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Join Matt and Thomas as they make the announcement of the first-ever Don Pardo award; Don Pardo!
Transcript:
[0:43] All right, thank you so much, Doug DeNance. It is great to be here in the SNL Hall of Fame with you all.
My name is JD, and welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame podcast.
Before you come on inside, if you could do me a favor and please wipe your feet, that would be just tremendous.
The SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer and addthem to the ballot for your consideration.
Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you, the listener, to vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall.
Well, that's normally the way we play the game, but this week we're doing things a little bit different.
Allow me to introduce you to the Don Pardo Award episode.
That's right. We've created an award for somebody that will receive it and be enshrined in the Hall of Fame outside of the voting process.
[1:47] So this is pretty exciting. This won't be somebody you vote for.
This will be something that we award every year going forward and when there is somebody that makes sense to give the award to.
So it might not be every year but our goal will be to make it every year.
And, uh, the first recipient of the Don Pardo award is none other than the namesake of the award, Don Pardo.
And my friends, Matt Ardill and Thomas Senna have gathered together in the bunker.
[2:27] We are going to not participate in Matt's minutiae minute this week.
We are going to go right downstairs to Thomas and Matt where they are going to titillate us with information on Don Pardo and why he belongs in the SNL Hall of Fame.
So buckle up, get ready, and enjoy this special episode of the SNL Hall of Fame podcast.
Track 3:
[3:23] All right, JD, thanks for the introduction. And that is correct.
You cannot have Matt Ardill this episode for Matt's minutia minute.
I'm stealing him for this discussion, Jamie, and that's all there is to it.
It's a special one because we're not trying to make the case for someone to get inducted into the SNL Hall of Fame.
That business has already been handled. world.
We're here to celebrate the induction of Don Pardo. So Matt, our deal here with me to celebrate.
Hello. Thanks for joining me.
[3:56] Thanks for having me, Thomas. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, it's fun.
I know Jamie always has you guys do your thing at the top of the show, but it's fun for me and you to have a little discussion here and and lead the conversation. So I'mreally happy to have you.
You and I don't always we don't get to interact enough. So this is really great, Matt.
Yeah, I am looking forward to it. I Don is such a part of the legacy of SNL.
It's great to have. Yeah, such a huge legacy.
And I think Don Pardo is a pretty fitting person to receive this special induction by the SNL Hall of Fame Veterans Committee.
The first being Lorne Michaels. That was an obvious choice. We were like, should we name the Hall of Fame after Lorne Michaels?
We decided that Lorne Michaels would be the perfect first inductee as far as Veterans committee goes, but it's hard to argue the impact that Don Pardo had on viewersthroughout his career prior to and throughout SNL, Matt.
Yeah, well, I mean, he had a 70 year tenure with NBC starting like in radio before the television was even really much of a thing. And I think like he he was with thecompany.
[5:08] Basically his entire adult life, like grew up the son of immigrants in Norwich, Connecticut.
His first broadcasting job was with the NBC affiliate station WJR in 1938, becoming a full time announcer in 1944.
[5:25] Doing radio dramas, science fiction like Dimension X before eventually becoming a war reporter for NBC.
[5:33] So, I mean, you know, if people think, oh, you know, he's the guy from Jeopardy or or the price is right, which, yeah, he was. But before that, he had a verydistinguished career.
Hard journalism. He was a hard journalist and real in the field in the field covered.
That's wild to me that he covered World War Two.
And we know him as a contemporary kind of SNL voice still. This man covered World War Two.
Yeah. And in a way, that was like the real deal, too. It's not just like, oh, sitting there, not doing anything.
Yeah. And I mean, when he came back, He he continued to to to work like in the game shows.
That's where I think most people came to know him because it was such a popular format.
He was so I think the mark of somebody being a part of a popular culture is a weird owl includes you in something.
[6:25] And weird owls I lost on Jeopardy basically hinges around Don Pardo. video.
[7:07] So it's like it's just hilarious. So, I mean, he's always had a good sense of humor about himself.
He's always understood where he sort of fits in the zeitgeist.
And I mean, he's done a variety of things.
War reporting, Macy's Day Thanksgiving parade.
He continued to do the nightly NBC nightly news on the radio well into his nearest retirement.
His time at Studio 8H actually predates SNL. So he was longer at 8H longer than SNL.
And he said that where he does like the booth that he did that he did the the introductions from that's where the conductor of the the famous orchestra that yeah studio eight.
That's where the conductor basically would stand. And I think Don really enjoyed that fact.
Yeah, he did. And he had this one interview I watched with him where he talks about like how things have changed and like how how Studio 8H used to be this big highceiling ballroom with this raised stage, that there was a staff band who were paid a salary to just basically hang out and then play music whenever people wanted music forthings.
So he comes he kind of bridges the entire sort of spectrum of the history.
[8:24] He retired from NBC in 2004, but as a favor to Lauren, kept kept going.
And you can find a lot of these stories that he talks about online.
