Classic TV: The Doris Day Show (1968)

Over at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear, Ivan Shreve has been chronicling each episode of The Doris Day Show, which spent 5 seasons on CBS as part of a formidible Monday night lineup, which led off with Gunsmoke, and, by the end of the series, if memory serves me correctly, it finished with Medical Center.

The story goes that Doris Day hadn't been aware of her TV deal until after her husband had negotiated it without her knowledge. Her husband passed away 5 months before the series premiered, so it was appropriate, after all, that her character of Doris Martin was a widow with 2 boys. They'd moved to the suburbs to live with her father, Buck (Denver Pyle, up 'til then better known as Briscoe Darling from The Andy Griffith Show). The supporting cast was rounded out with James Hampton (ex-F-Troop) as handyman Leroy, whom Ivan has taken an immediate dislike to.

However, in season 2, it was decided that some changes needed to be made, likely mandated by the network, so Doris now was working for a magazine as a secretary and later writer. Hampton & Pyle were reduced to appearing in a few episodes each, and Doris was now joined by Rose Marie (The Hollywood Squares, ex-The Dick Van Dyke Show) & McLean Stevenson, who'd leave after season 3 to begin work on M*A*S*H. Season 3 brought more changes, as the Martins moved back to San Francisco proper, to an apartment building, whose landlords became friends with the family rather quickly. Kaye Ballard (ex-The Mothers-in-Law) & Bernie Kopell, one of the busiest men in show business at the time, were the landlords. Kopell was also still working on Get Smart, which was in its final season, and the Saturday morning spy spoof, Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp. In fact, if you listen close, the German accent Kopell used for KAOS frontman Conrad Siegfried was the same used for his Link character of Baron Von Butcher. So, it was rather easy for him to adopt an Italian accent. Kopell had also been on That Girl, which had, I believe, ended by this point. Yep, really busy, that guy.

After the "Rural Purge" of 1971, there were more changes for Doris. As noted, Stevenson left, and so did Rose Marie, who was replaced by Jackie Joseph (Josie & the Pussycats), whose husband, Ken Berry, had just ended a run on Mayberry, RFD. John Dehner, a radio & television veteran, was cast as Doris' boss. By the end of the series, Kopell & Ballard were gone, too, as their characters had sold the building to persnickety Willard Jarvis (Billy DeWolfe, ex-Good Morning World), whom we met in season 3. The network wanted the series to continue for a 6th season, but Doris had decided she'd gone as far as she could go. After all, since the kids had been written out with no legitimate explanation in season 4 (we can assume they moved back to Grandpa's house, although Pyle had also been written out), maybe she'd had enough of network meddling, and who could blame her?

The Doris Day Show made its Me-TV debut on Christmas Eve with Christmas episodes from seasons 2 & 3, and in each case, Doris would step away and out of character to address the audience to wish them a Merry Christmas, something that was a bit of a common practice, even used on soap operas, in those days, but not so much in recent years. Here's to hoping Me-TV can find room to give the series a permanent berth alongside more recognizable hits of the period, like Gilligan's Island, F-Troop, & The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Following is an open/close for season 1:



Rating: A.