Long after he gave up leading his Big Band in the ‘30s and ‘40s and long after he married his lead singer, he starred in his own television show “Ozzie and Harriet.” Yes, Harriet used to sing in his band, but now she was relegated to 1050s situation comedy housewife. Flanked by their two sons, David and Ricky, the Nelsons gave us years of entertainment on the small screen. Ozzie, and no one ever knew what he did for a living, always wore a shirt and tie and a cardigan sweater, a staple of TV dads in those days.

In one episode, Ricky zooms home from school in his hot rod only to run up on the front long in order to stop. It seemed his brakes had failed.

Ozzie, who never got angry at his boys, slowly lumbered to the yard and examined his son’s car. With a scratch of his chin and nod of his head, he instantly diagnosed the problem as faulty brakes. Now, Ozzie spent hours lecturing his boys on the dangers of driving with bad brakes. This time, before he had time to give another lecture, Ricky was inside the house calling us toll-free. He instantly was connected with one of our friendly and well-trained customer service agents who was eager and ready to help him. Before you knew it, Ricky had his new set of brakes ordered and on the way. Ozzie again lectured Ricky about bad brakes. But Ricky did not listen. Instead he grabbed his guitar and sang his latest hit song.By next week’s show, his hot rod was back in action.