MERV AND TALK
Regarding Robert Strauss’ article “Why Is Everybody Talking?” (Oct. 1):
For 23 years, “The Merv Griffin Show” offered American TV audiences more than fluff.
Long before there was a Donahue--and long before the descent of the form into today’s unconscionable morass--Merv set standards of intelligence and ethics for TV talk. He tackled such subjects as nuclear disarmament, Vietnam, civil rights, etc.
Merv conducted one of the first and most revealing interviews with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He took his audience around the world, interviewing world leaders such as Moishe Dyan in Israel and Jacques Chirac in France. He took his cameras to Brazil, Ireland, England, Italy and Mexico, and was the first to broadcast from the private quarters of the White House with President and Mrs. Reagan.
The Griffin show was played in the major markets at 8:30 p.m., as alternative programming to the sit-coms of the period.
ERNEST CHAMBERS
Los Angeles
Chambers was a co-producer of “The Merv Griffin Show.”
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