The Mike Douglas Show

Good show..... lot of good guests... Unique format where he had a guest host for a week.....

"THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW"-airing in syndication from 1961 until 1982,was without a doubt one of the greatest talk shows of its day. Mixed in with a lot variety,Mike Douglas was multi-talented:charismatic,funny, smart,dynamic,and all around great guy. Its no wonder that his daily weekday afternoon talk show format lasted 21 years on television,and it set the standard for those to follow.

When you saw THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW,you saw entertainment at its finest. It no wonder that some of the guest stars that were on the show were the best ever that made numerous appearances on his show,sometimes as co-hosts and onward to more greater responsibility. And did he ever have the best on there. From novelist Jacqueline Susann(Valley Of The Dolls)to polticial figures like F. Lee Bailey to entertainment figures ranging from Joan Crawford to Bette Davis and further on to include Patty Duke to Barbara Streisand,Bob Hope,Rosemary Clooney,Florence Henderson,Judy Garland,Anita Bryant,Shirley Jones,David Brinkley to Barbara Walters to even others like Frank Sinatra,Sammy Davis,Jr., Merv Griffin,Lucille Ball,Rick Nelson,Angie Dickinson,Johnny Carson to Dick Cavett,Bill Cosby and even Roger Moore made numerous appearances on his show.

But the music MIKE DOUGLAS had....Yes,the great ones which consisted of some of the best musical acts out there and Mike Douglas had them on his daily variety talk show. From the legendary Sam Cooke to Liza Minnelli,to the Jackson Five(The Jacksons)with a nine-year old dynamic singer named Micheal Jackson that would change the course of music and not to mention the Godfather of Soul himself....James Brown!!! Others were added into this as well including the BEST soul music of that era and the best rock groups of that era were on his show!!

Mike Douglas was the best,and there will never be another ever!!

When I was a teenager and Mike had his show (live) in Cleveland 5 days per week, my friends and I made the trip to KYW TV-3 at least twice a year. Among the people I remember seeing are Carol Lawrence, Robert Goulet, Tody Fields, Meadowlark Lemmon, William Talman, etc.

But what I recall most was a show I saw on TV. On November 22, 1963 I was home ill from school. My mom and I were having lunch while watching Mike's live show...I remember that one of his guests that day was Jayne Mansfield. Shortly after the show began at 1pm there was a cut away to Bud Dancy (soon to become NBC's JOHN Dancy) one of TV-3's reporters who said that President Kennedy was shot at in Dallas and he would keep us informed. Then they cut back to the Mike Douglas Show--they had continued the show and obviously the people locked in the studio had no idea what was happening outside. Several minutes later, in mid-sentence, Mike turned around to see Bud Dancy walk on the set--Mike said "Hi Bud, what are you doing here?" There were no more seats on the set so Bud sat down on the floor, looked up, and said, "President Kennedy had been killed in Dallas". They tried to carry on conversation on the set--and within a few minutes NBC cut in and took over the coverage.

Mike Douglas was a nice man, very talented, highly respected, and loved by this city. His voice was tremendous. It would be nice if more people would write their memories of Mike.