two brothers competing for the same girl (and a ruse about identical twins, one for each) or a road race that pits Ozzie in a 1920's jalopy against the boys and a Fifties' roadster.

Twenty-four episodes are included on four single-sided discs and housed in two slim clear plastic keep cases with a cardboard slipcase. There are some nice touches here, like pre-"Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" family photos printed on the inside of the covers, and a six-page (covers included) color booklet that describes each episode and lists the season and air date for each. There's also a cast list, so it's easy to see that Oz's neighbors and pals "Thorny" Thornberry and Darby were played by Don DeFore and Parley Baer.

Here are the episodes that are included:

1) "A Door Key for David" (Season 1, 5-22-53). Oz makes a big ceremonial deal about giving Dave his own house key, and lectures about the importance of not losing it come back to haunt Oz (and his neighbor).

2) "Ricky's Lost Letter" (Season 2, 3-12-54). Ricky has been pining to write a girl he met on vacation, but Ozzie loses the letter with her address on it, so he and Thorny try to make amends.

3) "Father Son Tournament" (Season 2, 3-19-54). Ozzie's dilemma is which son to choose for the Y's annual father-son table tennis tournament, a decision made tougher by Thorny's goading that he and his boy are going to win. Does Oz choose the older son, or the more athletic one?

4) "The Man without a Familiy" (Season 6, 10-9-57). Oz can't get a minute's rest because Rick and his friends have been using the Nelson home as a hangout to listen to music and such, but it's even more disturbing when they go somewhere else.

5) "Road Race" (Season 6, 1-8-58). Cute variation on the tortoise and the hare has a race that doesn't come close to Greased Lightning.

6) "The Picture in Rick's Notebook" (Season 6, 1-22-58). When a photo of a great-looking girl falls out of Rick's school notebook, rumors fly, and Rick has to pretend she's his girlfriend to save face. Ricky sings "Waiting in School," "Just Because," and the smash hit "Stood Up."

7) "Who is Betty?" (Season 6, 2-19-58). A Sadie Hawkins' dance somehow results in Rick having three dates for the same event. The heartthrob sings "I'm Confessin'" and "Boppin' the Blues."

8) "Rick Gets Even" (Season 8, 12-16-59). When an attractive college girl (Tuesday Weld) seems disinterested, Rick gets the upper hand after a fender-bender . . . that happens to Dave's car.

9) "Dave and the Schoolteacher" (Season 8, 5-4-60). Dave is surprised when he visits his old elementary school that a favorite teacher is now very beautiful, and in need of some help. Ricky sings "Right by My Side" and "Young Emotions."

10) "A Sweater for Rick" (Season 9, 11-9-60). Rick's girlfriend knits a surprise sweater for him, but the surprise is that Rick starts to think she's dating someone else after she turns him down a bunch of times to keep the project on-schedule.

11) "Dave's Golf Story" (Season 9, 3-8-61). Dave and Wally (Skip Young) set their sights on the same girl, who edits the campus newspaper. Wally tries to catch her eye with a news scoop, but it turns out that Dave is the real story. Ricky sings "That's All."

12) "Rick's Broken Arm" (Season 9, 3-15-61). Rick pretends to have a broken arm in order to get Wally off the hook, and sings "You'll Never Know What You're Missing."

13) "Selling Rick's Drums" (Season 9, 4-19-61). An old drum set of Rick's factors into another competition for a girl between the two brothers. Rick sings his smash hit "Hello Mary Lou" with full band at the end of the episode.

14) "Rick's 21st Birthday" (Season 9, 5-3-61). Not at all like the day a fresh 21 year old spends these days. Rick and the family get all worked up over a letter left by a long-deceased uncle.

15) "Rick Grades a Test" (Season 10, 11-8-61). Rick tries to get a girl he's interested in to put off studying for his English exam, which, the next day the professor asks Rick to correct.

16) "Rick and the Maid of Honor" (Season 11, 9-27-62). Jimmy (Jimmy Hawkins) is getting married, and Best Man Rick learns how contagious the idea of marriage can be to a maid of honor.

17) "Ricky, the Host" (Season 11, 11-22-62). Rick tries to ditch his fraternity brothers, who keep getting in the way of his latest dating attempts.

18) "David and the Teenager" (Season 11, 2-7-63). When a cute teen moves into Dave and June's apartment building and gets a crush on Dave, life takes a few comic turns.

19) "Dave and the Fraternity Lease" (Season 11, 4-18-63). Rick goes to his big brother for legal advice when he and his frat brothers learn their lease is up and the landlady wants them out.

20) "Ozzie, Joe, and the Fashion Models" (Season 12, 10-2-63). Ozzie and Joe's idyllic fishing trip is interrupted by good-looking models who are in the middle of a magazine photo shoot.

21) "Rick's Wedding Ring" (Season 12, 10-9-63). When Rick forgets to wear his wedding ring and unwittingly agrees to go to a dance with another girl, it takes all of his friends and family to help ease him out of his predicament. Ricky sings "Fools Rush In."

22) "Blue Moose" (Season 12, 10-23-63). Ricky, Wally and their frat brothers come up with a scheme involving a taxidermy moosehead mount to get another fraternity to paint their house. But somehow, Ozzie gets involved, and you know what that means.

23) "The Tangled Web" (Season 14, 9-15-65). Harriet's friend Clara tells a fib that Oz goes along with, and a chain of dominoes leads to a number of complications.

24) "Ozzie the Babysitter" (Season 14, 3-19-66). Harriet volunteers Ozzie to babysit for the neighbors, but Oz gets in trouble when his curiosity gets the best of him and he opens a hidden birthday present. Ricky sings "Fire Breathing Dragon."

Obviously, fans will wish for complete-season sets, because a lot happens between the episodes included on this set. But the quality is good, and this collection includes enough of the episodes featuring Ricky and his music that it should be a hit with fans.

Video:
The box doesn't say so, but these episodes look as if they've been cleaned up a bit. They're old and they show their age, with not as deep contrast as the better B&W videos from this time period, and there are several episodes of noise and squiggles that appear to be the result of compression artifacting. But overall, the 1.33:1 picture looks very good. You won't get the commercials that introduced and concluded the shows, but the episodes themselves are clean enough so that the picture quality isn't a distraction as it is with some releases. All of the episodes except for the last two in this collection are in black and white. The color episodes are a little faded and the grain is more apparent, but fans will enjoy seeing the colors that were only described in previous episodes.

Audio:
The audio is (big surprise) a no-frills Mono that at least is mostly free of hiss, pop, crackling, and other distortion. You get some of it in several episodes--after all, this set spans a number of years--but overall the sound is also solid enough to keep from being an intrusion.

Extras:
The bonus features are mostly options to play the songs Ricky sings without having to wade through the episodes. These are not extended cuts, but the same material featured in the shows. Disc 1 features Ricky singing three songs, Disc 2 has him singing six songs, Disc 3 has one song, and Disc 4 features two. "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" was a radio show before television came along, and it's a nice bonus to have a radio episode included on each disc: "David Sells Ozzie's Suit," "David Fights," "Apartment Building Next Door," and "Jury Duty." The final extra is a trivia quiz that appears on the fourth disc.

Bottom Line:
With Harriet Nelson's blessings, Shout! Factory has put out some very respectable collections of the old "Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" show that was an American TV staple for so many years. The production values are decent, there's a nice booklet to tell you what you're watching, and there's a nice cross-section of episodes. The real treat here is the episode featuring Ricky Nelson performing "Hello Mary Lou."