Info:
DVD Release Date: May 30, 2006 (MPI Home Video)
Color/1970-71
MSRP: $39.98
Number of Discs: 4
Number of Episodes: 26
Running Time: approx. 13 hours
Total Run Time of Special Features: approx. 60 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English;
English Subtitles
Special Features: Blooper Reel #2; Cast Commercial;
Interviews with Bernie Kopell and Philip Brown; Season
4 Preview; Special Footage (textless opening credits);
"Young Love" pilot; "The Winning Team" trailer, "Doris
Day Special" preview
Introduction:
It's time for yet another season of The Doris Day Show
on DVD! Season Three of The Doris Day Show is complete
with all 26 episodes of the 1970-1971 season, with
lots of bonus features to complement the episodes.
The show, which probably changed formats more than any
other sitcom ever, changes yet again in the third
season. Doris has now left the farm and moved, along
with her two sons, Billy and Toby (Philip Brown and
Tod Starke) to an apartment in the heart of San
Francisco--on top of an Italian restaurant. The
restaurant is run by Louie and Angie Pallucci (Bernie
Kopell and Kaye Ballard). Living in the apartment next
to Doris is Mr. Jarvis (Billy DeWolfe), the man that
hates everybody and everything--especially Doris. Just
as in the second season, Doris is still working at
Today's World Magazine as an assistant to Mr.
Nicholson (McLean Stevenson), and still works
alongside with Myrna Gibbons (Rose Marie) and Ron
Harvey (Paul Smith).
Gone this season (though not EXACTLY) is Denver Pyle
in his role as Buck, Doris' father, although Buck does
continue to make some guest appearances and still
directs many of the episodes in this season.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
The season begins with Doris moving to San Francisco
in "Doris Finds an Apartment." She finds the perfect
apartment; except the owner doesn't like children and
doesn't like dogs... can she convince the owner to
give her the apartment anyway? In "How Can I Ignore
the Man Next Door," Doris gets a new neighbor, Mr.
Jarvis, who is making Doris' life miserable--and he
has a six month lease to stay in the apartment! Doris
finds a new job, but does she really like it? Find out
in the two parter, "Doris Leaves Today's World."
Rounding out Disc One, we have "The Feminist," "Dinner
for One," and "The Fashion Show."
Disc Two begins with "Lost and Found," where Myrna
decides to take home a manuscript of an article to
work on over the weekend, except when she loses it,
she has to go to a go-go dancing club to find the
article, where the only way to get in is to audition
to be a go-go dancer--and Doris is up to doing it!
Larry Storch is back in "Duke, The Performer," and
makes another appearance in Disc Three on "Duke's
Girlfriend." Doris might just be a terrorist when she
takes the wrong briefcase--one that contains
government secrets rather than recipes--in "Doris, The
Spy." Tony Bennett makes a special appearance in "Tony
Bennett is Eating Here." Denver Pyle reprises his role
as Buck in "Buck Visits the Big City," but can the big
city handle him??
Disc Two also includes "Cousin Charlie" and "Love
Makes the Pizza Go Round."
Mr. Jarvis hates Christmas, but Doris is going to have
a Christmas party in her apartment anyway in "It's
Christmastime in the City." Mr. Jarvis' uncle is
coming to visit in "Jarvis' Uncle" and Mr. Jarvis
wants to make sure that Doris and the kids don't
bother him--the only problem is, the thing that Mr.
Jarvis' uncle REALLY hates and is bothered by is Mr.
Jarvis himself! Doris is trying to prevent Leroy
Simpson (from season one) from wasting $20,000 that he
won as a rodeo prize in "Lassoin' Leroy," so she takes
the money from him and hides it--is that such a wise
choice? In "Colonel Fairburn, Jr.,' Colonel Fairburn's
son, straight out of college, is taking over at
Today's World while Mr. Nicholson is out of town. The
only problem is that Colonel Fairburn is unaware that
his son has become a hippie and has radical ideas for
the office! Disc Three also includes "Doris Versus
Pollution," "The Forward Pass," and "Duke's
Girlfriend."
Finally, Disc Four begins with "Billy's First Date,"
where Doris falls in love with the father of Billy's
first girlfriend--and by the way, the father is played
by Fantasy Island's Ricardo Montalban. Doris Day makes
a guest appearance... sort of... when Doris Martin
wins in a Doris Day look-alike contest in "Doris Goes
to Hollywood." In "The Father-Son Weekend," Doris is
determined that Toby will get to go on a
father-and-son camping trip, and she will be the
father! Finally, the third season ends with a pilot
for a show that never existed, entitled "Young Love,"
where Meredith Baxter plays Doris' niece who may have
just gotten pregnant. And playing her father is Dick
Van Patten (so would his character be Doris'
brother?). "Skiing Anyone?" is also on Disc Four.
