Customer Reviews

Doris Day Today

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In 1975 Doris Day completed her obligation to CBS Television by starring in a hugely popular one hour variety show. This beautifully produced special is rated five stars because Doris Day sings. That in itself warrants five stars.
Looking no more than 25 years old, Miss Day is in top-form and one can only regret that she didn't do more specials, or films, or recordings after this outing. Vocally she is superb!!!
The special generously mixes comic skits with musical interludes and utilizes Miss Day's guest stars, John Denver, Rich Little, Tim Conway and the dancing group, The Lockers, to good effect. While the comedy sketches are not especially side-splitting, Miss Day and Conway are amusing together.
John Denver is probably the most prominent guest on the show and he proves to be disarming. His chemistry with Miss Day is genuine and real and they run the gamut from "Follow Me", a Sunshine medley, "Exactly Like You" and a very cute series of song snippets that use the stars' real names and vintage tunes. Day and Denver look more like brother and sister.
The sequence with Rich Little imitating, flawlessly, several of Miss Day's on-screen co-stars is a great excuse for Day to sing bits of some of her most beloved hits including "Everybody Loves a Lover", "Teacher's Pet", "Secret Love" and the inevitable, "Whatever Will be, Will Be".
Finally it is Doris Day who makes the hour work. Her vocal rendering of "Day by Day" from the musical "Godspell" is pitch perfect. "The Way We Were" has NEVER been sung more beautifully than Miss Day's version.
Among the bonus features on this DVD release is Miss Day's appearance on the December, 1974 John Denver Special. She, Denver and George Gobel do a very funny skit that pokes good natured fun at Miss Day's on-screen image. Day and Denver sing bits of three songs from Day's early 50's musicals.
As a wonderful reminder of what a brilliant vocalist Doris Day is, this DVD release should be a must for everyone.

This special which aired in 1975 was one of the best performances Ms. Day ever did on Television. In this one hour of pure delight, Doris Day shows us the many talents she possesses...everything from dancing, singing, and of course, comedy. Like most of her shows, the fashions she wears is also something to be reckoned with. There has never been another actress who could wear a gown like Doris Day.
She easily proves to the viewer her voice is still top notch by not only singing bits and pieces from her movie hits, but she does one more by singing Barbra Streisand's signature song. There is no one other than Barbra who could sing "The Way We Were" with such ease and make the song their own, ...no one except Doris Day!
Way too often, people forget that Doris Day, the movie actress, also happens to have one of the best singing voices to ever grace a record.
If you enjoy her voice, love her movies, or just plain like Doris Day, you must purchase this DVD. It will be one of those that you will play over and over again.
If you happen to be a fan of Doris Day, then this is a must have for your collection. No fan should be without it!

Well, first of all it goes without saying that despite the fact she was nearly 50 at the time this special was aired, Day looked absolutely terrific (what a figure that girl had) and sounded even better. The special isn't much different from dozens of others in the 1970s - long on not very funny comedy skits, interspersed with some songs and dance numbers. Of the latter, there are far too few, especially of Doris herself.

Doris Day was without a doubt a great, great singer, perhaps one of the very best of the 20th century. It's just too bad the TV producers didn't have the good sense to showcase this side of her in the special more. After all, this was one of the very last times the public would get the great privilege to enjoy new material from this most amazing woman and entertainer. However, a little Day is better than no Day at all and so I'm glad she chose to do the show and we have a record of it.

The special does make one thing perfectly clear, i.e., had she chosen to, Doris Day could have gone on recording and entertaining indefinitely without any significant falloff in quality. Her rendition of "The Way We Were" on the show is gorgeous in its heartfelt simplicity and lyrical delivery. I get a little melancholy every time I think of what might had been had she go on to made just a few more albums of such songs.

The show's a little goofy, but so were the '70s. You'll fall in love with Doris before the program's end. John Denver fans, this is well worth the price, as Denver and Day have all kinds of cute business together. Lots of extras.

