Don Pardo
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{{Infobox actor voice
| name = Don Pardo
| image = Don Pardo '83.png
| image_caption = Don Pardo in 1983
| image_size = 200px
| landscape =
| birthname = Dominick George Pardo
| alias = Don Pardo
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1918|2|22}}
| birth_place = [[Westfield, Massachusetts]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = [[Voice actor]], [[announcer]]
| spouse =
| parents =
| children =
| URL =
}}
'''Dominick George "Don" Pardo''' (born [[February 22]], [[1918]]) is an [[United States|American]] radio and television [[announcer]].
Pardo was born in [[Westfield, Massachusetts]] grew up in [[Norwich, Connecticut]] and [[Providence, Rhode Island]]. He was hired for his first radio position at WJAR in Providence c.1938. He joined [[National Broadcasting Company|NBC]] as an in-house announcer in 1944, remaining on the network staff for the next 60 years. He is the last of the "lifetime" employees of NBC. In the early 1950s, he served as announcer for many of RCA and NBC's closed-circuit color television demonstrations. His best-known announcing work is for the [[Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade]] on NBC (which he gave up after the [[1999]] telecast) and the television series ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''; he has been with the show since it premiered in [[1975 in television|1975]], except for one season ([[1981 in television|1981]]-[[1982 in television|1982]]), when it was announced by [[Mel Brandt]]. After "Live, from New York..." which is cried out at the end of the opening skit, Don Pardo names the cast members and musical guest(s) in a voice-over during the opening credits. He is famous for flubbing a line on the very first show, calling the cast "The ''Not For Ready'' Prime Time Players" instead of "The ''Not Ready For'' Prime Time Players". According to Pardo, his announcing booth in [[NBC Radio City Studios|Studio 8-H]], from which ''Saturday Night Live'' is telecast, is located in approximately the very same area on which [[Arturo Toscanini]] would stand when conducting the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]] in Rockefeller Center between 1937 and 1950 (Toscanini's broadcasts later moved to [[Carnegie Hall]]).
Pardo officially "retired" from NBC in 2004 and moved to [[Tucson, Arizona]]. However, the producers of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' convinced him to continue providing the introductions for their show. In [[2006]], he decided to begin prerecording his announcements from a home studio in [[Arizona]]. That lasted only a few episodes before producers insisted they needed him present in Studio 8H, and he resumed flying to [[New York]] on a weekly basis to do the show.<ref>http://www.tvgameshows.net/pardocover.doc</ref> On Saturday, [[February 23]], [[2008]], a vibrant Pardo appeared at the closing of SNL to blow out the candles of his 90th birthday cake.
Prior to ''Saturday Night Live'', Pardo made his mark on game shows for NBC as the booming voice of ''[[The Price Is Right (1956 game show)|The Price is Right]]'' from [[1956 in television|1956]] until it moved to [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] in [[1963 in television|1963]], then ''[[Call My Bluff]]''. The next year, he moved over to ''[[Jeopardy!]]'', which he announced from [[1964 in television|1964]] until the original version of the series ended in [[1975 in television|1975]]. Pardo reprised that role with a [[cameo appearance|cameo]] [[voiceover]] in [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s [[1984 in music|1984]] song "[[I Lost on Jeopardy]]" (a parody of the [[Greg Kihn Band]] [[1983 in music|1983]] hit song [[Jeopardy_%28song%29|Jeopardy]]). He also announced numerous other New York-based NBC game shows such as ''[[Three on a Match (game show)|Three on a Match]]'', ''[[Winning Streak (US game show)|Winning Streak]]'', and ''[[Jackpot (game show)|Jackpot!]]'' (all three of which were [[Bob Stewart]] productions).
In addition, Pardo has also been the announcer for [[WNBC-TV]]'s ''[[Live at Five]]'' news program, ''[[NBC Nightly News]]'', and ''[[Wheel of Fortune (US game show)|Wheel of Fortune]]'' (during two special on-location weeks in [[1988]], when the show originated from [[New York]] and the show was using sub-announcers after [[Jack Clark]]'s death).
