Mike Douglas Show

Streisand / Television

The Mike Douglas Show (1963)

Aired: February 11-15, 1964 
Syndicated by: Group W Television

Mike Douglas’ show began on KYW-TV in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1960's. He continued to broadcast entertaining shows which combined talk and songs well into the late 1970's. 

Mike Douglas was a daytime television talk show legend. Rosie O'Donnell credited Mr. Douglas with having a huge influence on her 1996-2002 talk show style.

Mike Douglas invited Barbra to be his co-host for an entire week on his nationally syndicated talk show in 1963, which taped in Cleveland, Ohio. “We gave her the first significant, prolonged, national TV exposure, that is, during hours when the majority of viewers were awake.”

“I’d taken in her act on some of the late night talk shows,” he wrote. “I loved what she did with a song. But her talk and appearance qualified her for a diploma in Advanced Nuttiness .. All I knew was, there was something special about Barbra that made me want her for a co-host.”

Barbra’s shrewd manager, Marty Erlichman, negotiated her appearance on the Cleveland talk show. When Erlichman asked Douglas to “find her a gig for a grand” in order to make up for the talk show’s low pay, Douglas got Barbra booked at the Chateau nightclub in Lakewood, Ohio that same week.
Mike wrote in his memoir I'll Be Right Back: “She was brilliant. We kidded around, doing Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald duets* in costume. We got down on the floor and played a game she'd played as a child — kind of tiddlywinks with bottle caps. Those shows were classics.”

[* “Sweetheart, Sweatheart, Sweatheart”]

Like many early television shows, Douglas' episode tapes were erased or recorded over. In fact, he sued Westinghouse for the loss of the tapes.

Please email me if you have audio recordings of these shows that you'd like to share!

“I once stayed home from school for a week because Barbra Streisand was on. Mike Douglas used to have guests on for a week. I was like, ‘I’m not leaving this room!’ because I was just obsessed with her, like everybody was.”

— actor Victor Garber

BELOW: A rare contribution to this website!  Sent to me by a relative of Eleanor Kasper (of Cleveland). She and her friends attended many of the Mike Douglas tapings before his show left Cleveland.  This was from a Valentines episode, a red paper heart signed on a doily by Mike Douglas, Jonah Jones, and Barbra Streisand. 

Red paper and doily valentine heart signed by Mike Douglas, Jonah Jones, and Barbra Streisand.
End / The Mike Douglas Show
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