The Mike Douglas Show originally aired on Wednesday, March 8th 1978 (in most markets).

It took former big band singer and pop music vocalist Mike Douglas to show America what a daytime talk show could be. With lively conversation, interesting musical, comedic and dramatic performances and an thoroughly entertaining, charming and disarming host this program would become the place to be on daytime tv. For over 20 years and over 5000 episodes it became the place that rock stars, television stars, movie stars, sports stars, politicians and even Presidents couldn't resist appearing. For many, The Mike Douglas Show would become and will always be the standard of daytime talk programs.

This was one of many numerous appearances that Kristy McNichol made on this program either as a guest or "co-host". Kristy and Mike seemed to have a genuine friendship and always appeared quite happy to work with one another and this episode was no exception. On this day she was co-hosting, just as she did for that entire week of March 6-10th, 1978. Other guests on this episode included the comedy team of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara; they are really funny here and did some great improv comedy both alone and with Mike. Also appearing was William Shatner who did an interesting monolog from H. G. Wells War of the Worlds. Musical composer Joe Raposo was also on the show and had a number with Mike. Punk rocker Patti Smith made an appearance as well, which made for an "interesting" interview for both Mike and the other guests. And finally sociologist Dr. Anthony Campolo came on to tell us what was wrong with the country's youth and to answer questions from youngsters in the crowd.

By the late 1970s, when this particular episode was recorded, The Mike Douglas show was no longer being televised live, it was however broadcast with as few edits as possible giving it a very "live" feel. As a result this program appears completely genuine, giving us a good clue to what Kristy McNichol was really like as a person. She is not giving a performance here, and this program, and others like it, are possibly the closest that we the viewing audience ever got to seeing the real Kristy McNichol. Among the revelations that we learn here is that her character "Buddy" from the series Family is essentially her, and the fact that while "Buddy" is very much like Kristy, on the show she dresses a lot more tomboyish than Kristy would like her to. Since Kristy was the only teenager among that day's guests she also became the de facto spokesperson for "America's youth". Mike and the other guests repeatedly turned to her for her take on various subjects, including a very memorable exchange between Mike, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara about sex education where the then 15-year-old Kristy appears dangerously close to being embarrassed. Towards the end of the program we even get to see a very short glimpse of Kristy as just a normal teenage girl, crazy about the then hit film Saturday Night Fever. This is a fascinating show to watch mainly because it gives us the opportunity to see Kristy the "person" rather than Kristy the "actress", something we tv viewers rarely had the chance to do.

Buying note: This show has never been available on commercial home video. But there are other sources for this as well as other Kristy McNichol appearances that you might be looking for.

5-27-2007