Kaley Cuoco to portray Doris Day in a planned mini-series.
Kaley Cuoco’s Yes, Norman Productions and Warner Bros. Television, who developed The Flight Attendant are teaming up with Berlanti Production in developing a limited series about Doris Day. based on the A.E. Hotchner 1976 bio Doris Day: Her Own Story.
Hotchner’s biography is based on a series of interviews with the late Oscar nominated Pillow Talk actress and singer. A huge box office star of the 1950s and 1960s her feature credits, included Calamity Jane and The Pyjama Game among many others. She starred alongside many of Hollywood’s leading male stars including Clark Gable, Cary Grant, James Cagney, David Niven, Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Rod Taylor and of course Rock Hudson. Day passed away in 2019 at the age of 97.
She was left in financial ruin after her third husband left her in debt. She found financial salvation during the 1970s on TV with The Doris Day Show even though her dislike of TV was well known. Day became an animal activist in the 1970s. Appropriately enogh, Cuoco is also a champion of animal welfare causes.
The Doris Day production is the latest in Yes, Norman’s exclusive deal to develop new original programming with Warner Bros. Television Group signed in 2019.
Executive producers are Cuoco; Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and David Madden from Berlanti Productions. Co-EPs are Suzanne McCormack from Yes, Norman and Bob Bashara, the trustee from the Doris Day Estate. Consulting producers are Jim Pierson, who worked with Day, and Tim Hotchner, the biographer’s son.
Cuoco revealed the Doris Day project in a Variety pre-Golden Globes feature.