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Game Show “What If:” Johnny Olson

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Chief-O:

--- Quote from: cmjb13 on September 24, 2024, 09:34:12 AM ---I seem to recall Randy West saying (I believe on this forum) years ago that Johnny wouldn’t have worked past 1990.

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I was thinking earlier about if Johnny could've made it to 1990-91, rather than 95-96. If this was to have held true, then there's no doubt in my mind that Burton would've been the successor; he would've been doing, or been fresh off of, the 1990 "TTTT" at the time. What I do wonder, however, is how this scenario would've impacted "Shopping Spree", Louie's "Feud", "Russian Roulette", or any other gigs he would've landed in the years ahead.

TLEberle:

--- Quote from: Chief-O on September 24, 2024, 10:09:48 AM ---I was thinking earlier about if Johnny could've made it to 1990-91, rather than 95-96. If this was to have held true, then there's no doubt in my mind that Burton would've been the successor; he would've been doing, or been fresh off of, the 1990 "TTTT" at the time. What I do wonder, however, is how this scenario would've impacted "Shopping Spree", Louie's "Feud", "Russian Roulette", or any other gigs he would've landed in the years ahead.

--- End quote ---
Did Johnny Gilbert or Charlie Tuna still slip over to 33 for a day of Pyramid after they were in place as announcer on Jeopardy or Scrabble?

Mike Tennant:

--- Quote from: cmjb13 on September 24, 2024, 09:34:12 AM ---I seem to recall Randy West saying (I believe on this forum) years ago that Johnny wouldn’t have worked past 1990.

--- End quote ---
But Johnny was also planning to retire when TPIR premiered and then kept right on going, so who's to say he couldn't have been talked into continuing into the '90s?

One difference between announcing TPIR and J! or SNL is that TPIR is much more taxing, with announcements that couldn't easily be pre- or post- recorded. Plus there's Johnny's famous, high-energy warmup to consider. Because of that, I think the analogies to Gilbert and Pardo are somewhat inapt, and Olson was probably more likely to call it a day at a younger age.

Kevin Prather:

--- Quote from: Mike Tennant on September 24, 2024, 12:14:00 PM ---Plus there's Johnny's famous, high-energy warmup to consider. Because of that, I think the analogies to Gilbert and Pardo are somewhat inapt, and Olson was probably more likely to call it a day at a younger age.

--- End quote ---

Although he was renowned for his warm-up, there's no reason to believe he couldn't take that off his plate when he got to a certain age. Especially with someone like Randy being adjacent enough to the show.

steveleb:
The one sure thing among all of this speculation is that in all likelihood Rod doesn't emerge as the top choice and probably doesn't have the run that he did.  Maybe he stays on LOVE CONNECTION, which ran until the mid-90s, and he probably would have gotten other assignments as well.  But, to everyone's point, at that time he's one among many, and with no obvious ties to even CBS. 

And to everyone's point, assuming there's no established incumbent in this revised timeline on the daytime show, based upon how well received he was by the Goodson organization on the 94 version Burton would have been a natural to move over to the mothership.

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