As radio and TV promotions might have said, "American's favorite family--The Nelsons!" The Nelson family--Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky-- did have longevity, moving from popularity on radio in the 1940s when David and Ricky were too young to play themselves onto TV in the 50s. Ozzie and Harriet were professional musicians, he a bandleader and she a singer for the band. Biographies of the Nelsons report that Ozzie wasn't close to being the easy-going, rather bumbling husband-father. Instead, he was a taskmaster director of his family and the Nelson shows.
It was in our high school years when Ricky, not much older than us, really made "Ozzie and Harriet" a very popular TV show. Ricky's ability to sing some well-written songs and his exceptionally good looks, inherited mainly from his mom, made him a natural. It seemed he had a song hit or two continually on the Top 20. Listening to him today, he still sounds darn good--unless I'm carried away by nostalgia.
Ricky became the star of the family show, although Ozzie didn't allow himself to be too much off stage. But, Ozzie, being a businessman, knew when he had a hit, so the latter Nelson shows would have a scene, unrelated to the show's plot of the current weekly show, where Ricky did a performance in front of a bunch of teenagers, as if he was at a party. It was as popular as MTV is today with young folks.
I have to give Ricky Nelson credit for not becoming a self-centered, child actor. I read his biography. He never thought he was so great. He gave his due to Elvis for inspiration and ideas. He didn't just sing and strum his guitar, either, but studied techniques and experimented quite a bit. He took music seriously. Listen to his "Garden Party" in his later years and you will know his feelings of old fans, demanding that he do his past hits rather than moving on with the times and establishing himself more as a contemporary performer.
I also have to give high credit to older brother David. He was never one of the main characters; didn't seem to have any real talent of his own, just a nice guy with acceptable good looks but not dream boat looks as did his younger brother. David was the 4th member of the family in the show's presentation.
Say what you want about famous rich kid actors, and Ozzie being domineering, but one thing seems apparently true--they were raised well-enough by Ozzie and Harriet that they could stand on their own. Yes, Ricky messed with drugs which lead to his death in a plane crash, but his drug use was either his frustration over not being accepted for his changes or being a part of the drug generation, I suspect. David didn't resort to drugs or alcohol as far as I know, which sometimes happened to child actors who never continued a life of fame.
On the show and in real life, for the most part, Ricky and David were good role models for their generation...our generation.
-Wyatt Newman