20 years ago, Merv Griffin bought a game show idea that Wink Martindale created called Headline Chasers.

This game had headlines with missing letters ala Wheel, where two married couples competed against each other. The show was played in two rounds & not to be another Jeopardy!, round 2's values were $1,000/$800/$600/$200/$100.

Though this was a syndicated game show, some CBS affiliates aired it between The $25,000 Pyramid & The Price Is Right (9:30 CST), knocking off Press Your Luck (later Card Sharks) either to a late afternoon time slot or not carry the evil Whammy @ all.

KHOU had placed Headline Chasers & bumped Press Your Luck to 3:30 pm. Any other cities that knocked the Whammy off to Wink Martindale? Maybe the Whammy should've sicked the dragon!

Believe me, nobody in the world will confuse Headline Chasers with Jeopardy.

Actually, I've been taking my Horanstones™, and IIRC the King brothers bought HC, but because Merv had it in his contract that he was to co-produce any show that King World acquired, he was dragged to co-production on the show. And legend has it that Griffin and Martindale fell out because of Merv's dislike of the show.

Also, PYL seemed to be the constant victim of affiliate pre-emption, here it was pre-empted by The Beverly Hillbillies and Andy Griffith.

Tyshaun

About the only noteworthy aspect of HC (IMO) was its theme song...gotta love that kick-ass guitar section in the 2nd part!

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

Disliked it? Say it ain't so. It wasn't just a game show. It was a very important game show.

It's hard to believe Merv would dislike a concept that was so similar to one that made him a gazillionaire.

Why? He knew people would look at it and go "yeah, that's just Wheel Of Fortune", and not watch it.

He was in the production business to make MONEY. And there was none in Headline Chasers.

There were only two other times Merv Griffin disliked his game show work.

1). Reach For The Stars; NBC game hosted by Bill Mazer in 1967. When Merv came from vacation in the Bahamas, he saw that the crew had his new game show with a space ship setting. Like Marvin the Martian, Merv was very angry! (huffing) Very angry indeed!

2). Memory Game; NBC game hosted by Joe Garagiola in 1971. After seeing the game, Merv contacted NBC & had the show change ownerships from Merv Griffin Enterprises to NBC Productions. It couldn't beat Let's Make A Deal & was replaced by Three On A Match.

How the hell would you know? Did he tell you this or something?

Speaking of people and things Merv didn't and/or doesn't like, has there been any back-up to the fact that he wants nothing to do with my personal friend John Harlan?
I occasionally see printed in this and other forums that he blames John for the failure of late 1970s Jeopardy! with no explanation to follow.

That seemed to be the case in a lot of areas. On PYL's second season premiere, Peter even welcomes Detroit and Houston to the show for the first time. Those are two pretty big markets not to have carried the first year of the show. It's possible some stations might have been weary of it and didn't want to pick it up until they knew it was a hit.

At the moment, I can't remember the exact printed piece (maybe's Merv's biography?), but I can at least vouch for Merv being upset over Shoot For The Stars. Supposedly, he wanted it like his memories of a ballroom or amateur night stage event where people would pluck cardboard stars from strings and do stunts or show talents. The space ship set freaked him out. Can't speak for Memory. However, there was another Merv story about one of his staffers needing a piece of "think music" for a game, so he took one of Merv's more "elegant" compositions and sped it up. The staffer called Merv and played the piece over the phone. A long silence followed. He was fired not long after.

Because that worked out so well later when it was done as the speed round of Ruckus. :)

Both stories are from Maxene Fabe's book (although similar accounts about "Reach" have been printed elsewhere).

The staffer was supposedly Stu Billett, who went on to come up with "Split Second" for Hatos-Hall and hit the gold mine when he brought to Ralph Edwards an idea of another guy named John Masterson for a televised version of small claims court--you now, "The People's Court."

And what the "Reach" set eventually looked like was a Manhattan penthouse, something like "Stump the Stars" with podia, cardboard stars and stunts.

And along the way, he took time out to kiss Alex Trebek.

I happen to read it in his autobiography book, Merv!

Oh, well then, if Merv wrote it in a book, then I'm sure it is absolutely true.

Headline Chasers was on here at 5 p.m. (I think) as part of a 90-minute game block on WLWT here. NBC Wheel was on at 4, Catch Phrase at 4:30, and HC at 5.

HC was canceled here after three months on the air.

Brian

The Jehovah's Witnesses distribute Mad magazine?

Umm, OK.