Over 2,500 hours, more than 5000 guests, from 1962-1986 — a comprehensive archive of the most important people in popular culture.
The Merv Griffin Show is widely considered one of the premier talk shows in the history of television. Hosted by the charming and intelligent Merv Griffin, this ground-breaking show was known for in-depth interviews with celebrities and newsmakers, innovative stand-up comedy and stellar musical performances. Over the course of its run from 1962 to 1986, the show garnered 10 Emmy Awards and welcomed more than 25,000 guests, including many of the most important names in the fields of entertainment, politics, music, art, sports, fashion and literature. This historic and monumental archive, unseen for decades, has been newly transferred from the master tapes and is exclusively available for licensing for all forms of media through Reelin’ In The Years Productions.
Merv’s warm, conversational style created the perfect atmosphere for conducting intelligent interviews that could be serious with some and light-hearted with others. Rather than interview a guest for a cursory 5- or 6-minute segment, Merv preferred lengthy, in-depth discussions with many stretching out past 30 minutes. In addition, Merv sometimes dedicated an entire show to a single person or topic, allowing for greater exploration of his guests’ personality and thoughts.
From 1962 to 1986, there were over 5,000 episodes of The Merv Griffin Show produced. It was common practice in the industry that, after the initial broadcast, the network (or syndication company) would erase the tapes so that they could be reused for new programming. This was done as a cost-saving measure as tapes were very expensive. It was hard at the time to envision that a daily talk show such as The Merv Griffin Show would ever be aired again and so, sadly, many of the shows were not saved.
Over 2000 episodes from the program, encompassing over 2,500 hours of footage, still exist in their original videotape format, so the visual quality is exceptional. Another unique aspect of this archive is the vast number of shows produced in the 1960s that survived. Sadly, many of the competing talk shows of the era, such as The Tonight Show, do not.
In addition to the 2000 episodes in our archive, we’ve also located another 600 plus episodes from 1969-1975 that exist in audio format. The shows were recorded on reel to reel and many of those shows are included in our searchable database with the words “Audio Only” next to the item. If you are looking for a specific artist that you do not see in our database please contact us as there is still more material that has yet to be added.
We are very much on the hunt for episodes (or segments) missing from the archive so if anyone has copies of the show (regardless of format) we would very much appreciate you reaching out to us. Depending on the nature and quality of the footage we’re open to a finder’s fee.
Newly transferred and fully cataloged, The Merv Griffin Show library offers 2,500 hours of previously untapped material now available for licensing for all forms of media.
A sampling of the thousands of guests in the archive:
FILM STARS: John Wayne, Jane Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Ingrid Bergman, Sir Laurence Olivier, Warren Beatty, Sophia Loren, Burt Reynolds, Jayne Mansfield, Gene Wilder, Brooke Shields, Dustin Hoffman, Grace Kelly, Sylvester Stallone, Orson Welles, Lillian Gish, Tom Hanks, Michael Caine, Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, Kirk Douglas, James Caan, Peter Fonda, Tony Curtis, Lee Marvin, Sharon Tate, Jack Lemmon, Richard Harris …
TELEVISION STARS: Alec Baldwin, Betty White, Bob Crane, Jack Benny, Adam West, Barbara Walters, Bea Arthur, Rob Reiner, David Susskind, Penny Marshall, Jack Paar, Alan Alda, William Shatner, Lindsay Wagner, Patti Duke, Carroll O’Connor, Telly Savalas, Steve Allen, Dick Cavett, Robert Blake, Leonard Nimoy, Ted Knight, Eva Gabor, Tim Conway, Loretta Swit, Jack Klugman, Nell Carter, Henry Winkler, Barbara Eden, Tony Danza, Loni Anderson, The Muppets, …
