Announcer question

[kurtinrod62]

Among GS announcers active in the biz today, who has been around the longest? Is it Charlie O'Donnell? Johnny Gilbert?

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'kurtinrod62\' date=\'Jul 14 2004, 07:47 PM\'] Among GS announcers active in the biz today, who has been around the longest? Is it Charlie O'Donnell? Johnny Gilbert? [/quote]
 Charlie and Johnny both have been heard and/or seen on TV since the late 50s. Charlie's first game show gig was WIzard of Odds(or was it before that), while Johnny's first was hosting Music Bingo. Counting people who have not done a game show in a while, Don Pardo is still working on Saturday Night Live(he has some six decades in the biz), and IIRC Bern Bennett is still doing some announcing for CBS soaps.

[mystery7]

Charlie O's first game show gig was Everybody's Talking, from 1967.

Johnny Gilbert's first shows as announcer were Make A Face and Yours For A Song, both from 1961.

With Charlie O's years on Bandstand figured in, I'd say it's a tie between him and Johnny.

Source: Encyclopedia Of TV Game Shows. Don't believe me? Look it up for yourself.

[johnnya2k3]

But I also want to know...who had the longest run up until their death?

My answer had to be Johnny Olsen on that one; he was doing TPIR (Barker and Kennedy) and Body Language well up until he passed on in 1985.

Jonathan Allen

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'johnnya2k3\' date=\'Jul 15 2004, 04:52 AM\'] But I also want to know...who had the longest run up until their death?

My answer had to be Johnny Olsen on that one; he was doing TPIR (Barker and Kennedy) and Body Language well up until he passed on in 1985.
 [/quote]
 Math is not a big priority for you, I gather.

You were already told that Johnny Gilbert's TV game show career dates back to 1961.  And you know Johnny died nineteen years ago.  For his run to be as long, he would have to have been a TV game show announcer --- in 1942.  Johnny had a very active career going by that date, but I can assure you it wasn't as a TV game show announcer.

Also, if Mystery7 wants to include the non-game-show announcing that Charlie O'Donnell did on Bandstand, then I don't see wht we shouldn't include Don Pardo's non-game-show announcing on SNL.  In that case, Pardo wins hands down.

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jul 15 2004, 08:47 AM\'] Also, if Mystery7 wants to include the non-game-show announcing that Charlie O'Donnell did on Bandstand, then I don't see wht we shouldn't include Don Pardo's non-game-show announcing on SNL.  In that case, Pardo wins hands down. [/quote]
 Do the eleventy billion "Celebrity Jeopardy" skits count as game show announcing? :-)

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jul 14 2004, 07:50 PM\'] IIRC Bern Bennett is still doing some announcing for CBS soaps. [/quote]
 Bern hasn't done the announcing on The Young & The Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful since sometime in 2003. I know not why. Perhaps he retired.

[sshuffield70]

I think after the change in production in 2000, he was no longer needed.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'dzinkin\' date=\'Jul 15 2004, 06:53 AM\'] Do the eleventy billion "Celebrity Jeopardy" skits count as game show announcing? :-) [/quote]
 'Cept he doesn't appear on those, either, all twelve of them go from an animation of the show logo straight into a wide shot of the set, no voiceover, and then to Will Ferrell.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jul 15 2004, 01:18 PM\'] [quote name=\'dzinkin\' date=\'Jul 15 2004, 06:53 AM\'] Do the eleventy billion "Celebrity Jeopardy" skits count as game show announcing? :-) [/quote]
'Cept he doesn't appear on those, either, all twelve of them go from an animation of the show logo straight into a wide shot of the set, no voiceover, and then to Will Ferrell. [/quote]
This all reminds me, of course, of one of their earliest game show parodies, Jeopardy: 1999.  In the mid-seventies, who would have thought that Jeopardy -- AND Don Pardo -- would still be going strong five years after the date of that "futuristic" spoof?

[tvwxman]

I COMPLETELY misread the topic title ....thought you were going a much different direction there...

Hell, I was ready to guess my answer in inches, not years!

Man, it's been a long day.

[davemackey]

Don Pardo don't do as much as he used to on SNL any more... just the show open, and not much else. He may even pre-tape his opening now, so he can be at home at a decent hour.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'davemackey\' date=\'Jul 15 2004, 03:14 PM\'] Don Pardo don't do as much as he used to on SNL any more... just the show open, and not much else. He may even pre-tape his opening now, so he can be at home at a decent hour. [/quote]
Isn't there an intro for him to do on Weekend Update? Last time I watched, I remember him doing some spiel at the end, finishing with the familiar "This is Don Pardo saying "This is Don Pardo saying...good night.""

(Although that's prolly canned, too.)

[MCArroyo1]

I don't recall him saying anything at the end of the show (at least not recently).  Don hasn't announced Weekend Update regularly in at least five years.

[mmb5]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jul 15 2004, 05:58 PM\'] [quote name=\'davemackey\' date=\'Jul 15 2004, 03:14 PM\'] Don Pardo don't do as much as he used to on SNL any more... just the show open, and not much else. He may even pre-tape his opening now, so he can be at home at a decent hour. [/quote]
Isn't there an intro for him to do on Weekend Update? Last time I watched, I remember him doing some spiel at the end, finishing with the familiar "This is Don Pardo saying "This is Don Pardo saying...good night.""

(Although that's prolly canned, too.) [/quote]
 Either Amy Poehler or Chris Parnell has done the Weekend Update intro since the beginning of the Tina Fey administration.


--Mike