COZI is a new nostalgia cable channel with a relation to NBC. So far today, they have shown two episodes of O&H this morning, one more now at 3 and there is another scheduled for 5. Just in case you have cable and are sick of the poor quality holiday programing, this might be a help, although the marathon back to back showings of How To Train Your Dragon are interesting the first two times.
COZI tv New cable channel showing Ozzie & Harriett
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I have to admit after watching three O&H episodes that the draw for me back then was the appliances and the idealized family, not the stories. The plots are formulaic, based on misunderstandings and miscommunication. The episodes were spread out over several years so I got to see different model-years of appliances. It was also kind of sad to realize that all of those vital family members are gone.
danemodsandy
Well-known member
Tom:
I agree that Ozzie and Harriet was one of the most formulaic sitcoms ever, but for decades, it held the honor of being the longest-running sitcom ever on TV - an honor it has since yielded to The Simpsons.
It was also a fairly subversive show, if you look beyond the formula surface. When Rick and David became teenagers, Ozzie realized he had something new to sell - sex. The boys were very consciously positioned as teen heartthrobs. Rick's musical talent for rock 'n roll was nurtured and showcased, not quashed - at a time when Elvis was being censored on TV and denounced from the pulpit. It looks very innocuous in today's re-runs, but it was controversial then.
The boys' fervent interest in women (both of them were canoodling with starlets on the lot, as was Ozzie) was the stuff of many a plot, and Ozzie took care to provide worthy consorts for his two Hollywood princes, like Tuesday Weld just before she hit the big time. If you will watch the shows, you'll see that Ozzie's idea of "worthy" young women was ladies just as sexy as his sons.
Offscreen, there were some unusual things going on, too. Actor Lyle Talbot, who played the Nelsons' neighbor Joe, liked to pick up a little extra money appearing in the movies of an independent film-maker - Ed Wood. Talbot starred prominently in Wood's transvestite movie, Glen or Glenda?, at the SAME TIME he was on TV in Ozzie and Harriet. And yes, Ozzie knew.
In 1961, Ozzie publicly defended son David over David's choice of bride, June Blair. June was, to put it mildly, well-known to the public - she had been Playboy's Miss January in 1957 (I hasten to add that Playboy was topless-only in those days; the full-frontal era hadn't yet descended on America, mainly because printing pictures like that would get you thrown into prison back then, even if you were Hugh Hefner).
Not only did Ozzie defend David, he put June into the show, even though about the best you could say for her acting skills was that she was better at it than Rick's choice of bride was.
Harriet sailed pretty graciously through everything, never veering from her "perfect mom" image, though she had a secret - she was a closet chain-smoker, a habit photographers were not allowed to capture on film, ever (later, First Lady Pat Nixon and actress Mary Tyler Moore had the same rule for photographers).
Ozzie and Harriet managed to survive with all the changes that came their way - the boys divorced their wives, and of course, Rick met a tragic end. Ozzie died in '75 of cancer, but Harriet kept going for almost another 20 years, long enough to see a third generation of Nelsons make it in the music biz - Rick's twin sons Matthew and Gunnar, with a band they called Nelson.
I keep hoping someone will do a really good book about the show - there's a lot of story there.
I agree that Ozzie and Harriet was one of the most formulaic sitcoms ever, but for decades, it held the honor of being the longest-running sitcom ever on TV - an honor it has since yielded to The Simpsons.
It was also a fairly subversive show, if you look beyond the formula surface. When Rick and David became teenagers, Ozzie realized he had something new to sell - sex. The boys were very consciously positioned as teen heartthrobs. Rick's musical talent for rock 'n roll was nurtured and showcased, not quashed - at a time when Elvis was being censored on TV and denounced from the pulpit. It looks very innocuous in today's re-runs, but it was controversial then.
The boys' fervent interest in women (both of them were canoodling with starlets on the lot, as was Ozzie) was the stuff of many a plot, and Ozzie took care to provide worthy consorts for his two Hollywood princes, like Tuesday Weld just before she hit the big time. If you will watch the shows, you'll see that Ozzie's idea of "worthy" young women was ladies just as sexy as his sons.
