Rating: 
Summary: Dishing the Dirt with Tact
Review: "I'll Be Right Back" is a great trip in the 60's/70's Way Back Machine. I was fearful of a milquetoast account after reading Mike's initial disclaimer that he would avoid descending to depths of current media dirt merchants. Mike's does dish the dirt but he is subtle and discreet. However, it doesn't take too much insight to read between the lines on many performers and public figures. I was pleasantly surprised by the book. Although I still harbour a secret pleasure for watching the Jerry Springer circus, I really wish Mike Douglas would be right back sometime soon.
Rating:
Summary: Dishing the Dirt with Tact
Review: "I'll Be Right Back" is a great trip in the 60's/70's Way Back Machine. I was fearful of a milquetoast account after reading Mike's initial disclaimer that he would avoid descending to depths of current media dirt merchants. Mike's does dish the dirt but he is subtle and discreet. However, it doesn't take too much insight to read between the lines on many performers and public figures. I was pleasantly surprised by the book. Although I still harbour a secret pleasure for watching the Jerry Springer circus, I really wish Mike Douglas would be right back sometime soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Those were the days!
Review: ....but, he was one of the best. He set a standard in his day that I'm sure many talk show host have aspired to, but frankly I can't think of anyone that did it as well as he did. Unfortunately, his book doesn't "show" how strong his connection to his guest and audience really was. I have my memory to serve me, but many of the readers probably weren't around during Mr. Douglas' heyday and don't know how unique he was. For example...he was one of the few greats that did something rather unusal. He listened! He offered his guest the opportunity to have the spotlight on themselves instead of constantly trying to catch the beam himself...which sadly is what so many of todays host do. Perhaps someone else could have captured Mike Douglas a little better then Mike Douglas did. His modesty may have tainted the outcome somewhat. But, it's still a better than normal read for a biography.
Rating:
Summary: He may not have been the first talk show host....
Review: ....but, he was one of the best. He set a standard in his day that I'm sure many talk show host have aspired to, but frankly I can't think of anyone that did it as well as he did. Unfortunately, his book doesn't "show" how strong his connection to his guest and audience really was. I have my memory to serve me, but many of the readers probably weren't around during Mr. Douglas' heyday and don't know how unique he was. For example...he was one of the few greats that did something rather unusal. He listened! He offered his guest the opportunity to have the spotlight on themselves instead of constantly trying to catch the beam himself...which sadly is what so many of todays host do. Perhaps someone else could have captured Mike Douglas a little better then Mike Douglas did. His modesty may have tainted the outcome somewhat. But, it's still a better than normal read for a biography.
Rating: 
Summary: Mike, I'LL be right back
Review: As a kid, I used to watch Mike's show, marveling at the cool sets in what was apparently a tiny studio in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, this book does not duplicate the mood he conveyed all those years ago.If you hadn't seen his show and picked up this book, you'd swear Mike was dillusional. I mean, if this guy was so connected, why wasn't he Carson? It got to the point I expected to turn the page and see, "... then when President Roosevelt did that cameo, Genghis Khan almost fell on the floor. I laughed until Jack Benny and Nero did a poignant violin duet. That was just too much for the three former popes to bear." By the way, his memory must be failing him on Muhammad Ali, because the facts don't check out. If I ever see Mike is doing a TV show, I am there. But if he ever writes another book, I'm afraid I'll have to turn the channel.
Rating:
Summary: Mike, I'LL be right back
Review: As a kid, I used to watch Mike's show, marveling at the cool sets in what was apparently a tiny studio in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, this book does not duplicate the mood he conveyed all those years ago. If you hadn't seen his show and picked up this book, you'd swear Mike was dillusional. I mean, if this guy was so connected, why wasn't he Carson? It got to the point I expected to turn the page and see, "... then when President Roosevelt did that cameo, Genghis Khan almost fell on the floor. I laughed until Jack Benny and Nero did a poignant violin duet. That was just too much for the three former popes to bear." By the way, his memory must be failing him on Muhammad Ali, because the facts don't check out. If I ever see Mike is doing a TV show, I am there. But if he ever writes another book, I'm afraid I'll have to turn the channel.
