Which game show most suited the announcer?

[JasonA1]

It's funny - Jack Clark's delivery on Wheel seemed to match the host at the time. With Chuck, he was more bombastic. Once Pat took over, he got more low key like Pat was.

-Jason

[TimK2003]

Since most of the big voices have been paired up, here's one more from the bottom of the stack...:

John Harlan -- Name That Tune.

[kenbob_clarker]

[quote name=\'Gameshowcrackers\' post=\'213916\' date=\'Apr 24 2009, 10:40 AM\']

JOHNNY OLSON - Probably the most famous of all game show announcers; his career spanned 40 years. At his all time best IMO on Gene Rayburn's Match Game but seemed oddly out of place when he lent his vocal talents to Tattletales.
[/quote]
He subbed for Gene Wood on Card Sharks a couple of times in its original run.  I thought he seemed a little out of place there.  That, and the pilot of Family Feud.

This is probably just me, but I never thought the Pyramid openings sounded quite right with Charlie O'Donnell.

As for Johnny Gilbert, he just seems to own any role he gets perfectly.  The only time I've really heard him seem out of place was when he filled in on Family Feud.  I just associate that show so much with Gene Wood.  Up until Burton took duties for it in '99, Gene Wood was *the* voice for that show.

[Jimmy Owen]

Did anyone else ever worry that the J! folks would find out Johnny was moonlighting over at "The Quiz Kids Challenge"?

[wdm1219inpenna]

Johnny Gilbert was and is awesome on "Jeopardy!", a job he's held for a quarter-century now.  Isn't he like 88 or 89 years old now?  Hard to believe!  I remember him announcing on Ruprecht's "Supermarket Sweep" and he was awesome on that too, giving the play by play.  I especially loved season 1 when they'd have a person dressed up as a giant carrot, or a can of string beans, blocking and chasing the sweeping contestants throughout the aisles, just hilarious!

Charlie O IS Wheel of Fortune to me.  Jack Clark did really well, and I was sad when he died, but I remember Wheel back in '75 and Charlie announcing, and I'm glad he's on the show now too, a perfect fit.  I liked his work on the B&E shows too very much, especially HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT Potato!!!

I agree, Gene Wood sounded very out of place announcing Price is Right back in late 85, early 86.  Rod was a perfect fit on that show, and Press Your Luck.

Rich Jeffries, who I did not see mentioned, was like nails on a blackboard to me.  I disliked him during the first few weeks on Super Password, and on Rafferty's Blockbusters too.  His voice was just too nasally or shrill somehow.  He sounds like a very nice guy, but as announcers go, just not up to snuff.

I liked Burton's work on "Price is Right", so-so on "Feud".

Incidentally, I think Don Pardo sounded awesome on the Cullen Price is Right eps, and he sounds exactly the same now as he did over half a century ago, just amazing!

Appropriate to bring up announcers, especially last week in sports, with the death of Harry Kalas, and the retirement of John Madden.  Great idea for a topic!

[Winkfan]

Did anyone else ever worry that the J! folks would find out Johnny was moonlighting over at "The Quiz Kids Challenge"?

Well, Monsieur Gilbert was doing likewise with $25/100k P and Supermarket Sweep around the same period; and I never heard anyone raise a big stink about it.  Also, another Johnny (Jacobs) was moonlighting for Barry-Enright at about the same period he was toiling for Chuck Barris.

Remember when Gene Wood announced Love Connection? I thought he was under "exclusive" contract to G-T at the time.

And I'm surprised NOBODY mentioned Charlie Tuna on Scrabble!

Cordially,
Tammy

[DoorNumberFour]

[quote name=\'Winkfan\' post=\'214075\' date=\'Apr 25 2009, 08:27 PM\']
Monsieur Gilbert
[/quote]
Is that Gilbert or Gil-bear? =)

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'Winkfan\' post=\'214075\' date=\'Apr 25 2009, 08:27 PM\']
Monsieur Gilbert was doing likewise with $25/100k P and Supermarket Sweep around the same period; and I never heard anyone raise a big stink about it.  Also, another Johnny (Jacobs) was moonlighting for Barry-Enright at about the same period he was toiling for Chuck Barris.
[/quote]
No stink to be made. Randy W. (as opposed to Randy X.) or someone else in the know can back this up, but seeing how announcers are way on the low end of the pay scale, cheers to those who were able to find a wad of other programs to submit their talents to.
[quote name=\'Winkfan\' post=\'214075\' date=\'Apr 25 2009, 08:27 PM\']
Remember when Gene Wood announced Love Connection? I thought he was under "exclusive" contract to G-T at the time.
[/quote]
The Gene Wood surprise for me was when I found out that Your Number's Up wasn't a G-T show. I thought he had a G-T exclusivity situation going on as well. Then, I realized that with daytime and nighttime Family Feud gone, he was down to just one show (Super Password) so of course he's gonna go for the dough wherever it's available to him. But, yes, the Love Connection assignment on top of daytime and nighttime Card Sharks plus Super Password was an eye-raiser {picture that}.
[quote name=\'Winkfan\' post=\'214075\' date=\'Apr 25 2009, 08:27 PM\']
And I'm surprised NOBODY mentioned Charlie Tuna on Scrabble!
[/quote]
We were saving it for you.

