According to eMediaWire.com, Chuck Woolery has made public his view of the dispute between himself and Merv Griffin. Chuck Woolery was the first host of the wildly successful game show, Wheel of Fortune. The eMediaWire states that Woolery was fired from the show in 1981 and replaced by Pat Sajak. This first version was a daytime game show that debuted in 1975. In 1983, the show became syndicated and went to the nighttime format. According to Wikipedia, the show holds the record for both the longest running television game show in American and the game show with the highest Nielson rating.
The eMediaWire quotes Woolery as saying that Merv Griffin created “a hostile work environment” after Woolery requested to be paid the same salary as other hosts were being paid. That figure was $500, 000 a year. Woolery was making $65,000 a year at the time. When Griffin would only agree to $400,000, NBC (which was the station airing the show) offered to make up the difference. Woolery states that Griffin was irate and threatened to leave NBC and take his show to CBS. NBC backed down. According to the eMediaWire release, Woolery states he was then fired and replaced with Sajak. However, I listened to the actual interview on the November 8 show of TheStripPodcast.com and did not hear Woolery actually use the word “fired”. One statement I did hear Woolery make about leaving the show was that he “could have taken it on the chin” but did not choose to do that. He also stated that he would have been okay with continuing the personal relationship, but that Griffin didn’t want to; Woolery feels that Griffin thought he was disloyal in going against his wishes.
In the podcast interview, Woolery also offered his views about various current game shows. He states that game shows are either host driven or game driven. Making an observation about his 7-year stint and split with Wheel of Fortune, Woolery says that Griffin took a chance by replacing him with Sajak because at that point no one knew if that show was host driven or game driven. It turned out to be game driven and the show has had remarkable success. Woolery comments that the new host of The Price is Right, Drew Carey, will do fine if he remembers that the show is game driven and resists the urge to make himself the focus of the show. This theme is one that was also echoed in an interview with Bob Eubanks on the same November 8 airing. Bob Eubanks also commented that one reason that Howie Mandel has been so successful on Deal or No Deal is that even though he is a very funny man he is able to keep the focus on the game show. In both Eubanks’ and Woolery’s opinions, both shows are examples of game driven shows. Eubanks stated that an example of a host driven show was his popular show The Newly-Wed Game.
In reference to the Woolery-Griffin dispute, Woolery states that he never made an issue out of the disagreement while Griffin was alive, but now feels like it is the right time to share his side of the story. He comments that the two never spoke again before Merv Griffin died in August of this year.
