Thanks to “Saturday Night Live” and approximately four zillion other programs and commercials, Don Pardo may have had the most cherished voice in television history.
Pardo, who over seven decades was NBC’s official announcer for everything from quiz shows to the nightly news to station breaks, died in his sleep Monday at his Arizona home. He was 96.
He had moved to Arizona after officially retiring from NBC in 2004. But “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels wasn’t about to let him get away that easily, and Pardo continued announcing “SNL” to the end.
His only concession the last few years was recording his parts from a studio at his home.
Pardo’s voice became the thread that connected the whole run of “SNL,” back to the original cast in 1975. His last show was the May finale of the 2013-2014 season.
“Nothing is like the moment,” said Jimmy Fallon, “when Don Pardo says your name.”
Well-respected and much-admired in the business, Pardo was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2010.
He joined NBC in 1944 and rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s as the announcer for the iconic game shows “The Price is Right,” 1956-1963, and “Jeopardy!”, 1964-1975.
His rich baritone voice and the rhythm of his intonations proved perfect for both straight introductions and moments of game-show suspense.
He injected a subtle hint of self-aware bemusement that would later prove exactly what Michaels wanted for “Saturday Night Live.”
Pardo also introduced more serious productions, including “The NBC Nightly News” and the local newscast “NBC’s Live At Five.” He was the announcer who broke in on Nov, 22, 1963, to announce that President Kennedy had been shot.
He was the voice of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade until 1999 and the last announcer on the soap opera “Search for Tomorrow.”
For decades he was also a more routine anonymous presence through the NBC day, reminding viewers which advertiser had brought them that last segment of the show they were watching.
That role, known as “booth announcer,” was gradually phased out by all the networks, making Pardo one of its last practitioners.
Pardo said over the years that he paid careful attention to his voice. He semi-joked to the Associated Press in 1985 that besides being his meal ticket, it was also “my Achilles heel. When I get sick, it’s always my voice.”
He said he carried cough drops everywhere.
He also said that while his prominence surprised him a little, he was proud of it. He noted that for “Saturday Night Live,” he was standing in almost the exact place where Arturo Toscanini used to conduct live broadcasts of the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
Unlike many other voiceover announcers, Pardo was semi-frequently referenced and occasionally seen on camera.
Early “Jeopardy” broadcasts had the line, “Tell them what they’ve won, Don Pardo,” and he appeared on-camera a number of times for “Saturday Night Live.” To mark his 90th birthday, the show threw him an on-camera party.
He said he was more comfortable behind the scenes, though, noting that he filled in for Bill Cullen as the host of “The Price Is Right” one day and was “terrified.”
He appeared in Woody Allen’s movie “Radio Days,” playing a game show host, and can be heard on recordings by the late Frank Zappa and Weird Al Yankovic, in his “I Lost On Jeopardy” parody.
Born in Westfield, Mass., Pardo graduated from Emerson College in 1942.
He had developed an interest in theater, but took a job as a machinist to support himself and his wife, Catherine Lyons.
He quit to become a lower-paid announcer at radio station WJAR in Providence and in 1944 traveled to New York to see the NBC studios.
After a tour, he met Patrick J. Kelly, who was the supervisor of announcers, and was offered a job. He started on June 15, 1944, working the late shift and, among other things, doing wartime radio reports.
He became the voice for several NBC radio programs, including “Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator” and “Dimension X.”
As NBC moved into television, Pardo was tapped as one of the experimental announcers. He later recalled that he showed little skill as a baseball play-by-play man, but NBC liked his voice enough to use him for several of its first closed-circuit color trials in the early 1950s.
His voice was featured on such early TV hits as “Your Show of Shows,” “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and “The Arthur Murray Party.”
He eventually got a lifetime contract with NBC, officially retiring when he reached his 60th anniversary there.
“Saturday Night Live” tried to retire him once, after its sixth season, during one of the show’s regular personnel reshufflings.
But after doing the seventh season without him, Michaels decided that had been a mistake, and his gig there also turned out to be a lifetime contract.
His wife Catherine died in 1995. He is survived by five children, David, Michael, Paula, Dona and Katherine.
“Saturday Night Live” is expected to present a Pardo tribute when its new season launches in the fall.
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