Chords for Harriet David Rick Nelson Interview 1981

[Bb] _ _ _ [Eb] Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Well, three Nelsons are with us.
Ozzy died in 1975, but Harriet and David and Rick are with us to reminisce about Ozzy and Harriet and the family.
It's [N] nice to see you all.
It really is a pleasure.
Thank you.
And like the song says, we're still here.
_ _ How much of what we saw on the screen had anything to do with you as a family?
Was any of it based on what went on in the relationships in your family?
One of you guys were the cause of that?
Well, he was always shorter than I was on the show.
It's no longer [F] true.
Right.
[Ab] [Bb] There _ were a lot of things that came out of it, like when the two of them started doing the aerial act, we did a circus show so that we could use that.
And when they started fooling around with motorcycles, we did a motorcycle hill run show.
I [Gb] guess that's what you call it, right?
[Bb] I think so.
Hill climbing.
Hill climbing, yeah, right.
And things like that, but, _ you know, specific [Gb] incidents.
Not so much.
What about relationships between [F] boys?
I mean, I imagine like most families, if not all, you get in arguments, you get angry at each other, you don't get along, you do get along or whatever those things.
How did you shut that off or did you?
[E] _ _ I don't think we did.
We didn't really, no.
No.
Really?
We used it in the show.
It was like a running gag.
It's like role playing, you know, to take it very seriously nowadays.
We got a chance to do it on the air in front of millions of people.
Right.
But it wasn't a problem, _ you know, doing a scene where you're getting along when really after they say cut, you were trying to pound each other in the nose.
Did you remember, did that ever happen?
No, I don't think any of the fights were that serious, you [Bb] know.
Oh, yeah.
Or something short of that.
Yeah, right.
The time you hit Dad.
_ [N] _ What?
What? _
Harriet hit Ozzie?
But how typical was your television family?
Not that there is a typical American family.
I'm not sure what that really means, but how typical was your television family, do you think?
What did it represent, Harriet?
I think it represented middle America.
_ Ozzie came from a family in New Jersey.
His dad was a banker and he came from that kind of a home.
You know, he went to a public school and then he went to Rutgers University and it was, _ mine was a little different.
I came from that kind of a family, but my mother and dad were in show business, so I was born in the theater.
And you started early.
How old were you when you first went in front of people for money?
Six weeks, do you believe it?
Six weeks?
Uh-huh.
They carried me on and I gave a superb performance.
I stayed [Ab] asleep the entire time. _ _
Rick and David, what [Eb] about you growing up?
How would you describe your growing up?
There you were, [Ab] _ _ you were stars the whole [Bb] time you were growing up for like, what, 16 years.
That's amazing.
How would you describe your childhood? _
I think it was [Gb] fairly normal, you know?
I mean, to us [N] it was normal because it was the only childhood we knew, really.
But we always went to public schools all the way along and had friends outside of show business.
So, you know, I think we could kind of balance everything off, really.
Dad being the producer-director had control of the show, and I think it probably would have been different or a little strange had we been child actors, quote.
But we were really, _ you know, he arranged the shooting schedule so we could have football practice and whatever we were doing.
It wasn't like you missed something to become stars or something like that.
_ It would have been tough if we were growing up in Nebraska and had a television show there.
But being in Hollywood, so many of the kids are either involved with show business families or their parents are behind the scenes.
It was fairly normal.
Harriet, did you ever have any problems at the time, at least concerns in your mind that they were missing anything because they were working and so forth?
No, because we used to work [Bb] around them.
If they had particular things to do, then Ozzy would, I was always on call.
I went in every day, you know, and I was a standby.
So that if one of them couldn't make something, Mom was there to take up the slack.
And rewrite, literally.
Or he'd just do scenes, jump around and do scenes that we were in that they weren't in, you know.
How would you all describe Ozzy? _ _
[Gb] Oh.
Not to [N] take you into deep.
That's going to take me the next half hour.
_ _ He was the most wonderful man.
He was _ bright and energetic and _ enthusiastic and loved people.
And _ _ _ he was generous and kind.
And shall I go on?
No, I think I understand.
He was just about everything that was superior as far as I'm concerned.
And I think that goes for them, too.
He loved kids and he always brought that with him on the show.
And I think he kind of felt that watching the show that he did.
If I couldn't find him at the beach in Laguna Beach, I [Eb] just looked [Bb] down.
And wherever there was a circle of little kids, he'd be sitting in the middle.
And he was always like that.
I always _ admired Dad so much that I was always amazed that he could _ _ _ be involved as a director and things.
And also as a father, too.
And do so well at both things. _
Are you able to watch the reruns now without _ _ _ _ _ _ dissolving an emotion?
Well, I wasn't for a long time.
But _ I've been watching now for about the last six months and really appreciating his performances.
He loved to do stunts.
_ He was the world's biggest ham when it came to stunts.
And he was a very funny man.
When we did the show, I was so involved in it that you guess, oh, it's [F] not funny to you.
You know how it [N] is when you're doing it.
But now that I, in retrospect, I can sit back now and really enjoy his performances.
_ Funny man.
It's really nice meeting you, Harriet, David, Rick.
We've met before in the past.
What are you all doing now?
You're both still in the biz.
You're working.
Yeah, I just, as a matter of fact, last night I did the Oklahoma State Fair.
Last night?
Last night.
Oh.
_ So you're busy. _
I'm producing and directing now.
I have a commercial company in Los Angeles and just finished [Bb] a feature, directing.
Harriet, are you goofing off a little bit?
I'm goofing off, yeah.
That's great.
I live down Laguna Beach and just enjoy myself and my family.
Good place