HISTORY MAKERS: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Rosa Parks, Richard Nixon, Pres. Gerald Ford, Pres. Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Ytzak Rabin, Prince Charles, Col. John Glenn, Gloria Steinem, Dr. Timothy Leary, Henry Kissinger, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Capt. Mitsuo Fuchida, Lillian Carter, Alex Haley, Pierre Salinger, Ralph Nader, Judge John Sirica, Spiro Agnew, Harry Belafonte, Gen. Alexander Haig, Walter Cronkite…
COMEDY: George Carlin, Jay Leno, Steve Martin, Lucille Ball, Alan King, David Steinberg, Carol Burnett, Bill Cosby, Redd Foxx, Joan Rivers, Andy Kaufman, Moms Mabley, Don Rickles, Dick Gregory, Henny Youngman, Bill Maher, Totie Fields, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Lily Tomlin, Buddy Hackett, Shecky Greene, Bob Saget, Elayne Boosler, Billy Crystal, Paul Mooney, Jackie Mason, Garry Shandling, Paula Poundstone, Bob Hope, Chevy Chase …
MUSIC: Phil Spector, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, The Everly Brothers, Carole King, Hank Williams, Jr., Isaac Hayes, Devo, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Merle Haggard, Nina Simone, Ringo Starr, Dolly Parton, Benny Goodman, The Staple Singers, June Carter Cash, Village People, Sammy Davis, Jr., Loretta Lynn, Buddy Rich, Marion Williams, John Denver, Hall & Oates, Blue Oyster Cult, Glen Campbell, Mrs. Miller, Weird Al Yankovic, Liberace, Barry White, Boomtown Rats, Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, Johnny Mathis, Blondie, Seals & Crofts …
FILMMAKERS: Federico Fellini, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Terry Gilliam, Otto Preminger, Roman Polanski, John Huston, Blake Edwards, Dick Lester, Franco Zefferelli, Garry Marshall, George Cukor, Irwin Allen, James Bridges, John Sayles, Michael Cimino, Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Vadim, Ron Howard, Stanley Kramer, Woody Allen, Warren Miller, Orson Welles, William Friedkin, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner…
WRITERS: Pearl S. Buck, Michael Crichton, Maya Angelou, James Michener, Kurt Vonnegut, John Irving, Roald Dahl, Gore Vidal, Robert Ludlum, Louis Lamour, Paddy Chayefsky, Fran Leibowitz, Bertrand Russell, Irving Stone, Dr. Richard Selzer, Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer, Oscar Levant, Truman Capote, Erica Jong, Neil Simon, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Will & Ariel Durant, William Peter Blatty, Edward Albee, Jackie Collins, John Le Carre, Jonathan Kozol, Judith Krantz, Ken Follett, LeRoi Jones, Harlan Ellison, Gail Sheehy, Tom Wolfe, Sidney Sheldon…
SPORTS: Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Martina Navratilova, Willie Mays, Rocky Graziano, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sugar Ray Robinson, Howard Cosell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arthur Ashe, Joe Namath, Greg Louganis, Gerry Lopez, Jack Dempsey, Mary Lou Retton, Jimmy Connors, Meadowlark Lemon, Lynn Swann, Reggie Jackson, Roger Maris, Carl Lewis, Chuck Norris, Esther Williams, Evel Knievel, Dizzy Dean, Tom Seaver, Rosie Grier, Tracy Austin, Bruce Jenner, Roy Firestone
ARTISTS: Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Harry Herschfield, Norman Rockwell, Al Capp, Rube Goldberg, Leroy Neiman, Walter Keane, Jim Davis
FASHION: Giorgio Armani, Aldo Gucci, Paloma Picasso, Oscar De La Renta, Christie Brinkley, Bob Mackie, Eileen Ford, Edith Head, Hubert de Givenchy, Cheryl Tiegs, Oleg Cassini, Pierre Cardin, Twiggy, Nina Blanchard
RELIGION: Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Bishop Fulton Sheen, Ernest Angley, Rabbi Harold Kushner, Jerry Falwell, Joseph Campbell, Dr. Benjamin Creme, Robert Schuller, Andrew Greeley, Harvey Cox, JZ Knight, Hal Lindsey
SCIENCE & INDUSTRY: Dr. Jonas Salk, Steve Wozniak, Dr. Linus Pauling, Carl Sagan, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Milton Friedman, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Werner Erhard, Ross Perot, William Lear, Dr. Christian Bernard, Lowell Thomas, H.L. Hunt, Dr. Roy Menninger, Armand Hammer, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Larry Platt (inventor of the UltraSound)