Out of Jeopardy

Or
Oooooo No
Merv Griffin, best remembered as the Elevator Killer, for the hit “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,” and for providing Cosmo Kramer’s apartment a much needed redecoration, has died of prostate cancer at the age of 82. He started as a night club crooner before becoming a fill-in host for Jack Paar, which led to his own daytime show, coincidentally debuting the same day Johnny Carson took over the Tonight Show. Carson outlasted him by only 29 years. Starting his own production company, Griffin developed a quiz show, which had been almost non-existent since the scandal surrounding 21. His twist: give everyone the answers and let the contestants provide the questions. Jeopardy lasted 11 years, took a decade off, and was revived in the 1980s. For the other end of the intellectual spectrum Griffin gave us Wheel. Of. Fortune, the longest-running game show in syndication, which proved that turning illuminated boxes could be a career. Griffin returned to the talk show circuit, reprising The Merv Griffin Show in syndication as a forum for the famous and the creepy, introducing incest and transsexuals to the daytime audience. Through it all, Griffin was an ingenius businessman, with a real estate, hotel, casino, broadcasting, horse-breeding and investment empire that ultimately made him a billionaire. Hell, the 4-note Final Jeopardy theme netted him more than $70 million in royalties. The vast fortune came in handy for legal fees when he was accused of playing grab-ass with “Dance Fever” host Denny Terrio and a male employee who filed a $200 million palimony lawsuit.