Merv Griffin Productions
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Merv Griffin Productions
Merv Griffin Enterprises was an American television production company founded by Merv Griffin, in business for 31 years from March 1963 to July 1994. History The company was first established as Milbarn Productions on March 7, 1963, and later as Merv Griffin Productions on March 5, 1964. Griffin's first production under the Milbarn name was ''Word for Word''. Griffin's second game show was '' Jeopardy!'' as Griffin's first production under the MGP name on March 30, 1964. In May 1965, his talk show '' The Merv Griffin Show'' returned to television. Griffin also created the game show ''Shopper's Bazaar'', which changed its name to ''Wheel of Fortune'' on January 6, 1975 after ''Jeopardy!'' was canceled on January 3, 1975. Griffin revived ''Jeopardy!'' as ''The All-New Jeopardy!'' on October 2, 1978, though it was proven to be unsuccessful. Merv Griffin Productions also owned the post-production studio Trans-American Video (TAV) that was founded on June 29, 1981. In 1982, the com ...
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Subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a same management being substantially controlled by same entity/group are called sister companies. The subsidiary can be a company (usually with limited liability) and may be a government- or state-owned enterprise. They are a common feature of modern business life, and most multinational corporations organize their operations in this way. Examples of holding companies are Berkshire Hathaway, Jefferies Financial Group, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, or Citigroup; as well as more focused companies such as IBM, Xerox, and Microsoft. These, and others, organize their businesses into national and functional subsidiaries, often with multiple levels of subsidiaries. Details Subsidiaries are separate, distinct legal entities f ...
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CBS Media Ventures
CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Television Distribution, Inc. and CBS Paramount Domestic Television, Inc.) is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studios, part of CBS Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount Global. It was formed from the merger of CBS Corporation's domestic television distribution arms CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions, including its home entertainment arm CBS Home Entertainment. The division, the main distribution arm of the parent company CBS Studios (formerly Desilu Productions, the first incarnation of Paramount Television, CBS Paramount Television and CBS Television Studios), the CBS and The CW television networks, and other Paramount Global television studios, such as the Paramount Media Networks division, was formed on September 26, 2006, by CBS Corporation and was headed by Roger King, the CEO of King World until his death in 2007. Background The company handles distribution rights to acqui ...
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Headline Chasers
''Headline Chasers'' is a syndicated game show that ran daily from September 9, 1985 to May 23, 1986, with reruns airing until September 5. The series was hosted by Wink Martindale, who also created the series and was its executive producer, with Johnny Gilbert serving as announcer. The show was a co-production of Wink Martindale Enterprises and Merv Griffin Enterprises with King World Productions, Griffin's partner for his other syndicated game show offerings, as distributor. ''Headline Chasers'' was recorded at TAV Celebrity Theater in Hollywood, the same studio which housed ''The Merv Griffin Show'' (which, at the time ''Headline Chasers'' premiered, was still in production). This show pitted two couples against each other solving Hangman-style word puzzles designed to look like newspaper headlines, as well as answering questions about the subjects of these puzzles, in an attempt to win money. Conception Wink Martindale claimed he came up with the idea for the show while readin ...
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20th Century Fox Television
20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Company. The original incarnation of 20th Television was the syndication and distribution arm of 20th Century Fox Television until it was folded into Disney–ABC Domestic Television in 2020. 20th Television was part of The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of the majority of 21st Century Fox's assets in 2019. The company's current name was adopted in 2020 when Disney dropped "Fox" from the names of acquired 21st Century Fox assets. Divisions 20th Television has divisions from pre-Disney and post-Disney. *20th Century Fox Television Distribution (2011-2020) - a television distribution arm of 20th Century Fox Television for all Fox-produced and/or acquired programming. The company operates from 2011 to 2020. * FNM/FWP (1990-1994) - the TV ...
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Dance Fever
''Dance Fever'' is an American musical variety television series that aired weekly in syndication from January 1979 to September 1987. The series was technically created by Merv Griffin but his agent Murray Schwartz actually conceived the idea of a pilot which piggybacked on a special ''Merv Griffin Show'' salute to the movie '' Thank God It's Friday'' which would feature top disco dancers from 8 cities competing for a title. Casablanca Records had already paid for the set, so a pilot could be produced at a significant reduction. Merv's vision was to have frequent Griffin guest Deney Terrio as the host, and celebrities would dance with professional disco dancers. (In a sense, it was very similar to ''Dancing with the Stars''.) But pilot show producer Ernest Chambers had no success convincing the stars who were approached to consent to the format. They were afraid they would look bad. On the Sunday prior to the show, director Dick Carson suggested since they already had the dancer ...
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Memory Game
''Memory Game'' (sometimes referred to as ''Joe Garagiola's Memory Game'') was an American television game show that aired on NBC. The series – hosted by Joe Garagiola, Sr., Joe Garagiola – ran from February 15 to July 30, 1971. The show's creator and packager was Merv Griffin, and its announcer was Johnny Olson (his only announcing job for Merv Griffin Productions). Gameplay Five contestants, all women and one of them a returning champion (or designate), competed and were spotted $50 at the start of the game. Before each round, they were each given a booklet containing the questions and answers to be used in that round. The time they had to study the material varied per round. Once the study time period elapsed, the show's assistants collected the booklets and Garagiola began asking questions at random from the booklet. The champion – who was seated in the number 1 position – could elect to answer or call out an opponent's number (2 through 5). That play ...