Offscreen, there were some unusual things going on, too. Actor Lyle Talbot, who played the Nelsons' neighbor Joe, liked to pick up a little extra money appearing in the movies of an independent film-maker - Ed Wood. Talbot starred prominently in Wood's transvestite movie, Glen or Glenda?, at the SAME TIME he was on TV in Ozzie and Harriet. And yes, Ozzie knew.
In 1961, Ozzie publicly defended son David over David's choice of bride, June Blair. June was, to put it mildly, well-known to the public - she had been Playboy's Miss January in 1957 (I hasten to add that Playboy was topless-only in those days; the full-frontal era hadn't yet descended on America, mainly because printing pictures like that would get you thrown into prison back then, even if you were Hugh Hefner).
Not only did Ozzie defend David, he put June into the show, even though about the best you could say for her acting skills was that she was better at it than Rick's choice of bride was.
Harriet sailed pretty graciously through everything, never veering from her "perfect mom" image, though she had a secret - she was a closet chain-smoker, a habit photographers were not allowed to capture on film, ever (later, First Lady Pat Nixon and actress Mary Tyler Moore had the same rule for photographers).
Ozzie and Harriet managed to survive with all the changes that came their way - the boys divorced their wives, and of course, Rick met a tragic end. Ozzie died in '75 of cancer, but Harriet kept going for almost another 20 years, long enough to see a third generation of Nelsons make it in the music biz - Rick's twin sons Matthew and Gunnar, with a band they called Nelson.
I keep hoping someone will do a really good book about the show - there's a lot of story there.
IMHO, Thorny (Don DeFore) was the best neighbor to the Nelson's.
Had trouble sleeping last night, so turned on AntennaTV on cable.
They were playing episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.
Still funny after all these years!
They were playing episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.
Still funny after all these years!
danemodsandy
Well-known member
Something Else....
There were a couple of other things about Ozzie and Harriet that were unusual:
One was something that most present-day viewers miss - Mr. and Mrs. Nelson shared a double bed. That was really unusual back then - television operated off leftover dos and don'ts from the movie business, which forbade not only married couples sharing beds, but required one character to have one foot out of the bed and on the floor during bedroom scenes. Somehow, the Nelsons got away with it - and it wasn't just because they were married. Lucille Ball, married onscreen and off to Desi Arnaz, hewed to the twin-bed rule on I Love Lucy.
And Ozzie's liberal politics were evident on the show if you knew where to look. Its treatment of minorities was always respectful. One 1957 episode, "The Duenna," has David dating a pretty Hispanic girl who can't speak English. There is not the slightest hint that the Nelsons consider the girl unsuitable for their son, and none of the comedy is at the expense of Hispanic people. While there are some comedic misunderstandings due to language barriers, they're not specific to Spanish; they could come up in any two languages - and Ozzie is the one who generates most of them.
And Ozzie's "comeback" series, Ozzie's Girls, has the Nelson boys grown and gone, with the result that Ozzie and Harriet rent their rooms to college girls to have young people in the house again. One of the girls was African-American, the first time a TV show depicted African-Americans living with Caucasians on a basis of equality. Ozzie, along with his brother Don, backed and produced a show called Bridget Loves Bernie, about a Jewish guy (David Birney) married to a Catholic girl (Meredith Baxter). The show only lasted a year - it was the most hate-mailed show CBS had ever had at the time - but hey, Ozzie tried.
There is SO much more to Ozzie and Harriet than meets the eye.
There were a couple of other things about Ozzie and Harriet that were unusual:
One was something that most present-day viewers miss - Mr. and Mrs. Nelson shared a double bed. That was really unusual back then - television operated off leftover dos and don'ts from the movie business, which forbade not only married couples sharing beds, but required one character to have one foot out of the bed and on the floor during bedroom scenes. Somehow, the Nelsons got away with it - and it wasn't just because they were married. Lucille Ball, married onscreen and off to Desi Arnaz, hewed to the twin-bed rule on I Love Lucy.
