Merv Griffin, the former singer who became a television staple in the 60s and into the 70s with his popular variety/talk show and and who later went on to become a show business business giant has died:
Merv Griffin, the big band-era crooner turned impresario who parlayed his “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire, died Sunday. He was 82.
Griffin died of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his family that was released by Marcia Newberger, spokeswoman for The Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment.
From his beginning as a $100-a-week San Francisco radio singer, Griffin moved on as vocalist for Freddy Martin’s band, sometime film actor in films and TV game and talk show host, and made Forbes’ list of richest Americans several times.
His “The Merv Griffin Show” lasted more than 20 years, and Griffin’s said his capacity to listen contributed to his success.
“If the host is sitting there thinking about his next joke, he isn’t listening,” Griffin reasoned in a recent interview.
But his biggest break financially came from inventing and producing “Jeopardy” in the 1960s and “Wheel of Fortune” in the 1970s. After they had become the hottest game shows on television, Griffin sold the rights to Coca Cola’s Columbia Pictures Television Unit for $250 million in 1986, retaining a share of the profits.
More info about his life, his pioneering and in many ways historical talk show, and his later career as a millionaire producer and real estate owner can be found HERE.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE:
I got to see Griffin in action when I was in high school in the 1960s when a friend and I attended one of his talk show tapings in New York at Metromedia Studios.
He had high-powered guests on but what was most notable was that Griffin saved his energy for when the TV lights were on. During commercial breaks he sat quietly on that dais and barely talked to his guests. His show started out syndicated but was later picked up by CBS and run late night to compete with Johnny Carson.
His experience wasn’t a good one, the suits wouldn’t let Griffin be Griffin. CBS didn’t like some of the anti-war celebrities he had on who expressed opposition to the Vietnam War (which was a slightly high-profile topic among Americans at that time). Censors gave him trouble (often on political interviews). They also nixed his longtime sidekick, English actor Arthur Treacher, for being too old. So he left CBS and went back to syndication. He finally quit that to work full-time on game shows.
For performers and would-be performers, was the quintessential gracious host — a true professional role model who made hosting a talk show look easy (versus Chevy Chase who later on showed it could be made to look like someone undergoing water-boarding).
But it was in his later career that he made the more long lasting contribution (his talk shows can be found on dvd but his game shows, ideas on entertainment and hotel purchase expanded his empire and his influence). The tabloids and other gossipy writers have also noted for years that he has been very close to former first lady Nancy Reagan. And this will likely be a major blow to her.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.