Who wouldn't want to be Merv Griffin?
The media mogul, who
died Sunday at 82, not only created "Wheel of Fortune" and
"Jeopardy!" (the latter, for me, enough for elevation into the TV pantheon), he was an accomplished singer, a splendid talk show host and a shrewd entrepreneur --
and he had a blast doing it all.
"I refuse to be bored,"
he told Esquire in a "What I've Learned" interview, and you could see that in his manner. He loved talking, loved showbiz, was enthusiastic about everything (Rick Moranis had a lot of fun with Merv's "Ooooooo").
Best of all, he was a great entertainer, in all senses of the word. "There are no bad guests," he said in the same interview.
Who wouldn't want to be Merv?