The Doris Day Show – The Complete Fifth Season (Umbrella Entertainment DVD/PAL Region Zero)
PLEASE NOTE: This is a DVD that can only be
operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region
Zero/0/Free and the PAL format software, and can be ordered from our friends at
Umbrella Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of the
review.
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C+ Episodes: B-
Doris Day
was enough of a star to go from a series of big hit films to a hit TV series. Her sitcom was filmed, varied more than a bit
from season to season and even managed to absorb the look, feel and innovations
of The Lucy Show, That Girl and The Mary Tyler Moore Show before its concluded. Now, the entire series is available on DVD. While MPI has been issuing the show in the
U.S., companies like Umbrella Entertainment have been handling it overseas and The Complete Fifth Season rounds out
the show. This time, the great John
Dehner is aboard while Peter Lawford and Patrick O’Neal play her dueling love
interests.
I barely
remember this show except that it was on, did exist and adults I knew watched
it. What impressed me is how
exceptionally intelligent and mature it was for a TV sitcom from that or any
other time. There is more drama and less
melodrama than you would expect. Day was
still a presence to be reckoned with and the show holds up surprisingly well
with the likes of Kaye Ballard, Andy Griffith, Julie Adams, Lee Meriwether,
Dick Van Patten, Bernie Kopell, Ed Begley, Jr. and some lesser-known-but-solid
actors delivering a very consistent show.
Day knew
when to quit while she was ahead and made great use of the idea that the show
was set in San Francisco. It is easy to
underestimate Day, a performer who took the high road, but she did it with
class, style, panache and was so good she stayed on that road until she left
showbiz for her love of animals. Oddly,
the theme song for the show is the famous Que
Sera Sera, which became her signature song despite originally being from
the Alfred Hitchcock murder thriller The
Man Who Knew Too Much. She did cut a
new version for the show.
The 1.33
X 1 image is a little softer than expected and it is more than just an issue of
any video masters MPI sent Umbrella. You
also have some aliasing issues here, but the bottom line is that these are
older analog transfers. Between the 35mm
shooting of all the shows, the exceptional use of color, rich production design
and classical lighting that put it above your common sitcom, these are going to
need HD transfer eventually and when that happens, people will be stunned. These will suffice for now, as will the Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono on all shows that sound a generation down and could use
cleaning up only recently available.
Extras
are impressive here, including an episode dubbed in French, previews of
previous seasons, black & white Easter Seals promo film, Humane Society PSA
for animals, audio commentary by Day on two shows (It’s A Dog’s Life & Hospital
Benefit) and outtakes from the later episode equaling an hour, looking
better than the shows and showing Day in prime form. All that and the last 24 episodes equal a
fine DVD set and shows how great it can be to go out on top.
As noted
above, you can order this set exclusively from Umbrella at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
- Nicholas Sheffo
