You all know the backdrop of this series so I won't bore you with it. I love this show and I too like the season 2 and 3 shows the best. As far as format changes go, I think they did a really good job going from season 1 to 2 to 3. It was a logical progression, Doris gets a job, then she moves the family into town etc. I hate the way they changed the format in season 4 and 5. Had I been around at that time to put my two cents in I would have done several things. 1. In season 4 I would have left things exactly as they were in season three and brought in the Peter Lawford character as Doris's serious love interest and possible step father for the boys. This along with the normal goings on would have brought yet another logical advancement. 2. In season 5 I would have Doris and Peter get engaged, Doris gets a new Boss and is promoted to a staff writer position at the magazine. The season finale would have been Doris and Peter's wedding with the entire cast from all the seasons in attendance. This could have been a huge ratings getter and a great way to end the series. I just don't know what they were thinking when they did 4 and 5. There are some episodes that are good but the show is missing the heart it had in 1,2, and 3. As was stated by another poster we cant go back and change history but thankfully there is enough good in seasons 1 2 and 3 that I watch them all the time. A must for Doris Fans.

Doris Day was my first movie star. I just loved watching her. She was beautiful, smart, funny, had one of the best figures of any Hollywood actresses of her generation, and showed a tremendous amount of versatility. But as her husband/manager's personal fortune (and Doris's along with it) began to overwhelm his judgment, he secretly signed Day to a CBS contract that included a TV series and music specials. Day, as well all know, was a pro and honored the contract. By then she had little choice. Her husband had lost all her money and died. By the time THE DORIS DAY SHOW appeared in 1968, I was in my late teens and not watching TV at all. So I missed all five seasons of the show (I only saw parts of episodes) and it never cropped up on reruns where I lived. So I was delighted when the first season of the show was released on DVD.Well that delight has turned into stupefication. This is one of the dreariest, formula TV comedies I've ever seen. Let me say that Doris is always game, gracious and watchable. But she's stranded in a storyline that is so full of saccharine nonsense, you're left wondering why there weren't any special features to relieve the tedium.The writing is simply god-awful (shockingly, the young James L. Brooks is given credit for one episode during the first season), and misses the point of Doris Day's wonderful comic persona. Living on a farm, a la Green Acres, isn't very original. As someone said earlier, the show's borrowing formulas from every other sitcom on TV. it's a testament to Day's magnetic appeal that she rises above the tiresome formula, radiating that unique blend of charm and spunk that gave her such wide audience appeal. I lasted through the first 15 episodes, before finally calling it quits.I understand the show improves in seasons two and three, and if they are released, I'll get them from Netflix and then only one DVD at a time in case they are as hopeless as this first season was.Doris Day was a major movie star, and TV let her down badly. How do you take one of the great career girls of American movies and turn her into a Mom in Podunk???

"Raysond" wrote this in his/her review: "due to low ratings and a sorry time slot) to let it go and from there "The Doris Day Show" was canceled by CBS. Also during this time the career of singer/actress/producer Doris Day was over and to this day in 1973 officially retired from the entertainment industry where she is living peacefully somewhere in her private estate in Hollywood." Nothing could be far from the truth. Yes, CBS dealt Doris Day a "Ft. Knox Hand" (that's what VARIETY called it) to Miss Day for her to do a TV series. But, unlike what was reported by Raysond, the series was consistently in the Top 20 it's entire run. Doris Day called it quits with CBS. She had never wanted to do television in the first place: her husband secretly signed her to the CBS contract without her permission. He died, and as Day has said, "I was delivered to CBS." From what I have read, CBS wanted Doris to re-sign and continue the show, but she declined. She did, however, live up to her contract and did the two musical specials that her late husband promised.Most people are not aware, but Doris' film career was far from over in 1968. Her three films that year ("Ballad of Josie," "Where Were You When The Lights Went Out" and "With Six You Get Eggroll") should have landed her among the top ten box office stars, but with the news that she would be doing a TV show, Quigley's Poll didn't bother. The fact is, Doris Day's 1968 films out-grossed several of the stars who made the list.

Doris Day, the number one female box-office attraction of all-time, smoothly segued into television in September of 1968. Although she had not planned to do a series, her late husband Marty Melcher had committed her to a deal with the eye network and as Day always said, "...a deal is a deal..." Despite stellar ratings the first week, the series faltered somewhat during the following weeks as viewers became frustrated at seeing Doris, who had achieved tremendous cinema success as a working, strong-minded woman, relegated to living on a farm. She was a delight as a widow with two young sons, a father, farm hand and housekeeper, but the scripts gave her little to do but smile. She took control of the show during the second season, had her character, Doris Martin get a job at a magazine in San Francisco, and ratings shot through the roof. The second through fifth seasons were certainly notable for many reasons. "The Doris Day Show" averaged 35-35 million viewers each Monday evening. It was largely due to Day's tremendous likeability and effortless skill as an actress and comic. The situations, while often uproariously funny, were never so slapstick that they bordered on caricature. She wisely surrounded herself with a wonderful supporting cast and guest stars that complimented her inherent skills. Maclean Stevenson, Rose Marie, Kaye Ballard, Bernie Kopell, Billy DeWolfe and others, were all given ample opportunity to shine, Day never feeling she wanted all the focus to be on her. There were wonderful guest stars and a look-see at the series will give you a chance to watch a young Jodie Foster and a venerable Estelle Winwood, well into her 80's at the time she appeared on the series several times. Henry Fonda, Day's "Midnight Lace" co-star John Gavin, Lew Ayres, Tony Bennett, Peter Lawford, and Patrick O'Neal are just a handful of those who graced the tube with the freckle-faced dynamo. Continuing her big-screen role as an independent woman who wouldn't take flack from anyone, instead building a successful career in what was often a man's world, prior to the so-called cutting edge "Mary Tyler Moore Show", Day was a woman of strength and determination although never submerging her femininity and becoming hard or cold. Occassionally Doris Day even let lose with a song or two, harmonizing with Bennett to "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", chirping with Larry Storch to "Harvest Moon" or singing a perfectly beautiful "Silver Bells" during a Christmas episode. Always garbed beautifully, Day had a great time sending up her own image as in an episode where her character, Doris Martin, won a Doris Day look-alike contest. While the show underwent some changes of cast and locale each season, her character continued her job at Today's World, and always maintained her integrity and sense of humor. In the Spring of 1973, following a successful five year run of almost 130 episodes, Day decided not to renew her contract for another season feeling that she had done what she could with the role. Offers continued to pour in for various series but Day felt the series stood on its own merits. A look at the show today shows that she was savvy in walking away when she did. It remains funny, charming, very watchable, and Day remains a surefire treat, the glue that keeps everything nicely together.