The Doris Day Show was a Syndication network sitcom series created by James Fritzell, starring Doris Day in the lead role.
The show aired from September 24, 1968 to March 12, 1973, lasting for five seasons & 128 episodes.
Plot[]
After spending most of her life in living in big cities, widow Doris Martin decides to move back to the family ranch.
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 Lord Nelson (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)
Production[]
"The Doris Day Show" is remembered for its multiple format and cast changes over the course of its five-year run.
It is also remembered for Day's statement, in her 1975 autobiography, "Doris Day: Her Own Story" that her husband Martin Melcher had signed her to do the series without her knowledge, a fact that she only discovered when Melcher died of heart disease on April 20, 1968 (he also received credit on the series as "executive producer" during its initial season).
The drastic premise change for the show's fourth season in 1971 may be attributed to the overall change in Syndication's programming philosophy, with the network cancelling many rural based and family programs, and replacing them with more urban, sophisticated, adult oriented programs.