A lot of interviews on YouTube.
I where he talks about how the first time he had to step back, he's had laryngitis.
He was like he's in his retirement years and he's like he they were still flying him out to New York from his retirement home where he was living and his sister-in-lawcalled him.
It's like, oh, you sounded great last night. He's like, oh, really?
Did you listen to that entire entire episode? the entire thing where I had a big back and forth with the with the host.
And she's like, yeah, you sound like you're good. Older is like, how do I sound now? And I said, well, you sound kind of rough.
Yeah, because that wasn't me.
[9:12] It's like the first one that that Daryl Hammond did stepping in for him.
And afterwards, Darryl was saying, you know, you're you're really hard to do.
You're really just such a bombastic, right? Yeah.
Darryl says that this is basically him as an announcer. Darryl as the SNL announcer is just an homage to Don Pardo.
So he's essentially trying to do a Don Pardo. He's not Darryl using a Darryl voice being the announcer.
He's still trying to harness the spirit of Don Pardo.
I love that Darryl understands Don Pardo's obviously his importance to the show.
Yeah. And I mean, it's it's just really speaks to that.
No way. Like, you know, Lauren is kind of the mind, but I think Don is the heart because he's like a natural entertainer, you know, And he kind of goes back to what.
[10:02] Lauren was trying to channel when he first started SNL was that sort of bridge between old comedy and new comedy.
And Don sort of runs right up the middle of that because he literally connected the history of NBC and that studio to the modern studio.
They talk a lot about how in the early days he would do the warm ups beforehand and in the first few seasons that kind of got shrunk and shrunk and shrunk.
But yeah, I mean, he was there for everything right up until the end.
He was a big part and witnessed the creation of the Blues Brothers as an opening, like one of the opening warm up acts kind of thing.
And it talks about how, you know, he was there for that and how it was like such a great moment.
Yeah, for sure. You talked about Don as an entertainer, and I think it was always a treat for SNL fans whenever he would show up, whether it was just his voice as part ofthe action in the sketch or like the times that he would actually, we would see Don Pardo's face.
Even re-watching old SNL sketches, a lot of times for what I do, for what we do, we tend to go back and watch old sketches, old episodes.
[11:16] Always a treat to see and hear Don Pardo being involved in the action.
So I want to kind of just go over some of the highlights as far as Don Pardo being involved in SNL sketches.
And I think one of the first ones, It was the very end of season one.
It was a summer episode, Matt, waiting for Pardo.
And this is a sinker of a sketch. And I really enjoy this sketch, though, Matt. Like, what did you think of waiting for Pardo?
I think it's one of my favorite where he's in it just because it's such it's, it's one of those early SNL sketches where it's like really slow. It's really deep.
But the punch is still there. Like, it's just so absurdist because you have you have like Chris Christopherson and Chevy Chase just sitting on a log waiting for Pardo, whichis like a such a like theater nerd pun, you know, like it's like it's most people won't know the play waiting for Godot.
You know, it's not like a top of mind consciousness kind of thing.
So it's already kind of like I'm thinking it's probably O'Donoghue who or somebody like that who wrote this.
Yeah, it seems like it could have been an O'Donoghue.
Yeah, yeah, it's a little bit like snooty, but that that just was fun.
We can't wait much longer.
We don't have much time.
[12:39] Yes, you do, boys, because here's good news. Space and time are empirically real, but transcendentally ideal.
Yours from Emanuel Kant, where time and space work hand in hand for you.
But it just leaned into the Selena and you just would have him reading these philosophical mantras in that bombastic Don Pardo voice.
And it just it made it ridiculous.
It was like there's nothing he was saying that was inherently ridiculous, but just the way he delivered it made it ridiculous, which was so wonderful.
He knew his part. Like you had said, he knew what tone to hit, even in a comedic sketch.
Pardo knew his role in that sketch.
So so he knew that just breaking in to promote a sponsor and like a philosophical kind of reference references in those sponsors. But he knew just by doing that, the righttone to hit to really uplift the gag.
And it's just hilarious. Like they're talking about Pardo like he's an enigmatic figure.
Yes, yes, he's just this voice like this, the disembodied voice, Don Pardo, like, who is he?
Chris Christopherson and Chevy Chase just, yeah, that was just such a fun early, like you said, season one, what a what a fun early way to use Don Pardo.
[14:02] And it was kind of neat, in a way, it kind of spoke to the moment to like the commercialization of the intellectual too, because you had like a manual can't watchesand spazzo spazzo is a luggage or I Ching cruise lines.
So it's like it was just like so ridiculous. It is like, again, people know him as the game show host, the guy who's like on the Price is Right and you've won this brand newCadillac.
Like it's that's that's the energy he was bringing to it. And it's like.
So bonkers. It's just I loved it. I loved it.
Yeah, that's a great one. Waiting for Pardo again, the Chris Kristofferson episode in the summer, one of the summer episodes in season one.
