This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 96: Halloween On The Air (1943 - 1953)

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In the fall of 1948, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet moved to Sunday evenings at 6:30PM on NBC radio. Although critically acclaimed, the couple had failed to crack the overall top-50 ratings on CBS in any of its first four seasons.

The band-leading Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard met in New York and were married in 1935. They began working comedic bits into their musical performances, eventually making their way to radio in 1941 when they joined The Red Skelton Show on NBC. After Skelton was drafted in 1944, CBS nabbed the couple, giving them their own sitcom.

Ozzie led all aspects of production and was the show’s pivotal character, with his tangents the vehicles for confusion. Each week Harriet would gently guide him back to reason. Episodes usually ended with Ozzie suffering embarrassment while his sons got in a few comic jabs.

Both Ozzie and Harriet felt their children David and Ricky were too young to play themselves. And there were financial implications in big-time network radio. During the first four seasons child actors Tommy Bernard and Henry Blair played the Nelson children.

When the show moved to NBC in 1948 it was positioned as the lead-in for The Jack Benny Program. That Halloween Ozzie and Harriet visited a Haunted House.