Doris Day was my first movie star. I just loved watching her. She was beautiful, smart, funny, had one of the best figures of any Hollywood actresses of her generation, and showed a tremendous amount of versatility. But as her husband/manager's personal fortune (and Doris's along with it) began to overwhelm his judgment, he secretly signed Day to a CBS contract that included a TV series and music specials. Day, as well all know, was a pro and honored the contract. By then she had little choice. Her husband had lost all her money and died.
By the time THE DORIS DAY SHOW appeared in 1968, I was in my late teens and not watching TV at all. So I missed all five seasons of the show (I only saw parts of episodes) and it never cropped up on reruns where I lived. So I was delighted when the first season of the show was released on DVD.
Well that delight has turned into stupefication. This is one of the dreariest, formula TV comedies I've ever seen. Let me say that Doris is always game, gracious and watchable. But she's stranded in a storyline that is so full of saccharine nonsense, you're left wondering why there weren't any special features to relieve the tedium.
The writing is simply god-awful (shockingly, the young James L. Brooks is given credit for one episode during the first season), and misses the point of Doris Day's wonderful comic persona. Living on a farm, a la Green Acres, isn't very original. As someone said earlier, the show's borrowing formulas from every other sitcom on TV. it's a testament to Day's magnetic appeal that she rises above the tiresome formula, radiating that unique blend of charm and spunk that gave her such wide audience appeal. I lasted through the first 15 episodes, before finally calling it quits.
I understand the show improves in seasons two and three, and if they are released, I'll get them from Netflix and then only one DVD at a time in case they are as hopeless as this first season was.
Doris Day was a major movie star, and TV let her down badly. How do you take one of the great career girls of American movies and turn her into a Mom in Podunk???
By the time THE DORIS DAY SHOW appeared in 1968, I was in my late teens and not watching TV at all. So I missed all five seasons of the show (I only saw parts of episodes) and it never cropped up on reruns where I lived. So I was delighted when the first season of the show was released on DVD.
Well that delight has turned into stupefication. This is one of the dreariest, formula TV comedies I've ever seen. Let me say that Doris is always game, gracious and watchable. But she's stranded in a storyline that is so full of saccharine nonsense, you're left wondering why there weren't any special features to relieve the tedium.
The writing is simply god-awful (shockingly, the young James L. Brooks is given credit for one episode during the first season), and misses the point of Doris Day's wonderful comic persona. Living on a farm, a la Green Acres, isn't very original. As someone said earlier, the show's borrowing formulas from every other sitcom on TV. it's a testament to Day's magnetic appeal that she rises above the tiresome formula, radiating that unique blend of charm and spunk that gave her such wide audience appeal. I lasted through the first 15 episodes, before finally calling it quits.
I understand the show improves in seasons two and three, and if they are released, I'll get them from Netflix and then only one DVD at a time in case they are as hopeless as this first season was.
Doris Day was a major movie star, and TV let her down badly. How do you take one of the great career girls of American movies and turn her into a Mom in Podunk???