Merv Griffin Died

[Dachshund]

I know this won't mean much to the younger set, but to the older queers around here Mr. Griffin was a bit of an icon. His afternoon TV show was must see TV for the gays we were about to be...sorry that is the best I could do. It was an afternoon variety show with a heavy emphasis on talk and Merv's guests. Some of his guests I remember well...Truman Capote, Sylvester, Monty RockIII and all the Gabor sisters...he loved the Gabors. The list goes on, and come to find out ol' Merv was a big ol' mo and his show proved it and delivered. He also invented Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and died a Gazillionaire.

Rest in peace girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uWjkR4cFC4

Merv delivers.

[Dan J.]

I vaguely remember his afternoon talk show, but I know who he was.

R.I.P.

Dan

[Dachshund]

Here's a little gem from Merv's show and if anyone can find a clip of Merv interviewing Capote I sure would appreciate it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTDPiSPoWEs

[Dachshund]

This ain't Merv but check out Joan interviewing Sylvester AND Charles Nelson Reilly...they talk about the aids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlq_gVlG_9g

[J.R.E.]

I remember the Merv Griffin show very well !! Rest in peace Merv !!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20236685/?GT1=10252



Ray

[Dachshund]

I knew you would remember Ray...so let me be the first to pass you the poppers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQN7hU9UeGo

[Bucko]

AD-

I remember Merv's show all too well. Once Dark Shadows went off the air, there was nothing else on TV from the time I got home from school until dinner time.

In 9th grade I was assigned an essay to write about the person whom I'd most like to be. I chose Merv. As I remember, my rationale was because his job was to talk to fabulous, famous people, most especially Eva Gabor. I'm sure it was quite a queeny rant from 15-year-old me.

Thanks for the Thor vid, BTW. He was quite the juicy slice of man-pie. Whatever he lacked in vocal or dancing skills, me made up for in sheer lung capacity.

Brent
(Who was reminded oddly of someone he misses enormously)

[J.R.E.]

This is a very young Merv Griffin ( Singing,) "I've GOT A LOVELY BUNCH OF COCONUTS"

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Td4uqWTDt9w

[Bucko]

I knew you would remember Ray...so let me be the first to pass you the poppers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQN7hU9UeGo

I'll see your poppers and raise you two Quaaludes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0bPyCR9Kwc

[Life]

Between Dark Shadows and the Munsters was Merv...   I always had to wait for it....

[Dachshund]

I'll see your two ludes and raise you a pair of shoe skates...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOtC-xvmFJI

[Jody]

My mom used to love to watch Merv Griffin and I'll never forget one of his favorite guests Charo...She was actually a terrific flamenco guitarist but I'll always remember her jiggling and saying "Hoochie Coochie"....Jes dahling.

He always seemed to have alot of has-beens and people who were only famous because they were on his show, like Zsa Zsa Gabor...It was kind of like interviews with the Hollywood Squares contestants.

Jody 

[Dachshund]

My mom used to love to watch Merv Griffin and I'll never forget one of his favorite guests Charo...She was actually a terrific flamenco guitarist but I'll always remember her jiggling and saying "Hoochie Coochie"....Jes dahling.

He always seemed to have alot of has-beens and people who were only famous because they were on his show, like Zsa Zsa Gabor...It was kind of like interviews with the Hollywood Squares contestants.

Jody 

Has beens? How dare you! ICONS!

[RapidRod]

Oh a lot of us grew up with Merv. We really didn't have a choice.  Mothers controlled the TV, except to turn the channel and it was deligated. 

[TopherK]

Jody, you beat me to it.

IMHO Charo was always the most fabulous of many fabulous guests on Merv's show.  Merv graced our house every night at 7:00 at my mother's insistence (Dad would skulk downstairs to watch M*A*S*H) and dinner clean-up would come to a screeching halt if Charo was on the show.

-Topher

P.S. - I think it was actually "Cuchi-Cuchi" 

P.P.S. - Rod, you hit the nail on the head!

[bear60]

I want to read the will.

[edfu]

I loved him as a kid.  I always thought he should have replaced Jack Paar when the latter retired from his late-night show.  Instead it went to (an unknown-to-me at the time) Johnny Carson. 

Griffin was one of the last talk-show hosts to book guests just because they were great conversationalists.  He didn't just bring in stars who were plugging their latest movies and were dumb as doorknobs, like today.   

[Miss Philicia]

Signoile:  Merv Griffin's Dangerous Closet

The Hollywood mogul Merv Griffin died at the age of 82 over the weekend after a battle with cancer, and I was amazed to see The New York Times actually discuss his sexual orientation, the palimony lawsuit and the male-on-male sexual harassment lawsuit. I'm thinking perhaps the Times editors really took it to heart when many of us criticized them after Susan Sontag's death and the obituary cover-up of her sexual orientation and her relationship with Annie Liebovitz. So far, in the the rest of the obits on Griffin (Reuters, Associated Press) I've seen nothing about his homosexuality.

And yet, it is very important for reasons far beyond visibility or mere gossip. Merv Griffin was an example of how dangerous the closet can be -- and how the closet and power are a combustible combination that adversely affects so many other lives. We should point to his life for GLBT youth and say, "Don't let this happen to you. Don't let your closet compromise you to the point where you are actively harming your own people, even though you have the power to do so much good."

Griffin never acknowledged he was gay, though it became widely known in Hollywood, even as Eva Gabor played his beard. Yet, it was nothing discussed in the media and, apparently, in many of his own circles, particularly straight political circles. Though he'd quietly led a gay life -- and had his pool parties filled with hot young men in years past, as well as a parade of boyfriends -- that was viewed as "private" information that was not discussed in mixed company. I had interviewed many gay men who'd known Griffin as gay, as well as men who told stories about how his closet had him doing horrendous things -- and how he was threatened by openly gay people

remainder here:  http://signorile2003.blogspot.com/2007/08/merv-griffins-dangerous-closet.html

[Queen Tokelove]

I knew who Merv was and use to watch his show and the Mike Douglas show. Knew he created the game shows too but never knew he was gay....RIP....And Bucko mentioned Dark Shadows, I don't think I was born when the show started but was named after a character...Angelique which is my middle name, my mother loved the show and because of that I started following the show when it was on the Sci Fi channel. Wishes they would put it back on.

[aztecan]

For some reason, the most vivid memory of Merv Griffin was one of his shows where he showed scenes of his everyday life.

Well, at least what he wanted Middle America to know of his everyday life.

I can still see him driving up Franklin Avenue in Hollywood in a convertible Rolls Royce.

I never went to any of his pool parties. The closest I got was Tab Hunter.

Oh Akasha, I adored Dark Shadows. I had a crush on Barnabas (boy, was I weird.) Angelique, the long-lost love of Barnabas whose ghost haunted the old house, was always a fun topic.

Ah, memories.

HUGS,

Mark

[pozattitude]

Oh Akasha, I adored Dark Shadows. I had a crush on Barnabas (boy, was I weird.)
 Mark

Mark,

I still have a thing for vampires.  There is just something so sexually charged about them.


Rich


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[Iggy]

I wonder if the lambs have stopped screaming for Denny yet?

[Dachshund]

America's latest craze, according to Merv. Break Dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5WNOxODgH8