Ozzie's Girls, has anyone seen it?

[snorlaxnut]

I thought this would be a good place to post this, since its about Ozzie and Harriet. If its the wrong forum, sorry. Please move it to the right forum if this is the wrong one.

I was reading about Ozzie's Girls, the show Ozzie & Harriet Nelson made in the 70s after their first show ended. All I can find about the show was a brief description on several sites and the theme music on this site. I couldn't find any clips of the show on Youtube or any other site, just these pictures of the opening credits:

http://www.skaryguyvideo.com/og.htm





I would like to know if anybody has seen an episode of this show. Was it just as good as Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet?

[gilligan fanatic]

I have the pilot episode. I have actually never watched it though.

[treky]

I remember seeing it when it was first on; and if I remember right; it wasn't very good. But, I haven't seen it in almost 30 years!!!

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...was originally conceived in 1972 for NBC, who rejected the pilot and potential series. The pilot episode was shown in September of that year on the network, but there was interest from other quarters about a series. Ozzie decided to enter the lucrative field of syndication and produce the show for local stations in the fall of 1973. Viacom distributed it, and 24 episodes were taped in the 1973-'74 season. Unfortunately, the ratings were such a disappointment that "OZZIE'S GIRLS" ceased production after that season....and he died a year later.

[Zoneboy]

I remember watching it in 1973 because Dusty's Trail (another syndicated flop) was on about the same time. I was only 9 years old at the time and don't recall much. I can't even remember what the episodes were about that I did see. I do recall that Ozzie subscribed to Playboy and it seemed like he was always asking Harriet if she had seen his magazine or if the mailman had brought it. I thought this was a running gag on the show but it may have occurred in just one episode.

[dahur1]

Since I was always such a huge fan of Ozzie and Harriet growing up, I remember watching "Ozzie's Girls" when it came out. I was really disappointed, it just wasn't the same without David and Ricky.

[visaman666]

A couple of years ago, Johnny Legend came to Vancouver, and he presented us with a 16mm version of the pilot episode. It was quite fascinating to watch, as I had never seen a tv show on 16mm before.

As for the pilot, it could have worked, but faced with the All In The Family revolution, it didn't make the cut.

[TV_on_the_Porch]

After well over thirty years I have almost no specific recollections about the show, except there was at least one episode with a brief black & white flashback featuring David & Ricky, prompting me to turn to my mom and ask her if there used to be a show with the Nelsons called "Ozzie's Boys." Beyond that I recall the girls going through some stuff in (I think) the attic and encountering the scent of mothballs, which was an objectionable odor to Susie but a pleasant one to Brenda. There was also an occasion when the girls got their own phone line and recorded the answering machine's outgoing announcement together. Not much I know, but I was not yet ten when it ran. But I do remember that I loved this show and that it was one of my favorites at the time. I'd love to have the chance to see it again.

I felt really bad when Ozzie died.

PS re: 16mm. I would have sworn this show was videotaped. If so, it really would be something if the episode you watched had been preserved on film...a latter-day kinescope!

[tdr]

I do remember this show from when I was about 14. But I didn't know at the time that Ozzie and Harriet was an old long-running show and this was something like a what-are-they-up-to-now sequel. But I think I gradually learned all that; my dad seemed to like the show and sometimes talked about the "old" show, and of course, TV itself taught about that, as the old show came up in quizzes or allusions occasionally. And when Ozzie died not long after this show, I guess I got the 'full' story about his earlier 16-year show with his real family.

As for what I remember about Ozzie's Girls,-- not very much. Once the girls were both trying to lose weight, so eating special diets; once there were mysterious distinct voices coming from a room, which spooked everybody, but it turned out to be a radio operator (who happens to come to the house) who explains there are some ways a radio can pick up certain transmissions even if it's turned off (I don't think so); one episode was about football, and at the end when all the cast 'took their bows' they were all wearing football uniforms [even Harriet ] and did a little play-action pass play in the living room.

There was a running gag about Ozzie being an ice cream lover, and several times when the freezer door was opened you could see about 15 containers of ice cream. It all looked like Baskin-Robbins, with the big colored dots-- were they the sponsor? There were definitely some things that wouldn't have been shown in their 'old' series, but now were a go on television because of All in the Family and how it changed TV comedy. Once when one of the girls wanted to move out, word went around that there was room for another boarder, and some hippie-looking guy came around checking into it. When he was told they were looking for a roommate for a young female, he said "I'll take it!" (or something like that), but here Ozzie put his foot down and said no such arrangement will take place in his house. And another time Ozzie needed to go wake up Susie, and she was lying face-down on the bed, with apparently nothing on (at least above her waist) and her bare back showing. Ozzie tried to wake her without startling her, saying aloud he can't make her suddenly jump up .

So it's just tidbits like that I recall about the show.

