Page "Doris Day" Paragraph 26

Day hated the idea of doing television, but felt obliged to it.

" There was a contract.

I didn't know about it.

I never wanted to do TV, but I gave it 100 percent anyway.

That's the only way I know how to do it.

" The first episode of The Doris Day Show aired on September 24, 1968, and, from 1968 to 1973, employed " Que Sera, Sera " as its theme song.

Day grudgingly persevered ( she needed the work to help pay off her debts ), but only after CBS ceded creative control to her and her son.

The successful show enjoyed a five-year run, and functioned as a curtain-raiser for The Carol Burnett Show, remembered today for its abrupt season-to-season changes in casting and premise.

It was not widely syndicated as many of its contemporaries, and re-broadcast very little outside the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

By the end of its run in 1973, public tastes had changed and her firmly established persona regarded as passé.

She largely retired from acting after The Doris Day Show, but did complete two television specials, The Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff Special ( 1971 ) and Doris Day to Day ( 1975 ).

She appeared in a John Denver TV special in 1974.