looking for episode guide

[benjamoon]

Does anyone know where I can find an episode guide of the TV series?

[TJ]

I have one, but it only lists about 200 out of the 435 episodes - which I think is because only 200 were released into syndication. I hope to be able to type them in soon and add them to my Ozzie & Harriet page - http://www.sitcomsonline.com/theadventuresofozzieandharriet.html

[Mark J. Cuccia]

In the late 1980's (1987?), Disney Channel (on Cable) got the rights (from the Nelson Estate) to an additional 100 or so episodes which they ran under the banner "The Missing Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet".

That leaves about 135 or so episodes which were still not rerun since their original runs and prime-time network reruns on the ABC Television Network 1952-66. The American Broadcasting Company didn't rerun Ozzie and Harriet weekday/daytimes though (unlike some other series such as Donna Reed, Bewitched, That Girl, Brady Bunch, etc. which ABC *DID* rerun the earlier episodes while new seasons were still in production - even rerunning AFTER the original production ceased; The CBS-TV Network (Columbia Broadcasting System) did rerun all three series of "Lucy", Andy Griffith, Dick van Dyke, color/CBS ep's of My Three Sons, etc. in weekday/daytime in the 1960s, some into the early/mid 1970's, etc).

Anyhow, I seem to remember reading in a 1968 issue of BROADCASTING magazine that only 200 of the total 435 Ozzie and Harriet episodes were being released into rerun syndication by Ozzie, through AIP (American International Pictures).

Around 1978, AIP's backlog library of TV shows (and movies?) was purchased by Filmways (the production company of Mr.Ed, Beverly Hillbillies, Adams Family, Petticoat Jct, Green Acres - some of them rerun syndicated directly by Filmways, others were rerun syndicated by CBS/Viacom).

In the 1980's, Filmways either changed their name, or were bought out, or were merged with another company, the new company/name being Orion. They owned the rerun syndication rights to the 200 chosen episodes (in 1968) of the total of 435 of Ozzie and Harriet until Disney and the Nelson Estate contracted to run the 200 episodes on Disney Channel in 1985. Then in 1987(?), Disney and the Nelsons contracted for the rights to the additional 100 "Missing Adventures" episodes, and for a few years, Disney Cable ran 300 possible episodes, sometimes in various cycles where only the "200" would be seen, in other slots/cycles, only the 100 "Missing Adventures" would be seen, and other times, ANY one of the 300 episodes could be aired.

Disney hasn't rerun Ozzie & Harriet in almost ten years now... I *did* hear a rumor that they were contracting with the Nelson Estate for the remaining 135 episodes of the 435, but then Disney ceased rerunning the series altogather.

The last I've heard (and the series is still being rerun here and there) is that the Nelson Estate has contracted with some other distributor for Ozzie and Harriet, and I *THINK* that *ALL* 435 episodes are now available for rerun!

As for an episode log...

I have tried in vain to get a COMPLETE list of all 435 episodes titles, hopefully with original ABC-TV telecast date, and/or the episode sequence/production code number.

I started doing this research in DETAIL in the mid-1980's, mostly by cranking thru microfilm backissues of numerous local/out-of-town newspapers from the 1950's/60's for their TV/Radio listings, and microfilmed backissues of TV Guide -- all at the public and college libraries in New Orleans and Baton Rouge LA.

Sometimes in the newspaper's TV listings as well as in TV-Guide, the episode titles were indicateded, but not necessarily. That's why I tried using several sources.

As for TV Guide, it was a consortium of several major cities' TV magazines that had existed since the late 1940's and early 1950's, the "national" data-source that we have known as TV Guide first came out in April 1953. However, Ozzie and Harriet began in Fall 1952. TV Guide wouldn't be able to comprehensively indicate all of the episodes for pre April 1953. (The same problem has happened when trying to use TV Guide to compile episode logs with original network telecast dates for Trouble with Father, Our Miss Brooks, Amos and Andy, Beulah, I Married Joan, My Little Margie, etc. -- all of which started their network run BEFORE April 1953).