He also did one of the first times I think that he actually appeared on camera was at the very end of the original run of SNL.
The first five seasons, it was a Buck Henry episode in May of 1980.
That was a time at where they knew that the original cast was leaving and season six they were going to have to start over so buck did this bit in the monologue where hewas introducing the cast for season six the quote-unquote cast and Don played a man named Ron Waldo who does a great imitation of Don Fardo.
And last, last folks, but not least, here's Ron Waldo.
[15:31] Now, Ron, they say you do a great imitation of Don Pardo. That's right, Buck.
It's Saturday Night Live! That's terrific.
[15:46] There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. And he looks so tickled being on screen.
It was so funny to watch. And he looked like genuinely like Don, like genuinely tickled to be up there on screen.
Well, I mean, like he maintains these relationships with all of these like a few like many years later when he's on 30 Rock playing himself as the announcer for the girlyshow again.
Like and this is like when he's in his 90s. I think at this point he's just loving it. He's just and I think that's really what makes him so special.
He's like he realizes that the joy of the moment being on SNL originally and then maintaining these relationships all the way into his autumn years Yeah, definitely. Weshould position his age in all of this.
So he was born in 1918 Yes, so when SNL started he was 57 there abouts 56 50 He was already in his late 50s when SNL started, so he he turned 90, when he was into his90s when he was still doing this.
Yeah, he was. He was kind of an old man on the block in 1975 when SNL started.
He and Herb Sargent were kind of the two like old men there.
[16:58] Yeah. And I mean, and the thing is, he was always game like he who worked with Frank Zappa on the episode that Zappa hosted.
They performed a song, I'm the Slime, and Don Pardo did a part.
I'm the best you can get.
Have you guessed me yet?
[17:20] I'm the slime oozing out from your... Take it away, Don Pardo!
[17:54] Frank Zappa liked it so much, he included him on the album.
And then when he was doing that, when Zappa was doing his New York Palladium four or five days or a week or something like that, he had Don Pardo dressed up in likeone of those old time big band sort of jazz, white jazz conductor leader suits, the giant cane and a big hat and, selling these giant like one story tall posters of Don Pardodone up like that as part of the show in New York. Like some people clicked with them.
If Frank Zappa, who's legendarily a contrarian, is like, oh, no, this guy gets it.
Then, you know, he really gets it and he's game for for anything.
Yeah, he's he wasn't self-serious.
[18:41] And that's what we can sense that as an audience, that this man wasn't self-serious, and there was a charm about that.
And it was so wonderful. Like he did a parody of himself. and another time he appeared on screen, it was in season 6 actually, they did a Sabanetwork telethon.
They're poking fun at how NBC was in trouble or whatever.
We actually see Don Pardo sing a little bit. You know there's a word for the position NBC's in now.
[19:26] He's just he's willing to do whatever he needs. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
We actually saw him do some warming up of the crowd. You'd mentioned that he was their warm up guy for a bit. But there was a sketch and at the end of season nine, itwas a cold open and it was Sammy Davis Jr.
And Frank Sinatra, Billy Crystal and Joe Piscopo.
They find out that there's going to be a bunch of hosts for that episode of SNL.
So Sammy and Frank kind of crashed the party. They break into Studio 8H.
Frank hands Don some money and asks them to go get some towels for his room. But we see Don.
Warming up the crowd and getting involved in the in the sketch and everything.
So so that was it was just always so much fun to to see Don Pardo just pop up and he was game.
And like you said, sometimes we overuse that, especially like for hosts.
But with somebody like Don Pardo, like he definitely was game whenever they would call him out of the bullpen, which wasn't that often.
He was always ready when they needed him.
Yeah. I mean, I think that's the best part of it. Like whenever they did use him, it was special.
You know, like there was it was they didn't overuse him. It didn't get boring or OK here. They're using Don again.
I think like in the first season, there was maybe like three times they used him. Like there's that the waiting for Perdo.
[20:45] And there's also like Don Pardo tattles or something like that, where it's like a school, like a turn of the century schoolroom kind of thing.
Like and and he just starts like rat like the teacher comes in And it's like, What were you kids up to?
And it's like that's Don Pardo just tattling just the voiceover of him.
Well, Billy Smith was saying naughty words and just like it was like it's just is perfect because it's just silly and ridiculous.
[21:15] But it's short and it's sweet. It's like they just use it and get in and get out because you don't want to like drag that on.
Sometimes he would go four or five plus seasons in between appearances, like on-camera appearances.
So he would go like that Sammy and Frank one that I mentioned, and then we didn't see him again for another five years, really, on camera.
He was in a sketch with John Lovitz, it's called Get to Know Me, and Don did a testimonial for getting to know John Lovitz, and how that changed his life, essentially, wasto get to know John Lovitz and stuff.
Hello, before I got to know John, I was nothing, nowhere, nobody.
I was stuck in a room reading voiceovers I could barely understand.
And then I got to know him and now I get to be on TV and today they call me Don Pardo.