And Ozzie's liberal politics were evident on the show if you knew where to look. Its treatment of minorities was always respectful. One 1957 episode, "The Duenna," has David dating a pretty Hispanic girl who can't speak English. There is not the slightest hint that the Nelsons consider the girl unsuitable for their son, and none of the comedy is at the expense of Hispanic people. While there are some comedic misunderstandings due to language barriers, they're not specific to Spanish; they could come up in any two languages - and Ozzie is the one who generates most of them.
And Ozzie's "comeback" series, Ozzie's Girls, has the Nelson boys grown and gone, with the result that Ozzie and Harriet rent their rooms to college girls to have young people in the house again. One of the girls was African-American, the first time a TV show depicted African-Americans living with Caucasians on a basis of equality. Ozzie, along with his brother Don, backed and produced a show called Bridget Loves Bernie, about a Jewish guy (David Birney) married to a Catholic girl (Meredith Baxter). The show only lasted a year - it was the most hate-mailed show CBS had ever had at the time - but hey, Ozzie tried.
There is SO much more to Ozzie and Harriet than meets the eye.
It is funny the lengths to which they went to keep the boys covered up so they would not display their hirsute natures, maybe to make them appear younger. Even when pictures were taken of them doing their trapeze work, they were in body suits. In some episodes after the boys were married, there were times when some concocted situation had everyone's sleep disturbed and the boys were in PJs, but they had crew neck undershirts on underneath them to prevent any display of chest hair.
There is some special, probably from the Disney Channel, about the show where they showed one of Rick's birthdays. They go through a scene as planned and then do it again where he is surprised with his birthday cake and everybody sings Happy Birthday to him. In between takes, Harriette has a puff on her cigarette which is in an ashtray just out of camera range. Both boys smoked, but they were almost never shown with a cigarette in pictures. In that western Rick made, Rio Bravo(?) he is shown smoking. David's teeth were quite yellow in some shots made for some Disney Channel documentaries. In the early days of cable, the Disney Channel showed episodes of O&H and they always had something at the end about the Oswald Nelson Testamentary Trust. In one of the documentaries shown on Disney, David tells how Rick and his father created one of the first rock music videos. It is Rick singing Travelling Man while sort of a double exposure of ocean liners is shown moving past. Ozzie definitely pushed Rick's career. In one episode Rick and his mother are in their den and they discuss his music. She says it is fine by her; that she sees nothing wrong with the music he is singing and then he says something about that being good because they are ending the show with him singing. About the time that Mtv was getting started, an older friend told me that theaters used to show films of bands playing and they were known as "Soundies."
Years ago, at a yard sale, I found Rick's first album in quite good shape.
David and Rick, probably because their characters & images were so tightly controlled, always seemed like benign, older cousins it would be fun to spend time with.
Just to show how times have changed, I checked COZI tv to see what was on and it was some retrospective of stars. They introduced the part about Tom Selleck by saying, "Many women and more than a few men fantasized about Tom Selleck's mustache." I did not quite know how that was meant to be understood.
There is some special, probably from the Disney Channel, about the show where they showed one of Rick's birthdays. They go through a scene as planned and then do it again where he is surprised with his birthday cake and everybody sings Happy Birthday to him. In between takes, Harriette has a puff on her cigarette which is in an ashtray just out of camera range. Both boys smoked, but they were almost never shown with a cigarette in pictures. In that western Rick made, Rio Bravo(?) he is shown smoking. David's teeth were quite yellow in some shots made for some Disney Channel documentaries. In the early days of cable, the Disney Channel showed episodes of O&H and they always had something at the end about the Oswald Nelson Testamentary Trust. In one of the documentaries shown on Disney, David tells how Rick and his father created one of the first rock music videos. It is Rick singing Travelling Man while sort of a double exposure of ocean liners is shown moving past. Ozzie definitely pushed Rick's career. In one episode Rick and his mother are in their den and they discuss his music. She says it is fine by her; that she sees nothing wrong with the music he is singing and then he says something about that being good because they are ending the show with him singing. About the time that Mtv was getting started, an older friend told me that theaters used to show films of bands playing and they were known as "Soundies."
