Announcers and their employers

[Jimmy Owen]

Back in the day, Don Pardo announced for Goodson, Stewart and Griffin and I'm assuming he did these as an employee of NBC, not the production company, or is that incorrect?

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Feb 26 2004, 04:58 PM\']Back in the day, Don Pardo announced for Goodson, Stewart and Griffin and I'm assuming he did these as an employee of NBC, not the production company, or is that incorrect?[/quote]
That is correct.  The network expected the production companies or sponsors to use their staff announcers whenever possible, although they didn't have to.  Bern Bennett, Hal Simms, Wayne Howell and Bill Wendell were all network employees when announcing game shows.

[Winkfan]

The network expected the production companies or sponsors to use their staff announcers whenever possible, although they didn't have to.  Bern Bennett, Hal Simms, Wayne Howell and Bill Wendell were all network employees when announcing game shows.

My guess is that Johnny Olson put a stop to this practice of 'announcers being paid by the networks' once he started with Goodson-Todman. You may recall he announced To Tell the Truth and What's My Line on CBS at the same time he was announcing Play Your Hunch and The Match Game on NBC.

Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Deanna Lund of the Big Board!'