Don Pardo - # 88

Don Pardo dead at 96: TV and radio favorite was 'Saturday Night Live' announcer for 4 decades

He was number 88 on the list.

Thanks to “Saturday Night Live” and approximately four zillion other programs and commercials, Don Pardo may have had the most cherished voice in television history.

Pardo, who over seven decades was NBC’s official announcer for everything from quiz shows to the nightly news to station breaks, died in his sleep Monday at his Arizona home. He was 96.

He had moved to Arizona after officially retiring from NBC in 2004. But “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels wasn’t about to let him get away that easily, and Pardo continued announcing “SNL” to the end.

His only concession the last few years was recording his parts from a studio at his home.

Pardo’s voice became the thread that connected the whole run of “SNL,” back to the original cast in 1975. His last show was the May finale of the 2013-2014 season.

“Nothing is like the moment,” said Jimmy Fallon, “when Don Pardo says your name.”

Well-respected and much-admired in the business, Pardo was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2010.

 

He joined NBC in 1944 and rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s as the announcer for the iconic game shows “The Price is Right,” 1956-1963, and “Jeopardy!”, 1964-1975.

His rich baritone voice and the rhythm of his intonations proved perfect for both straight introductions and moments of game-show suspense.

Pardo was hired for his first radio position at NBC affiliate WJAR in Providence in 1938.

He joined NBC full-time as an in-house announcer in 1944, remaining on the network staff for 60 years. The radio programs on which he worked as an announcer include Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator, Philo Vance and the sci-fi shows X Minus One and Dimension X.

During World War II, Pardo worked as a war reporter for NBC Radio.

For more than 30 years, Pardo was one of the rotating announcers on the KFOG San Francisco radio show "Ten at Ten", appearing at 10 a.m. and in syndication with Dave Morey on KFOG HD Radio.

In the early 1950s, he served as announcer for many of RCA's and NBC's closed-circuit color television demonstrations.

Pardo made his mark on game shows for NBC as the voice of the original The Price Is Right from 1956 until it moved to ABC in 1963. Pardo's next show was Jeopardy!, which he announced from 1964 until the original version of the series ended in 1975. Pardo also announced New York-based NBC game shows such as Three on a Match, Winning Streak, and Jackpot!, all three of which were Bob Stewart productions.

Pardo squeezed in many other assignments at NBC, including the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (until 1999), WNBC-TV's Live at Five and NBC Nightly News.

Pardo was the on-duty live booth announcer for WNBC-TV in New York and the NBC network on November 22, 1963, and he was the first to announce to NBC viewers that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas.

His best-known announcing work was for the television series Saturday Night Live. His was the fourth voice heard on the show's premiere episode in 1975, after the first cold open sketch featuring Michael O'Donoghue, John Belushi and Chevy Chase. Pardo remained the program's announcer except for one season (1981–1982), when it was announced by Mel Brandt or Bill Hanrahan. After "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", which is cried out at the end of the cold open, Pardo announces the show's title, then names the cast members and musical guests in a voice-over during the opening montage. According to Pardo, his Saturday Night Live announcing booth during his tenure at Studio 8-H was almost exactly where Arturo Toscanini stood when conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in Rockefeller Center from 1937 to 1950.

In December 1976, Pardo participated in a musical performance by Frank Zappa, reciting a verse of the song "I'm the Slime". Pardo subsequently reprised this role on the live-recorded version of the song for the Zappa in New York album (it was not featured on the first release in 1978, but it appears on the 1993 CD re-release). He also provided narration for the songs "The Illinois Enema Bandit" and "Punky's Whips" (a business dispute between Zappa and his record company of the time led to "Punky's Whips" being removed from the 1978 album, but the song was reinstated on the 1993 CD).

Pardo also participated in the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "I Lost on Jeopardy", from his second album, "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D, a parody of "Jeopardy" by The Greg Kihn Band, and its refrain "Our love's in jeopardy." The song became the fourth music video released by Yankovic, and featured a number of cameo appearances including Kihn, original Jeopardy! host Art Fleming, Yankovic's mentor Dr. Demento, Pardo, and Yankovic's parents.

In 1989, he participated in the recording "I Beg Your Pardon" by Canadian synthpop band Kon Kan, which was an international hit single.

In 2009, he appeared in an episode of 30 Rock (Cutbacks) as Sid, the TGS's announcer.