Years ago, at a yard sale, I found Rick's first album in quite good shape.
David and Rick, probably because their characters & images were so tightly controlled, always seemed like benign, older cousins it would be fun to spend time with.
Just to show how times have changed, I checked COZI tv to see what was on and it was some retrospective of stars. They introduced the part about Tom Selleck by saying, "Many women and more than a few men fantasized about Tom Selleck's mustache." I did not quite know how that was meant to be understood.
spookiness
Well-known member
"Easy on your eyes and your mind"
Funny tagline on their website, and fitting.
Channel 4.2 on broadcast in the WDC area. I actually miss the programming it replaced, "Nonstop DC", which had live restaurant, food, and entertainment programming. They covered local events, and one interesting theme would be to go to embassies and talk about various food cultures and regional dishes. I always had it one while doing housework.
I guess running ancient reruns is a lot cheaper than paying real people to go out and make original local programming.
Funny tagline on their website, and fitting.
Channel 4.2 on broadcast in the WDC area. I actually miss the programming it replaced, "Nonstop DC", which had live restaurant, food, and entertainment programming. They covered local events, and one interesting theme would be to go to embassies and talk about various food cultures and regional dishes. I always had it one while doing housework.
I guess running ancient reruns is a lot cheaper than paying real people to go out and make original local programming.
A similar situation happened here. COZI has surfaced on over-the-air digital channel 11.2. That channel used to run programing a lot like the one in D.C.
The other night on COZI I caught Burns & Allen, which has always been a favorite of mine since childhood. It was followed by O & H, and as has been stated above, it was formulaic and meaningless. Even my partner Dave, who since his stroke can't always digest complex plots, said about half way through, "This is dumb" and we changed the channel.
I'm also noticing that the quality of the film is really poor. I've seen much better preserved copies of both programs on independent local stations over the years than what COZI is running.
The other night on COZI I caught Burns & Allen, which has always been a favorite of mine since childhood. It was followed by O & H, and as has been stated above, it was formulaic and meaningless. Even my partner Dave, who since his stroke can't always digest complex plots, said about half way through, "This is dumb" and we changed the channel.
I'm also noticing that the quality of the film is really poor. I've seen much better preserved copies of both programs on independent local stations over the years than what COZI is running.
It is interesting to watch the various appliance models through the years. I think it came on at 9 PM on Thursday nights so we were not up or were finishing homework when it came on and then I was in Boy Scouts so I was not home on Thursday evenings so I only saw scattered episodes. Writing like that would not hold viewers today although the boys might. I know it came from a simpler time, but "simpler time" does not mean simple-minded.
I've also caught Cozi on 11.2 here. But I was stymied in my efforts to watch and record "Enter The Lone Ranger". Finally I analyzed the TV listings (on ZapTV.com) and realized the times were all for EST, so if I add three hours to the listed times I know what time in PST a show will air.
At least that's the theory.
I also noticed very poor broadcast quality on some of the shows. One was a weird movie with Jimmy Durante. Almost like slow animation. I attribute this to poor digitizing by Cozi, as if they are starved for bandwidth or something. Other shows seem to be ok, though.
At least that's the theory.
I also noticed very poor broadcast quality on some of the shows. One was a weird movie with Jimmy Durante. Almost like slow animation. I attribute this to poor digitizing by Cozi, as if they are starved for bandwidth or something. Other shows seem to be ok, though.
Yep, Ozzie and Harriet is on right now, just ended (supposed to be at 3:30 pm). And yes, it IS stupid. Almost makes the commercials for callus removal and hair restoration look brilliant.