[22:14] So every few years he would kind of pop up on screen and you're like, oh my God, like That's kind of a special special moment to look back on.
Yeah, he was in this game breakers Sketch was a game show sketch hosted by Phil Hartman, of course Who was the resident game show host in the early 90s?
Susan Lucci was on playing her Erica Kane character and it's a game show, but they get caught up in a love affair and Don, that ends up officiating their wedding. Thatgame show in that sketch is based on a game show.
He was the announcer for in real life. Right.
So it's like and that's when you do these parodies, you have these connections to like the real life edities and it just makes it it's nice because it kind of makes it feel thatmuch more genuine, in a way to be like, yeah, he's really he's ready to jump in and and still like, you know, so he's like this touchstone for so many corners of people's liveslike at the time he you know was doing this like you know there's a generation you remember him as being guy who first announced Kennedy was assassinated indowntown Dallas President Kennedy was shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas mrs.
Kennedy jumped up and grabbed mr. Kennedy she cried oh no the motorcade sped on a photographer said he saw blood on the president's head.
It was believed two shots were fired.
[23:40] Keep tuned to your NBC station for the later news.
He was the newscaster who literally broke the story first.
So you have like him touching on like this counterculture thing and this this this major historical event and game shows.
So it's like he covers the spectrum of culture in a way that I don't think anybody else ever has. No, no, he's like the he's like a Forrest Gump kind of figure as far asBroadcasters go.
Yes. Yeah, it really sounds like it and if you think about it He's been there for for so many amazing things not just at SNL, but with NBC gosh Like the stories did he writea book and I don't know This is probably research I should have done before but but I would have I would love to read a Don Pardo Like that is a memoir.
I'd love to listen to the audio book. No, you're right.
Actually, yeah, like that would be. And that's the thing you don't like.
I was I watched a bunch of interviews with him that were done by the Television Hall of Fame or something like that.
But they're all on YouTube. Just look up Don Pardo.
[24:47] And it's the guy I love telling stories. And that's the thing I don't think we get enough of because of as an announcer, he's like just little snippets and very briefmoments. and then the occasional sketch.
But he loved it. He's like an old guy who loved telling stories about his life, you know? So if he didn't write a book, it's a shame.
So it'd be an amazing book that I would love to read. If there is not an audio book of it, you need to get Daryl to do a reading of this book if it exists.
Just like, please, give it to give us this in his voice.
Exactly. Gosh, that yeah, that would be so great. And with this kind of a couple more for me, like on-camera moments.
We saw Don Pardo, the physical comedian, he'd need Johnny Knoxville in the nuts in a monologue.
Johnny Knoxville was hosting, he was doing a backstage kind of thing.
Or no, it wasn't a backstage, it was a here's what happened over the week and it was basically the cast doing jackass like things to Johnny Knoxville and he meets DonPardo and he's like, oh my god I got to meet Don Pardo and Don Pardo just kind of like need him in the nuts and I think I'm pretty sure that was Don Pardo unless it wasreally great editing.
[25:59] Yeah, I think it would be something he'd do.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's that's within his his gameness, his personality.
Yeah, to do something like that. But that that was a wonderful moment and a very touching moment is actually from what I can find the last time that Pardo appeared oncamera.
And it was fitting because it was February 23rd, 2008.
During the good nights, they brought out a birthday cake.
Don Pardo has been with NBC since 1944, yesterday he turned 90, happy birthday Don!
[26:37] He blew out the candles and that was really touching. I remember when it happened in the moment, but even going back and watching, that's like, that was so such atouching moment, Matt.
And I mean, they don't celebrate, they've never celebrated Lorne in that way, or anybody else, you know, there's very few people. And I mean, I think it's like an egalitariansense, like they don't want to elevate people above the rest of the cast.
But there's certain people where they really feel, I feel like they recognize that there's intrinsic part of the heart of the show.
And Don is one of them where they'll, they acknowledge the gift that he's given them.
And you know, all of those decades of dedication to not just NBC, but specifically to SNL. Like he left NBC, but came back for that show.
Yeah. When I'm in my 80s.
[27:29] I am not going back to my day job. Oh, it'll take a lot of convincing and money or or me not having any money to get back to that.
Exactly. Yeah, I think I'd be good, too.
And he wasn't like he wasn't just the heart to like.
That's kind of the main thing is first. When I think about Don Pardo is the heart of in a more clinical sense.
He was so crucial to the branding of the show. And it's really hard to overstate and hard to quantify.
Just how important Don Pardo was to SNL's branding.
Because when you think about it, part of the branding is their intros.
They have the same similar intros every show. So people kind of get used to that.
They get used to the voice. And so Don Pardo is part of the fabric of the brand of SNL.
And I mean, Matt, that's so important. People don't just kind of, I can openly say how important he was in that regard.
Yeah, and I mean, even when you look at parody SNL, the Don Pardo element is often a part of those parodies, like the the bombastic announcer.
I kind of feel to me, Matt TV never really.
