Before Merv, before Oprah, before Phil Donahue, before Letterman, before Springer and before Howard Stern, there was Mike Douglas.

For a couple of decades, through the 1980s, Mike Douglas hosted a syndicated talk show that was an amazing blend of pop culture, bad set design, and brilliant entertainment. It's fair to say he was the consummate TV gentleman, who always put the focus on his guests - whether the guest was Totie Fields, Andy Kaufman, or Frank Zappa.

Mike Douglas was the man who brought cutting-edge standup comedy - from the likes of Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Jay Leno and others - to everybody who fell alseep before Johnny Carson came on.

Mike Douglas died today, the day he turned 81.

One of the strongest memories of the man and his program was the week that he brought John Lennon and Yoko Ono to his show in Philadelphia, where they co-hosted the program with him for five straight days. It was as riveting as anything you could watch on TV during the '70s.

Here's a clip of Lennon performing on The Mike Douglas Show:

Was Mike Douglas cool? Felix Bunay: "While other kids were playing stickball or 'war' or 'cowboys and indians,' we would go out in the back yard and pretend to be on The Mike Douglas Show."