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seventies_sitcoms · 01-29-2006, 03:20 PM

I hardly remember the repeats on TV when I was a little kid, and I was wondering how this was? I'm going to the library now to pick up Season 1 for my mother who loves Doris Day. She will probably ask me to watch some of it with her.

TV Knowledge Fan · 04-26-2006, 02:43 PM

...but beware of the many changes the show had in each season. Doris didn't want to do the show in the first place- seems her husband Marty "I got everything from her" Melcher and his partner Jerome Rosenthal had set up the deal for the show with CBS...without telling HER about it. After he suddenly died in mid-1968, THAT'S when she found out. In order to honor the commitment (and overcome her grief), she reluctantly agreed to throw herself into the production head-on.

After production wrapped up on the first season, she KNEW what was "wrong" with the format- she didn't fit in with a rural background, down on the farm with Grandpa and the kids [this was obviously what CBS wanted, and who was "Farty Belcher" {as Les Brown once referred to him} to disagree, as long as the show was going to made money for HIM?]. So Doris took full control of the show and began to "tweak" it a little- season two saw her moving to the city (San Francisco), in a fancy apartment with better fashions for her to show off, and eventually eased the kids (and Grandpa) off camera as much as possible. Denver Pyle ("Grandpa") and the kids vanished after season three, with a new employer and better writing job, and....you'll have to see the show, season by season, to understand what I'm talking about, 'seventies'.

By the way, "THE DORIS DAY SHOW" was only moderately successful on CBS
(following "THE RED SKELTON HOUR" on Tuesdays in its first two seasons, then "MAYBERRY RFD" and "HERE'S LUCY" on Monday nights in the last three), and the only reason her show was renewed, two seasons in a row, was because, according to Sally Bedell Smith's "Up The Tube" (1981), CBS kept finding itself a "half-hour short" when planning its fall schedule. CBS executive John Schneider said of Doris, "She was attractive and had a following. We knew she was never going to get more than a 32 or 31 share
{note: a "40 share" show is a BIG SUCCESS in the braodcasting industry}. Although we weren't displeased with her show, it was marginal. But Doris Day stayed on as a TV personality. (Her show) was that whimsical."

01-29-2006, 03:20 PM	#1
seventies_sitcoms * Senior Member Join Date: Jan 09, 2005 Posts: 2,243	How is this show? I hardly remember the repeats on TV when I was a little kid, and I was wondering how this was? I'm going to the library now to pick up Season 1 for my mother who loves Doris Day. She will probably ask me to watch some of it with her.

04-26-2006, 02:43 PM	#2
TV Knowledge Fan Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 29, 2006 Location: Long Branch, N.J. Posts: 2,577	Doris is good... ...but beware of the many changes the show had in each season. Doris didn't want to do the show in the first place- seems her husband Marty "I got everything from her" Melcher and his partner Jerome Rosenthal had set up the deal for the show with CBS...without telling HER about it. After he suddenly died in mid-1968, THAT'S when she found out. In order to honor the commitment (and overcome her grief), she reluctantly agreed to throw herself into the production head-on. After production wrapped up on the first season, she KNEW what was "wrong" with the format- she didn't fit in with a rural background, down on the farm with Grandpa and the kids [this was obviously what CBS wanted, and who was "Farty Belcher" {as Les Brown once referred to him} to disagree, as long as the show was going to made money for HIM?]. So Doris took full control of the show and began to "tweak" it a little- season two saw her moving to the city (San Francisco), in a fancy apartment with better fashions for her to show off, and eventually eased the kids (and Grandpa) off camera as much as possible. Denver Pyle ("Grandpa") and the kids vanished after season three, with a new employer and better writing job, and....you'll have to see the show, season by season, to understand what I'm talking about, 'seventies'. By the way, "THE DORIS DAY SHOW" was only moderately successful on CBS (following "THE RED SKELTON HOUR" on Tuesdays in its first two seasons, then "MAYBERRY RFD" and "HERE'S LUCY" on Monday nights in the last three), and the only reason her show was renewed, two seasons in a row, was because, according to Sally Bedell Smith's "Up The Tube" (1981), CBS kept finding itself a "half-hour short" when planning its fall schedule. CBS executive John Schneider said of Doris, "She was attractive and had a following. We knew she was never going to get more than a 32 or 31 share {note: a "40 share" show is a BIG SUCCESS in the braodcasting industry}. Although we weren't displeased with her show, it was marginal. But Doris Day stayed on as a TV personality. (Her show) was that whimsical."