And part of that was it kind of lacked something magical about it.
I mean, it was fine. I didn't hate it.
It had a few good sketches over the years. It really wasn't my jam.
[28:54] I'm with you. But yeah, but there's just something missing.
And I kind of feel like it's that energy that and it's not just Don as a person, but the energy that's that's manifested by knowing that Don is an important part of it throughoutthe entire show.
Because like Lauren was like when he came back, one of the first things he did is he brought Don back on board.
Don was laid off of the job during those years when Lauren was away.
You know, like they're like, we're getting a new start. We're going to get a new announcer. and they realized, no, we need...
And we need that. So it's like it's all part of that sort of spirit that I think goes into SNL that makes it so special.
Right. Is it's all tied together in this magical brew.
Yeah, that's a lot of what has separated SNL from a lot of sketch shows for me. I mean, there's a lot of sketch shows, a lot of sketch shows that I really like.
[29:47] But I think Lorne and the people who have helped make us know what it is, they know how to put on a show.
It's not just here's some here's our attempt at some sketches, and that's that like Lorne They wanted to make a whole show an Entertainment entity out of it and part of thatwas Don Pardo the energy of the band of G Smith or whoever was leading the band at the time.
It was all that Secret sauce that made SNL not just a show that had some sketches and you're gonna get music or whatever However, it was an event and it sounded like anevent and somebody like Don Pardo can convey that this is an event that you're watching right now and that that's so huge and it's hard to do.
People who have big booming voices can't even do what Don Pardo did.
Because there is there was nuance to it in a lot of ways that you don't.
It's not just being loud.
It's it's being in the moment.
It feels live. You know, like it's not like canned or phoned in, even when it was recorded separately in the later years.
It didn't really feel that way, which is really special.
[31:04] So before we get out of here, is there anything else about Don Pardo that that you could find that you wanted to make sure that we that we covered here?
Yeah, I mean, like I just I think it's it's just really awesome how game he was to make fun of himself in all levels.
Like you like you hear those stories about like his time on the show, like watching him talk about that.
And he's half the time he's just being self deprecating.
You know, like I lost on Jeopardy. He was nailing the lines as if he was doing his job on Jeopardy.
I think what makes him special is that he was always he was dedicated 70 years with the company and a part of culture, but never was arrogant about it.
But understood where he felt it fit in and was a guest in people's lives.
He was a humble guy, but a compassionate one at the same time.
Yeah. For those reasons, that's why Don Pardo is an SNL Hall of Famer. No vote necessary.
The Veterans Committee got together and decided that Don Pardo is in the SNL Hall of Fame.
[32:14] So before we go, you had touched on it before. So I've heard comedians throughout the years basically do impressions of Don Pardo.
Scott Aukerman, if you listen to Comedy Bang Bang, Scott Aukerman likes to say Nassim Padrad in a Don Pardo voice.
That's a funny bit that he does. Daryl Hammond, as we mentioned, essentially pays homage to Pardo every week by doing his voice on SNL.
So Matt, I thought that in honor of Don Pardo, I think we should each do Pardo impressions of our own by taking turns naming three cast members from SNL history in ourDon Pardo voice, paying tribute in our own little way to Don Pardo. What do you think? That'd be fun.
All right, I'll start it and then we'll just volley here. Three each. Okay.
Nora Dunn. Bill Hartman.
Melanie Hutzel. Michael. Mike Meyers.
Finesse Mitchell.
[33:21] Okay.
Okay. Sorry.
Billy Crystal.
How did that happen? I was like, okay, I'm going to do, I didn't even, Billy Crystal wasn't even who I was going to do. I was going to do Dana Carvey.
And it's just like, every name went out of my head in that moment.
I think I was just overwhelmed by the sense of Don Pardo.
Like, you know, it's just too much voice, too much voice. Exactly.
So again, Don Pardo, we love you.
Congratulations, Don Pardo. Welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame.
Matt, thank you so much for joining me and celebrating Mr. Pardo.
Track 2:
[34:20] So there's that Thank you so much Thomas and Matt.
That was wonderful and celebratory and I think very, Appropriate for somebody as synonymous with SNL as Don Pardo is, So that's really wonderful Normally at thispoint we play you a clip to seal the deal Uh, we're going to do the same this week, uh, although again, this isn't to influence your voting because you don't get to vote forthis, uh, award.
This is somebody who is automagically inducted into the hall of fame, but let's listen to the maestro do some of his, uh, maestroing work.
[35:08] Um, this is Don Pardo introducing the season 16 cast of SNL during the opening credits.
[35:19] So give this a listen and, uh, we'll meet you on the other side.
[36:44] Oh, that was fantastic. That was very nostalgic.
A Trip Down Memory Lane. That's my cast. That's a little later than my cast, in terms of the featured players, but that's my group.
That's really wonderful, and I'm glad that we got to hear that.
