The Doris Day Show is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from September 24, 1968, to March 12, 1973, remaining on the air for five seasons and 128 episodes.
The series is remembered for its multiple format and cast changes over its five-year run. The show is also notable for Day's statement, in her autobiography Doris Day: Her Own Story (1976), that her husband Martin M. Melcher had signed her to do the series without her knowledge, a fact she only discovered after he died shortly before production began.
Series run
Season 1 (1968–1969) Day portrays Doris Martin, a widowed mother of young sons Billy and Toby (Philip Brown and Todd Starke, credited as Tod Starke). As the series begins, she has moved from New York City, where she worked as a writer for a women's magazine, to her father's farm in the fictional town of Cotina, California; the farm is later described as located at 32 Mill Valley Road in Mill Valley, north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge. Other regular characters include Doris's father, Buck Webb (Denver Pyle, who was actually just two years older than Day); their naïve hired ranch hand, LeRoy B. Simpson (James Hampton); and their housekeeper Aggie Thompson (Fran Ryan). After Ryan quit the show to replace Barbara Pepper as Doris Ziffel in Green Acres), the character of Aggie was replaced by Juanita (Naomi Stevens). Lord Nelson, the family's sheepdog, who appears in the first three seasons, is credited only in this one. Storylines focus on Doris's efforts to solve the everyday problems of her family and community as she adjusts to her new life on the farm.
Season 2 (1969–1970) Doris begins to commute from the farm to San Francisco, where she becomes an executive secretary at Today's World magazine. New workplace characters are added: Today's World managing editor Michael Nicholson (McLean Stevenson), also referred to as Nick, is Doris's boss; Ron Harvey (Paul Smith) is associate editor; and Myrna Gibbons (Rose Marie) is Ron's secretary and Doris's best friend. LeRoy, now married and the owner of a gas station in Mill Valley, appears in only one episode. Storylines focus on Doris's struggles as a working mother; she also becomes involved in articles that the magazine is publishing and enters the dating world as well. Exterior establishing shots of the Today's World building actually show the Hartford Building, a 34-story high-rise located at 650 California Street in San Francisco.
Season 3 (1970–1971) Tiring of her commute to work, Doris moves with her sons and dog to San Francisco, where they rent an apartment above an Italian restaurant named Pallucci's, located at the fictional address of 965 Jasper Street (later identified as 965 North Parkway, Apt. 207).965 North Parkway: "It's a Dog's Life," The Doris Day Show, season 5, episode 18, aired January 29, 1973. The building and restaurant are owned by married couple Louie and Angie Pallucci (Bernie Kopell and Kaye Ballard). At first Louie is angry with Angie for renting the apartment to a widow with two boys and a large dog, but he eventually cherishes their new tenants after Billy and Toby praise his pizza. Angie becomes one of Doris's best friends. Doris begins writing articles for the magazine, but is still mainly a secretary. Buck appears in only two episodes; LeRoy, who now lives in Montana and travels the rodeo circuit to raise money to buy his own ranch, appears in only one. Doris's nemesis, efficiency expert Willard Jarvis (Billy De Wolfe), first seen in season 2, moves in next door, causing trouble for her in a few episodes. The season's last episode, which features Doris's niece April (Meredith Baxter) and her husband Peter (Michael Burns) struggling to adapt to life as a newly married couple, is a backdoor pilot for a series that was never picked up. It aired independently on CBS on May 24, 1974 as Young Love.The pilot, titled "Young Love," was developed by Arwin Productions and directed by Norman Tokar. It is included in full on The Doris Day Show: Season 3, DVD, MPI Home Video, 2006, disc 4, "Bonus Features: 'Young Love' Pilot."
Seasons 4–5 (1971–1973) The fourth season sees a radical change in the series. Doris's family and coworkers from the previous season disappear without explanation, and she becomes a single career woman. Still working for Today's World, her new boss is Cyril (Cy) Bennett (John Dehner), with whom she frequently spars, and she herself is now an associate editor who reports her own stories. Cy's secretary Jackie Parker (Jackie Joseph) is also Doris's friend. Angie appears in a few episodes, but Louie is in only one. Doris has several romances, including with Italian artist Carlo Benedetti (Cesare Danova), detective Sgt. Bill Winston (Robert Lansing), English author Sir Robert Kingsley (Jon Cypher), and musician Johnny Reb (Paul Hampton). In season 4, she begins a relationship with Dr. Peter Lawrence (Peter Lawford), which lasts until late into season 5. That relationship is followed by one with former boyfriend Jonathan Rusk (Patrick O'Neal), a television reporter who at one point runs for Congress. In season 5, Jarvis becomes the owner of Doris's building.
