The creator of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, Merv Griffin, has died. He credited his ex-wife for suggesting a game in which questions were supplied for answers (Jeopardy!), and came up with the idea for Wheel of Fortune because he enjoyed playing Hangman with his sister on family trips. Sales of those shows made Merv Griffin Enterprises $250 million, in addition to a share in future profits.
Those two shows sure were diametrically opposed… With Wheel, I always got the feeling you could go on the show and possibly win. In Jeopardy, it always seemed that if you got on the show you were going to run up against someone like Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings.
He was the host of The Merv Griffin Show from 1962-1986. One thing I didn’t know was that he sang the number one hit novelty song, I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.
Merv Griffin, dead at age 82.
Via USA Today.