Between 29 September - 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 and their first US TV appearance.

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.

Episode 39 of Season 13

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'.

ABBA performed Waterloo. (They may have performed a second song which would most likely have been Honey Honey.)

According to the the US web-site "Jump The Shark", someone remembers when ABBA were on the show and "lo and behold, poor things, nobody in the group even knew how to speak English. There sat Mike, trying to communicate with the four, and all of them sitting there, smiling and nodding their heads."

Broadcast information:
Thursday 24 October 1974: Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, Pittsburgh
Thursday 31 october 1974: New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Detroit, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Miami, St Louis, Minneapolis, Seattle
Thursday 7 November 1974: Denver, Honolulu, Kansas City, Tampa, Tallahassee, Tulsa, Orlando, Fresno, Canada.

Click here for a cutting from Billboard - 19 October 1974

Click here for a cutting from Billboard - 9 November 1974

The Mike Douglas Show, 1974;
The Mike Douglas Show, 1975;
The Mike Douglas Show, 1976;

Thanks to Ian Cole, Dean Morrison, Jozsef, Rianne Schaffers, Carl Magnus Palm, Becky and Yuri.
Extra thanks to Jeff Thorpe c/o ABBAMAIL (no longer online).
Thanks to ABBA on Record by Carl Magnus Palm for the picture.