I liked Daryl Hammond doing the opening, but there was something about Bardo, you know? And it's hamstrings Hammond in a way, because he, he doesn't want to just beDon Pardo.
He's doing something different. And, uh, I appreciate that.
But, um, what do you think?
What do you think of this award? Who else should be a recipient of the Don Pardo award when you're thinking about season five? Is there anybody that comes to mind?
Well, we've got a few people in mind. We'll share that with you as the time progresses, But that's pretty much what I've got for you this week.
I wanna make you aware of the fact that voting will open December the 5th for the Hall of Fame, and the finale will be December 18th, I believe.
[37:54] So there's that. So get ready, buckle up, and yeah, we're gonna elect a new group of Hall of Famers, or you are, I suppose.
So, enjoy, and thanks to Thomas and Matt for doing Yeoman's work.
And for you, there's a job. It's on your way out as you pass the Weekend Update exhibit.
Do me a favor and turn out the lights, because the SNL Hall of Fame is now closed.
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Join Matt and Thomas as they make the announcement of the first-ever Don Pardo award; Don Pardo!
Transcript:
[0:43] All right, thank you so much, Doug DeNance. It is great to be here in the SNL Hall of Fame with you all.
My name is JD, and welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame podcast.
Before you come on inside, if you could do me a favor and please wipe your feet, that would be just tremendous.
The SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer and addthem to the ballot for your consideration.
Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you, the listener, to vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall.
Well, that's normally the way we play the game, but this week we're doing things a little bit different.
Allow me to introduce you to the Don Pardo Award episode.
That's right. We've created an award for somebody that will receive it and be enshrined in the Hall of Fame outside of the voting process.
[1:47] So this is pretty exciting. This won't be somebody you vote for.
This will be something that we award every year going forward and when there is somebody that makes sense to give the award to.
So it might not be every year but our goal will be to make it every year.
And, uh, the first recipient of the Don Pardo award is none other than the namesake of the award, Don Pardo.
And my friends, Matt Ardill and Thomas Senna have gathered together in the bunker.
[2:27] We are going to not participate in Matt's minutiae minute this week.
We are going to go right downstairs to Thomas and Matt where they are going to titillate us with information on Don Pardo and why he belongs in the SNL Hall of Fame.
So buckle up, get ready, and enjoy this special episode of the SNL Hall of Fame podcast.
Track 3:
[3:23] All right, JD, thanks for the introduction. And that is correct.
You cannot have Matt Ardill this episode for Matt's minutia minute.
I'm stealing him for this discussion, Jamie, and that's all there is to it.
It's a special one because we're not trying to make the case for someone to get inducted into the SNL Hall of Fame.
That business has already been handled. world.
We're here to celebrate the induction of Don Pardo. So Matt, our deal here with me to celebrate.
Hello. Thanks for joining me.
[3:56] Thanks for having me, Thomas. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, it's fun.
I know Jamie always has you guys do your thing at the top of the show, but it's fun for me and you to have a little discussion here and and lead the conversation. So I'mreally happy to have you.
You and I don't always we don't get to interact enough. So this is really great, Matt.
Yeah, I am looking forward to it. I Don is such a part of the legacy of SNL.
It's great to have. Yeah, such a huge legacy.
And I think Don Pardo is a pretty fitting person to receive this special induction by the SNL Hall of Fame Veterans Committee.
The first being Lorne Michaels. That was an obvious choice. We were like, should we name the Hall of Fame after Lorne Michaels?
We decided that Lorne Michaels would be the perfect first inductee as far as Veterans committee goes, but it's hard to argue the impact that Don Pardo had on viewersthroughout his career prior to and throughout SNL, Matt.
Yeah, well, I mean, he had a 70 year tenure with NBC starting like in radio before the television was even really much of a thing. And I think like he he was with thecompany.
[5:08] Basically his entire adult life, like grew up the son of immigrants in Norwich, Connecticut.
His first broadcasting job was with the NBC affiliate station WJR in 1938, becoming a full time announcer in 1944.
[5:25] Doing radio dramas, science fiction like Dimension X before eventually becoming a war reporter for NBC.
[5:33] So, I mean, you know, if people think, oh, you know, he's the guy from Jeopardy or or the price is right, which, yeah, he was. But before that, he had a verydistinguished career.
Hard journalism. He was a hard journalist and real in the field in the field covered.
That's wild to me that he covered World War Two.
And we know him as a contemporary kind of SNL voice still. This man covered World War Two.
Yeah. And in a way, that was like the real deal, too. It's not just like, oh, sitting there, not doing anything.
Yeah. And I mean, when he came back, He he continued to to to work like in the game shows.
That's where I think most people came to know him because it was such a popular format.
He was so I think the mark of somebody being a part of a popular culture is a weird owl includes you in something.
[6:25] And weird owls I lost on Jeopardy basically hinges around Don Pardo. video.
[7:07] So it's like it's just hilarious. So, I mean, he's always had a good sense of humor about himself.
He's always understood where he sort of fits in the zeitgeist.
