Television Talkers

Don Pardo (Dominick George Pardo, 1918-2014) is noted for not only his distinct vocal tone and delivery but his seventy-year career with NBC, most famously as the voice of Saturday Night Live for thirty-eight of those years. A few scripts had him participate, occasionally on camera. Prior, he was the announcer for early versions of such notable shows as Jackpot, Jeopardy!, Winning Streak and NBC Nightly News.

The Massachusetts native got his start in radio in 1938 with an NBC affiliate in Providence, Rhode Island. Pardo joined NBC full-time as an in-house announcer in 1944 and worked as a war reporter for NBC Radio. He made his mark on game shows for NBC television in 1952 as the voice of the original The Price Is Right from 1956 until its move to ABC in 1963. His many assignments included announcing for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the NBC Nightly News, and he participated in the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "I Lost on Jeopardy," a parody of "Our Love's in Jeopardy" by The Greg Kihn Band. Pardo was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2010.