Rant #2,373: Que Sera Sera

Well, we lost another icon yesterday, an icon from a different time period than yesterday's obit subject, Peggy Lipton.

And that icon that we lost defined the 1940s, the 1950s and the early 1960s.

Doris Day, 97, was one of the longest lasting "American Sweethearts" that we ever had, and her 50 year career was full of successes, whether on record, the movies or even in television.

And her television career is what I want to focus on today, because that is pretty much how Baby Boomers got to know of Day.

Long after her movie and recording career fizzled, Day turned to television, but it was not something she actually wanted to do. In fact, legend has it that of all the mediums at the time, television interested her the least, and other than a few sporadic guest shots on variety shows, she wanted to stay away from TV as much as she could.

But leave a disgruntled ex-husband to force her to dive into the new medium.

One of her several husbands was Marty Melcher, a supposedly shrewd businessman who would get her financial affairs in order. Due to a number of bad deals and ruthless past husbands, Day--probably the most popular two-way recording/films star in the world by the end of the 1950s, certainly at the very least rivaling Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley--had had her money mishandled by past business people and husbands, and she was forced to work to pay off numerous debts, even after her marriages fizzled.

Melcher--with whom she would have a child, Terry Melcher, he himself a major player in the burgeoning rock and roll scene as a singer, writer and producer of such acts as the Byrds and Paul Revere and the Raiders, who predeceased her in death--not only continued the pattern of husbands stealing her money, he made deals for her that she was not aware of until after the fact.

In fact, it was her son--who was not only the love of her life, but the only person she could seemingly trust--who told her in the late 1960s that she was contractually obligated to appear on a regular CBS network TV show, and later, to appear in a few TV specials, something she had no idea she had to do.

Looking to get out of this contract that she had known nothing about, the younger Melcher told her that she had to continue with the contract, if for no other reason that she was heavily in debt and needed the money a regular TV gig would supply her.

Yes, by the end of the 1960s, Doris Day was broke, and in debt up to the top of her trademark blond poof.

So, "The Doris Day Show" came to network television, and somehow survived five seasons as one of the strangest sitcoms ever to grace the air.

Day was still a huge presence, and the show must have drawn millions of viewers just to see her on a weekly basis. But the show was a total and complete mess from beginning to end.

In something that was pretty much unprecedented then and still something that I don't think has ever been done with a network television show to this day, each season, the show was retinkered, keeping the best of the previous season but changing the situation each and every year--new setting, new cast, new theme.

One season, Day was a widower and doting mother living on a farm, the next season she was a burgeoning journalist. One season she was paired with co-star Denver Pyle, another season with co-star Kaye Ballard.

There were two constants: the show was lightweight comedy of the lightest weight, and the show was a good ratings grabber.

Looking back on the shows, Day of course stood out, and her allure was incredible. She took horrid scripts and made them at least palatable.

And what's more, to keep her at least somewhat interested in what she was doing, she dressed in the most modern outfits for a woman who was in her 40s at the time, sort of as a counterpoint to Marlo Thomas on "That Girl," who fashion-wise, represented the "moddest" of late 1960s fashion for the younger set.

But whatever the case, Day was the main draw, and somehow, she kept the show afloat for five seasons.

In fact, during its run, she made gossip columns from coast to coast, with her supposed relationships with such celebrities as basketball's Elgin Baylor and the music world's Sly Stone. These supposed relationships were supposedly concocted by her publicists to keep her name fresh, but one thing that was true was that in the late 1960s, her son got to know Charles Manson, the burgeoning musician. Manson did visit Day's home on numerous occasions--some with Stone in attendance too, thus the Day/Stone rumor--but the object of Manson's eventual hate was clearly Melcher.

Melcher rented a house with the Raiders' lead singer, Mark Lindsay, and on that fateful day that Manson and his followers killed, among others, actress Sharon Tate, he was actually looking for Melcher, who was not home at the time.

Back to Day ...

After the series ended, as her son had told her, she was contractually obligated to produce a few specials for CBS, which she did, and by the mid to late 1970s, she had fulfilled her obligations, and did not show up on regular TV for years afterward.

In the 1990s, she briefly had her own cable TV talk show, which was a major ratings grabber when her guest, Rock Hudson--a co-star in numerous films in the 1950s and early 1960s--admitted that he was gay, and had a disease called AIDS, which at the time mainly affected men who had relationships with other men.

When her close friend died, she became probably the first prominent AIDS crusader, almost wanting to avenge Hudson's death by this dreaded disease.

And she always had her animals.

She was a staunch animal lover, and she spent the remaining years of her life surrounded by her pets, and crusaded for their rights, too.

Doris Day came to the fore a bit early for most Baby Boomers, but she left her mark on the world which is still being felt to this day,

She will be missed.