The Doris Day Show (TV Series) Dinner for Mom (1968) User Reviews

Hitchcock Type Start For Doris Day on CBS

[DKosty123 · 7/10 · 20 March 2018]

This is an interesting starter, and using the Que Sera Sera makes it even stranger. The plot is sort of a 1950's type with the kids taking mom out for her birthday. While she has a plan to take care of the bill, the kids sort of mess mom up by hiding her money in her dresser so they can pay. Only the kids do not have enough money and they pick out a bar & grill for mom's dinner instead of a burger joint. These choices are sort of strange.

Even stranger is the family. Denver Pyle is a great choice for Grandpa but having Doris Day at this age as a farmer mother of 2 under 12 year olds and no explanation of what happened to dad is not the usual casting. As the series goes along this might get explained, but for right now it is a little touch of the master of suspence. Day acts so smoothly, and looks so great for her age, that she actually brings this off so that you don't think about these loose casting and characters until after you watch the show.

The kids are charming and more the center of this episode than mom. Doris's charm is utilized in settling the dinner bill. She does it with her smooth ability to make whatever will be wille. There's lots more, and the cast of this one will grow from here.

All the more bittersweet because....

[UNOhwen · 13 May 2019]

Today's one of the saddest days. Ms Day has left us, but she did have a long life and she's left us so many memories.

I've been making today by watching all things Doris, and I've put off watching her series for a while, now, and as my day of remembering, and celebrating her, this episode is one of the last things I'm going to see today.

The reason I said it's bittersweet is Ms Day had recently celebrated her birthday, and watching this - remembering when I was a 'young man', and I, too, wanted to do something similar (no, I didn't do what her son's did, and watching them do it - no spoilers - gave me palpitations, thinking; 'what would I do in this situation?''

This series would mark Ms Day's final professional appearance, and seeing her transition from the 'girl singer' and her early film appearances, through her wonderful (and very funny) late 50's-early 60's comedies into a character who's now settled, is truly a joy.

Ms Day's character, here, is closest to 'Abby', the widow she played in her last film, With Six You Get Eggroll (1968), which was a 'quieter'-type of comedy than her previous ones. The humour's there - it's just more gentle, and I guess that's just a reflection on a level of Ms Day's maturity at this point in her career, and in her life.

This series first year is sort of an 'anti' I Love Lucy-type of show, whereas one would actually laugh out loud at some of Lucy's zanier stuff (and also Lucy and Desi kept their private lives - and problems - or of the spotlight), when Ms Day started work on this show, it was right after the death of her husband, and get finding out here left her in final tatters, so even though she didn't play up on this, we - the viewer - knew of her pain and the difficulties she was facing at this time, and watching this - especially moments like the one in this episode where she says she wishes 'Steve', her (recently deceased husband) were there to see their boys taking her out on their first date, she stares into space, and was she totally acting at this moment, or was she - even a tiny bit - lost in her memories of her real loss.

I don't know.

I do know as a fan who wasn't yet born when this series first aired, I'm touched by her, and this series, and this 'birthday' episode were the perfect way for me to say, 'thank you'.

Happy Birthday, Dear Lady...

[brutusalwaysminded · 4/10 · 8 December 2022]

This was a charming episode which had a tone that was more serious - and a tad ambiguous - than I expected. Day, of course, is a mom with two young boys who commit a slight transgression, though they do it with honorable intentions. What's surprising to me is that they never get the requisite talk from Day later in the episode about their behavior. Instead the onus is placed on other family members who get in the way of Day who tries her best to avoid informing her children of their shortsightedness. In short, they're spoiled and not terribly bright, which seems to be the running joke about a number of characters surrounding Day in yokel town, America. But make no mistake - Day makes it all work, not the yokels.