The Mike Douglas Show (1961–1982)

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.