Earlier this week, MPI Home Video and Reelin’ in the Years Productions released a 12-disc collection for The Merv Griffin Show, celebrating the best of the legendary talk show host’s work on the set that would eventually end up in Cosmo Kramer’s living room. In all, this box set includes 44 episodes and “a wealth of bonus material,” including some very special clips that we’ve been #blessed to share with you this week. My favorite, and the one that I practically threw a hissy fit for the opportunity to share, features a very young and very nervous Richard Pryor meeting Jerry Lewis.
For starters, it’s a throwback to the days when people chain-smoked on TV like it was actually making them live longer, but it’s just always so cool to see a guy who would eventually become a god of comedy explaining to another god of comedy how he inspired him. It’d be like Nick Cannon telling Carlos Mencia how amazing he is, except the opposite.
