Even While Fighting Cancer, Merv Griffin Still Calls the Shots

Merv Griffin may be in a Los Angeles hospital being treated for a recurrence of prostate cancer, but illness hasn't dampened the talk-show host turned production mogul's notorious hands-on approach. His staff sent a copy of Merv Griffin's Crosswords, his new syndicated game show debuting Sept. 10, to his Cedars-Sinai Medical Center room, and Griffin, who devised the concept and wrote all the music for the show, took a look and decided host Ty Treadway needed a new haircut. "Send him to my guy," Griffin told his staff. Treadway, who is sporting a new, spiky look these days, tells TV Guide, "It took an 82-year-old to make me look a little cooler." — Reporting by Ileane Rudolph

TV GuideNews July 26, 2007 at 5:49 p.m. PT