And I mean, he's done a variety of things.
War reporting, Macy's Day Thanksgiving parade.
He continued to do the nightly NBC nightly news on the radio well into his nearest retirement.
His time at Studio 8H actually predates SNL. So he was longer at 8H longer than SNL.
And he said that where he does like the booth that he did that he did the the introductions from that's where the conductor of the the famous orchestra that yeah studio eight.
That's where the conductor basically would stand. And I think Don really enjoyed that fact.
Yeah, he did. And he had this one interview I watched with him where he talks about like how things have changed and like how how Studio 8H used to be this big highceiling ballroom with this raised stage, that there was a staff band who were paid a salary to just basically hang out and then play music whenever people wanted music forthings.
So he comes he kind of bridges the entire sort of spectrum of the history.
[8:24] He retired from NBC in 2004, but as a favor to Lauren, kept kept going.
And you can find a lot of these stories that he talks about online.
A lot of interviews on YouTube.
I where he talks about how the first time he had to step back, he's had laryngitis.
He was like he's in his retirement years and he's like he they were still flying him out to New York from his retirement home where he was living and his sister-in-lawcalled him.
It's like, oh, you sounded great last night. He's like, oh, really?
Did you listen to that entire entire episode? the entire thing where I had a big back and forth with the with the host.
And she's like, yeah, you sound like you're good. Older is like, how do I sound now? And I said, well, you sound kind of rough.
Yeah, because that wasn't me.
[9:12] It's like the first one that that Daryl Hammond did stepping in for him.
And afterwards, Darryl was saying, you know, you're you're really hard to do.
You're really just such a bombastic, right? Yeah.
Darryl says that this is basically him as an announcer. Darryl as the SNL announcer is just an homage to Don Pardo.
So he's essentially trying to do a Don Pardo. He's not Darryl using a Darryl voice being the announcer.
He's still trying to harness the spirit of Don Pardo.
I love that Darryl understands Don Pardo's obviously his importance to the show.
Yeah. And I mean, it's it's just really speaks to that.
No way. Like, you know, Lauren is kind of the mind, but I think Don is the heart because he's like a natural entertainer, you know, And he kind of goes back to what.
[10:02] Lauren was trying to channel when he first started SNL was that sort of bridge between old comedy and new comedy.
And Don sort of runs right up the middle of that because he literally connected the history of NBC and that studio to the modern studio.
They talk a lot about how in the early days he would do the warm ups beforehand and in the first few seasons that kind of got shrunk and shrunk and shrunk.
But yeah, I mean, he was there for everything right up until the end.
He was a big part and witnessed the creation of the Blues Brothers as an opening, like one of the opening warm up acts kind of thing.
And it talks about how, you know, he was there for that and how it was like such a great moment.
Yeah, for sure. You talked about Don as an entertainer, and I think it was always a treat for SNL fans whenever he would show up, whether it was just his voice as part ofthe action in the sketch or like the times that he would actually, we would see Don Pardo's face.
Even re-watching old SNL sketches, a lot of times for what I do, for what we do, we tend to go back and watch old sketches, old episodes.
[11:16] Always a treat to see and hear Don Pardo being involved in the action.
So I want to kind of just go over some of the highlights as far as Don Pardo being involved in SNL sketches.
And I think one of the first ones, It was the very end of season one.
It was a summer episode, Matt, waiting for Pardo.
And this is a sinker of a sketch. And I really enjoy this sketch, though, Matt. Like, what did you think of waiting for Pardo?
I think it's one of my favorite where he's in it just because it's such it's, it's one of those early SNL sketches where it's like really slow. It's really deep.
But the punch is still there. Like, it's just so absurdist because you have you have like Chris Christopherson and Chevy Chase just sitting on a log waiting for Pardo, whichis like a such a like theater nerd pun, you know, like it's like it's most people won't know the play waiting for Godot.
You know, it's not like a top of mind consciousness kind of thing.
So it's already kind of like I'm thinking it's probably O'Donoghue who or somebody like that who wrote this.
Yeah, it seems like it could have been an O'Donoghue.
Yeah, yeah, it's a little bit like snooty, but that that just was fun.
We can't wait much longer.
We don't have much time.
[12:39] Yes, you do, boys, because here's good news. Space and time are empirically real, but transcendentally ideal.
Yours from Emanuel Kant, where time and space work hand in hand for you.
But it just leaned into the Selena and you just would have him reading these philosophical mantras in that bombastic Don Pardo voice.
And it just it made it ridiculous.
It was like there's nothing he was saying that was inherently ridiculous, but just the way he delivered it made it ridiculous, which was so wonderful.
He knew his part. Like you had said, he knew what tone to hit, even in a comedic sketch.
Pardo knew his role in that sketch.
So so he knew that just breaking in to promote a sponsor and like a philosophical kind of reference references in those sponsors. But he knew just by doing that, the righttone to hit to really uplift the gag.
And it's just hilarious. Like they're talking about Pardo like he's an enigmatic figure.
