Mike Douglas Passed Away

[musicradio77]

TV talk giant falls silent

Mike Douglas, host of popular show that ran for 2 decades, dies at 81 TV talk giant falls silent

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Mike Douglas, whose affable personality and singing talent earned him 21 years as a television talk show host, died yesterday on his 81st birthday.

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 aired from 1961 to 1982. It featured his ballad and big-band singing style, other musicians, comedians, sports figures and political personalities, including seven former, sitting or future Presidents.

Tom Kelly, who co-authored Douglas' memoir "I'll Be Right Back: Memories of TV's Greatest Talk Show," said he had about 30,000 guests appear on his show over the years.

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."

Tim Brooks, television historian and executive vice president of research for Lifetime Television Network, said Douglas was "an outgrowth on the 1950s mentality of politeness."

"Even when America was getting kind of angry in the 1960s and 1970s, his show was sort of an oasis of politeness," Brooks said. "It got you away from some of the turmoil in life."

[T-Greg]

On his 81st birthday too. That sucks.