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Reach For The Stars (game Show)
''Reach for the Stars'' was an American game show which briefly aired on NBC weekday mornings at 10:00 beginning January 2, 1967 for a total of 65 episodes. The show was produced by Merv Griffin Productions at NBC's New York studios and was hosted by Bill Mazer. Gameplay Like most games of the period, contestants played for the fulfillment of a dream via a series of trivia questions and stunts. A correct answer allowed a contestant to "reach for a star" on a game board; a wrong answer meant the loss of the star. Theme music In a move similar to the early version of ''The Match Game'' with its Bert Kaempfert-performed theme and ''Eye Guess'' with its Al Hirt-performed theme, ''Reach for the Stars'' looked to the popular music charts of the day for its theme. The eventual theme, the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M ...
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Let's Play Post Office
{{No footnotes, date=March 2015 ''Let's Play Post Office'' is an American game show which aired on NBC from September 27, 1965 to July 1, 1966. Don Morrow was the host, with Bill Wendell and Wayne Howell as announcers. Paul Taubman, who had previously worked with Morrow on ''Camouflage'', provided music. The series aired at 12:30 PM Eastern and was the second game show by Merv Griffin Productions; the first was ''Jeopardy!'', which had premiered on NBC eighteen months earlier (and in fact had moved to 12:00 Noon on the day ''Post Office'' debuted, becoming the show's lead-in throughout its run). The show was created by Louise Adamo. Gameplay Three contestants competed, one usually a returning champion, to identify celebrities from fictitious letters they might have written. Each letter had a predetermined value of $5–$100. Morrow specified when and where the letter might have been written, then began to read the letter one line at a time; the value of the letter decreased as Mor ...
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Stewart Television
Stewart Television was an American game show production company formed by Bob Stewart in 1964 originally based in New York City. History Stewart found a job and started creating game shows for Goodson-Todman Productions in 1956. One of the first game shows he created was ''The Price is Right'' aired on NBC and was hosted by Bill Cullen. The second game show Stewart created was '' To Tell the Truth'' the same year. The third was ''Password'' in 1961. In 1964, Stewart left Goodson-Todman and formed his production company Bob Stewart Productions. His first production for his independent company was the game show ''Eye Guess'' that aired in 1966 and was co-produced by Filmways and lasted until 1969. It was followed by the game Personality that ran from 1967 to 1969. In 1973, he created the successful ''Pyramid'' game show series starting with ''The $10,000 Pyramid'' with his son Sande Stewart who joined his father the same year and produced the series and also formed another ...
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Johnny Gilbert
John Lewis Gilbert III (born July 13, 1928) is an American show business personality who has worked mainly on television game shows. Originally a nightclub singer and entertainer, he has hosted and announced a number of game shows from various eras, dating as far back as the 1950s. He is known primarily for his work as the announcer and audience host for the syndicated version of the quiz show ''Jeopardy!'' since its revival in 1984. Early life Gilbert was born in Newport News, Virginia. He began performing by singing as a boy in his hometown Lutheran Church choir. Although his parents had never worked in the theatrical profession themselves, his grandmother had been a church singer. While he was still in high school, Gilbert decided to take up a professional singing career and learned from an opera teacher. He never sang opera independently, but was the regular vocalist with Shelly Harmon and His Orchestra, a group that toured the Virginia area. Career Stage and early televisi ...
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Jack Clark (television Personality)
Jack Leslie Clark (November 25, 1925 – July 21, 1988) was an American television personality, game show host and announcer. He is best known for hosting ''The Cross-Wits'', and as an offstage announcer for ''Password'' and ''Wheel of Fortune''. On the latter, he succeeded original announcer Charlie O'Donnell and held the role from 1980 until his death in 1988. (O'Donnell took back the announcing position until his own death in 2010.) Early career When Clark was a student at University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), he began his career as a substitute radio announcer for radio station KROW in Oakland, California. After graduating from UC Berkeley, he moved to New York City, and first worked as a game show announcer for ''Password'' (where, when the word was flashed on the screen, he would whisper from offstage, "the password is..."; he also occasionally substituted for host Allen Ludden). From there, he went on to host '' 100 Grand'' (1963) and ''Dealer's Choice'' from ...
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Charlie O'Donnell
Charles John O'Donnell (August 12, 1932 – November 1, 2010) was an American radio and television announcer, primarily known for his work on game shows. Among them, he was best known for ''Wheel of Fortune'', where he worked from 1975 to 1980, and again from 1989 until his death.Biography
wheeloffortune.com; accessed August 16, 2017.


Early career

O'Donnell was a Philadelphia native. He began his career as a teenager at in . In 1956, he worked as program director at