A Brief History
On August 18, 2014, Dominick George “Don” Pardo, Jr. died at the age of 96. His voice was so excellent for announcing, deep and mellow, that he was the Saturday Night Live announcer from its start in 1975 right up until he died.
Digging Deeper
He had worked for NBC for an incredible 70 years, starting as a radio announcer in 1944. Pardo started a long run as a television game show announcer in 1952 on Winner Take All and soon took over the microphone for The Price is Right and then for Jeopardy!
His stint at Jeopardy! earned him mention and a speaking role on Weird Al Yankovic’s parody song, “I Lost on Jeopardy” in 1983. Other shows you may have heard Pardo speak on include Jackpot, Three on a Match, Winning Streak, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and NBC Nightly News.
Sadly, Pardo was the first to announce on NBC that JFK had been shot.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Who is your favorite TV announcer?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Castle, Alison. Saturday Night Live: The Book. TASCHEN, 2015.
Hadleigh, Boze. Game Show Confidential. Lyons Press, 2023.
The featured image in this article, Don Pardo‘s signature, is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
