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RIP Don Pardo


Jess

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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

I'm divided on how SNL should go on after this. Should they use a new announcer with his (or her) own style, or should they use the occasional fill-in guy that does a (decent) Pardo imitation?

 

No, not a Pardo Imitation of any extent. That idea alone is disaster written on the wall before fruition.
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

I'm divided on how SNL should go on after this. Should they use a new announcer with his (or her) own style, or should they use the occasional fill-in guy that does a (decent) Pardo imitation?

 

I read someone suggesting on Twitter that they should keep his "It's Saturday Night Live!" then have the replacement do the rest. It would be a bit unwieldy but a nice way to keep his legacy at the show alive.

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No, not a Pardo Imitation of any extent. That idea alone is disaster written on the wall before fruition.

 

Just to be clear, it already is a thing. Once in awhile in recent years, if Don was unavailable, or there was an issue with his recording (he was literally phoning it in from across the country), they have had someone on staff imitate Don from NYC.

 

Edit: Okay, he may not be the person who's voiced the show in the last few seasons, but apparently cast member Darrell Hammond filled in for an under-the-weather Pardo several years ago...

 

[yt]LsEn5abOCuE[/yt]

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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

I'm divided on how SNL should go on after this. Should they use a new announcer with his (or her) own style, or should they use the occasional fill-in guy that does a (decent) Pardo imitation?

Darryl Hammond is an impressionist by trade (his Sean Connery imitation is priceless) so I can't imagine his normal tone of voice.

 

I almost want Steve Higgins to get the role. It's not as if SNL and The Tonight Show (and Late Night) don't share common bonds these days.

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Remember' date=' Don didn't just announce shows for NBC. Back in the day, he did news bulletins, too. Perhaps the most important on
.

I am surprised he lasted this long. He broke his hip in September 2013 and almost made it a year. My grandmother who was late stage Alzheimer's at the time some how was able to get up and walk, almost rallying before death like, and broker her hip. Three weeks later she passed..

 

Willie Geist said he had a lifetime contract for NBC since 1944. I wonder how many people have heard his voice and grew up hearing it. I'd imagine the people of SNL As you mention he was the first NBC talent to announce the news.

 

The voice over industry and NBC and NBC News lost a true legend. Often imitated never duplicated.

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Randy West has a lengthy tribute of his own to Don. It's worth the read.

 

One portion really stood out, though...

Don told me he only once seriously considered leaving NBC. It was in the 1950s, when Mark Goodson offered to double his $50,000 a year salary to $100,000 to remain with "The Price is Right" when the program moved to ABC. Don's wife was adamant that he take the incredible deal, and he recalled that there were heated discussions in the Pardo household after he paid her lip service, while knowing all along that he wanted to stay at NBC.

 

Don looked back at that decision with retrospective glee, saying that had he left, he never would have been assigned to SNL, and never would have found the fame that few staffers ever achieve as a result of being associated with and occasionally featured on that hit and hip show. Yes, he loved the attention, as he started his career as an actor in his home state of Rhode Island before finding that radio was his calling.

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Wow, and here I thought he was going to live forever. But I don't recall him ever voicing The Price is Right; when was that?

 

That was back in the 50s, when the show was taped in NYC, and Bill Cullen was the host. NBC aired it for the first 7 years ('56-'63).

 

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUI0XS936c[/yt]

Video Courtesy of AdamNedeff of YT.

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Remember, Don didn't just announce shows for NBC. Back in the day, he did news bulletins, too. Perhaps the most important on

.

And he still did News Finals for WNBC-TV right up into the early 80s...

[yt]B2R3TcMM59g[/yt]

(video from the FuzzyMemories YouTube channel)

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RIP Don Pardo, the greatest announcer there ever was and likely ever will be. There have been many great announcers but only one Don Pardo. Many network and advertising executives wished they could have him, other announcers wanted to be him. His talent and longevity will likely never be equaled.

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Nightly did a tribute to Don at the end of tonight's show from Studio 8H, ending the show with a shot of Don's mic as the lights dimmed and the only sound being that soft ambient hiss you get when you turn up a mic all the way and no one's speaking. It was pretty touching.

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@Post 1: I didn't realize that Joe Scarborough was Chuck Scarborough's nephew until very recently.

. I don't think it was ever confirmed. Joes father apparently took the name Scarborough when his grandmother remmaried to a man named Scarborough.
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:(

 

Hammond (and others) might be able to impersonate him but, none of them will ever come close to being able to hold Don Pardo's microphone.

 

Lorne has done some pretty tasteful tributes in the past so, I'm not worried or anything. But, I hope for the first episode of the season they go sans voiceover during the opening credits. The following week the can have Hammond or whomever take over. But, for that night just let the video introductions roll over the band. Those that "get it" would understand the symbolism it sends. That being the "voice" of SNL has been silenced and really nobody can replace him. It would be a subtle yet powerful way of paying tribute to Pardo. If they wanted a step further dump the opening sketch and have Lorne cold open the show with a monologue.

 

But, 96 years....that's a heck of a run.

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Nightly did a tribute to Don at the end of tonight's show from Studio 8H, ending the show with a shot of Don's mic as the lights dimmed and the only sound being that soft ambient hiss you get when you turn up a mic all the way and no one's speaking. It was pretty touching.

Agreed.

[yt]ZmW1dTG85A8[/yt]

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I'm in favor of using a recording of his voice saying "It's Saturday Night Live!" (granted the only time I've watched in the last couple of years was when Jim Parsons hosted because I'm a huge Big Bang Theory fan and wanted to see how he'd do on there, but I digress...) It's not too dissimilar to how (even though it's not news, but on the same network) Days of Our Lives still uses a recording of MacDonald Carey's "Like sands through the hourglass..."

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