Info:
DVD Release Date: February 27, 2007 (MPI Home Video)
Color/1971-1972
MSRP: $39.98
Number of Discs: 4
Number of Episodes: 24
Running Time: 690 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English
subtitles
Special Features: Doris Day on “The Pet Set;” Doris
Day Animal Shelter Commercial; Doris Day Fashion Show
Outtakes; Cast Interviews; Season 5 Preview; Special
Footage; Movie Trailer
Introduction:
Doris Day is back yet again for another season of The
Doris Day Show, the series from the late ‘60s and
early ‘70s that didn't really have a consistent plot
throughout the seasons, but starred Doris Day. In the
first season, Doris lived on a farm with her
father-in-law and two sons; in the second season, she
still lived on the farm, but took a job in San
Francisco; in the third season, she moved to San
Francisco and took her kids with her. Now, there is
yet another change in this season. She is mysteriously
now a single woman living in San Francisco with no
children. Also gone this season is McLean Stevenson
and Rose Marie. Now, Doris works for Cy Bennett
(played by John Dehner) and her co-worker is Jackie
Parker (played by Jackie Joseph).
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
The fourth season begins with “... And Here's Doris,”
where Doris needs to get an interview with a talk
show host. How does she accomplish this? By being a
guest on his show! Don't worry though, it isn't
anything like Maury or Jerry Springer. In “The
People's Choice,” Mr. Jarvis decides to run for city
council, and Doris gets to be his campaign manager.
Doris has to write an article about a dating service
in “A Fine Romance,” and what better way to get the
story than to try using the service?
Doris takes a trip to England in “To England With
Doris” in order to get the rights to a book, but she
might just find romance in England too. Doris gets
taken hostage by international terrorists—and it isn't
the first time this has happened in the series
either—in “The Sheik of Araby.” Doris finds a new love
interest, and he has an MD, in “Doris and the Doctor.”
Santa Claus may have just committed a murder, and
Doris might be next in “Whodunnit, Doris?” As a side
note, this is one of the most bizarre episodes of a
sitcom that I have ever seen. Just so you know, there
really IS a murder in this episode and the episode
treats the whole thing as if it is funny... oh well.
Doris becomes a nurse (temporarily) assisting her new
boyfriend in “Doris At Sea.” In “The Blessed Event,”
Doris hears that Angie is expecting, and Doris plans a
baby shower for her. The only problem is that what
Angie is expecting is for her dog to have puppies.
Packaging:
The packaging is pretty much the same as the packaging
for the previous Doris Day sets. Basically, we have an
outer box (it is pink this time) with Doris on the
front of the box and a description of the season on
the back of the box. Inside, we have a four panel
digipak that holds all of the discs and also contains
a listing of all of the episodes, complete with
descriptions and original airdates. The disc artwork
contains various snapshots from the episodes in the
season. Disc 1 contains episodes 1-7, Disc 2 contains
8-14, Disc 3 contains 15-21, and Disc 4 contains 22-24
as well as the special features.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The main menu on each disc is pretty basic, with the
same music playing in the background that was playing
in the background on the season 3 set and a snapshot
of Doris. The options on the main menu are Play All,
Episodes, Subtitles, and (on Disc 4) Bonus Features.
There is not really much to say about the menus,
because the submenus are very basic and you just
select what you want from them. One problem that
continues on this set (and has been a problem on all
of these Doris Day sets) is the fact that when you
play an episode and the episode ends, the next episode
starts playing, instead of going back to the main menu
or episode menu. Chapters are not placed in the
episodes at all.
Video and Audio Quality:
As much as I hate to say this, I was very disappointed
with the video quality on some of the episodes. While
I wouldn't say that video quality is a serious problem
throughout the set, there are some parts in some
episodes where the cast members appeared to have green
skin. Certainly anybody could watch the episode and
not miss a thing if they just ignore the problematic
colors on the set, but it is pretty annoying to see
the colors so messed up. Honestly, I don't feel that
MPI is to blame for this (because let's face it, this
is an old show that has been sitting on the shelf for
a long time, and MPI isn't a major production company
that is producing films with actors like Tom Cruise
every year, which means that they don't have the
resources to get these episodes to perfection), but it
is still somewhat annoying. No need to worry too much
though, because this isn't a problem that is prevalent
throughout the set. As far as the audio is concerned,
it isn't great, but it isn't as bad as the video
either. It is just a simple mono audio track, with
English subtitles available for those requiring those.