This TV special is further proof that it's a shame Miss Day did only two TV specials. She was really in her element with these two TV specials. (Of course, she had LOTS of elements!) If you don't have a copy of it already, GET ONE!! She was simply the VERY BEST female vocalist in the history of "good music".
vb

This 1975 "Special" is a time capsule. In the 70s network TV was doing lots of Variety Shows (have you seen a "variety" show on TV in the last 20 years?) and you could see all kinds of music in one hour.

This show - the main reason for this DVD - was produced by George Schlatter, who was responsible for "Laugh-In" during the same time period. You can tell from the sets and the corny jokes and the comic sketches with Tim Conwa But Day looks super and the print is great! Rich Little does a nice bit with Day where she sings songs from all her movies and Little recreates the leading men. And there a huge amount of screen time given to John Denver.. enough that this could have been a Day/Denver special.

The bonus features are nice addition:
A 1940s "Soundies" of Day with Les Brown's band (taken from the wonderful "Music Classics" series that MPI has put out and which I watch often.

An ILLUSTRATED Discography of Day Lps and CDS

A full episode from her situation comedy series "The Doris Day Show" titled "Doris Goes To Hollywood" where the fictional Doris goes to see the "Real" Doris. (MPI has the full series on a separate DVD set.

A 10-minute segment with Doris appearing on Denver's 1974 TV variety show.

So, Day fans will want this and so will Denver Fans! (And, if there are George Gobel fans out there (are there?) he's on the special too!)

Doris Day is such a wonderful entertainer. She is such a breath of fresh air with her happy, sunny personality shining through everything she does. She obviously enjoys singing and dancing and she and John Denver work well together. I enjoyed their light banter and songs together. What I loved most about this Special is the segment where she joins Rich Little, he doing the impersonations of some of the popular male stars she starred with in the movies and Doris singing excerpts of those movies. Rich was pretty good and was very amusing taking off Cary Grant, James Cagney,, James Stewart to name just a few. Doris looked and sang beautifully - she is such an attractive woman and to my calculations must have been 51 when she did this but you would never know it. She also has a fabulous figure, actually quite stunning for any age let alone 51!!
I also thought Tim Conway was great! I sincerely recommend this to any Doris Day fan and anyone at all who likes good entertainment.
Robyn

This is one of the two specials Doris did for CBS, and it is impossible to resist her charm.

Her rendition of "The Way We Were" is on par with the jazzy version of "Hooray For Hollywood" that is sampled all the time. Listen to BOTH songs in full, to get their impact.

(of course "Hooray" is not on this item, but find it!)

Doris was always a style maven, and she looks fantastic. You will LOVE this! Doris was in fine form, and you can tell that production spent time and money to assure a great show.

The 70's and 80's were hard for many stars, Doris included.

This is a great snapshot of the time- a sensational show with a superstar talent. At the time it remined one of the highest rated television shows of the year.

How foolish of CBS and the studios to ignore her charm, talent and ability to attract an audience. I am quite sure that she never thought this would be a good bye to her millions of fans. I hope you enjoy the show as much as I did.

P.S. For those of you who are HUGE Doris fan's (like me!) -- Can you imagine how nice the CBS series "Murder She Wrote" might have been with with our Super-Style Doris?

Nothing against dear Angela, but Doris would have rocked the airwaves in that part!

Do get this DVD at the great AMAZON price, and share it-- we simply do NOT have talent and style like this anymore. Enjoy!

Whilst this show seems somewhat dated now, its still good to have some of Doris's last tv work, to remember her by. She is in excellent voice and despite the , now, rather lame comedy sketches, the duets with John Denver and of course her solo numbers make the DVD a good choice for those of us who feel that Doris is under-rated as a singer. She looks great, mature, and really quite different to the image which Warners tried to project. I'm one huge fan, but possibly one of the only ones highly critical of the "Doris Day t.v. Show" which I thought quite dreadful, along with her last few films. Sadly she never got to do "South Pacific" or "Hello Dolly", both films cast with inadequate leads. What a difference to both these films had she starred in them.
On this dvd. she is on good form, and I'd say a good choice whether you know her work or not
John Craig

This is a collectors must! However, the title is totally wrong ... as this was Doris Day in the mid-70s ... a great entertainer, one of the very best ... and most of us know what becomes of the best of the best ... they become extremely reclusive ... survivalists! More power to you, DoDo!