Doris Day Today (1975)

A FUN-FILLED MUSICAL DAY WITH DORIS AND HER SPECIAL GUESTS

In 1975, legendary movie and singing star DORIS DAY followed her long-running television series, The Doris Day Show, with her second and final top-rated CBS-TV special, DORIS DAY TODAY.

The vibrant and versatile Day teams up with singer-songwriter John Denver for a playful Sunshine Medley after the two performers offer a humorous duet of Exactly Like You. Denver also presents his popular composition Follow Me with Doris singing harmony.

Comic Tim Conway (The Carol Burnett Show) pairs with Doris for a couple of comedy sketches and mimic Rich Little gives hilarious impersonations of Doris' famous film co-stars Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Kirk Douglas, Jack Lemmon and James Cagney as Doris vocalizes songs from her classic motion pictures Love Me Or Leave Me, Teacher's Pet, Young Man With A Horn, Calamity Jane and The Man Who Knew Too Much.

A seductive Day joins the Lockers dancing troupe while singing a sexy Midnight At The Oasis. and the entire cast comes together for a rousing rendition of Anything Goes. Day's stunning voice is also heard in a soulful version of Day By Day (from the musical Godspell) and a deeply emotional The Way We Were.

Bonus features on this DVD include Doris' entire appearance on The John Denver Family Special (1974), a rare 1940s musical film short of Doris with the Les Brown Orchestra and a Doris Day Album Discography. Product Description

Love Doris, but stopped 20 min into movie

Why are my Doris Day DVD's not working free of problems? None of my other DVD's do this. I want to be sent another one of the last two that don't work. Please, can you help me? November 8, 2008

Doris is TOPS

I've loved Doris Day for 50 years. This DVD is wonderful. How I miss seeing her on TV and in movies. This is a must for all of her fans. August 30, 2008

Definitely for Day and John Denver Fans-LOTS of bonus material

This 1975 "Special" is a time capsule. In the 70s network TV was doing lots of Variety Shows (have you seen a "variety" show on TV in the last 20 years?) and you could see all kinds of music in one hour.

This show - the main reason for this DVD - was produced by George Schlatter, who was responsible for "Laugh-In" during the same time period. You can tell from the sets and the corny jokes and the comic sketches with Tim Conwa But Day looks super and the print is great! Rich Little does a nice bit with Day where she sings songs from all her movies and Little recreates the leading men. And there a huge amount of screen time given to John Denver.. enough that this could have been a Day/Denver special.

The bonus features are nice addition:
A 1940s "Soundies" of Day with Les Brown's band (taken from the wonderful "Music Classics" series that MPI has put out and which I watch often.

An ILLUSTRATED Discography of Day Lps and CDS

A full episode from her situation comedy series "The Doris Day Show" titled "Doris Goes To Hollywood" where the fictional Doris goes to see the "Real" Doris. (MPI has the full series on a separate DVD set.

A 10-minute segment with Doris appearing on Denver's 1974 TV variety show.

So, Day fans will want this and so will Denver Fans! (And, if there are George Gobel fans out there (are there?) he's on the special too!)
June 28, 2008

A Time Machine

If you didn't live in the 1970's you might watch this TV special and think that that was what television looked like in the 1970's, and you would be largely correct. Then, as now, there was mostly crap on TV with occasional bright spots. Most of the bright spots, as the flood of DVDs from that era suggest, are best remembered as opposed to revisited. This special is painful to watch. The stilted dialog and bad jokes, which are always followed by a cacophony of canned laughter, are just so bad. Doris' singing is also painful as she tries to be hip and now by singing "Day By Day," a tuneless faux rock song from the musical Godspell. John Denver had just moved from being a sincere folk singer in the mold of Tom Paxton, to being a Superstar pal of Frank Sinatra, a career path which eventually would cost Denver his credibility and send his recording career spiraling down. On this special he trades unfunny quips with Doris, but then, just when it seemed impossible for anything good to happen, he sings his oldie "Follow Me," as Doris Day sits cross-legged on the floor and lays on a marvelous harmony. This could have been a really great show, if they had just done away with the lame comedy and sung songs that were suited to them. Tim Conway does some pointless and uncharacteristically unfunny comedy with Doris. There are some other guests also. So, this is completely a waste of time. It was a waste in 1975 and it is a waste now, except, somehow, it is fun to watch. It is a little time machine into the era of President Ford; an America adjusting, uncomfortably, to a powerful youth culture and the presence of African Americans in the mainstream. CBS was still a colossus, operating as it had for decades. And Doris Day, one of the great movie stars a decade earlier, trying to stay relevant. June 14, 2008

You will want this! TRUST ME!!

This is one of the two specials Doris did for CBS, and it is impossible to resist her charm.

Her rendition of "The Way We Were" is on par with the jazzy version of "Hooray For Hollywood" that is sampled all the time. Listen to BOTH songs in full, to get their impact.

(of course "Hooray" is not on this item, but find it!)

Doris was always a style maven, and she looks fantastic. You will LOVE this! Doris was in fine form, and you can tell that production spent time and money to assure a great show.

The 70's and 80's were hard for many stars, Doris included.

This is a great snapshot of the time- a sensational show with a superstar talent. At the time it remined one of the highest rated television shows of the year.

How foolish of CBS and the studios to ignore her charm, talent and ability to attract an audience. I am quite sure that she never thought this would be a good bye to her millions of fans. I hope you enjoy the show as much as I did.

P.S. For those of you who are HUGE Doris fan's (like me!) -- Can you imagine how nice the CBS series "Murder She Wrote" might have been with with our Super-Style Doris?

Nothing against dear Angela, but Doris would have rocked the airwaves in that part!

Do get this DVD at the great AMAZON price, and share it-- we simply do NOT have talent and style like this anymore. Enjoy!




May 11, 2008

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