What happened?

Many format changes in TV series have been brilliantly segued in (especially that involving McLean Stevenson's greatest role, as the ill-fated Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake of M*A*S*H*)but the change between the third and fourth seasons of this series totally baffles me.

Was it the only time in TV series history that a widow with two children suddenly became a "bachelorette" with none? Obviously such a thing can't happen in real life.
Shouldn't the family have been separated by explainable forces?

I agree DD was once the very belle of Hollywood; her beauty in mid-career haunts me even more than her brilliant acting/singing/dancing. BUT (re your heading for season 4)how was Doris Martin even more "beautiful" in 1971 than she had been in 1968? Was her beauty more relevant because she was (somehow)a bachelorette rather than a widow?

Bill Gunnels

[Shindigger]

Bill,
I remember watching this show in it's first run,however, I was around 4 or 5 at the time., But I vividly remember the Que Sera Sera opening and I recall my family seemed to love the show (and I had quite a crush on Miss Day!) Maybe my age won't qualify me to offer up an explanation for the drastic changes between the seasons in question, but I do recall reading somewhere some comments that may shed light on the subject.

First, I'm not sure, but I believe I read that the show was not a ratings blockbuster, but was, nonetheless, a respectable ratings grabber. This in mind, various changes were made to shore up the show's appeal and, more importantly, to make the show more "relevant" to the times. Again, I'm hazzarding a guess here, but I would say, that with the success of the Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970, the vogue was in for shows featuring single, independent women and so, another change was made to Miss Day's show.

Again, we know how reliable the memory is, and I'm piecing things together from bits and piecses of things I've read and seen. So mine is only a broad guess of why the show took on such radical changes. Hopefully, someone else out there will have more insight.

[NCVARick]

Originally posted by Shindigger:
Bill,
I remember watching this show in it's first run,however, I was around 4 or 5 at the time., But I vividly remember the Que Sera Sera opening and I recall my family seemed to love the show (and I had quite a crush on Miss Day!) Maybe my age won't qualify me to offer up an explanation for the drastic changes between the seasons in question, but I do recall reading somewhere some comments that may shed light on the subject.

First, I'm not sure, but I believe I read that the show was not a ratings blockbuster, but was, nonetheless, a respectable ratings grabber. This in mind, various changes were made to shore up the show's appeal and, more importantly, to make the show more "relevant" to the times. Again, I'm hazzarding a guess here, but I would say, that with the success of the Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970, the vogue was in for shows featuring single, independent women and so, another change was made to Miss Day's show.

Again, we know how reliable the memory is, and I'm piecing things together from bits and piecses of things I've read and seen. So mine is only a broad guess of why the show took on such radical changes. Hopefully, someone else out there will have more insight.

I have no more insight than you do; I have heard the same thing: the "The Doris Day Show" was taking a cue from the success of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" by reinventing Doris Martin as a single woman. What baffles me, though, is that "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was NOT a bit hit during its first season. It didn't really establish itself until its second season. So I don't understand why "The Doris Day Show" would have patterned itself upon a show that, at that point (1971) was not a certifiable hit. If this change had happened a year later when "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was a big hit, I could understand that explanation, but not 1971.

[Shindigger]

NCVA Rick,
You raise a good point on the relative degree of success of The Mary Tyler Moore Show in it's first year. But then again, the show Gidget was never really a ratings blockbuster when it originally aired, but it apparently some TV execs must have taken notice, as they created the show Karen, which was similar in premise, (that of the life of a teen-age girl) as a direct result of Gidget's initially limited, but obvious appeal.
I think with The Doris Day Show, at the time maybe again, TV execs must have had some idea that a new era was arriving- that of the single woman. Marlo Thomas had started the ball rolling some years earlier (she was quite ahead of the game!) and even though her show was near it's end, I still would guess that with what was taking place in the world during the early 70's, perhaps the producers felt this was the way to move the show in keeping with the times.
Of course this guessing game could just keep going; but it is interesting.

[Shindigger]

OK
After checking out a couple of things, it seems to make sense indeed that MTM had an effect on the Doris Day show. The major change in format took place in 1971. By this time, MTM had been on the air a full year, having premiered in 1970. Also, if my memory serves me well, it seems that there was a run of TV shows featuring single women that came along at this time: Funny Girl and Faye come to mind (but again, I was pretty young at the time...)
But isn't that the way television works; if you get even a moderate hit with a show, clone it!

[PaulJ38]

Actually, it was a good idea that CBS changed the format or poor ol' Doris could have been the victim of the 1971 rural sitcoms cancellation.

[Sheriff Swell]

Sorry for the dupliate post but I'm new and clicked on the wrong icon to REPLY to this thread!

Lets not forget Marlo Thomas's "That Girl" series which was huge and had preceeded "Mary Tyler Moore". That may have been one of the influences to change the direction of the "Doris Day Show".

Ed

[NCVARick]

Originally posted by PaulJ38
Actually, it was a good idea that CBS changed the format or poor ol' Doris could have been the victim of the 1971 rural sitcoms cancellation.