Cast
Main cast Doris Day as Doris Martin Philip Brown as Billy Martin (Seasons 1–3) Todd Starke as Toby Martin (Seasons 1–3) Denver Pyle as Buck Webb (Seasons 1–2, recurring Season 3) Lord Nelson as Ralph the Dog (Seasons 1–2, recurring Season 3) James Hampton as LeRoy B. Simpson (Season 1, recurring Seasons 2–3) Fran Ryan as Aggie Thompson (first ten episodes of Season 1) Naomi Stevens as Juanita (last eighteen episodes of Season 1) McLean Stevenson as Michael 'Nick' Nicholson (Seasons 2–3) Rose Marie as Myrna Gibbons (Seasons 2–3) Paul Smith as Ron Harvey (Seasons 2–3) Bernie Kopell as Louie Pallucci (Season 3, recurring Season 4) Kaye Ballard as Angie Pallucci (Season 3, recurring Season 4) Billy DeWolfe as Willard Jarvis (recurring Seasons 2–5) John Dehner as Cyril Bennett (Seasons 4–5) Jackie Joseph as Jackie Parker (Seasons 4–5) Peter Lawford as Dr. Peter Lawrence (recurring Seasons 4–5)
Other notable cast A number of other actors appeared in notable storylines covering several episodes sometimes over multiple seasons. Strother Martin as Tyrone Lovey (Season 1), an unscrupulous poacher and junk dealer Edward Andrews as Colonel Fairburn (Seasons 2–5), publisher of Today's World Larry Storch as Duke Farentino (Seasons 2–3), a boxer turned wannabe nightclub headliner Lew Ayres as William Tyler (Seasons 2–3), a reclusive billionaire businessman Johnny Haymer as Montagne (Seasons 2–3), a Parisian couturier Carol Worthington as Ethel Weber (Season 3), Doris's kooky friend who often acted as Billy and Toby's sitter (Worthington portrayed several other minor characters in the series prior to the Ethel Weber character) Richard Ely as Clifford Fairburn Jr. (Season 3), son of Colonel Fairburn Van Johnson as Charlie Webb (Seasons 3–4), Doris's free-spirited cousin Jon Cypher as Sir Robert Kingsley (Seasons 4–5), a British knight and author, who was one of Doris's love interests Patrick O'Neal as Jonathan Rusk (Season 5), Doris's old boyfriend, aspiring politician, fellow journalist and another of her current love interests
Production
Development Doris Day first found fame as a singer and then as one of the most popular film actresses of her generation. In 1951 she married her agent, Martin M. Melcher, who would come to control virtually every aspect of her career, including her finances. The following year the two formed a production company named Arwin Productions as a vehicle for projects to be produced by Melcher. In the late 1950s, he began a business relationship with attorney Jerome B. Rosenthal. After Day granted Melcher a general power of attorney, he increasingly signed her to projects without her prior consent and directed her income to Rosenthal, who invested it in a series of disastrous ventures. After Melcher died in 1968, Day learned that he had signed her to a five-year commitment to star in The Doris Day Show without her knowledge and that he and Rosenthal had not only lost all of her earnings, but had left her in debt. She fired Rosenthal and sued him for fraud and malpractice. In September 1974, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lester E. Olson granted her a judgment for $23,835,646. In an hour-long oral decision, he condemned Rosenthal, but also admonished Day for "being too busy making movies to pay attention to her own affairs." Rosenthal's appeal dragged on until October 1985, when the California Supreme Court rejected it, finally ending the case. Ultimately, the actress only recovered a fraction of her losses. Day's 1968 decision to fulfill her television commitment directly stemmed from her sense of honor and her desire to pay her debt and restore her financial security.
Before The Doris Day Show premiered, Day had appeared on television infrequently—mostly on variety, game, and awards shows. In the mid-1960s Melcher tried to persuade her to star in a television series because he believed the films she made had no place in the New Hollywood, which emphasized anti-establishment themes, morally ambiguous heroes, and explicit sex and violence. In fact, she turned down the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate because it offended her values. Yet, she told Melcher she had no interest in television. Nevertheless, in 1966 Melcher and CBS discussed developing an hourlong anthology series for her. CBS was courting her because it sought celebrities to replenish its aging and depleted supply of star talent—specifically, to replace Lucille Ball, who was threatening to end The Lucy Show. Following in the footsteps of celebrities like Shirley Booth, who had achieved success in the early 1960s with the sitcom Hazel, Day was one of several film stars turning to television, and she would become the most successful by far.
In February 1967 Melcher told the Los Angeles Times he was negotiating with CBS for a television deal for Day, as well as a separate feature film deal. The television deal focused on a sitcom to be produced by Richard Dorso and Bob Sweeney under Arwin Productions. Fifteen script outlines were ready, and filming was scheduled to begin as soon as Day finished her then-current film project. Dorso was one of Melcher's copartners in their former agency, Century Artists; Sweeney was a director who had directed for The Andy Griffith Show. The Times also stated that the show would star Day as a widow named Doris Martin, who moves with her two sons to her father's farm after her husband dies (the name "Martin" may be a reference to Melcher). Melcher commented that Day would "stand for morality. Everything will be wholesome, as it is in her movies.'" In a later article, Dorso reinforced this perspective: "there's a little moral in each episode, and Doris, like she always is, is on the side of the angels." The television deal was finalized by May. According to its terms, Day would star in a sitcom for the 1968–1969 season without a pilot. Each episode would have a $120,000 budget, and Melcher would own the negatives and control the rerun rights. In addition, Day would be obligated to make two television films, later revised to two variety specials.