By 1991, after doing all kinds of
cross-referencing and phoning/mailing various research sources at the networks, syndicators, and research libraries/archives mostly in southern California, as well as doing my own cranking thru microfilm research, I was able to construct a list of MOST all episode titles with original ABC-TV telecast dates, except for some of the 1st (1952/53) season. I even was able to determine the episode production sequence code for MOST (but not all) of the episodes throughout the fourteen year TV run.

So, until further details were available to me, that's where my research stood back in 1990/91 or so, and has since. When the Internet came around to me in 1995, I have from time-to-time searched around for "(Adventures of) Ozzie and Harriet" in search engines for webpages/etc. But I still was unable to find a complete list of all 435 episode titles...

Recently, someone (snail) mailed me a photocopy of the episode titles from the 1st through 6th seasons, in original ABC-TV telecast order! Those "unknown" titles from the 1st season are now in there! I don't know "where" this list originally came from, but as I mentioned earlier, I *THINK* that the current rerun distributor/syndicator has the rights to ALL of the 435 TV episodes. So probably this information may have come directly from the Nelson Estate itself! I only really had a chance to look through the photocopy pages my friend emailed me, yesterday (Sunday 15 October 2000), and while comparing it with my own lists/reseaerch, I discovered that I now was able to complete a listing of ALL 435 episodes with original ABC Television Network air dates (including the ABC network prime-time reruns)!

So, today, I started doing searches on "Ozzie and Harriet" in the search engines to see if someone has actually compiled and posted a complete list of all 435 episode titles, but came across this discussion forum, and this thread on trying to locate an episode title list...

I had never transcribed my "Ozzie and Harriet" information into .txt or .doc files (it's still all just handwritten notes and typed pages), but I will start doing my typing and transcribing into ASCII .txt files over the next several weekends so that I can email it to the Moderator to put on the webpage!

Mark J. Cuccia
New Orleans LA
mcuccia@tulane.edu

[Mark J. Cuccia]

I have finished the initial transcribing of my "Ozzie and Harriet" (TV) episode log, in the original ABC Television Network telecast order (1952/53 thru 1965/66), with the original network air dates. Episode Production/Sequence code numbers are also included where I know them (there are a handful that I'm not sure, and I don't want to "guess" at them; the order that a network originally aired the episodes is NOT necessarily the order that the production company filmed the episodes).

I include information as to if a "RERUN" aired on that date, and while not in this initial transcribing as a .txt and as a .doc file, I do have notes to eventually insert as to WHICH episode was rerun on such-and-such a date where "RERUN" is indicated.

I also want to put "footnotes" as to which episodes were the 1968-chosen "200" syndicated episodes, and which were the 100 (or so) "Missing Adventures" that Disney Channel was showing in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

I don't have "Ozzie's Girls" 24 color/taped first-run syndicated episode titles (from 1973?) in this list -- but I THINK I might have the list of those 24 episodes "somewhere" in my paper files.

I also have paper notes on the RADIO run of "Ozzie & Harriet" from 1944-54 (some years CBS Radio, some years NBC Radio, and the five years from 1949-54 on ABC Radio -- Ozzie and Harriet (Radio) never did air on the Mutual Broadcasting System though)... I hope to eventually transcribe those into a .txt and .doc file. Presently, I have no episode titles from the earlier years of the network radio edition, only dates which it "could" have aired (because WW-II was still on, it is possible that some weeks it was pre-empted).

I'm going to try to post the .txt version of the (TV) Ozzie & Harriet 435 episodes titles in original ABC Television Network order here but in a separate post. If it does NOT work right, and you'd like a copy, I can email it to you - the .txt version or the .doc version or if you want both -- the .doc version has fonts/margins pre-set, and the page-breaks so that each of the fourteen TV seasons is complete on a single page. The .txt verision is about 23-K, the .doc version (14 pages printed) is about 67-K).

Mark J. Cuccia
mcuccia@tulane.edu