Obituaries

Posted by Matt Cipriano | No Comments

While so many news outlets are devoting headlines today to Brooke Astor passing away at 105, Merv Griffin also passed away this week at 82.

For anyone who now watches Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune the name is familiar, though the breadth of his career might not be. He started out as a singer in the 1950s and had a hit with “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.” In the 60s he started his own day time talk show which premiered the same day as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (though Carson lasted a bit longer on as a host, Merv was canceled after less then 1 season…).

Following the cancellation of his show, Merv turned to creating game shows and came up with everyone’s favorite answer and question game Jeopardy. Jeopardy initially had an 11 year run before being revived 10 years later as the game show we all know and love. Wheel of Fortune came to him in 1975 and has been on the air continuously since then. Come September we will be introduced to Merv’s newest show Crosswords, based on, you guessed it, crossword puzzles.

Two years after his first failed talk show he reintroduced it — this time adding in alchohol and celebs to the mix and he had a hit that was part Oprah, Part Jerry Springer.

Merv’s empire extended beyond just music and television. He had stakes in horse racing, hotels and casinos. According to Merv: “I was buying things and nobody knew … I never told anybody, because I noticed that when you walk down the street and everybody knows you’re rich, they don’t talk to you.”

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