Mike Douglas - Moments & Memories

- Before there was Oprah or Dr. Phil or Ellen, or any of these people, there was Mike Douglas.- - Jay Leno, remembering Mike Douglas on The Tonight Show Legendary daytime talk show host Mike Douglas influenced many of today's biggest stars, including Barbara Walters, Jay Leno, Regis Philbin, and Rosie O'Donnell, among many others. He ruled daytime talk from 1961 to 1982, reaching as many as 15 million people with a single show and averaging an astounding seven million viewers a day. MOMENTS AND MEMORIES takes a look back at Douglas' tenure as talk-show-host extraordinaire. The program unlocks a plethora of amazing performances and interviews from the show's vaults, including Tiger Woods' first appearance on television and Marlon Brando's personal commentary on his role as The Godfather. Douglas' charming disposition drew in the viewers while also setting his high-profile guests at ease. Almost every major celebrity who hit it big in the 60s and 70s appeared on the show either as a guest or co-host. John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted the program for a week in 1972, producing several poignant and memorable moments such as the duo's live performance of Imagine and their collaboration with Chuck Berry on the rock n roll classic Johnny B. Goode. A 2- year-old Tiger Woods also charmed the crowds like a seasoned performer, showcasing his early talent for golf while unknowingly matching wits with comedic heavyweight Bob Hope. Priceless moments like these captured the hearts and imaginations of viewers throughout the country. But it was Douglas' innate charm that endeared him to his fans. He frequently sang on the show, crooning out classic numbers like The Men in My Little Girl s Life. Douglas also kept the show light-hearted and entertaining, frequently choosing silly and outlandish stunts to make his audience laugh. Throughout the course of the program, Douglas wrestles with Andre the Giant, talks to a chimpanzee and clowns around with a variety of comedians. MIKE DOUGLAS MOMENTS AND MEMORIES gathers all these clips and more, taking viewers back to a bygone era filled with all the fun outfits, hairstyles, songs and attitudes of the 60s and 70s. 1. Opening 2. Getting Started with Ginny Simms and Kay Kyser 3. Cinderella 4. A New Show in Cleveland 5. The Rolling Stones 6. Mike and Legendary Entertainers (Alfred Hitchcock, Rodney Dangerfield, Bette Davis, Mel Brooks, Paul Newman, Jack Benny, Marlon Brando, Ingrid Bergman, Bill Cosby, Carol Burnett, Ron Howard) 7. Domestic Olympics (Mariette Hartley and Don Rickles) 8. Tiger Woods and Bob Hope 9. Newsmakers and Newsbreakers (Della Reese, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mike Wallace, Billie Jean King, Mother Teresa) 10. Time for Fun (Robert Goulet, Muhammad Ali & Howard Cosell, Joi Lansing & Dennis Day, Dom DeLuise, Red Skelton , Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sally Field) 11. A Week with John Lennon and Yoko Ono (Imagine, Bobby Seale, George Carlin, Jerry Rubin, Ralph Nader, Chuck Berry) 12. Introducing New Talent (Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley of KISS, Billy Crystal, Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, George Carlin, Jay Leno, David Letterman) 13. Let's Have a Party! (Bob Hope, Tim Conway, Allen & Rossi, Dolly Parton, Professor Irwin Corey, Sammy Davis, Jr.) 14. Singing with Mike (Bill Cosby, Vic Damone, Louis Armstrong & Pearl Bailey, Bobby Darin) 15. The Men in My Little Girl's Life Bonus Features and Clips: Mike Douglas Biography Ingrid Bergman Alex Haley Mike Douglas John Lennon and Yoko Ono Tim Conway Paul Newman Johnny Cash Ron Howard Alfred Hitchcock Mother Teresa Produced by Mats Ogren Wanger It isn't easy boiling down a TV talk show that ran for more than 20 years and upwards of 5000 episodes into a highlight reel lasting less than an hour. The folks who compiled Mike Douglas: Moments & Memories have done that with notable success by staying true to the host's own style: i.e., focusing on the guests, respecting the audience, and providing a balance of interviews, performances, and other material guaranteed to appeal to a wide cross-section of viewers. Douglas, who died in 2006, was an up-and-coming singer (he provided the voice of Prince Charming for Disney's animated Cinderella in 1950) who moved into TV in the early '60s, and his daytime chat fest was a popular destination for celebs of every stripe, who recognized and appreciated that the confident but deferential host preferred to listen to his guests rather than compete with them and was more interested in making them look good than in promoting his own act. Moments & Memories contains clips with an extraordinary variety of visitors (from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Mother Teresa, from two-year-old Tiger Woods to Muhammad Ali, from Marlon Brando to Paul Newman, from Louis Armstrong to Kiss' Gene Simmons), but what distinguishes it from almost all DVDs of this ilk is the presence of complete musical performances, in this case by the Rolling Stones (performing "Not Fade Away" in '64, surely one of their very earliest TV appearances) and John Lennon (a nice version of "Imagine," backed by the Elephant's Memory band). Music fans will find those two gems alone worth the price of admission. Bonus features include about an hour's worth of additional interviews and Douglas bio material. --Sam Graham