Saturday Night Dead

(A bit of obviousness shared with Monty)

Or

Pardo, the Interruption

Or

Pardo is Such Sweet Sorrow...

Don Pardo, who showed that if you do anything for long enough, even if it’s just reading names enthusiastically, you become a legend, has died at the age of 96. Among the shows graced by his intonations in his 70-year career at NBC were The Price Is Right (where he served as the original announcer), Jackpot, Jeopardy!, Three on a Match, Winning Streak, NBC Nightly News and for 39 years, Saturday Night Live. He attempted to retire in 2004, but Lorne Michaels begged him to stay. He wanted to pre-record the introduction from a studio near his home in Phoenix, but producers were unable to handle the complexity of planning around a pre-recorded bit of tape and insisted the feeble old man fly cross-country every week to do his part. As the on-duty booth announcer on WNBC-TV and the NBC network, he was the first to announce to NBC viewers that President Kennedy had been shot, though somehow Walter Cronkite’s broadcast is the one preserved in history, and after years of hearing fake news broadcasts voiced by Pardo, the broadcast today sounds like the start of a sick skit.