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42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FOURTH HELPING OF DORIS IS DELICIOUS, November 20, 2006
The fourth season of the highly popular "The Doris Day Show" which CBS aired from 1971 - 1972, brought with it some major changes in format. What remained constant, however, was the lady herself. Doris Day continued to delight millions every week and if the writing on the show was sometimes less than stellar, Miss Day made up for it with her energetic performance and completely natural, unaffected way of performing.
During the new season, gone were the two children that had been mainstays on the series since its debut in September, 1968. Poof - no more kids!!
However, Day's character of Doris Martin continued to occupy that dazzling apartment in San Francisco with the spiral staircase (perfect for making an entrance during the show's opening credits). In addition, landlords Angie and Louie Palucci (Kaye Ballard and Bernie Kopell) were still around to lend their over the top comedy. Other holdovers from previous seasons included Billy De Wolfe with his inimitable humor and wit as Willard Jarvis.
Doris Martin had received a promotion at Today's World the San Francisco based magazine she had worked for during seasons 2 and 3. She now worked for Cy Bennett (John Dehner), creating a strong foil for Day and Day's best friend at the magazine was now played by Jackie Joseph, whose bubbly personality grows on you during the season. Joseph had played a minor role in Day's 1968 hit film, "With Six You Get Eggroll". She was at the time the wife of CBS sitcom actor Ken Berry.
As in seasons past, the series was sumptuous to look at and boasts a enviable line-up of guest stars. Everyone from Bob Crane, Iris Adrian, Harold Peary, Robert Lansing, John Fiedler, Gordon Jump, Van Johnson, Barbara Nichols, Alan Hale, Jr., Regis Toomey, Barbara Hale, John Banner, Werner Klemperer to almost 90 year old Estelle Winwood, adds their own special skill to the proceedings. Day also finds a love interest in a dashing doctor portrayed by veteran Peter Lawford.
One of the most hilarious episodes has Miss Day masquerading as Santa Claus while attempting to unravel a mystery. Charles Nelson Reilly makes a strong impression in that episode. As had become the custom, there is a fashion show episode in which Miss Day gets to show off her stunning figure in a dazzling array of early 70's fashions. Another highpoint is the episode in which Day and Ballard go to a health spa.
While there may be series that are better remembered or admired today, "The Doris Day Show" has one element that none of them possess - Doris Day. She can make even the most inane or seemingly uneventful plotlines take on something very unique and special by the sheer presence and sincerity that she brings to everything she does.
The fourth season is due out in February, 2007. Rumor has it that there will be a lot of specials and extras. Judging from those contained on seasons 1-3, that in itself makes them something to anticipate.
So go out and get a copy and sit down and prepare to enjoy yourself. It's the perfect remedy for the cabin fever that is certain to be present by late February. Doris Day will bring enough sunshine to eradicate even Seasonal Affective Disorder.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bizarre, March 21, 2007
I am a huge Doris Day fan who knows virtually all of her movies, even the less well-known musicals from the 50s. I *adore* this woman. I'm too young to have seen the "Doris Day Show" in its original airings (unless my mom had it on the TV next to my crib...), but I have treasured watching Seasons 1-3 on DVD. It's fine television that presents Doris in a different light from her films, and she rose to the occasion with some fine performances. I knew that big changes were in store for the show in Season 4 and really looked forward to seeing how they would work. Well, I wish my feelings were better, but frankly Season 4 strikes me as a mess.
It's common knowledge that this season marked the biggest changes in a sitcom concept that was from the beginning somewhat unstable. In Seasons 1 to 3 we watched Doris transform from a widowed farm mother to a woman-on-the-town career girl, and although the transition wasn't often smooth, it was plausible. Doris pulled it off. Unfortunately, I'm not sure even she could pull off such drastic changes as the ones we find at the beginning of Season 4. Here we're given an entirely different cast, albeit it similar sets (the glorious apartment, the office). Most disconcertingly, there isn't the slightest explanation as to what happened either to Doris's kids, to her onetime best friend Myrna, to Mr. Harvey, or to Nick. They disappear as if they never existed. The show's reluctance to do even a little bit of scene-setting (as they did in the first eposides of seasons 2 and 3, to clarify the changes that followed) is a problem that I can't ignore. We're thrust from the first episode into a complex, familiar relationship between Doris and Cy and asked to accept Jackie as her best girlfriend, but there there just isn't a context there to allow us to do that. We have no history with these people, although strangely enough Doris does. I found it very offputting, even confusing. I wonder what they thought back in 1971!
But there's another change that the posters below haven't commented upon: the pace and mood of the show are also radically different. There seems to have been a concerted effort here to perk the plots up; the pace is fast, the dialogue feverish, and the episodes crammed with events and material. It has a restless quality that is far removed from the charming, relaxed silliness of the previous seasons. To make it worse, the new tempo gives Doris and her co-stars very little space to develop their characters or grow on us as people. I found myself tiring of Cy's endless haranguing; Jackie's character frankly seemed inconsequential as she has so little to do. Add to this that the plots are getting more inane and outlandish (Doris intervening in a jewel heist aboard a train bound from Paris to Nice, with the richest rajah in the world and an Asian coup d'etat occurring on board...) and the whole thing just gets hard to watch. Doris spends a lot of time with pistols pointed at her face, in disguise (that ghastly Christmas episode...), or fighting with Cy. The emphasis is strongly on her work life; we see much more of Cy than we do her erstwhile boyfriend Peter. The Palluccis and Mr Jarvis are still around, but their roles are minimized.
What in the world happened? It seems to me that Doris's age was becoming a bit of an issue by 1971 to someone affiliated with this show, be it the network, the writers, or Doris herself. She was 47 and the show's previous concept--widowhood, children entering dating age, spinster best friend, babyfaced boss--perhaps was making that age a little too obvious, especially when CBS had a hit show about a modern woman in the form of Mary Tyler Moore. It's hard not to mention that show here, because the many changes in Season 4 seem geared toward puting this show more in line with MTM, albeit perhaps targeted to a slightly older generation. The result seems to me a mixed success. Even Doris's wardrobe is out of whack; in an effort perhaps to make her seem funky, she dons some of the ugliest, most unflattering prints I have ever seen on this usually stylish actress. The fashion show is her best moment, actually. It's her everyday wear that is so odd, and don't tell me that's just what they wore in the 70s--Doris looked great in Season 3, and Mary Tyler Moore looked fabulous throughout the 7-year run of her show. Doris looks like a middle-aged woman trying hard to seem hip. It doesn't work, and I felt kind of sorry for her as I recalled that this is one of the most beautiful women, and perfect figures, Hollywood has ever seen.
Let's hope things settle into place a bit for Season 5. As it stands, I'd reserve this set for the Doris fan who must have it all.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
NOT AS GOOD AS I REMEMBER, BUT....., March 20, 2007
Still a wonderful trip back down memory lane for 40 somethings and over, as well as fans of the one and only Doris Day. Having not seen this show since its original airing, I am saddened to realize it was not as good as I recalled - but how wonderful the show's first four seasons are available at all. Crammed with extras that baby boomers will love (Doris' two Whats My Line appearances, etc), if you are a fan of typical 60s sitcoms, or of Doris Day herelf, the reasonably priced sets are worth every penny.
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