Pardo was the on-duty live booth announcer for [[WNBC-TV]] in New York and the [[NBC]] network on [[November 22]], [[1963 in television|1963]], and he was first to announce to NBC viewers that [[John F. Kennedy assassination|President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas]]. (His first bulletin interrupted a local [[WNBC-TV]] broadcast of "[[Bachelor Father (US TV series)|Bachelor Father]]" before the NBC network went live with the story.) Because NBC was slow to begin videotaping the coverage, for decades it was believed that Pardo's historic bulletins were lost. However, almost 40 years later an audio tape of the bulletins was discovered in a private collection.
In December [[1976 in television|1976]] on one memorable ''SNL'' episode, Pardo participated in a musical performance by [[Frank Zappa]], reciting a verse of the song "I'm The Slime." Pardo subsequently reprised this role on the live-recorded version of the song for the ''[[Zappa in New York]]'' album (it was not featured on the first release in [[1978 in music|1978]], but it appears on the [[1993 in music|1993]] CD re-release). He also provided narration for the songs "The Illinois Enema Bandit" and "Punky's Whips" (a business dispute between Zappa and his then record company led to "Punky's Whips" being removed from the 1978 album, but the song was reinstated on the 1993 CD).
In 1986, Pardo contributed to the first album in [[TVT Records]]' ''[[Television's Greatest Hits]]'' series of compilations of TV-series theme songs. His voice can be heard opening and closing the album, as if it were a real TV station's broadcast day.
Pardo is still heard during the open and close of [[Len Berman]]'s "Spanning the World" segments on WNBC and ''[[Today (NBC program)|Today]]''. During the 1980s and 1990s, Pardo also recorded announcements for radio stations affiliated with The Source programming service<ref>[http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/5515/kgrb.html KGRB AM 900<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> (syndicated by [[Westwood One]]). Recordings from those days are still used on some programs, such as "[http://www.kfog.com/shows/10at10/default.asp 10@10]" on [[KFOG]]-FM, [[San Francisco]] and ''[[The Bob and Tom Show]]''.
In the late 1980's, Pardo recorded in-store advertisements for department store chain [[Bradlees]].
Don's voice can be heard in the pre-recorded breakdown and delay spiels for the "Cat in the Hat" ride at [[Islands of Adventure]] theme park at the [[Universal Orlando Resort]] in Orlando, Florida.
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{{succession box|before=None|title= Announcer on ''[[The Price Is Right (1956 game show)|The Price Is Right]]''|years=[[November 26]], [[1956]]-[[September 6]], [[1963]]|after=[[Johnny Gilbert]]}}
{{end box}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*{{imdb name | id = 0661094| name = Don Pardo}}
*[http://radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p3.cgi?ArtistName=Pardo,+Don&ArtistNumber=09183 A partial list of Don Pardo's radio announcing credits]
*[http://www.atvaudio.com/jfk.php The recovery of Pardo's "lost" JFK bulletins]
*[http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/Zappa_In_New_York.html#Illinois The Illinois Enema Bandit lyrics inc. Don Pardo's contribution]
*[http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/Zappa_In_New_York.html#Punky Punky's Whips lyrics inc. Don Pardo's contribution]
*[http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/Zappa_In_New_York.html#Slime I'm The Slime lyrics inc. Don Pardo's contribution]
*[http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/screen.php?c=1061 Video clip from 1980 featuring last moments of pre-sign off WNBC-TV news update by Don Pardo]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pardo, Don}}
[[Category:1918 births]]
[[Category:Game show announcers]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:NBC network announcers]]
[[Category:People from Hampden County, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Radio and television announcers]]
[[Category:Jeopardy!]]
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{{Saturday Night Live}}
{{Jeopardy!}}