I've never heard a bad story about Merv Griffin. I mean, I'm sure they're out there. You don't do that many shows and make that much money without having someone decide you screwed them over about something. It's just that Merv projected such a jolly, friendly image that I think the folks with the negative tales never got a lot of traction out of them. Or maybe everyone was just too busy spreading the stories of Merv and an array of "poolboys."
Merv was a humble guy on all fronts but two. He disparaged his own careers as a band singer and as an actor. He took pride in his years as an interviewer and talk show host, and he bragged nicely about his business acumen as a producer and entrepreneur. The Griffin talk shows are largely forgotten but in their day, they were phenomenal successes.
Well, two of them were. His first one — a daytime affair for NBC — was a quick failure. When the network signed Johnny Carson to take over The Tonight Show, they simultaneously signed Griffin for daytime to have him in the "on deck" position in case Carson failed. Instead, Merv failed…but that deal gave his production company some commitments to produce daytime game shows and led to Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Those are two of the most profitable TV shows ever produced so Merv probably didn't have lasting regrets over doing that daytime talk show…especially since it led to his later, nighttime ones.
From the afternoon program, he went to a syndicated show for Group W. Local stations slotted it wherever they thought it would be most effective but most had it on in the evenings as an alternative to the network prime-time line-ups. It was a good show with good guests and it was quite successful. Merv might never had left it had CBS not come to him waving megabucks. In '69, that network decided to try a late night show to compete with Mr. Carson and they went after Merv. As the story is told, Griffin was quite happy with his Group W show so he told CBS, "I'll only do it if you pay me double whatever Johnny's making." CBS, to Merv's surprise, agreed.
Unfortunately, it wasn't just a matter of competing with Carson. There was also Joey Bishop on ABC and when they lost Griffin, Group W replaced his show with a David Frost program. Four competing talk shows carved the audience too thin and Merv did not get a large-enough slice. This obit by Bob Thomas says he went back to Group W but I think that's wrong. I think it was Metromedia. Whoever syndicated it, the new/old Merv Griffin Show was even more successful than any before it. It was like every time Merv was cancelled, he made more money. And then he made more money and more money and more money.
I only had a few brief encounters with the man. One of my more surreal evenings in the theater occurred when I went to see Dick Shawn's one man show in the early eighties. The play itself was bizarre (and brilliant) enough but my date and I were seated next to Merv and his date, Eva Gabor. During the first act, Eva sat next to me and obviously didn't understand one word of Shawn's odd stream of onstage consciousness. After intermission, they switched seats…and I sat next to a man who laughed harder than I've ever seen a human being laugh. And during the few moments when he wasn't convulsed, he was whispering to me and everyone around him, "Isn't this marvelous?" He sounded just like Rick Moranis doing Merv Griffin, except more unctuous.
After the play, Shawn did an extended chat with the audience that included introducing many celebrities in the audience. He pointed out Merv, who stood to great applause. Shawn asked him who he'd brought as his date and Merv got a huge laugh by gesturing absent-mindedly to me. I stood up, started to embrace him…and then acted hurt when he corrected himself and introduced Eva. On the way out, people were telling my lady friend, "He's better off with you" and I kept saying, "Yeah, but do you know how much money Merv has?"
I also saw Merv in action a few times when I was backstage at his talk show, accompanying some friend who was doing stand-up on the show. Merv had on almost every successful stand-up of that era and he often had them before Johnny. But there was something about the reps of the two shows that caused comedians to rarely mention their appearances with Merv. Even when they'd done his show before they did Carson, they'd refer to The Tonight Show as their television debuts.
The last time I saw Merv in person was when he tried to serve me soup. It was in Griff's, a buffet restaurant he operated in the Beverly Hilton, a hotel he owned. The diners were amazed (but the staff was not) to see Merv going around, suggesting everyone try the Pumpkin Soup that was, he said, his personal recipe. My lady friend — a different lady friend from the one who'd stolen me away from him at the play — told him it was delicious but that I couldn't have any due to a food allergy. Merv started calling for the servers to find some other kind of soup to bring me. I didn't particularly want soup — the buffet was so bountiful you didn't need soup — but that was Merv's first instinct: A customer wasn't getting everything possible and something had to be done. I managed to convince him it was quite okay that I didn't have soup…and I didn't mention that he'd once thrown me over for Eva Gabor.