Interestingly, even before the 1971 format change, this show was no longer a rural sitcom, which makes the change between the third and fourth seasons all the more strange. It was only an exclusively rural sitcom during its initial season (1968-69). In the second season, Doris got a job in San Francisco at Today's World magazine. She was still living on the farm, but commuted to the city to her new job. During the second season, the show was sort of like two series in one: some episodes took place in the office and centered on her life as a career woman, with her work colleagues, in San Francisco; other episodes revolved around her weekend life on the farm with the family. In the third season, Doris Martin took her kids and moved into an apartment in San Francisco and continued working for Today's World. The rural format, at this point, was completely written out of the series. And the only cast members remaining from the original format, other than Doris Day, were the two actors who played her sons. In the third season, Doris Martin was still working for Today's World magazine. But all of a sudden, Doris Martin was no longer Mrs. Doris Martin, widow with two children, but Miss (or Ms?) Doris Martin, a never-married bachelorette who had never had children. It sounds like something right out of the Twilight Zone.

[NCVARick]

Originally posted by NCVARick
In the third season, Doris Martin was still working for Today's World magazine. But all of a sudden, Doris Martin was no longer Mrs. Doris Martin, widow with two children, but Miss (or Ms?) Doris Martin, a never-married bachelorette who had never had children.

Excuse me, I meant the *fourth* season, not the third. Incidentally, the fifth season was the only season for this series where there was not a format change.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

Yes, there should be a "Twilight Zone" scenario describing the fates of people and pets who wandered off series into the sunset. Hopefully little Billy and Toby are happily frolicking in a field of flowers with "The Partridge Family"'s Simone, "The Brady Bunch"'s Tiger, and "The Torkelsons"' basset hound, not to mention that little dog, Captain Jack, picked up by Wally and the Beaver! Offhand I can't think of any series which tried this exact trick so brazenly as "The Doris Day Show." To "add" a family is easy enough, someone leaves the character with children ("Dr. Quinn"; Stephanie on "All in the Family") or the character marries someone with kids ("My Three Sons," substituting Mike with Ernie was pretty slick, then adding Dodie; Denise on "The Cosby Show"), but to SUBTRACT a family without trauma...? It was done once, on "Adam-12": in the pilot, Jim Reed was a twenty-three-year old, married three years, with a son on the way. In the episode "Elegy for a Pig," in flashback, Jim is a bachelor when he teams up with Pete Malloy. That "alternate universe" was a brief mention (and an unnecessary one, a continuity screwup evidently unnoticed even by star Martin Milner, who narrated). It was like the "Twilight Zone" episode "Parallel," where the character found himself in a nearly identical universe, except for a number of niggling little changes such as having a different rank. "Elegy for a Pig" is full of such changes, the glaring difference being that at least the poor guy in "Parallel" still had the same wife and child! This state of things existed for only the one episode, so didn't disturb anyone but observant fans. It would be interesting to ask Jean Reed how it feels to be given a return ticket from "The Twilight Zone," but no doubt a memory charm a la Harry Potter is performed so these characters don't screw up by revealing too much. "The Torkelsons" underwent several changes: the pilot depicted a sandy-haired Stephen Floyd and a solidly built Ruth Anne. They changed to a dark-aired Stephen Floyd and a similar-looking, but smaller and more slender Ruth Anne. When the series was retitled "Almost Home," and moved to Seattle, somehow both characters were lost in the move and never missed! At least Mrs. Torkelson retained three of her five children; she didn't become "Miss/Ms." somebody with none!

[Fan of old shows]

im glad they changed their format.

[BNorber]

I do not know a lot about the reason for the miriad of changes through the seasons of the Doris Day show. However, here is what I have heard is a bit of history of how the series came about. I believe the story goes that when Ms. Days husband at the time, Marty Melcher died, she found herself very in debt, due to his (and his lawer) mismanagement of her money. It was also discovered that with out her knowlege, he had commited her to a new TV series and he had already taken an advance on the money. She had no desire to do a series and had told him as much but by this time the contracts were signed by him (He had power of attorney) and she was legaly bound to go through with The Doris Day show. From what I understand the format was already ok'd and some of the scripts had even been written. She did not care for the format and as any good business person would do, fought to change it when it wasn't doing as well as hoped. The series became very important to Ms. Day financially because not only was she half a million dollars in debt (after being the top female box office star in the world for many years) but she was sueing her lawer whom she blamed for the squandering of her money, feeling her husband had simply trusted the wrong person. It is said that the legal fees ran as high as fifty thousand a month and the case ran for 5-7 years. The series ( from what Ms. Day say's in the retrospective biography "Sentimental Journey" hosted by Roger Ebert ) paid for the legal fees and therefore had become quite important financially for Ms. Day, which may have acounted for the miriad of changes in format. To try to keep the show afloat and keep the money coming in to pay her lawyers. She did eventually win her suit and was awarded some 22 million dollars. I don't know how much if any she actually got but she said in the "Sentimental Journey" interview... "Thank God for that series"

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...saved her financially AND mentally. Beaause of Marty Melcher and what he'd done to her, she HAD to do the series. Because of it, she paid off her debts and won her court case, and kept herself before the public every week for five years and learned HOW to manage her own affairs. THAT'S why she said, "Thank God for that series...".