Merv Griffin Enterprises

Merv Griffin Enterprises was a television production company founded by Merv Griffin in 1964 as Merv Griffin Productions, and was the production company of Wheel of Fortune from the 1973 Shopper's Bazaar pilot until 1994.

Early years
The company's first production was Jeopardy!, which premiered on March 30, 1964, and continued until January 3, 1975, when NBC canceled it; however, a clause in Jeopardy's contract stipulated that Griffin could produce a replacement show, the resulting product being Wheel of Fortune which premiered January 6, 1975. The Merv Griffin Show returned to television in 1965, and remained in production until 1986.

Wheel of Fortune
In September 1973, Merv Griffin Productions produced a pilot for NBC at the request of that network's VP of daytime programming Lin Bolen, under the title Shopper's Bazaar. This pilot was commissioned to boost network daytime ratings among women 18-34, was hosted by Chuck Woolery, and announced by Mike Lawrence. Neither Bolen nor Merv liked the result, and the format was overhauled the following year, in which two more pilots were taped, this time under the title Wheel of Fortune, which was hosted by Edd Byrnes, announced by Charlie O'Donnell, with Susan Stafford hired at the last minute to turn the letters of the puzzleboard. The changes were enough for NBC to pick up the show as a series, which premiered on January 6, 1975, albeit with Woolery brought back as host, replacing Jeopardy! as per contract.

Later years
MGP was renamed Merv Griffin Enterprises on September 10, 1984 (with the start of the second season of nighttime Wheel and the debut of the current version of Jeopardy!), and was sold to The Coca-Cola Company on May 5, 1986 for $250 million. The company was transferred to Columbia Pictures Entertainment on December 21, 1987 (with the Enterprises logo being updated to reflect this on February 8, 1988), which was subsequently sold to Sony Corporation on November 8, 1989. CPE was renamed to Sony Pictures Entertainment on August 7, 1991 (although this change does not appear to have been noted in any way on Wheel until March 1992, with the Enterprises logo not reflecting it until September 7, with the Season 10 premiere.)

Other work
Among MGE's other productions were: Let's Play Post Office (1965-66); Dance Fever (1979-87, co-produced with 20th Century Fox Television); Headline Chasers (1985; co-produced with Wink Martindale Enterprises); Monopoly (1990); Super Jeopardy! (1990); and Ruckus (1991).

Closing
In July 1994, Merv made a deal with Sony Pictures in which he would remain executive producer of Wheel and Jeopardy! until 2000, which also included the shutdown of MGE and the takeover of those two shows by Columbia TriStar Television. The production company change took effect for Season 12 on Wheel, and CTT remained the production company name until September 16, 2002, when it was renamed to Sony Pictures Television, who continues to produce Wheel today. Griffin subsequently founded Merv Griffin Entertainment in 1996 as a replacement company, which continues operations to this day.