Product Description
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Mike Douglas: Moments & Memories is a nostalgic look back at the
Emmy award winning the Mike Douglas Show and the man behind it
who became America's best loved daytime talk show host to over 6
million viewers. The program features interviews and performance
segments with former guests, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono,
Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart, Dr. Martin Luther King, Steve Martin,
Billy Crystal, Tiger Woods, Mel Brooks and many others. Archival
clips guide viewers through Douglas' career and the "who's who"
of stars featured on the original show which aired in syndication
from 1961 to 1982. With first-time access to the full catalog of
episodes and Douglas' personal memorabilia, this program provides
an entertaining and heartwarming reminder of the era of classic
television entertainment.
.com
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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
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Review
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Mike Douglas actually preceded the likes of Johnny Carson, Phil
Donahue...even Jack Parr. It was his show that really
revolutionized the variety and talk format, bringing celebrities
from all walks of life into our living room five days a week,
giving us thought-provoking interviews, hilarious comedy, and
memorable music. But in the center of it all was always Mike.
Douglas was a humble Midwesterner with a tremendous voice...in
fact, it was Mike who provided the singing for Prince Charming in
Disney's Cinderella. He was comfortable on radio, and equally so
on television. His relaxed, everyman persona endeared him to fans
everywhere, and his show, which ran from 1961 to 1982, became a
daytime ste. It would be hard for me to think of growing up
without remembering seeing Mike day after day.
Mike Douglas: Moments and Memories attempts the impossible, which
is to condense a twenty year career into under an hour. Fans of
the show may quibble about what memories of theirs weren't
included (for my own part, I missed seeing Mason Reece). But few
could argue with the quintessential cross-section of celebrities
that ARE featured, which is more than enough to impress the
uninitiated and give a taste of just how far reaching and varied
Mike's show was.
You'll see clips of some of the best comics of all time,
including Bob Newhart, Tim Conway and Bill Cosby in their prime
(along with a very young Jay Leno and David Letterman). You'll
listen in on interviews with some of Hollywood's most prolific
stars, including Marlon Brando, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Newman.
You'll listen in on some bona fide musical legends, including the
week long appearance by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but also
including Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, and amusingly enough,
Kiss. You'll even see sports legends like Billie Jean King, or
future legends, including Tiger Woods as a child showing the
stuff that would one day make him the most dominating player in
golf!
But above and beyond the cache of the cultural who's-who, what
inspired me the most was Mike's chats with individuals who defy
categorization and who truly left an indelible mark on the world.
Listen to Mike sit down with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or
Mother Theresa. It will give you goose bumps.
See what I mean? Twenty years is a long time, but I've only
mentioned a handful of the guests that appear on this DVD. This
was a wonderful trip down memory lane...at the time, Mike
Douglas' show was musical, funny, entertaining and topical, but
looking back on it some 26 years after the program ceased to be,
it seems like a time .
So many of these people, including Mike, are no longer with us.
But these magical moments, when the brightest, funniest, most
musical and most inspirational were relaxed enough just to be
themselves in front of the camera, are the true testament to the
enduring legacy of Mike Douglas.
There is a bio on Mike Douglas, but even better, a collection of
extended interviews with stars like John Lennon, Tim Conway,
Ingrid Bergman and more. There's even a musical number from
Johnny Cash, and a conversation with author Alex Haley, whose
novel Roots continues to captivate generation after generation.
Summary:I do indeed like Mike. His show, and this DVD freeze
moments in time and history for all to view and contemplate first
hand. Recommended. --DVD Movie Central
Affable Douglas had the most politically edgy daytime variety
show ever hosted by an Irish tenor. On this combination clip
assemblage and Douglas family look-back, guests include John
Lennon and Yoko Ono (who co-hosted for a week), Alfred Hitchcock,
Ingrid Bergman, Bob Hope with tiny prodigy Tiger Woods and, in a
head-spinning mix that was typical, Martin Luther King Jr. with
singer Tony Martin. Three Stars --Mike Clark, USA Today, April 9
2008
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