[gidgetgrape]

Some years before I had resumed the practice of keeping a diary, and one night I was writing down some thoughts about how empty our big house has seemed since David and Ricky grew up and moved out and how the rooms were filled with memories--thoughts that occur to just about everyone in our age group--and I began wondering what it would be like if we rented out one of the boys' old rooms to a college student.

I stayed up all night that night and wrote a script about it. The essence of the story was that we decide to advertise in the college newspaper that we have a room for rent. Two girls apply for it, a white girl and a black girl. Through a misunderstanding, each one thinks that she has the room, and we wind up with two girls sharing it. It was easy to write and I enjoyed doing it.

Before I realized what was happening, and while Harriet kept saying, "No, no, no," our good friend Al Simon, head of television for Filmways, set up an appointment for us to meet with Herb Schlosser, West Coast program director for NBC, who read the script, likd it, and made arrangement for us to make a pilot that NBC and Filmways would finance.

Herb said, "What are you going to call it?"

I said, "I don't have a name for it yet. At least not one that I'm happy with."

He said, "Why don't you call it 'Ozzie's Girls'?"

We filmed, "Ozzie's Girls" back at our "home away from from home" - General Service Studios.

It seemed like old times as we drove through the main gate and Ralph Wark waved hello just as he had for thirteen years, and when we walked onto the set and saw our old home reconstructed, exact in every detail, it was as if we were walking back into a dream.

When we had discussed rebuilding our old set, Harriet, who does not usually indulge in profanity, even of the mildest sort, had said, "There's just one request I'd like to make. Don't let them put that eagle over the fireplace. If there's one thing I got sick of looking at after fourteen years, it's that god**am eagle!"

When I came on the set that first day, the first one to greet me was Tony Montenero, who was supervising the props.

He said, "Oz I hate to tell you this, and I know how disappointed Harriet is going to be, but I looked all over town and I can't find that eagle that goes over the fireplace."

I said, "Don't worry about it, Tony. I'll explain it to Harriet and I'm sure she'll understand."

When we ran the show on television, at least fifty people wrote in asking, "What happened to the eagle over the fireplace?" I turned the letters over to Harriet. I wonder if she ever answered them?

We filmed the show in December of 1971. It was truly like old home week. We gathered around all the familiar faces who were available, and those who weren't stopped by to say hello.

We realized, of course, that the success or failure of the show could well depend upon selecting just the right girls to play the roles of the two co-eds. We interviewed more than a hundred young actresses and then narrowed it done to twelve --six white girls and six black girls, whom we screen-tested. We finally decided on Brenda Skyes and Susan Sennett, both of whom proved to be tremendously talented and a delight to work with. Susie has a rare, pixyish comedic quality with a great face and figure, and Brenda has great charm and warmth and is very beautiful.

There was one other character in the script, a nosey neighbor, who was played by our old friend Parley Baer. Parley gave his usual fine performance--but he thew our entire shooting schedule off balance by completing his complicated scene in one take!

NBC announced its fall schedule on March 30 and we weren't on it. It came as somewhat of a surprise, since there had been all sorts of rumors flying around. We had heard that we were on the schedule, then off it, and then back on again.

When I heard the news, I was lying in the sun on the front deck of our beach house at Laguna. It was one of those beautiful days that make you glad to be alive, and I must say that my reaction, which I had thought would be one of great disappointment, proved to be disappointing from an ego stanpoint but also to contain a certain measure of relief--relief that we wouldn't be jumping into the rat race again and facing those terrible pressures week after week.

NBC ran the show in September and it received excellent ratings, fine reviews, and more mail than we had received on any other show that we had ever done.

David Kaufman in Daily Variety started his most flattering review with, "An unsold pilot starring Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, 'Ozzie Girls,' was deserving of a better fate," and closed by saying, "This pilot should have sold."

Lately there has been a renewed interest in the show on the part of one of the other networks. I asked Harriet how she felt about it and she said, "I don't know. What do you think?" and I said, "I don't know. What do you think?" So who knows--maybe by the time you read this, we'll be back visiting you on television every week.

-- An excerpt from the book, Ozzie by Ozzie Nelson. Published in 1973.

[OH Nuts!]

Gidget thanks for this great article. Unf I've never seen Ozzie's Girls, but I think I'm going to take a trip to the Paley Center (formerly Museum of Radio and Televison) and see if they have it.

[gidgetgrape]

You're welcome Rich! I've never seen it either! I wish I could, it sounds like a fun show based on the descriptions here.

[tv star collector]

According to the book TV Guide Guide to TV: "David Nelson produced
the series, which lasted less than a year." I remember watching it a few times. David Doyle (later of Charlie's Angels) had a recurring role, as I recall.

[Jude The Obscure]

I wonder if David Nelson owns the masters to the series. He could easily authorize a DVD set--since there is virtually no way this one will EVER be reran anywhere.

[gidgetgrape]

Someone commented at YouTube, that Ozzie's Girls was the first show to have a black person living with a white person. Is this true?