Packaging:
These sets have all been consistent on packaging so
far, virtually identical in fact. The cover once again
has a picture of Doris, and on the left-hand side of
the box, there is an opening to pull out the four
panel digipak. On the inside of the digipak, you'll
find the discs, which all have pictures of various
cast members. And of course, on the back of the
digipak (on two panels), there is a listing of the
episodes that are on each disc, along with short
descriptions and original airdates. As for the disc
breakdown, episodes 1-7 are on Disc 1, 8-14 on Disc 2,
15-21 on Disc 3, and 22-26 on Disc 4.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menus are just as simple as the other two sets
that have been released. The main menu on each disc
has a picture of Doris, and the options included are
Play All, Episodes, Subtitles, and Bonus Features
(Disc Four only). There is some Italian love music
that plays in the background on the main menu, which I
guess goes along with the theme of living above an
Italian restaurant. The Episodes menu is very basic,
and basically just lets you choose from the episodes.
Subtitles give you the option of turning on the
English subtitles. And Bonus Features does the
function that it should do too. Once again, there are
no chapters placed within episodes, and once again,
once you play an episode, the next one will start
playing as soon as it ends, which is a little bit
annoying. I don't know why all of the MPI DVDs are
this way.
Video and Audio Quality:
There were a few problems with the video and audio
quality on the season two set (problems that weren't
there for the first season set), but the third season
seems to be greatly improved over the second season
set. Still, there is variance in video quality from
episode to episode, and it is hard to pinpoint one
particular overwhelming problem, because the problems
seem to be isolated depending upon the episodes, but
most of the problems are just that the colors are
faded and the picture isn't all that sharp. The audio
is fine considering the age, and of course is in
mono--and once again, English subtitles are included.
Every episode on the set runs at 23:40, give or take a
few seconds.
Ever since season one has been released, there has
been debate over whether or not these episodes are
edited or not. Personally, I don't believe they are,
because nothing seems to be "missing" to me, though
given that running time (which is probably about a
minute and a half shorter than average for that time),
I am guessing that these are time-compressed. The show
has become such an obscure show that nobody seems to
have any vivid memories of episodes, so the edited vs.
unedited debate will remain unresolved. But, 23:40 is
a lot longer than the runtimes of certain syndicated
shows these days (some shows run as short as 18
minutes in syndication now), and even if these
episodes ARE edited, this is such a rare show that
edited copies would be (and I know some classic TV
fans would hurt me for saying this...and I would fully
understand) not as big of an issue.
Special Features:
Once again, there is the usual nice assortment of
special features on this set. There are plenty of
bloopers in "Blooper Reel #2" (4:59). They all seem to
be from season 3 this time, as opposed to the bloopers
that were on the season 2 set that included several
season 1 bloopers. "Cast Commercials" (2:48) is
exactly what it sounds like--cast commercials. They
aren't directly related to the show, but they are
commercials with each of the cast members. There is a
Blue Band Margarine commercial with Doris herself, a
Tide commercial with Rose Marie, a Fedders Air
Conditioning commercial with McLean Stevenson, and a
very old (1950s I'm guessing) Miller High Life
commercial--"the champagne of beer"--with Paul Smith.
Even if they aren't directly related to the show, they
were very nice to see. There is a nice interview with
Bernie Koppell (11:55) where he discusses being on the
show--and the many, MANY other things he has been on.
There is also an interview with Philip Brown (8:20)
where he discusses being on the show and his
professional life today. There is a "Season 4 Preview"
(4:37), where (as always) you get to see a short
preview of the next season of Doris Day, where there
is yet another major format change (every cast member
but Doris is gone, and John Dehner and Jackie Joseph
join the cast). "Special Footage" (1:02) isn't all
that special; it is just text-less opening credits.
There is a full-length version of the "Young Love"
pilot (29:46) on the set, a show that would have
starred Meredith Baxter, though the show never was
picked up by CBS. It doesn't seem like it would have
been a great show (and it is a drama, not a sitcom by
the way), but it is still very nice to see it. There
is an original trailer for the movie "The Winning
Team" (2:26), a movie that starred Doris Day. Finally,
there is a promo for the "Doris Day Special," (2:25) a
musical DVD that was produced during this season of
the show--and is also available to own from MPI.
Final Comments:
Prior to doing these Doris Day Show reviews, I never
knew anything about the show except for that All in
the Family episode where Louise Jefferson asked Archie
Bunker if he'd seen The Doris Day Show the night
before, but I really enjoy seeing new releases of the
show. Although I wouldn't call it one of my favorite
shows ever, it is a very good show and it is nice to
see something that is a change from the typical
syndicated television fare of stuff that never seems
to go away (like Full House, The Cosby Show, The Andy
Griffith Show, etc.).
It also helps that an obscure company like MPI can put
great special features on an obscure show like this
one. Some other companies (ones that have much larger
budgets than MPI) don't even bother with special
features, and this set shows, as usual, that MPI is
really dedicated to putting out releases that aren't
just total crap. So, if you like Doris Day or you just
want a change of pace from the typical stuff that airs
on television today, this is the perfect set for you!
Toodles!
See also The Doris Day Special Review.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 3.5/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Special Features: 3/5
Menu Navigation/Design: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 04/29/06
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