Dominick George “Don” Pardo Jr. (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades. A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with NBC, working as the announcer for early incarnations of such notable shows as The Price Is Right, Jackpot, Jeopardy!, Three on a Match, Winning Streak and NBC Nightly News. His longest, and best-known, announcing job was for NBC’s Saturday Night Live, a job he held for 38 seasons, from the show’s debut in 1975 until his death in 2014. Early life Pardo was born in Westfield, Massachusetts. His parents, Dominick George Sr. and Valeria “Viola” Rominak-Pardo, were immigrants from Poland who owned a bakery. He spent his childhood in Norwich, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from Emerson College in 1942…
They wanted him on SNL because the target audience had grown up hearing his voice. It was supposed to be funny, having someone associated with the blandest shows announcing for the degenerate antics of stoners like Belushi and ignorant sluts like Jane Curtain.
Dagwood, you pompous ass.
‘Jane, you ignorant slut,’ was often used by Jane’s costars during the show.
Here’s her typical response.
Man, I was a little too young to catch the early years of SNL as they aired, but I loved the reruns of those seasons :)
Jane Curtain pretty much defined what weekend update should be
im in the middle of watching all of them, im on season 24. its very interesting watching history happen around the show… knowing what was happening off-stage. there are many awkward scenes, some sad.
my favorite moments are the end scenes. the wrapup… its the end of the night for all of these actors/musicians/comedians/writers theyre all onstage and some clearly exhausted. this exact group of humans will never be together again, ever… here we get to witness what must be a somewhat personal moment for many of them.
they just fired norm, and colin… man he was just terrible for weekend update.
He also played himself as the announcer in Weird Al’s “I Lost on Jeopardy”
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Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
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Toward the end, when Pardo wasn’t feeling well, Darrell Hammond would fill in and do such a good impression, that it’s almost impossible to tell when it isn’t really Pardo. After Pardo’s death, Hammond took over the announcing duties full time, but uses his own voice. Everyone agreed that he shouldn’t continue the Pardo impression.
That’s job security and what an easy job to do
