Sam Nelson (Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Nelson) (Part Two)

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we present for you part two of our interview with Sam Nelson, son of Rick Nelson and grandson of Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Nelson. In the 1950s The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was a massive hit television show and ran for 14 years that made both Rick, then known as Ricky and brother David Nelson major, major stars.

But this episode takes a very intense turn from the first episode as we move from one type of a family legacy to quite another. If you recall, in the 1980s Sam was at the center of a very public custody fight between his mother Kristin Nelson and her brother, actor Mark Harmon and his wife actress Pam Dawber. Imagine heading to the supermarket and seeing your own face on the cover of the National Enquirer and People magazine while still in elementary school? And this after the tragic and speculated up death of his father, Ricky Nelson in a plane crash not too long before that. Ooof, this one is doozy.

We do manage to get into a few things outside of the more sensational aspects of Sam's life including the very real ghost stories from his childhood home, his father's favorite flavor of ice cream and the famous beach house his grandparents owned that was part of the Nelson family lore. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story.

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast, encore edition, we are talking to Sam Nelson, the son of actor/musician Rick Nelson aka Ricky Nelson and actress mother Kristin Nelson). He also has some pretty famous grandparents, an uncle, brothers, a sister and likely more relatives who spent some time in front of the camera and the microphone we discuss as well.

Sam spoke to us about so many things on part one of this interview including, what it's like to run a television archive which is right up host Josh Mills' alley, the challenges in keeping an archive relevant in 2025 and how to best honor your family legacy. We dig into how Sam became the one to control his family legacy via his uncle David who passed it on to him after some time and frankly, a bit of neglect as well. We talk about The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet being the second longest running sitcom on television in its history, the legacy of his father Rick whose good looks and talent almost took him away from the show much to his parents chagrin and how he's bringing it back in the 20s.

There is lots to dig into including a 435 episode DVD box set Sam shepherded to market, how he's looking to expand the brand outside of the small screen as well as the complexity of being the son of one the great entertainers of 1950s well into the 1980s. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story.

Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to guest Radames Pera on part two of our conversation about growing up a child actor to actress Lisa Pera. Like episode one of our conversation last week, we dig into some really intense and really dark places that have to be heard to be believed. As the young Grasshopper on the 70s TV show Kung Fu to an eventual, genuine teen heartthrob thanks to his role as John Jr. on Little House on the Prairie, we learn on this episode that all that glitters is not gold.

On this episode we get a deep dive into the aforementioned Coogan's Law that was put on the books in 1939 so that child actors were protected by law from parents benefiting financially from their career. Or so we are told. Laws are only good when enforced and Radames lays out the intense, jaw-dropping details of how the law failed him by his very own mother. We also learn of Radames' mother, actress Lisa Pera hoarding disorder in her later years that was so bad, Radames felt the need to document it on YouTube. And while we discuss this in depth, the videos are hard to watch. Moreover, the home in the videos is the one Radamas grew up in. It's a tough watch. This episode has layers upon layers of really difficult emotions that we tackle only through the honesty and genuine candor of our guest. This one is a rough one and one for the ages. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story.