Merv Griffin, entertainer, game show creator, hotel magnate and impresario, died of prostate cancer over the weekend. He was 82.

Even someone like me who was not really old enough to see him on television in his earlier years, knows about him and has felt the impact of entertainment empire.

Griffin was the creator of such blockbuster game shows as "Wheel of Fortune," and of course, "Jeopardy."

He also has owned a number of casinos and hotels in Nevada. He started in that business when he first bought up the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills and renovated it into the classic hotel it is today. That's where the Golden Globes are held every year, and it's where I stayed for two weeks just last month during my sting with the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

His contribution to entertainment cannot be underestimated, from his stint as a talk show host competing against the likes of Johnny Carson, to his multi-million dollar television production company.

You can obituaries on him here and here.

Perhaps there should have been a disclaimer in front of the episode of "Forensic Files."

Or perhaps we should rally to get the show off the air because it's clearly inappropriate content for viewers.

That's because a 55-year-old Provo, South Dakota (not Utah), man accidentally killed himself by trying to disprove a "Forensic Files" episode about a woman who shot herself in the stomach.

The problem was, Earl F. Ellwanger Jr, didn't know the shotgun was loaded during his little experiment.

You can find the news of the weird here.

I've been to a lot of press conferences in my days as a police reporter, but I've never seen anything quite like the one that happened Tuesday morning involving the Emery County mining cave-in.

Robert Murray, chief executive of the Murray Energy Corp., has been the spokesman for his own company as the crisis at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington unfolds.

For the last two days, he's the one who was conducting the press conferences with reporters from all over the country, including a lengthy one this morning that ran nearly two hours.

Not a good idea.

Murray, a visibly weary and unfocused gray-haired man was tired, emotional, almost on the edge of coherent thought.

I could see his public relations specialists (if he has any - and if he doesn't, what is a company with more than 3,000 employees doing without them?) wincing Tuesday morning with every word he was uttering.

That's because the Official Rules of Public Relations Crisis Management dictate that you remain calm, collected and stay on message during a press conference. Give the necessary details and never speculate. Never needlessly attack either detractors or reporters.

Murray must have read the manual and decided to do the opposite.

First, he took care of important news - rescuers' efforts on getting to the trapped miners and what, if any, progress was made. It appears that it will take a minimum of three days to get to them.

But it was then that Murray veered off into weird tangents. At one point, he complained about television news helicopters hovering above. Another time, he complained to the local sheriff that there was too much noise and reporters could not hear him talk. All of this was occurring live on the 24-hour cable news networks as well as all four local TV stations.

He also emphasized that an earthquake - not any fault to the mine operation - caused the cave in. In fact, he pushed that to the point of appearing to be on the defensive. We have a story online with seismologists saying that's still a question.

Then, Murray began to target journalists themselves. About the reporting, he complained that stories quoted too many mining union representatives, calling them "lackeys" who were pushing their own agenda.

He also singled out Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein and Fox News for their reporting. Borenstein wrote a story claiming the type of mining conducted in the Crandall Canyon Mine, known as "retreat mining," can be a "deadly" method.

Repeatedly, Murray condemned Borenstein and said "retreat mining" was not a form used in that area. "Just get it out of your vocabulary," he told reporters at the press conference.

Toward the end, Murray handed the microphones to a mining safety district administrator to talk more about the rescue operation. But when viewers finally got a level head talking to reporters about the current state of the crisis, Murray kept interrupting him with more off-color comments.

At one point, Fox news called it a "sometimes bizarre" press conference.

Not quite rambling with his statements, Murray instead kept the press conference going on much longer than it needed to with his theatrics, emotional outbursts, dramatic pauses, and accusatory statements. It was still going on about 10:30 a.m. when local TV stations and the national news networks began cutting back to regular programming.

Yes, it was great television. And it certainly was one of the more entertaining press conferences of late.

And it's not only helping reporters select pull-out quotes for tomorrow's stories, it certainly sounds like these statements from Murray are coming straight from the heart. That's certainly refreshing.

But it's definitely putting his company in a public relations nosedive. Why haven't his public relations people (again, he must have some for a company that large) come in and taken over?

Murray may be a micro-manager. He may have a reputation for shooting from the hip in the way he runs his company. But whatever reason may be, if you combine that with extreme fatigue and unbelievable pressure to find the trapped miners, he really is the last guy who should be walking up to a set of cameras beaming his exhausted image to national news channels like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC (in addition to all four local channels that carried the conference live).

I have no doubt Murray first and foremost is focused on getting those miners out alive.

It's just difficult to feel that in the state he's in.

Well, we might be jumping the gun here, or more to the point, KJZZ Channel 14 may be jumping the gun here, but they've announced that "The Office" will be syndicated on the Larry Miller TV station beginning in 2009.

The deal lasts for more than 3 years and will be extended if the show goes past five seaons (here's hoping it does).

"We believe this is the biggest show to enter syndication since 'Friends,'" said Randy Rigby, president of Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainment. "Bringing popular programming to our viewers is our priority and picking this up is a very positive move for KJZZ."

The show was nominated for 9 Emmy nominations including best comedy and best actor for Steve Carrell.

The history of television programming, starting with scripted shows, is the subject of a huge documentary that will be broadcast on PBS, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

The documentary will begin with four one-hour looks at scripted TV, covering six decades. More examinations at other genres will follow, according to the article.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is teaming up with The Documentary Group on the series. It's scheduled to launch sometime next year.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the federal funding arm for PBS, has put up $2 million startup money for the documentary series, and there will be future fundraising efforts to help pay for it.

Instead of looking at the history of television chronologically, the series will break it up based on "character-driven" themes, according to the article.

The first will be about "Independent Women," and look at the role female characters have had in TV shows, from Lucille Ball to "Murphy Brown."

The other installments look at the Man of the House (from "Father Knows Best" to "The Simpsons), the adventurous series ("Mission Impossible" to "24") and the misfits of TV ("Seinfeld" and "Heroes")

According to TVWeek, the highly-rated "The Closer," was renewed for a fourth season.

The hot crima drama starring Kyra Sedgewick is the highest-rated scripted program on cable television.

Frankly, I don't know why because A.) I'm sick of crime dramas, and B.) It's nothing new in the crime drama arena.

What it has is a solid performance from Emmy-nominated Sedgewick, who puts a lot of force and energy into her character of an Atlanta cop who works for the LAPD.