Thank you, studio audience, and thank you Don Pardo! He passed away at 96. 96! He semi-retired from being a staff announcer at NBC in 30 Rock in 2004 after SIXTY years. The SNL stuff continued, sometimes from his Arizona home. Pardo hit big on game shows, was the 1st NBC voice to announce JFK’s shooting, & got his biggest gig in his late 50s.
Pardo was already better known than most announcers, thanks to on-camera mentions in classic game shows like the original Price Is Right and Jeopardy.
Jeopardy ended in ’75, but the NBC staff announcer was quickly tapped for a new show. Not only did he appear in the Saturday Night Live opening, he would sometime play other parts in the show, including this unlikely pairing with Frank Zappa on SNL from the early days.
How many people can say they appeared with Frank Zappa and Weird Al?
At some point Pardo crossed into icon territory, and NBC even used him – on set – to introduce their early evening local news in NYC.
Obviously the dude had some good genes. Here’s one more clip of Pardo blowing out the candles on his 90th birthday cake at the end of an SNL episode with Tina Fey and Steve Martin.
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