From the WSJ Opinion Archives
LEISURE & ARTS
He Had a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
How Merv Griffin won his jackpot.
Merv Griffin's distinguished career in the media business developed over seven decades and encompassed multiple, overlapping roles. While he is particularly well-known for his work as the host of the long-running "The Merv Griffin Show," some of his most significant contributions were as the creator of numerous TV game shows and as an independent producer. Mr. Griffin created a series of highly successful game shows, including "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune," which presented simple games in an attractive, highly polished format that remained popular with large audiences over long periods of time. He also proved to be an astute entertainment entrepreneur who identified new developments in the television industry early on and managed to capitalize on them.
Mr. Griffin had early success as a singer and radio personality, culminating in the 1950 hit song "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts." From 1952 to 1955, he worked as a contract actor for the Warner Bros. studio, starring in films such as "So This Is Love" and "Phantom of Rue Morgue." Although Mr. Griffin had already worked as a host for some smaller television shows in the early 1950s, his television career got a major boost when he was signed as a host of the game show "Play Your Hunch," a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production, which aired on CBS, ABC and NBC from 1958 to 1962.
Mr. Griffin's success as a game-show host and his reputation as a versatile entertainer resulted in an opportunity to work as a guest host for "The Tonight Show," replacing Jack Paar on a number of occasions to great critical acclaim. This success quickly resulted in the creation of the daytime talk show "The Merv Griffin Show" on NBC. While this show lasted only from 1962 to 1963, it brought Mr. Griffin to national prominence and allowed him to host two more game shows on NBC, "Talent Scouts" and "Word for Word." In both the talk-show and the game-show format, Mr. Griffin displayed a strong awareness of the need to create a close, interactive relationship with the studio audience.
"Word for Word," an anagram-based game show, gave Mr. Griffin not only another hosting job but the chance to become the producer of a show. In his previous television work, he had become aware of the dangers of network interference in the creation of a program, and in 1964 he quickly seized the opportunity to create his own production company.
While "The Mike Douglas Show" preceded "The Merv Griffin Show" as a successful syndicated talk show, Mr. Griffin was one of the first TV producers to recognize the business opportunities to be found in the syndication market that was developing in the 1960s. Syndication allows independent production companies to exert a larger amount of creative control and to pocket most of the profits from the sale of a program to individual stations across the country. Independent TV production and syndication would become crucial to Mr. Griffin's success in the business over the following decades.
"Jeopardy!" ran as a NBC daytime show from 1964 to 1975, hosted by Art Fleming. After two short runs on NBC and in syndication, "Jeopardy!" resurfaced in syndication in 1984--with Alex Trebek as the new host--and continues its successful run to date.
Mr. Griffin replicated the success of "Jeopardy!" with the introduction of "Wheel of Fortune" in 1975. "Wheel" uses a simple word game as the basis for its competition, a strategy often employed by Mr. Griffin, and is packaged in a very tight, simple and visually appealing format, which secured its continuing success. As with "Jeopardy!," "Wheel of Fortune" started out as a network program produced by Merv Griffin Enterprises and continues its long run in syndication to this day. The format of "Wheel of Fortune" has also been successfully sold to many other countries, such as Sweden, Germany, Australia and Indonesia.
Mr. Griffin's entrepreneurial talent is particularly apparent in his success as producer and creator of these shows. Very early on, he recognized the high income potential of daytime programming, arguing at the time that a program such as "Wheel" then cost $7 million a year to produce, but reaped $110 million in yearly profits. Merv Griffin's successful work as head of Merv Griffin Enterprises ultimately resulted in the 1986 sale of his production company to Columbia Pictures Entertainment for a record-breaking $250 million.
In anticipation of this event, Mr. Griffin had already arranged a new deal with the media conglomerate Metromedia to distribute a new version of "The Merv Griffin Show," which would be produced by Mr. Griffin's own company. This returned creative control of all vital aspects of the show to Mr. Griffin and facilitated a successful 14-year run for the program.
Following the sale of his production company in 1986, Mr. Griffin expanded his business ventures in a number of new directions: thoroughbred horses, high-end real estate, hotels and resorts, and Merv Griffin Entertainment Productions. Until his death on Saturday, Mr. Griffin continued to serve as executive producer for "Wheel" and "Jeopardy!" and as consultant for other game and talk shows. His latest game-show creation, "Merv Griffin's Crosswords," is currently in preproduction and scheduled to begin airing next month.
Mr. Hoerschelmann is an associate professor in communication studies at Eastern Illinois University and author of "Rules of the Game: Quiz Shows and American Culture."
