Game Show “What If:” Johnny Olson

[TheInquisitiveOne]

Good evening.

I know I have been seeing a lot of “what ifs” about different subjects across different genres, including some here. I checked first to make sure if the subject wasn’t discussed previously, but one subject that crossed my mind regards the legendary Johnny Olson.

He passed away partway into the 14th season as announcer of The Price is Right in 1985, but let’s say that everything is fine and he went through the season, business as usual. As far as I know, there was no indication that he was going to retire at the end of that season, and he was 75 at the time of his passing.

I mention his age because given legends like Don Pardo (who announced SNL right up to his death at 97) and Johnny Gilbert (currently announcing Jeopardy! in his 90s), Olson could’ve gone at least another 10 years. To make this discussion simple, let’s say Olson calls it a career in 1995 (taking a route similar to Gilbert, Pardo, and O’Donnell - paring his career down to one show before the fact), and the producers start their search for a new announcer.

Would Rod Roddy still be relevant enough to become the permanent successor, as it was in this current timeline? Roddy had a successful run as announcer of Press Your Luck and parlayed it to an even more successful run at Price. If Olson went another decade, would that stock still be so high? Also, given how thin the game show landscape was around that time, would there be a rotation of substitutes as robust as it was in this current timeline? In 1995, the only active announcer who would’ve been available in the alternate timeline is Gene Wood, and if everything else went as it did, he would’ve still retired after Family Challenge with Ray Combs in 1996. With that, I believe there would’ve been one other choice that could be a suitable replacement, if only because he had couple of notable, recent shows under his belt…

Enter Burton Richardson. Being that it’s 1995, he would only be a year removed from finishing his announcing run with The Arsenio Hall Show (with his memorable part in the opening sequence), and if everything else stayed as it was, he would just finish his short-lived run as announcer of the ill-fated syndicated TPIR with Doug Davidson. I understand that not everyone is a fan, but Burton’s style would’ve been familiar for many and would’ve bolstered his status further with the Family Feud revival that was due to come four years later. Finally, if Burton’s run went long enough, could Rich Fields be on the outside looking in?

I like to see what your thoughts are on this. Do you agree with this, do you think something similar happens, or does something completely different happen?

As always, thank you in advance for your responses.

The Inquisitive One

[Kevin Prather]

I think you're right on the money with Burton being the heir apparent in a Roddyless timeline. And obviously in this timeline we don't get Rich Fields. Burton probably keeps the job as long as Rich did, until they decide to go the sidekick route for Drew.

[JasonA1]

Bob Hilton is younger than Rod Roddy, and given that Bob did the '94 Price pilot, I'm sure he would have at least been in the discussion had Johnny left in 1995. Not to mention Randy West would have been 6 months free of Fam's Interactive lineup, or actually announcing Wild Animal Games if the months lined up right.

The pool is probably even bigger still, but that's who came to mind first.

-Jason

[aaron sica]

I think this tracks. Part of me wanted to muddy the timeline a little bit and say that Johnny would have announced TNPIR94, but this just doesn't make any sense. They were looking for the same, but different, and an infusion of youth. They incorporated some of the music tracks from it into the daytime version - why not the announcer too?

[cmjb13]

I seem to recall Randy West saying (I believe on this forum) years ago that Johnny wouldn’t have worked past 1990.

[Chief-O]

I seem to recall Randy West saying (I believe on this forum) years ago that Johnny wouldn’t have worked past 1990.

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]

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.

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]

I seem to recall Randy West saying (I believe on this forum) years ago that Johnny wouldn’t have worked past 1990.

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]

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.

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.