Was there an announcer tryout for Price in 72?

[cmjb13]

Did anybody else do a tryout?

[tvrandywest]

No, there were no auditions. Johnny O was selected by Mark Goodson prior to the start of production based on his performance and his past relationship with the company. It was the job that resulted in Johnny relocating from NY to LA after about 20 years in the Big Apple. But by the early 70s most of TV had already moved to LA; an exodus planned since the early 50s with the construction of the large, state-of-the-art CBS TVCity and NBC Burbank facilities.

For an interesting anecdote told to me by Barker about his first learning that Johnny was hired to do the show, check out the first paragraph of the "Johnny O Tribute" on my website.


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[Jimmy Owen]

Interesting that Johnny had to give up TTTT with Garry and Bill to announce for revivals on the coast of IGAS and TPIR.

[ChuckNet]

Interesting that Johnny had to give up TTTT with Garry and Bill to announce for revivals on the coast of IGAS and TPIR.

Ditto WML, which explains why early in Larry Blyden's first season, we saw a flurry of on-air announcer tryouts (Wayne Howell, Dennis Wholey, et al.).

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[tyshaun1]

This thread leads me into another question. How did Mark Goodson decide which of "his" announcers would do his shows? For instance, you had Johnny O. on TPIR, Match Game, Tattletales, NYSI, and Mindreaders. Gene Wood would do Card Sharks, Family Feud, Child's Play, and Password Plus. Then later, Bob Hilton and Rod Roddy would enter the fold. Was there a deliberate selection to whom would do which show, or was it just an availability thing?

Tyshaun

[chris319]

[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Nov 7 2004, 08:54 PM\']This thread leads me into another question. How did Mark Goodson decide which of "his" announcers would do his shows? For instance, you had Johnny O. on TPIR, Match Game, Tattletales, NYSI, and Mindreaders. Gene Wood would do Card Sharks, Family Feud, Child's Play, and Password Plus. Then later, Bob Hilton and Rod Roddy would enter the fold. Was there a deliberate selection to whom would do which show, or was it just an availability thing?

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Scheduling in large part. FF taped on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as did TPIR. You couldn't have the same announcer doing both. Same with producers and directors. In the event of a scheduling conflict, a substitute annoucer could be hired to do, say, P+ but not TPIR.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Nov 8 2004, 12:11 AM\'][quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Nov 7 2004, 08:54 PM\']This thread leads me into another question. How did Mark Goodson decide which of "his" announcers would do his shows? For instance, you had Johnny O. on TPIR, Match Game, Tattletales, NYSI, and Mindreaders. Gene Wood would do Card Sharks, Family Feud, Child's Play, and Password Plus. Then later, Bob Hilton and Rod Roddy would enter the fold. Was there a deliberate selection to whom would do which show, or was it just an availability thing?

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[/quote]
Scheduling in large part. FF taped on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as did TPIR. You couldn't have the same announcer doing both. Same with producers and directors. In the event of a scheduling conflict, a substitute annoucer could be hired to do, say, P+ but not TPIR.

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Back in the 50s, sponsorship was another factor, particularly if the announcer was doing on-camera pitches.  An announcer couldn't do commercials for a competing product.  Even if Dennis James was doing the Old Gold pitches on "Two for the Money," Kenny Williams couldn't work on a show sponsored by another cigarette company (after all, he did refer to "The Old Gold Scoreboard!" to that piece of cardboard framing the result panel on an NCR cash register).