Now, as for the big (well, not really that big, but
there has been some) debate over the episodes, and
whether or not they are edited. The episodes run at
roughly 23:30 per episode, which has led some people
to speculate that the episodes are syndicated versions
of the episodes. I mentioned this in the review of
season 3, and the producer of the DVD set responded
saying that he can assure all viewers that the
episodes are the original and unedited versions of the
series. I believe that the producer of the set knows
what he is talking about, and is most likely correct
about this. One thing that I've noticed in these
claims that some have made that the episodes are
edited is that not a single person has ever mentioned
specifically what is missing from the episodes, so
based upon this information, I feel comfortable with
saying that these are unedited episodes of the series,
and if anybody believes that I (as well as the DVD
producer) am wrong, they really need to provide
evidence.
Special Features:
MPI never ceases to amaze me with the bonus features
that they include on these Doris Day sets. Once again,
they did an impressive job in this area. As has been
the case with all previous sets, these can all be
found on Disc 4.
The first bonus feature is one that not only will fans
of Doris Day enjoy, but any fan of classic television
might enjoy. It is an episode of the series “The Pet
Set,” (23:02) a very rare talk show about pets from
1971 that was hosted by classic TV legend Betty White.
In this particular episode, her guests include Doris
Day and some of her best friends—her dogs! And as many
dogs as she brings on with her, she mentions that she
didn't even bring all of them. The video quality on
this isn't that great, but then again, who would have
ever anticipated this being viewed by anybody 36 years
later?
Next, we have a commercial from the 1970s where Doris
Day promotes adopting animals from an animal shelter
(1:02). The commercial is pretty much
self-explanatory, and it was shot on the set of The
Doris Day Show.
There are plenty of fashion show outtakes (36:40) on
the set. You are probably wondering exactly what I
mean by fashion show outtakes, and in all honesty, I'm
not sure what the purpose of all of this footage was.
There were episodes of the series where Doris was a
fashion model (only as a fill-in), but I don't think
there would be over a half hour worth of outtake just
for that. Additionally, the opening credits for this
season have Doris acting as a fashion model, and these
outtakes are similar to the opening credits, so I'm
thinking that is what these clips were from. But why
so many outtakes? I'm sure there is a better
explanation (maybe this was some promotional thing for
the show?), and it would have been nice if MPI had
made that clear. But regardless, it is nice to have
this feature.
There are interviews on the set with Jackie Joseph
(16:34) and Kaye Ballard (12:02). These are both very
interesting interviews to watch, and both actresses
bring up the awkward shifts that took place
throughout the series, where things would change every
season of the show. It was nice to finally see
somebody acknowledge this, because every season of
this show that I watch seems like a totally different
series! While these interviews are interesting, it
would be nice to have an interview with Doris herself!
She has been out of the public spotlight for a very
long time, and it would be nice to hear from her.
Supposedly, though, Doris hated doing the show, so I
guess I can understand why she wouldn't want to
participate in these sets.
There is a preview of season 5 (3:38) where, as one
would expect, gives a preview of the fifth season of
the show, which is also the final season of the show.
Hopefully MPI will get this out soon to complete the
series!
Next, there is special footage from the show (1:31)...
basically, these are sponsorship tags from the show,
with an announcer saying “The Doris Day Show has been
brought to you by...” and then promoting the sponsors.
The sponsors include lots and lots of brands that'll
keep you clean, such as Bold (laundry detergent),
Zest, Prell, Secret, Downy, and Kraft (okay, so maybe
Kraft won't keep you clean).
Finally, like every other Doris Day set, there is a
movie trailer that really has nothing to do with the
series but has a lot to do with Doris Day. This time,
it is a trailer for the movie “Twinkle and Shine,”
which starred Doris Day and Jack Lemmon. Even though
these might seem a little out of place on the sets to
some, it is still interesting to see these old movie
trailers. The way these things were done back in the
older days of movies was much different than today's
movie trailers, as these all include an announcer
telling you key things about the plot, with extended
clips from the movie and plenty of text on the
screen—nothing like the movie trailers of today where
you see very short clips with lots of action and think
to yourself, “what is this movie even about?”
Final Comments:
I'm not going to lie, this was a very weird season of
the show. I think they had the format perfected in
either the second or third season, and probably should
have stopped making changes then, because completely
eliminating the children without any explanation is
very peculiar. Still, as weird as this season was, it
was still interesting to watch, and it really helps
this set that MPI takes the time to invest in quality
DVD sets with plenty of bonus features to keep the
viewer occupied for a while. So if you started
collecting these Doris Day sets already, you'll want
to get this one, otherwise I'd say to start with one
of the other ones first! This isn't a bad season, just
a very strange one.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 3.5/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Special Features: 4/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 4/5
Overall: 4.5/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 01/27/07
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