The Mike Douglas Show               

ABBA appeared in Episode 39 of Season 13.

Between 29 September 1974 - 1 October 1974 ABBA was on a three day promotional visit in US which included their very first performance on American TV, on this "The Mike Douglas Show" episode. Carl Magnus Palm has confirmed that ABBA did appear on this show and in fact, this was probably their only appearance in person on the 1974 USA visit.

Mike Douglas was a genial television host whose afternoon talk show was a beacon of popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s. "The Mike Douglas Show" was the first nationally-syndicated American daytime television talk show which aired from 1 December 1961 to 30 November 1981. It had more than 6,000 syndicated shows, mostly 90 minutes long and he had about 30,000 guests appear on his show over the years including: seven US presidents, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, The Muppets, Frank Zappa, Chuck Berry, Barbra Streisand , The Rolling Stones, Mother Theresa, Olivia Newton John, Alfred Hitchcock, Tiger Woods, Martin Luther King Jr, Gene Simmons of KISS and many others. At the height of its popularity, in the late 1960s, it was one of the most watched shows on television. The program featured light banter with guests and musical performances. Instead of an opening comedic monologue (as was the case with The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, for example), Douglas, given his vocalist background, would begin each show by singing a popular song for the audience. Each week would have a different co-host who would appear every day with Douglas.

On this episode the co-host was Paul Williams and the guests were the singing duo of Sandler and Young; baseball star Willie Mays; ABBA; Paul William's co-star in 'Phantom of Paradise' actress Jessica Harper; author Ann Morton and former US military analyst Daniel Ellsberg known as the 'Most Dangerous Man in America'.

VH1 makes extensive use of old clips from "The Mike Douglas Show" so the assumption is that Viacom probably now owns the archives.

"The Mike Douglas Show" archives (no longer available) are being licensed for professional use in television programs, DVDs and documentaries: "Out of the 4000+ shows Mike hosted, only a small number have been re-mastered from the original 2" tapes. The majority of the programs have been re-mastered, but many more episodes and guests are available as well." So apparently all episodes of The Mike Douglas Show exist in CBS' archives.


Mike Douglas died on 11 August 2006.