Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1962 to 1986, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show. Griffin also created several game shows, including Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, through his production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment.
Griffin was born July 6, 1925, in San Mateo, California, to Mervyn Edward Griffin Sr., a stockbroker, and Rita Elizabeth Griffin (née Robinson), a homemaker. He had an older sister named Barbara. As a child, Griffin played hangman with his sister during family road trips. These games later inspired him to create the game show Wheel of Fortune. The family was Irish-American and Roman Catholic. Griffin began singing in his church choir as a child. By his teenage years, he was earning money as a church organist. His abilities as a pianist played a part in his early entry into show business.
Griffin graduated from San Mateo High School in 1942 and later contributed financially to the school. He attended San Mateo Junior College and then the University of San Francisco. Griffin was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
During World War II, Griffin was classified as 4F and exempt from military service after failing several physical examinations due to a minor heart murmur. During the Korean War, he was reexamined and found fit for service; however, he was exempt from the draft as he was over the age of 26.
Griffin started as a singer on radio at age 19, appearing on San Francisco Sketchbook, a nationally syndicated program based at KFRC. He was overweight as an adolescent and a young man, which led to some disappointment among fans who met him in person. In his autobiography, Griffin later revealed efforts to keep his appearance hidden from the public. Determined to change his appearance, he lost 80 pounds in four months.
Freddy Martin heard Griffin on the radio and invited him to tour with his orchestra, which he did for four years. By 1945, Griffin was able to form his own record label, Panda Records, which produced Songs by Merv Griffin, the first U.S. album recorded on magnetic tape. In 1947, Griffin had a 15-minute weekday singing program on KFRC.
Griffin gained widespread popularity through his radio performances and nightclub appearances. In 1949, his recording of "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" performed with Freddy Martin and his Orchestra, sold three million copies.
During a nightclub performance, Griffin was discovered by Doris Day, who arranged a screen test at Warner Bros. for a role in By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953). Griffin did not get the part, but was subsequently cast in supporting roles in other musical films, including So This Is Love (1953). The film featured a scene with an open-mouthed kiss between Griffin and Kathryn Grayson, which attracted attention for being the first such kiss in a Hollywood film since the implementation of the Hays Code in 1934. Griffin also played minor roles in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), The Boy from Oklahoma (1954), and Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954). Dissatisfied with the film industry, Griffin bought out his Warner Bros. contract and shifted his focus to television.
In 1954, Griffin appeared in Cinécraft Productions sponsored films, including a musical, Milestones of Motoring, with Joe E. Brown. While moving to New York City that summer, Griffin and Betty Ann Grove co-hosted Summer Holiday on CBS. The show featured live music with the hosts while simulating a trip to various places in the world.
Griffin initially stayed with Loring Buzzell upon arriving in New York and became friends with him and his fiancée, Lu Ann Simms. Griffin later claimed in interviews that he was best man at their wedding in July 1954, but was in fact one of four ushers. When Buzzell and Simms had their first child, Cynthia Leigh Buzzell, on September 11, 1955, Griffin was named her godfather. After Buzzell's death in 1959, Griffin remained close to Simms and often featured her as a guest on his talk show.
From 1958 to 1962, Griffin hosted Play Your Hunch, a game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Griffin also hosted the primetime ABC game show Keep Talking. He also filled as a temporary host for Bill Cullen on The Price Is Right and Bud Collyer on To Tell the Truth.
In 1963, NBC offered Griffin the role of host for a new game show, Word for Word, which he also produced. He went on to produce additional game shows, including Let's Play Post Office for NBC in 1965, Reach for the Stars for NBC in 1967, and One in a Million for ABC in 1967.
Griffin gained attention when Tonight Show host Jack Paar accidentally walked onto the set of Play Your Hunch during a live broadcast. Griffin persuaded Paar to stay for a spontaneous interview. At the time, both shows shared Studio 6B at Rockefeller Center, with Play Your Hunch airing live in the morning and The Tonight Show taping later in the day. After Paar departed from The Tonight Show and before Johnny Carson assumed the role, Griffin served as one of several guest hosts during the interim period. He was regarded as the most successful of the guest hosts and, as a result, was given his own daytime talk show on NBC in 1962. The live 55-minute program was not successful and was canceled in 1963.
In 1965, Griffin launched a syndicated talk show titled The Merv Griffin Show through Westinghouse Broadcasting. The program aired in various time slots across North America, with some stations broadcasting it during the daytime, others in primetime, and a few placing it opposite The Tonight Show. The CBS stations placing the show in the late night slot were not only competing with Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show on NBC but Joey Bishop and the Joey Bishop Show on ABC-TV as well.
Arthur Treacher, Griffin's mentor, served as the show's announcer and sidekick until 1970. After Treacher's departure, Griffin took over the announcing role, entering the stage with the phrase, "And now...here I come!" According to Griffin's obituary in Entertainment Weekly, The Merv Griffin Show won 11 Emmy Awards.
The show covered a range of topics, often addressing controversial issues such as the Vietnam War. Guests included a mix of entertainers, authors, politicians, and public figures like Zsa Zsa Gabor, as well as controversial figures including George Carlin, Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, Norman Mailer, and Bertrand Russell. In 1974, Arnold Schwarzenegger made his American talk show debut on The Merv Griffin Show. In 1975 and 1977, Griffin dedicated two episodes to Transcendental Meditation and its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The 1977 episode was aired as a standalone special in some regions, including Canada. Griffin was an enthusiastic practitioner of meditation.
In 1969, Griffin moved from syndication to CBS, which launched a late-night talk show hosted by Griffin to compete with The Tonight Show. His three-year tenure at CBS was contentious, as the network frequently objected to his choice of guests, particularly those critical of the Vietnam War and other sensitive topics. In April 1970, when Abbie Hoffman appeared as a guest, CBS blurred the video of Hoffman to obscure his American flag-patterned shirt, despite the fact that other guests had worn similar attire uncensored. Griffin expressed frustration with CBS's censorship policies.
Frustrated with these restrictions and anticipating his departure from CBS, Griffin signed a deal with Metromedia for a syndicated daytime talk show to begin immediately if his CBS program was canceled. When CBS terminated his show in February 1972, Griffin's new program debuted the following month and ran until 1986. By then, profits from his successful game shows had made Griffin one of the wealthiest entertainers in the world.