The Doris Day Show

The Doris Day Show
The DVD cover for season one of The Doris Day Show (1968-69)
Format	Sitcom Western (genre) Office (genre) (primarily season 1)
Created by	James Fritzell
Starring	Doris Day Denver Pyle McLean Stevenson Rose Marie John Dehner Jackie Joseph Phillip Brown Tod Starke James Hampton Paul Smith Fran Ryan Bernie Kopell Naomi Stevens Kaye Ballard Peter Lawford Patrick O'Neal Billy DeWolfe
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	128
Production
Running time	22–24 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	September 24, 1968 (1968-09-24) – March 12, 1973 (1973-03-12)

The Doris Day Show is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 1968 until September 1973. In addition to showcasing Doris Day, the show is remembered for its many abrupt format changes over the course of its five-year run. It is also remembered for Day's claim, in her autobiography Doris Day: Her Own Story (1975), that her husband Martin Melcher had signed her to do the TV series without her knowledge, a fact she only discovered when Melcher died of heart disease on April 20, 1968. The TV show premiered on September 28, 1968.

Series run

Season 1

Day had been a popular film actress in the 1950s and early 1960s. In this gentle sitcom, she was cast as Doris Martin, a widow and mother of two young sons Billy and Toby, who, when the series premiered, had just moved back to a rural ranch outside of San Francisco after having lived in big cities for most of her adult life.

Other characters during this initial phase of the program included Doris's father Buck (played by Denver Pyle) and their hired hand on the ranch, Leroy (played by James Hampton). Their housekeeper initially was Aggie Thompson, portrayed by Fran Ryan, who left after the first 10 episodes to replace Barbara Pepper in Green Acres as Doris Ziffel. The character left without any explanation and was replaced by Juanita, played by Naomi Stevens.

Season 2

In the 1969-70 TV season, the Doris Martin character began to commute from the ranch to San Francisco, where she worked as a secretary for a magazine, Today's World. New workplace characters were added. McLean Stevenson (who would later leave the series to star in M*A*S*H) played her boss, Today's World editor, Michael Nicholson, and her friend and coworker, Myrna Gibbons, was played by Rose Marie in a role similar to her more famous Sally Rogers role on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Also in the cast, Paul Smith, who portrayed Ron Harvey the assistant editor. Pyle and Hampton were still seen during this season.

Season 3

At the start of the 1970-71 season, having gotten tired of the commute between her work and the ranch, Doris and her sons moved to San Francisco, where they lived in an apartment above an Italian restaurant owned by Louie and Angie Pallucci (Bernie Kopell; Kaye Ballard). Louie was at first angry with Angie for her renting the apartment to a widow and children, but he eventually relented and became used to the whole family after Billy and Toby praised his pizza. Angie also became one of Doris's best friends. Doris began writing articles for the magazine at which she worked, under the auspices of Mr. Harvey, the assistant editor, but was still mainly a secretary. Most of the characters from the previous season remained, with the exceptions of Pyle and Hampton's characters (who both returned for a few episodes). In this season, Doris' nemesis Mr. Willard Jarvis (Billy De Wolfe) moves next door, causing trouble for her and her family in a few episodes.

Seasons 4-5

The fourth season, 1971-72, saw the most radical change in the series. Perhaps inspired by the success of The Mary Tyler Moore Show,^{[original research?]} Day's character suddenly became a swinging single career woman (going by Ms. instead of Mrs.). The entire cast, other than Day herself, was gone; even Doris Martin's two sons were no longer in the cast, with the brief explanation that her boys moved back to Buck's farm to help him out. Doris Martin now had a new editor, Cy Bennett, played by character actor John Dehner, and she was no longer a secretary, but rather a full-time staff writer, and later, an associate editor. Actress Jackie Joseph joined the cast as Doris' friend, Jackie Parker. Doris still lived in the same apartment but in season 5, the Palluccis sold out and Dr. Peter Lawrence, (Peter Lawford) was still around as Doris's sometime love interest. Her sometime-nemesis, Mr. Jarvis purchased the building, which alarmed Doris, but nevertheless accepted him. The Palluccis, Angie in particular, was still on hand in the fourth season. Doris was now depicted as though she has always been a reporter, no reference made to her having been a secretary. The series continued with this format until it was canceled in 1973.

Place in popular culture

The Doris Day Show was considered a rather lightweight comedy. It was never a huge ratings success but remained popular enough to survive on primetime TV for five seasons. It premiered at a time when rural comedies such as Green Acres were common, and continued into the era when topical sitcoms such as All in the Family prevailed, with associated changes to its own premise.

Opening theme

The opening sequence features Day singing the Livingston & Evans classic, "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)." The song had been introduced by Day in the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock suspense film The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which Day co-starred with James Stewart.

Nielsen ratings

The show itself was successful in its first four seasons, though it dropped out the top-30 in the final season:

• Season 1 (1968–69): #30
• Season 2 (1969–70): #10
• Season 3 (1970–71): #20
• Season 4 (1971–72): #24
• Season 5 (1972–73): out of top-30

By this time, Doris Day was a committed advocate of animal rights and was ready to leave the Hollywood lifestyle behind her. CBS wanted a sixth season, but Doris was contracted to do only five years. By the final season, she had become the show’s executive producer, and simply told CBS “I have done everything I can with the series”.

DVD releases

MPI Home Video has released all 5 seasons of The Doris Day Show on DVD in Region 1. Each DVD release contains extensive special features.

In Region 4, Umbrella Entertainment has released all 5 seasons on DVD in Australia.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} In 2009, all five seasons were re-released with slimmer packaging.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
		Region 1	Region 4
Season 1	28	June 28, 2005	November 11, 2005
Season 2	26	October 25, 2005	April 10, 2006
Season 3	26	May 30, 2006	November 6, 2006
Season 4	24	February 27, 2007	April 2, 2007
Season 5	24	November 20, 2007	January 12, 2008
The Complete Series	128	November 25, 2008	N/A

Further reading

• Patrick, Pierre and Garry McGee, The Doris Day Companion: A Beautiful Day. BearManor Media, 2009.

References

1. ^ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2008-11-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20081120201529/http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/products/show/55/189. Retrieved 2011-10-07. 
2. ^ "Umbrella Entertainment - DORIS DAY SHOW, THE SERIES TWO (4 DVD SET)". Umbrellaent.com.au. http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-2958-doris-day-show-the-series-two-4-dvd-set.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-07. 
3. ^ "Umbrella Entertainment - DORIS DAY SHOW, THE SERIES THREE". Umbrellaent.com.au. http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-1875-doris-day-show-the-series-three.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-07. 
4. ^ "Umbrella Entertainment - DORIS DAY SHOW, THE SERIES FOUR". Umbrellaent.com.au. http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-2959-doris-day-show-the-series-four.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-07. 
5. ^ "Umbrella Entertainment - DORIS DAY SHOW, THE SERIES FIVE". Umbrellaent.com.au. http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-1876-doris-day-show-the-series-five.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-07. 

External links

• The Doris Day Show at the Internet Movie Database
• The Doris Day Show at TV.com
• Discovering Doris Television Section