4 American Bandstand or seeking careers in order to devote their energies to the TV show. Harriet had a reputation for partying and enjoying her freedom before she met and married Ozzie. She also had a career in vaudeville and performing in nightclubs before she settled down to become a real-life mother and housewife and then emulated that persona on the series. The Nelson family member who best personified this conflict between the per- sonal and the professional was son Ricky. Although he was a talented musician as an adult, he was never able to fully shed the homogenized and squeaky clean image that he’d perfected on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. He would spend much of his adult life attempting to divest himself from that persona up until his death in a 1985 plane crash. Ricky had become a teen idol with hits like “Be-Bop Baby” and “Poor Little Fool.” Over the course of his musical career, he had more than 50 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. Although this success added to the draw of the TV show and his appeal to a teen demographic, it limited his reach as an adult artist. A TV documentary about the Nelsons ripped open a lot of old wounds for remaining members of the family. Older son David expressed disappointment in the way that the documentary portrayed his late father, but he admitted that the show had taken its toll on all of them, perhaps no one more so than Ricky. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was never in the top 10 rated Nielsen shows during its run, but it is still the longest running live action sitcom ever broadcast on net- work television. See also: 1950s: Father Knows Best I Love Lucy Leave It to Beaver 1960s: Patty Duke Show, The 1970s: Happy Days 1980s: Cosby Show, The Family Ties Full House Wonder Years, The 1990s: Boy Meets World Clarissa Explains It All 7th Heaven 2000s: Friday Night Lights Further Reading Bashe, Philip. 1993. Teenage Idol, Travelin’ Man: The Complete Biography of Rick Nelson. New York: Hyperion. Faucette, Brian. 2012. “Televising Masculinities: The Sitcom Dad in the 1950s on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” This Was Television, November 26. https://thiswastv​ .com/2012/11/26/televising-masculinities-the-sitcom-dad-in-the-1950s-on-the -adventures-of-ozzie-and-harriet/. Hinckley, David. 2011. “David Nelson Defined by Brother Ricky Nelson, ‘Ozzie and Har- riet’ Co-Star, Teen Idol.” New York Daily News, January 12. http://www.nydailynews .com/entertainment/tv-movies/david-nelson-defined-brother-ricky-nelson-ozzie -harriet-co-star-teen-idol-article-1.153734. AMERICAN BANDSTAND The most successful music/dance-oriented show in television history, American Bandstand (1957–1987) was a teen-oriented production that featured the most popular music of the day. The nationally syndicated program began locally in Phil- adelphia under the name Bandstand in 1952. The show moved to ABC in 1957 and
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