Merv Griffin News

Bergen county music lovers won't have to wait until the summer's through to see Bob Miranda and The Happenings.

The Rev. Bob Conole of Sacred Hearts Parish in Bradford never thought a career in the church would ever lead to a job on the small screen.

Comedian Jay Leno ends his 17-year run as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" Friday, handing over the program to Conan O'Brien before returning in the fall with a new, prime-time venture called "The Jay Leno Show." Following is a timeline of Leno's career.

" 'What Do All the People Know' was a fun song, and I still enjoy listening to it," says Rusty Jones, whose San Diego band the Monroes toured with Rick Springfield, Toto, and Greg Kihn in the early '80s. At their one-hit-wonder peak, the Monroes performed their best-known single on The Merv Griffin Show.

Here's yet another doc I had the pleasure of screening. Trying to Get Good chronicles the odyssey of jazz cat Jack Sheldon, who is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest trumpet players in the world.

Jeff Sumerel recalls the first time he "met" the man known as Brother Theodore. He was only 14, and he watched the existential dark humorist on "The Merv Griffin Show." The Greenville native and filmmaker couldn't have realized then the way his life would cross with the man's on screen.

Dear Mr. Inman: I have two movie questions that I am hoping you might be able to answer.

PALM DESERT - Julie Budd, one of America's most versatile and entertaining vocalists-actresses of the New York stage, silver screen and television, will perform a Broadway songbook with The Desert Symphony at 8 p.m. April 17 at the McCallum Theatre.

The unheralded trumpeter makes a compelling centerpiece for the documentary. Music elite and bebop fans widely consider him the greatest living jazz trumpeter.

When the Big Apple Circus returns to the township in March for a series of shows, event organizers say the production will feature the world-class acts and intimate settings audiences are used to seeing.

"PETE AND ASHLEE have approached every magazine with offers to sell their first [baby] photos, but nobody wants them." Nypost.com/seven relays a tidbit about the Wentzes' first baby from a celebrity weekly ...

Merv Griffin, who died in August 2007, hosted a talk show for 23 years, but made an even more lasting impact on the television world by creating the game shows "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" Griffin won 17 ...