When I grew up my favorite daytime program was The Mike Douglas Show. It was an hour of song and dance, comedy, politics…no topic was really off limits and and his guest list rivaled, if not surpassed Carson’s. Almost every week he would have a different guest co-host, and I think my favorite was John Lennon and Yoko Ono, although Dick Gregory comes in a very close second… I actually think MD had a better show than Carson because the guests would discuss the issues of the day instead of spending two and a half minutes shmoozing and promoting their latest project.
It is a shame reruns of this aren’t being shown on some network(and if I am wrong about this please tell me).
My mom, who wasn’t a big fan of TV, loved Mike Douglas, so I saw a lot of his shows. One I remember most vividly was when Burt Reynolds was on in the persona of a former football player, talking about what went on in huddles and in pile-ups on the field - stuff like stabbing opponents with nails and such. :eek: At the time, I didn’t know who he was, and I was aghast that such things went on!
Yeah, I was kinda naïve.
Beyond that, I don’t recall a lot of specifics, but I always got the impression that Mike was a really nice guy. Just looked him up - he died on his 86th birthday in 2006.
I remember that show well. Always one of the shows I checked each week when the new TV Guide came out, just to see who the guest host and musical acts would be the following week. Then TVG stopped giving a detailed summary and just put The Mike Douglas Show.
I remember The Mike Douglas Show. It gave us an early look at Tiger Woods. The footage of Tiger on the show starts at about 1:04 into the video.
Fun fact: The actor Michael Douglas, who had gone by the name Mike, had to change his first name to Michael so as not to be confused with the other Mike Douglas.
I always got it confused with the Merv Griffin Show. I think Mike Douglas was on during school hours and Merv was on around dinner time, so the Mike Douglas Show would have seemed a little more exotic since I could only watch it when I was home sick. It was a bridge between game shows in the morning and 1960s reruns in the afternoon. I was always hoping there would be a comedian on like Flip Wilson or Gabe Kaplan.
I just peeked at the wiki for the show and was reminded of the show’s most notorious event; that’s where the show’s producer, Roger Ailes met Richard Nixon! Thanks, Mike! (Where’s the sarcasm emoji on this thing?)
I remember my mother watching it back in the late '60s and early '70s. I think it was on in the late afternoon in MPS/SP.
There were a lot of syndicated talk shows on then: Merv Griffin (before he went network), Phil Donahue, Virginia Graham, Dennis Wholely, David Frost, Joe Pyne, Alan Burke, and probably some I don’t remember. The last three were the only ones I watched regularly, and they were always on late on Sunday night.
(That said, I especially liked Steve Allen’s daytime syndicated show too. I used to stay home from school to watch it.)
I wish I had caught this episode of Mike Douglas’s show. I never knew what I was missing! :o
(I also used to confuse Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin as well.)
I lived my teenage years in the Philly area in the 70s where the show broadcast from so Mike Douglas was a big deal there. He was more topical than Carson, really engaging with his guests. The show was on in the afternoons so I could pick it up after school, but once I went to work I don’t think I ever saw it again. He was into Uri Geller and psychics which was entertaining at the time but gave a little too much credence to them in the end aiding scammers, he should have expressed a little more skepticism. Instead of hyping Hollywood he had the performers and groups on east coast tours, this included a lot of popular music acts and up and coming comedians that you wouldn’t see on Carson until later in their careers. I think Mike had a better rapport with the audience than Carson did, Carson played up his relationship with the stars, Douglas seemed more like a member of the audience himself. Good memories of those years when life was easy.
Didn’t Kramer find MD’s stage set in a dumpster and move it into his living room (Seinfeld)?
I didn’t see him mentioned in the Wiki list, but Ted Nugent was on once (before he went bonkers) and even though I was not a fan of Ted’s music, Douglas and Zsa Zsa Gabor got up to sing a tune :eek: and Nugent played some really nifty jazzy-type riffs behind them and he was really good and I admired him for that.
I can remember (I think) rushing home from school to watch his show. I loved it. Didn’t he have Sonny & Cher on there? If I’m not mistaken, that was one of my favorite episodes.
i remember in the early 80s he used to be right on before the cartoons on channel 4 in Indiana
he always to me seemed like a midwest version of merv griffin then i moved out here for a few years and when I had to move back the 700 club took his place …
The only thing I associate with Mike Douglas is the episode of The Simpsons where they’re introducing a has-been entertainer by saying “You might remember him from The Mike Douglas Show or Art Linkletter’s House Party”.
I remember Mike Douglas. My Mom liked his show, and she also liked Merv Griffin’s. They weren’t my cup of tea, but when I got home from school, I’d watch them with Mom, until the after-school cartoon show came on.
As I remember, Mike’s set had a groovy 1960s flower motif. He always had a celebrity co-host, and guests who might plug their latest book or album or movie, or just appear as if to say, “Hey, you may not have seen me lately, but I’m still around.” If they had the talent, the guest might sing a song, or do a comedy routine; or if not, they’d just talk with Mike and the co-host, and Mike might sing a song later.
It was a very gentle kind of daytime talk/variety show; worlds away from what would come later with Jerry Springer, Geraldo Rivera, Jenny Jones, and the like.
I remember when the comic was this guy named Johnny Brown, and he imitated Bogie, Lorre, and Greenstreet singing “I Love You (I Honestly Love You),” the Olivia Neutron Bomb song from ”Jaws”. It was really weird.
I remember the old school talk shows - and agree, they were more civil all around. I vaguely remember both Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin - one was more entertainer based, more singing and skits, and the other was more talk show discussion based.
I also liked the older ‘variety shows’ on in the evenings - some singing, some skits, some stand up comedy and some straight music from the house band. I really missed those earlier ones. Towards the end they got sort of crappy though.
My day was home from school, some afternooon TV if I was home in time, about 6 the local and national news, then evening TV. I really miss the old school mystery stuff, anybody remember the Snoop Sisters =)
We always had Mike Douglas on the TV when I was young, so I do remember him well. He was a ‘down-home’ Johnny Carson, without the ‘glamor’ of Hollywood (don’t have any idea where his show was produced). Don’t remember anything specific, but he always impressed me as being, well, earnest in talking with and trying things with his guests.
Carson was on to late on school nights and never really watched much of Merv Griffin. Now pretty much ignore the talk shows altogether.
