The Mike Douglas Show

The Mike Douglas Show was an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas.

Format and production

A former big band singer, Douglas moved to television in the 1950s. The Mike Douglas Show started in 1961 in Cleveland as a local show on Westinghouse's KYW-TV (now WKYC-TV), it proved popular and, in August 1963, was syndicated by Westinghouse to all five of its owned-and-operated stations. By 1967 the show was available in 171 markets and seen by an audience of six million viewers a day.

The program featured light banter with guests and musical performances. Each week would have a different co-host who would appear every day with Douglas. The program was initially aired "live" on KYW-TV in its city of origination, but after off-color on-air remarks by Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1965 (she called Morey Amsterdam a "son of a bitch"), the producers taped all shows in advance of broadcast. This allowed for the editing-out of any objectionable material. The program then aired in Philadelphia on a one-day tape-delay basis. Live broadcasts (with a seven-second delay) were attempted in Philadelphia only on a few special occasions thereafter, such as when the Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup.

In August 1965, the show moved from Cleveland to Philadelphia to a small basement studio located in the KYW-TV building at 1619 Walnut Street (see photos on right). This studio held 140 seats. In July 1972, the show moved to a new studio in the newly constructed KYW-TV studios at 5th and Market Streets in Philadelphia. That studio ("Studio A") was the first and only studio especially constructed for the program. While the overall new studio was larger, it accommodated only 120 seats. The original musical director in Philadelphia was Ellie Frankel. In 1968, Joe Harnell, an accomplished musician, composer, and band leader took the position of musical director. Harnell continued as musical director through 1973. During much of its time on the air, it remained strong in ratings, consistently finishing in the top three-rated daytime television shows nearly every season. Douglas took the success lightly. He made a surprise visit to the set of Match Game in 1976, a competing show which managed to score higher ratings than Douglas' program during the mid-1970s, in order to congratulate host Gene Rayburn on making the game show the #1 daytime TV show.

The show's run spanned 21 years and more than 6,000 episodes.^[1] In 1978, production of the show moved to Los Angeles, where it remained until the end of the show's run in 1982.

Guests

Among the musical performers featured on the show were Frank Zappa, KISS, Jefferson Airplane, Cher, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Genesis, Linda Ronstadt, The Rolling Stones, The Bee Gees, Herman's Hermits, Little Anthony & the Imperials, and The Turtles. Notable among guest hosts were John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Anne Baxter, and Billy Crystal.

The show also featured the first television appearance of Tiger Woods who showed off his swing for Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart at the age of 2. Others who appeared on the show include Malcolm X, Jerry Rubin, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Bette Davis, Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball, Totie Fields, John Travolta, Louis Armstrong, Jay Leno, Joan Crawford, Angela Davis, Muhammad Ali and many others.

One set of of popular and returning guest to the show were Motown's premier girl group, The Supremes, who would often come on, perform their latest hit, be interviewed then perform another song or medley of the hits.

Awards and other achievements

Douglas earned five Emmys for the show. His book, I'll be Right Back; Memories of TV's Greatest Talk Show was published in 1999.

Many subsequent talk hosts – in particular Jay Leno, David Letterman and Rosie O'Donnell – have acknowledged their personal debt to Douglas and his work.

References

1. ^ Mike Douglas, Former TV Show Host, Dies, AP via ABC News.

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