by Ralph » Fri Nov 04, 2005 8:38 am
Doris Day, at her best, is a "natural" actress. Some directors, however, approached comedy from the idea that Day would do "funny things." When she later looked at herself on the screen, she cringed, and felt, "I wish I could go back and do it over again." This feeling can come years later when you sit and look at yourself. Ms. Day, herself, has said, "I don't look at myself (watch my movies), I see all the wrong things and turn it off..."
Directors like Michael Gordon, didn't take into consideration that over-doing the eye-rolling would wear thin with repeated viewings. What made Lucille Ball so great was that she played Lucy ("I Love Lucy") from a realistic standpoint. The situation was funny and she played it straight. Doris' best comedic performances came when she did exactly the same ("Thrill," "Caprice," "Daisies," "Lover," "Eggrole.") When she went out on a limb and tried to be funny, it came off as dishonest. Look what happened to Lucille with "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy." Ball went completely in the opposite direction than "I Love Lucy." She and the great Vivian Vance got stuck in the "we've got to make this funny" mode and went berserk with unfunny, forced comedy. All of it was too broad...they overdid everything. Poor Gale Gordon became a blustering, overblown joke...good character actor gone bad.
Someone said they liked it when in the opening of the Doris Day Show, she hopped across the street! That's soooooo phony (40 year old women don't hop across the street!). I agree that Mary Tyler Moore stole the hat thing from Day in her opening and Valerie Harper then swiped it from Mary. The gesture was realistic - people do fight to keep their hats when a strong wind comes up!
On the first DVD of the second season, I found the hair as part of an outrageous attempt to make Doris look younger and "dressed up." Her more natural look and performance in the first season was more appealing to me.
I'm taking a vacation day today and will take a gander at the second DVD in this set. Will report later...