The Doris Day Show: Season 1 [4 Discs] [DVD]

All 28 color episodes of the hit TV show's first season.

The Doris Day Show lasted five seasons, but its history was a lot more complicated than that relatively short life span would lead one to believe. In that five-year span, the series went through four format shifts that seemed to reflect the changes taking place in society and the television audience across the period from 1968-1973, as Doris Day's character evolved from widowed mother to dating single 40-something. This four-disc set contains all 28 episodes from the series' first season, in which Day portrayed Doris Martin, a widowed mother living with her two children on a farm owned by her uncle Buck (Denver Pyle). Day, perennially perky and looking about a decade younger than her 44 years, is appealing enough as a single mom, but the format was a little too wholesome to offer much beyond the scope of these 28 shows, which was why the concept was altered in the second season. The shows all look good, transferred from what seem to be pristine 35mm master materials, in full screen (1.33-to-1) with bright color and decent sound. The makers have given each episode a single chapter, and all are easily indexed and selected from easy-to-use menus. The set is also loaded up with bonus features, all of which are on the fourth disc, and include the on-air promo for the series ahead of its premiere, Day's greeting to the affiliates on behalf of sponsor Ralston-Purina, in which she oozes sincerity in the course of stepping out of character, and her greeting to the assembled CBS network affiliate representatives, in lieu of an actual in-person appearance. There's also a preview of the series' second season, which added McLean Stevenson and Rose Marie to the cast and moved the setting to San Francisco. But the best part of the bonus section is the interview with James Hampton, the actor who played LeRoy the handyman (and is probably best remembered as Dobbs, the bugler on F Troop), who discusses his career, the circumstances of the series' production, and the reasons behind the format changes (Day's husband Martin Melcher, who put the whole production together, died before shooting commenced, and Day and her son Terry were scrambling to fill his shoes from that day forward). His talk is warm and engaging, and he ranges across his entire career, including its cinematic high point as Caretaker in the original version of The Longest Yard (which got him a Golden Globe nomination). He also goes out of his way to praise his acting mentor, F Troop's Larry Storch. Actor Philip Brown, who portrayed Day's older son in the series, also appears in an interview and offers some fascinating glimpses into the behind-the-scenes world of the production and interactions with the casts of rival CBS series from the same era.