R.I.P. Don Pardo, 1918-2014

Don Pardo was such a fixture of Saturday Night Live that it’ll even take creating executive producer Lorne Michaels a few years still to catch him in terms of number of appearances/voiceovers.

Pardo kept introducing us to comedians in their biggest breaks on SNL, doing the voiceovers for all about one season, and 10 years past his supposed retirement in 2004. Pardo died Monday at his home in Tucson. He was 96.

Pardo started working for NBC as an in-house announcer back in 1944. He tried announcing both in 2004 and again in 2009, but Michaels and the SNL crew convinced him to fly weekly back from Tucson until he was too week to continue.

His NBC job also gave him credits as the original voiceover man for both The Price is Right! and Jeopardy! For the latter, Pardo got to make a return to the gig in the form of Weird Al Yankovic’s “I Lost On Jeopardy” in 1984.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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