Syndicated Talk Show
1961 - 1982
Host:
Mike Douglas ruled afternoon TV for 21 years as the singing host of The Mike Douglas Show.
Airing in syndication from 1961 to 1982 and topping the daytime ratings for many of those seasons,
the 90-minute show offered a non-taxing combination of music and talk,
held together by the blue-eyed host's ready smile and almost unfailing amiability.
Douglas's show began in Cleveland and ended in Los Angeles, a victim of changing tastes and syndicator
Group W's belief that they could do better with a younger host. (John Davidson, and they were wrong.)
For the bulk of its run, however, Douglas came to us from Philadelphia,
and that 13 year stretch from 1965 to 1978 is the show most people remember.
A former singer with Kay Kyser, Douglas would croon to his largely female audience in his light, pop style.
He would chat with his guests and encourage them to perform if appropriate, famously getting Judy Garland
to sing Over the Rainbow at one of the points in her life when she was reluctant to do so.
That was part of Douglas's appeal — you didn't want to say no to him. The show traded on his geniality,
and it was a rare afternoon when controversy or confrontation ruled the day. Douglas came across as
one of TV's nicest guys, and his efforts to make guests comfortable were usually rewarded.
Not that Douglas did it alone. One of the show's signatures was Douglas's use of co-hosts who would sit
by his side for the entire week and help question the other quests. Most memorably and least typically,
was the week in 1972 when John Lennon and Yoko Ono filled the role, helping the studiously non-hip
Douglas connect to such guests as George Carlin and Jerry Rubin.
But then, pretty much everyone who was anyone in show business or politics showed up on the show,
joining an eclectic roster that included Bill Cosby, Red Skelton, Marlon Brando, Malcolm X, Prince,
Richard Nixon, Rose Kennedy, Mother Teresa, Mick Jagger, Ray Charles and Zsa Zsa Gabor
(whose off-color insult to Morey Amsterdam in 1965 made the show switch from live broadcast to tape).
The show was known for matching guests willy-nilly: Muhammed Ali debated soon-to-be-disgraced Ohio
congressman Wayne L. Hays in 1974; a tiny Tiger Woods putted with Bob Hope in 1978. It also launched
the TV career of Fox News's Roger Ailes, who served as executive producer.
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