Talk show host Mike Douglas dead

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I liked his show and used to watch it with my grandparents and parents when I was a kid.

 

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) -- Mike Douglas, who drew on his affable personality and singing talent during 21 years as a talk show host, died Friday on his 81st birthday, his wife said.

 

He died at 5:30 a.m. in a Palm Beach Gardens hospital, said his wife, Genevieve Douglas. She wasn't sure of the cause, but said he had been admitted Thursday.

 

Douglas became dehydrated on the golf course a few weeks ago and had been treated on and off since. "He was coming along fine, we thought. It was really a shock," she said. "We never anticipated this to happen."

 

Douglas' afternoon show, which aired from 1961 to 1982, featured his ballad and big-band singing style, other musicians, comedians, sports figures and political personalities, including seven former, sitting or future presidents.

 

"People still believe 'The Mike Douglas Show' was a talk show, and I never correct them, but I don't think so," Douglas said in his 1999 memoir, "I'll Be Right Back: Memories of TV's Greatest Talk Show."

 

"It was really a music show, with a whole lot of talk and laughter in between numbers."

 

Douglas did about 6,000 syndicated shows, most 90 minutes long, and estimated that at its peak the show was seen in about 230 cities.

 

Douglas was among the "early settlers" in daytime talk shows, said Robert Thompson, a professor and director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

 

"Mike Douglas was an old-fashioned traditionalist, holding down the fort while the culture was changing," Thompson said. "He was always the very friendly talk show host, nice to everybody. He would lean toward his guest as if he really cared. He owned that territory."

 

Hosts Phil Donahue, Dinah Shore and Merv Griffin also found success about the same time. Douglas said in his book that people often confused him with Griffin, another singer of Irish heritage. (Douglas was born Michael Delaney Dowd Jr. in Chicago, Illinois.)

 

Douglas fondly recalled when Tiger Woods, who as a preschooler was already drawing attention, appeared on the same 1978 show as Bob Hope, an avid golfer. "I don't know what kind of drugs they've got this kid on," Hope quipped, "but I want some."

 

Douglas was genial most of the time -- he was nicknamed "the Cary Grant of the coffee break," according to Allmusic.com -- but confided in his memoir that his composure was sorely tested one week in 1972 when former Beatle John Lennon and wife, Yoko Ono, were his unlikely guest hosts. One of the guest celebrities they selected was well-known anti-war activist Jerry Rubin.

 

"He just got on my nerves. It sounded like this guy hated the president, the Congress, everyone in business, the military, all police and just about everything America stands for," Douglas said.

 

He recalled becoming confrontational with Rubin. But Lennon "picked up the mantle of Kind and Gentle Host, and he did it quite well, reinterpreting Jerry's comments to take some of the sting out and adding a little humor to keep things cool," Douglas said.

 

Douglas also had a number of hit singles, first with Kay Kyser's big band -- he was a featured performer on the radio and eventual television program, "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge" -- and later on his own. "The Men in My Little Girl's Life" hit the top 10 in 1966.

 

As the rock 'n' roll era began to emerge in the late 1950s, his style became less marketable, so he started looking for a way to energize his career.

 

He briefly hosted "Hi, Ladies!", a daytime television program on WGN in Chicago. In 1961, Woody Fraser, a Westinghouse Group W program director who had known Douglas in Chicago, recruited him to a Group W station in Cleveland (then KYW) to host a talk and entertainment program.

 

The show syndicated starting in 1963 but had a limited budget, and Cleveland was not a frequent destination for well-known potential guests. The show moved to Philadelphia in 1965 and to Los Angeles in 1978.

 

Three years later, Group W replaced Douglas with a younger singer, John Davidson. "The Mike Douglas Show" continued in syndication under Douglas' control until he retired in 1982 to North Palm Beach, Florida. Douglas appeared as a guest on several talk shows but spent much of his leisure time on the golf course.

 

He was diagnosed with prostate cancer on 1990, but surgery was successful.

 

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

 

I'll never forget when John and Yoko were on the show for a solid week.

 

[darkstar]

I liked his show and used to watch it with my grandparents and parents when I was a kid.

I'll never forget when John and Yoko were on the show for a solid week.

 

 

 

There will be two more celebrity deaths now. These things happen in 3's

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There will be two more celebrity deaths now. These things happen in 3's

 

any predictions?

 

I predict Castro. he's a celebrity, right?

[darkstar]

any predictions?

 

I predict Castro. he's a celebrity, right?

 

Well...sorta, though he's more infamous than famous, but a good choice. He's probably about ready to kick.

 

Time to get a dead pool going

[cryptique]

any predictions?

 

I predict Castro. he's a celebrity, right?

I say Gene Shalit and Jackie Stewart.

[ms. yvon]

i remember seeing the bee-gee's perform 'jive talkin' on the mike douglas show.

now that i know john davidson was hired to replace mike douglas, i like jd even less.

 

 

rip, mr. douglas.

[aricandover]

QUOTE(Grandma Klump @ Aug 11 2006, 01:55 PM)

Mike Douglas is the only white man to ever get me wet.

[ction]

Time to get a dead pool going

 

I think that's horrible and morbid and many other bad things. That being said, don't ever have Abe Vigoda out of your top 3.

[cryptique]

I think that's horrible and morbid and many other bad things. That being said, don't ever have Abe Vigoda out of your top 3.

And check here often.

[ction]

I love the internet.

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Tom Waits on Mike Douglas Show

 

notice everyone is smoking!

 

John Lennon sings Imagine

 

Gene Simmons

 

KISS

 

ELO

 

Judy Garland

 

dig that crazy outfit!

 

Johnny Cash

[darkstar]

What???!!!!!! Abe is still alive......He's looked dead for years

 

Salvatore Tessio lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bjorn_skurj]

I watched that show with my great-grandma when I was a wee bjorn.

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The Raspberries

[tongue-tied lightning]

every day at 4:30

[anodyne]

i hit in the dead pool when rodney dangerfield died. that was bittersweet -- i loved his work. i did not have mike douglas this year. i think it's sad he died on his birthday. RIP mr douglas.

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IMO Mike Douglas was a class act. he never had any scandal. he was very open minded and had every kind of guest within celebrity scope from political figures to Tom Waits, Johnny Cash or the cast of Star Wars. the John & Yoko 'week' struck me the most as being a tad on the wacky side for most daytime talk shows. this is what made his show special and his career an honest one. he was just a great guy.

[M. (hristine]

Tom Waits sitting next to Marvin Hamlisch.

God I love this country.

[froggie]

with Moe...

 

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with Moe...

 

 

wow!

[Mr. Kinsley]

My dead pool predictions:

 

Phyllis Diller*

Gary's screen name (Obvious, but nobody called it yet.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Won't I feel like a total prick if she does actually kick the bucket.

[froggie]

i've got a video of that appearance with Moe.. he cops a pie in the face at the end