merv

i am of the age where i grew up watching the merv griffin show. merv and the staid arthur treacher. i thought that the oddest combination ever (even at a young age i thought that). yet, it WORKED. (at least for a while)

i saw everyone on merv. people i'd never heard of but fell in love with. jack douglas and meiko or keiko (i can't quite remember her name). politicians, actors, comedians.

totie fields, monte rock iii, mrs miller, jackie vernon, moms mabley and oh so many more!

the ONLY thing that pained me a GREAT deal was merv's singing. and sing he did. every show if i remember correctely. the WORST was when he'd attempt to interpret a rock n' roll song. TORTURE.

The Host Who Was Everyone's Guest


By Tom ShalesWashington Post Staff Writer

Merv Griffin had friends in the right places, and for the 20 years that "The Merv Griffin Show" aired on television, in one form or another, those places included millions of American homes.
He was fun to have around, and so the news of his death yesterday, at 82, was poignantly dispiriting. Especially considering he was that form of celebrity unique to television: a professional personality, someone whose singing (despite a big-band career in the '40s) was unexceptional, whose dancing was limited to ballrooms at haute blowouts, and whose major talent may have been his prowess at dealmaking behind the scenes.
Though members of post-boomer generations may seldom or never have seen Griffin perform -- impishly interrogating the famous and infamous who joined him on his talk show -- they may still be aware of his presence in pop culture. Nearly everyone knows he invented the game shows "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune" and hugely profited from them, while continuing to gambol and scamper across the pop landscape as gadfly and entrepreneur.........

Merv Griffin, Television Innovator, Dies at 82

By RICHARD SEVERO and EDWARD WYATT

Merv Griffin, a big-band singer who became one of television’s longest-running talk-show hosts and formidable innovators, creating some of the medium’s most popular game shows before becoming a major figure in the hotel and gambling businesses, died yesterday in Los Angeles. He was 82.
His death, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, was caused by prostate cancer, according to a family statement issued by Marcia Newberger, a spokeswoman for Mr. Griffin’s companies. Mr. Griffin had been treated for the disease more than 10 years ago but was recently hospitalized after a recurrence.
Mr. Griffin, as a singer with the Freddy Martin band, had a hit in 1950 with the recording, “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” but had traded in singing for acting in movies, served as game-show host and filled in for Jack Paar on late-night television. Then, in 1962, NBC gave him his own daytime show, “The Merv Griffin Show.” ..........