Rating: 
Summary: Memorable Moments revealed in I'LL BE RIGHT BACK
Review: Before Jay and Dave, before Phil, Oprah and Rosie, there was Mike Douglas - the first king of the talk show and daytime television. During the two decades (1960s-1980s) his hugely popular, trend-setting "Mike Douglas Show" was on the air, Mike played host to an astonishing guest roster of America's most famous personalities. His show introduced the elements we recognize today as staples of the successful talk show. In I'LL BE RIGHT BACK Mike shares a treasure-trove of priceless anecdotes and unforgettable remembrances about those 20 glorious years spent, as he says, "chatting, joking, singing, and dancing with the most famous, most talented, most interesting, most powerful, and most beautiful people in the world." We couldn't possibly list all the incredible, exciting, landmark moments that Mike Douglas shares from his twenty years on "The Mike Douglas Show," so here are just a few of the reminiscences included in I'LL BE RIGHT BACK: *The talk show debut of a championship bodybuilder from Austria named Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was virtually unknown in America at the time, and who Mike advised to lose the accent if he hoped to make it as an actor. *How Mike personally booked an evening club gig for a young singer from New York so that she could afford the trip to Cleveland to appear on his show - which is how a handful of lucky Clevelanders got to see a young Barbra Streisand perform for $7.00 a ticket. *The appearance of a weak and ailing Judy Garland, who when she came on camera, miraculously transformed herself back into America's sweetheart, giving a rare performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" only months before her tragic death. *The head-line making appearance of the "Chimp Who Went Bananas," a monkey who fell in love with Mike when he hosted the show wearing Planet of the Apes make-up, and went on to destroy the set to the tune of $20,000. To top that off, Mike was then handcuffed on live television by members of a radical group of animal rights activists. *How Mike worked around guests' so-called "off-limit" topics. For example, he got Bobby Darin to sing on the air, which his agent had strictly forbidden, by singing all of his interview questions until Darin obliged by singing his responses. When it came to interviewing Marlon Brando - who said he would only talk about the plight of the American Indian - Mike managed to get him to discuss The Godfather by using a sly strategy suggested by Francis Ford Coppola. *The show in which Martha Mitchell, wife of the U.S. Attorney General, appeared alongside Richard Pryor, and to everyone's amazement, comfortably joked and bantered with the controversial comic as if the two were a long-standing comedy duo. Pryor's appearance with fellow comic, Milton Berle, proved less fun, when the two traded jabs and angry insults rather than jokes. *Descriptions of some of Mike's more confrontational moments, including grilling Christina Crawford over claims made in her book Mommie Dearest and battling John Derek over the racy footage he included of wife Bo Derek in the movie Tarzan the Ape Man. *When Mike was forced to step in as a reluctant referee between rivals Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali as the two duked it out - literally - at one point missing Mike's chin by a mere half an inch. *A bizarre phone conversation with Elvis, who apologized for being too camera shy to appear as a guest, but admitted he was a fan and said he was tuned in to Mike's show when he famously shot up his TV (because he was fed up with that week's guest co-host Robert Goulet). *The appearance of a surprisingly approachable and even humorous Malcolm X, who told Mike he hoped to promote a more uplifting, pro-mankind message. Off camera, he also chillingly disclosed, "I'm a dead man. It's only a matter of time." *Attending a White House dinner when President Lyndon Johnson couldn't seem to part from Mike's wife, Gen, and Mike almost had to ask the leader of the free world to "step outside." *Ronald Reagan's particularly memorable exit from the stage in the style of an old vaudeville routine - shuffling away with a long, comic stride while wagging his finger over his head. *The 1974 appearance of sex experts Masters and Johnson during which husband and wife actors Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson candidly discussed their own sex lives - a radical step for daytime television at the time. *Tony Orlando bringing tears to the eyes of viewers as he poured his heart out about his own drug-laden, manic-depressive downfall as well as his story of watching his friend Freddie Prinze die in his arms. *How Mike came close to interviewing the one guest he wanted most - Frank Sinatra - and the reason why the appearance never took place. *Why Mike recently found himself the subject of scandal and gossip, when a discussion about Monica Lewinsky on Rush Limbaugh's radio show somehow led him to erroneously be labeled a sex addict. AND MANY, MANY MORE!
Rating: 
Summary: Nice gift for the nostalgic
Review: For those of us who remember watching Mike's show daily in the 1960s, browsing the photos, and having Mike's easy-going style expressed in the text, rather compensate for the flimsiness of the material Our own memories (particularly of the wonderfully diverse guests, from various entertainment fiels - and this in an era when there were topics other than sex and breast cancer to discuss) fill in the blanks. Those looking for literary expression, intriguing anecdotes, or deep dimensions of character will need to look elsewhere. This book is just a casual visit with an old friend. As such, it might be a nice gift for a nostalgic relative.
Rating:
Summary: Auction!!
Review: Hi!! I have recently bidded on this book, signed by Matt from the Real World New Orleans and won! So I just came to see how it looks...doesn't look too thrilling!!
Rating:
Summary: Pretty much a big yawn...
Review: I found this book to be nothing more than a laundry list of famous names that appeared on the Mike Douglas show over the past century, and very little else. I was hardly expecting juicy gossip or lurid exposes, but at the very least some interesting anecdotes, and these were few and far between. I think Mr. D tried to cram too much into the book, and as a result didn't have much to say about anyone. (To be fair, he indicates he only knew most of them during the time they spent on his show.) Also, you will all be pleased to hear several times that Mr. Douglas has had just a swell, super-happy life, and is also married to the most fantastic woman in the entire universe. So there you go, if you're of a certain age, and you thrill to just the reading a list of the Big Names of yesteryear, and are as happy as Mike Douglas, then you will enjoy this book. I found it dull, crowded, and superficial.
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