Tough day for moguls of various stripes; see also Tony Wilson.

My "career" as a journalist didn't actually begin with this, but it was in fact my first piece in print. I wrote for my school newspaper in 8th grade and my first assignment was to go to Sardi's for a press conference held by Merv Griffin and Arthur Treacher (Griffin's sidekick on his show back then) for the junior high school press in New York. I didn't have a TV set at the time and had never seen the show, but I didn't let it stop me. My one question was how he got his start and he talked about his days as a band singer ("I Have a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts"). I wrote it up, but I don't remember anything more about it. But the two men were very nice to us and seemed to have good chemistry and they made us laugh.

Later, of course, I did get to watch Griffin often, the highlight being a great interview with Robert Aldrich and Burt Reynolds, who were promoting THE LONGEST YARD (1974). How often did we get to see directors being interviewed on TV back then? Especially the quirky ones I liked.

He has a hilarious cameo in THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS ("and people will say, who's that lurking over there, is that Merv Griffin???").

My only memory of his talk show (other than dialing past it to get to cartoons in the 70's) was an episode when he had a lot of horror hosts on. Oh, and of course the SCTV parody with Rick Moranis (is that right?), doing an impression of him ("we'll be right back!"), hosting guests HAL the computer and Orson Welles.

Seemed like a nice guy.

Milk and Cheese were fans:

http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/3869187.html

Glad to know that I wasn't the only one who thought about that Milk & Cheese strip upon hearing of Merv's passing.

David Bender has a very interesting piece on Merv in the Huffington Post:

Joie de Merv

I have very vague memories of the old Merv Griffin show (but probably stronger than any of Mike Douglas). I remember Jack Sheldon used to lead his band, and his interaction with Merv was the funniest part of the show.

I also remember a special Don Siegel show - it was after the release of CHARLEY VARRICK, because I remember Matthau sent a funny telegram. Guests were Siegel, Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, John Cassavettes, and Angie Dickinson. Wonder if that is somewhere in the archives?

Yes, it was Rick Moranis that imitated Griffin (brilliantly, I think!) on SCTV. There were a couple different routines over the years, but the most remarkable was THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW which had Merv replacing Andy Griffith in Mayberry - in black and white - but still as Merv Griffin. "Ladies and gentlemen, Otis Campbell!" For some surreal reason, Dave Thomas played Fred Travelena imitating Gomer Pyle / Jim Nabors. Joe Flaherty's Barney Fife and Eugene Levy's Floyd are two of the funniest things I've ever seen, especially Floyd and Merv trading off "oooooooohs".

Veering somewhat off-topic here, but Dave Thomas did Fred Travalena doing Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle because (if memory serves -- I think I read this in Thomas' book on SCTV) they realized after writing and casting the sketch that Dave couldn't do a decent Jim Nabors impression to save his life, so they covered it by having him play someone doing a really lousy Jim Nabors impression.

That Bender piece on Merv that Dave Garrett linked to above is really thoughtful and eye-opening. I had either seen or heard about pretty much everything he mentions, but seeing it all compiled like that, with the context he provides really makes a convincing case that Griffin was more pioneering than I had ever realized. Thanks for directing me that way, Dave -- it's a great piece of writing, and an excellent way to remember Merv.

Yes, that's true. I thought the explanation was on one of the Shout! Factory DVD extras, but it may well have been in Thomas' book. Or both, for that matter.

Levy also had the masterstroke to portray both pre- and post-stroke Howard McNear in the same sketch. Tasteless, probably. Funny, yes.