Don't Mess with Ozzie Nelson (article) by Paul Kyriazi on AuthorsDen

Take a look at the above still shot of Ricky and Tuesday Weld from 'The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet' TV show (1952 - 1966). Why does it look better than most shows of that era?

Producer / director Ozzie Nelson was not satisfied with the commonly used ‘flat look’ of TV lighting, so he paid Academy Award-WInning cinematographer William C. Mellor $1,000 a week. $250 more per week than he was getting at MGM studios. That's $2,500 more in today's money.

Mellor had filmed A Place in the Sun and later Giant. Ozzie often repeated, “If it ends up on the screen, nothing is ‘too expensive’.”

Ozzie took five days to film a show instead of the Hollywood standard of three days. And he never worried about film stock, shooting up to 20 takes on one shot.

The show, that averaged 30 episodes per season, remains the longest-running live-action American TV situation comedy. Ozzie was 60% owner of the show giving him unheard of power at the time. They filmed a total of 435 episodes.

The show had 18 million weekly viewers giving Ozzie even more clout. When his son Ricky became a recording star via the show, Ozzie refused to let him be booked on other shows, saying, “If they want to see Ricky, they can tune in to our show.”

With his knowledge of the law (Law Degree) Ozzie could out-negotiate most executives. One network attorney told his office, “Don't mess with that Nelson. He'll knock your block off.”

Ozzie is credited with producing & directing the very first music video. On the Jan. 8, 1958 episode, Ricky sang his #1 hit Travelin' Man. Ozzie superimposed shots of the various countries mentioned as well as shots of Ricky as a bullfigher 'down in old Mexico' and meeting a Hawaiian girl while 'walking in the sands in Waikiki'. Thus making the first music video in history.

Other videos you see on you-tube with rock-stars from '50s, are performances from feature films with just the performer doing their song, usually in a night-club, not seperate films of their songs.

Reviewed by Ronald Hull

Reviewed on September 13, 2019

I always pictured the Ozzie and Harriet show as an insured and songs average, Midwestern family, like ours, dominated by boys growing up. It is a revelation to find out that Ozzie was a lawyer, owner of the show, and a Rutgers graduate. Rick Nelson was one of my favorite singers from that era. I remember very clearly all of his songs, mostly when he sang them for the first time on the show, including seeing that first video, probably on the show. One of his songs that I remember the most was Garden Party.

You didn't say whether you had any part in that karate episode, but it is obvious from the little bit of it that I watched, that Ozzie made sure he covered all the bases. The one scene showing him trying to break a board and almost broke his hand, was cute. My only use of karate was to break up frozen vegetables in the package on my countertop so they wouldn't be all frozen together. I did the same thing with ice cubes that came out of my ice cube maker. Chop, chop and they would come apart. Unfortunately, blood on ice cubes, made an interesting taste in my drinks. ;-)

Ron