Don Pardo, who was the voice of game shows, news, and Saturday Night Live for NBC for seventy years, has died at age 96. His New York Times obituary is here.
Pardo's voice was instantly recognizable to me. Long before I was old enough to stay up and watch SNL, I was obsessed with Weird Al Yankovic, and I can still, to this day, say Don Pardo's speaking part from "I Lost on Jeopardy" by heart.
I always used to play my favorite Weird Al tracks for my grandma, when we were in New York, or when she was in Indiana. (She was so patient, lol.) And I remember that I didn't know who Don Pardo was, when I first heard that song, and sitting on the floor with my little boombox, in front of her chair, while she told me all about Don Pardo and his amazing career as a legendary announcer.
Good innings. Rest well, Mr. Pardo.
[Note: If there are less flattering things to be said about Pardo, they have been excluded because I am unaware of them, not as the result of any deliberate intent to whitewash his life. Please feel welcome to comment on the entirety of his work and life in this thread.]
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