Merv Griffin to refocus efforts with new shows.

Merv Griffin to refocus efforts with new shows

Still saddled with the bankrupt Resorts International casino operations, Merv Griffin is trying to reverse his recent financial fortunes by producing two new network television game shows.

Griffin, who amassed much of his fortune by producing and syndicating the "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" shows, hopes to launch two new shows called "Super Jeopardy" and "Monopoly" on ABC prime time beginning June 16. The programs have a 13-week commitment from the network and would be the first new prime time, television game shows in about 20 years.

"Griffin is trying to recapture the magic," said Alex Ben Block, editor of an entertainment industry newsletter called Showbiz News. "He is trying to rebuild his credentials in Hollywood and re-establish his image."

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Griffin's reorganization plan for his debt-laden Resorts International Inc. is expected to clear another hurdle this Thursday. Attorneys at Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, representing Resorts, will seek final approval of Griffin's reorganization plan. If approved, Griffin will pump an additional $26 million into Resorts and sell its casino hotel on Paradise Island in the Bahamas to reduce Resorts' estimated $900 million debt load. Bondholders approved the plan late last week.

Chastened by his duel with Donald Trump, Griffin is returning to his TV roots.

Said David Leibowitz, an analyst with New York-based American Securities Corp., "he's building on his true strength, playing in the most important areas of his business once more. Griffin has always had a hot hand in the entertainment industry. He's trying to capitalize once more."

Griffin's return to his roots in game shows presents problems for New Jersey-based King World Productions Inc., which distributes his existing shows to independent television stations. Executives at those stations are angry that network broadcasts of "Super Jeopardy" would present competition for their "Jeopardy" broadcasts. Negotiations are currently under way between independent programmers and King World, but the prime-time deal is all upside to Griffin, said entertainment analysts.

"There's no financial risk; the networks are paying the total cost," said Jeffrey Logsdon, an entertainment analyst with Los Angeles-based Crowell Weedon & Co. "The prime-time slot is a tremendous platform for launching `Monopoly.' Should the show be even moderately successful, it will produce a launching platform for the syndication of `Monopoly.'"

In a separate deal with Calabasas, Calif.-based Players International, Griffin announced a plan to market his two stalwart game shows, "Wheel of Fortune" and the original "Jeopardy!," in a new way -- over the telephone. Beginning in June, at $1 to $2 a minute, consumers will be able to play the two classics as a 900-number telephone game. Previous 900 numbers with similar consumer approaches have generated as much as $1.2 million a month, though Players' executives have said that they expect much more.

"The concept is extremely sound," said Leibowitz. "Given the proven drawing power of the telephone 900 numbers, the only question to be raised is why didn't anyone think of it sooner?"

This time around, Griffin, 64, is effectively cut out of the $1.4 billion syndication market. He has no significant stock holdings in King World Productions Inc., which will distribute the games shows, or Players International. In 1986, Griffin sold Merv Griffin Enterprises to the Coca-Cola Co. for an estimated $250 million. He remains chairman and chief executive officer of the company, which is now a unit of Columbia Pictures Entertainment, which is owned by Tokyo-based Sony Corp. Any success from prime time game shows will be rewarded to Griffin through bonuses on top of his salary and production fees.

Griffin became one of the wealthiest people in the United States through his wheeling, dealing and entertaining. Beginning in 1949, when he performed before about 100,000 people on the Million Dollar Pier in Atlantic City, the big-band singer-turned-businessman has displayed a knack for making profit from performance.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Griffin got rich buying FM radio stations and syndicating his talk show. Launched in the 1970s, his "Wheel of Fortune" game show zoomed to the top of the ratings by the early 1980s. He dominated the game show market with a 17 percent ratings share for the show at the height of Pat Sajik's and Vanna White's popularity. After the sale of Merv Griffin Enterprises to Coca-Cola, he branched out from entertainment, dueling with the Sultan of Brunei for control of the Beverly Hills Hotel and Donald Trump for control of Resorts International casino in Atlantic City.

Though he has invested an estimated $65 million in the troublesome Resorts acquisition, his estimated net worth has been pegged at about $300 million. Forbes Magazine lists him as one of the 400 richest people in the United States. Griffin owns a vineyard in Northern California, Arabian horses, thoroughbreds, a substantial about 40,000 shares in the Hollywood Park Operating Co., the $100 million Beverly Hilton Hotel, several homes worldwide and a $5 million mansion in Beverly Hills.

Construction on his 58,000-square-foot Italian-style villa, at the top of a 157-acre Bel Air mountaintop that he bought for $5.5 million in 1987, has reached a standstill, according to one of Griffin's publicists. Griffin has spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars" clearing the property. But the home, larger than the Hearst Castle, has been put on hold at least until after the Resorts restructuring, according to a Griffin source.

Griffin, who was not available for comment, has been shuttling to New Jersey to shepherd along the Resorts reorganization.

One analyst said that Griffin could come out strong if Resorts is successfully reorganized.

"The restructuring of Resorts has been arduous and we'll see an entirely different company than the one that we had two years ago," said Leibowitz. "Changes wrought in its capital structure and debt load could make the financial pressure less severe. Look for Mr. Griffin to come out bloodied but unbowed."