[Jimmy Owen]

[quote name=\'Winkfan\' post=\'214075\' date=\'Apr 25 2009, 08:27 PM\']
[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'214067\' date=\'Apr 25 2009, 04:50 PM\']Did anyone else ever worry that the J! folks would find out Johnny was moonlighting over at "The Quiz Kids Challenge"?[/quote]

Well, Monsieur Gilbert was doing likewise with $25/100k P and Supermarket Sweep around the same period; and I never heard anyone raise a big stink about it.  Also, another Johnny (Jacobs) was moonlighting for Barry-Enright at about the same period he was toiling for Chuck Barris.

Remember when Gene Wood announced Love Connection? I thought he was under "exclusive" contract to G-T at the time.

And I'm surprised NOBODY mentioned Charlie Tuna on Scrabble!

Cordially,
Tammy
[/quote]


I guess what I was thinking is that when it came out QKC was designed to knock off Jeopardy but it just turned out to be a Jeopardy knockoff.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'214097\' date=\'Apr 26 2009, 10:08 AM\']
I guess what I was thinking is that when it came out QKC was designed to knock off Jeopardy but it just turned out to be a Jeopardy knockoff.
[/quote]
Mervin & Company possibly got a look at the pilot to that, laughed it off and saw it for the no-threat that it was. If Johnny had accepted the announcer's job on The Challengers, though, that could have set off some trouble.

[The Pyramids]

[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'214041\' date=\'Apr 25 2009, 01:38 PM\']
It's funny - Jack Clark's delivery on Wheel seemed to match the host at the time. With Chuck, he was more bombastic. Once Pat took over, he got more low key like Pat was.

-Jason
[/quote]


It was Jacks low-key style on 'Wheel' that made him my favorite GS announcer to this day.

[wdm1219inpenna]

And who could forget announcer/sidekick George Fenneman on "You Bet Your Life" with the one, the only....GROUCHO!!!!!!!!! τΏτ

[LetsGoMets2003]

I feel bad for Gene in that PiR intro - he was kind of robotic when saying "you are the first four contestants..."

I would love for Johnny Gilbert to do a PiR open. Sadly, it will likely never happen.

[Strikerz04]

[quote name=\'Chief-O\' post=\'214017\' date=\'Apr 25 2009, 08:46 AM\']

Yes----why did I not mention him??? I thought he actually did better on "Sale" than Jay Stewart did.
[/quote]

I have a tape of Jay's last week of "$ale" (including the "up for grabs" intro) and the clip of Morrow's intro would distinguish two very distinct styles. Jay was better suited during the shopping era, as Morrow handled the last two years of the series.

[Gameshowcrackers]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'214096\' date=\'Apr 26 2009, 08:59 AM\']

The Gene Wood surprise for me was when I found out that Your Number's Up wasn't a G-T show. I thought he had a G-T exclusivity situation going on as well. [/quote]

He also did the announcing duties on Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak & Win Lose or Draw - neither of which were GT packaged shows.

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'214096\' date=\'Apr 26 2009, 08:59 AM\']
Then, I realized that with daytime and nighttime Family Feud gone, he was down to just one show (Super Password) so of course he's gonna go for the dough wherever it's available to him
[/quote]

Not strictly true. After the nighttime version of Feud finished in the fall of 85, as well as his duties on Super Password Gene also annouced the nighttime version of TPIR hosted by Tom Kennedy as well as Body Language, another TK emceed show (filling in for the late Johnny Olson).

By 1988, at the height of his fame he was announcing concurrent runs on and off of no fewer than 6 different shows - Super Password (NBC Daytime), Card Sharks (CBS Daytime), Family Feud (CBS Daytime), Classic Concentration (NBC Daytime), Love Connection (Syndicated) & Win Lose or Draw (syndicated), making him at that time probably *the* busiest and hardest working announcer in the industry!