Yes, yes, he's just this voice like this, the disembodied voice, Don Pardo, like, who is he?
Chris Christopherson and Chevy Chase just, yeah, that was just such a fun early, like you said, season one, what a what a fun early way to use Don Pardo.
[14:02] And it was kind of neat, in a way, it kind of spoke to the moment to like the commercialization of the intellectual too, because you had like a manual can't watchesand spazzo spazzo is a luggage or I Ching cruise lines.
So it's like it was just like so ridiculous. It is like, again, people know him as the game show host, the guy who's like on the Price is Right and you've won this brand newCadillac.
Like it's that's that's the energy he was bringing to it. And it's like.
So bonkers. It's just I loved it. I loved it.
Yeah, that's a great one. Waiting for Pardo again, the Chris Kristofferson episode in the summer, one of the summer episodes in season one.
He also did one of the first times I think that he actually appeared on camera was at the very end of the original run of SNL.
The first five seasons, it was a Buck Henry episode in May of 1980.
That was a time at where they knew that the original cast was leaving and season six they were going to have to start over so buck did this bit in the monologue where hewas introducing the cast for season six the quote-unquote cast and Don played a man named Ron Waldo who does a great imitation of Don Fardo.
And last, last folks, but not least, here's Ron Waldo.
[15:31] Now, Ron, they say you do a great imitation of Don Pardo. That's right, Buck.
It's Saturday Night Live! That's terrific.
[15:46] There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. And he looks so tickled being on screen.
It was so funny to watch. And he looked like genuinely like Don, like genuinely tickled to be up there on screen.
Well, I mean, like he maintains these relationships with all of these like a few like many years later when he's on 30 Rock playing himself as the announcer for the girlyshow again.
Like and this is like when he's in his 90s. I think at this point he's just loving it. He's just and I think that's really what makes him so special.
He's like he realizes that the joy of the moment being on SNL originally and then maintaining these relationships all the way into his autumn years Yeah, definitely. Weshould position his age in all of this.
So he was born in 1918 Yes, so when SNL started he was 57 there abouts 56 50 He was already in his late 50s when SNL started, so he he turned 90, when he was into his90s when he was still doing this.
Yeah, he was. He was kind of an old man on the block in 1975 when SNL started.
He and Herb Sargent were kind of the two like old men there.
[16:58] Yeah. And I mean, and the thing is, he was always game like he who worked with Frank Zappa on the episode that Zappa hosted.
They performed a song, I'm the Slime, and Don Pardo did a part.
I'm the best you can get.
Have you guessed me yet?
[17:20] I'm the slime oozing out from your... Take it away, Don Pardo!
[17:54] Frank Zappa liked it so much, he included him on the album.
And then when he was doing that, when Zappa was doing his New York Palladium four or five days or a week or something like that, he had Don Pardo dressed up in likeone of those old time big band sort of jazz, white jazz conductor leader suits, the giant cane and a big hat and, selling these giant like one story tall posters of Don Pardodone up like that as part of the show in New York. Like some people clicked with them.
If Frank Zappa, who's legendarily a contrarian, is like, oh, no, this guy gets it.
Then, you know, he really gets it and he's game for for anything.
Yeah, he's he wasn't self-serious.
[18:41] And that's what we can sense that as an audience, that this man wasn't self-serious, and there was a charm about that.
And it was so wonderful. Like he did a parody of himself. and another time he appeared on screen, it was in season 6 actually, they did a Sabanetwork telethon.
They're poking fun at how NBC was in trouble or whatever.
We actually see Don Pardo sing a little bit. You know there's a word for the position NBC's in now.
[19:26] He's just he's willing to do whatever he needs. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
We actually saw him do some warming up of the crowd. You'd mentioned that he was their warm up guy for a bit. But there was a sketch and at the end of season nine, itwas a cold open and it was Sammy Davis Jr.
And Frank Sinatra, Billy Crystal and Joe Piscopo.
They find out that there's going to be a bunch of hosts for that episode of SNL.
So Sammy and Frank kind of crashed the party. They break into Studio 8H.
Frank hands Don some money and asks them to go get some towels for his room. But we see Don.
Warming up the crowd and getting involved in the in the sketch and everything.
So so that was it was just always so much fun to to see Don Pardo just pop up and he was game.
And like you said, sometimes we overuse that, especially like for hosts.
But with somebody like Don Pardo, like he definitely was game whenever they would call him out of the bullpen, which wasn't that often.
He was always ready when they needed him.
Yeah. I mean, I think that's the best part of it. Like whenever they did use him, it was special.
You know, like there was it was they didn't overuse him. It didn't get boring or OK here. They're using Don again.
I think like in the first season, there was maybe like three times they used him. Like there's that the waiting for Perdo.
[20:45] And there's also like Don Pardo tattles or something like that, where it's like a school, like a turn of the century schoolroom kind of thing.
Like and and he just starts like rat like the teacher comes in And it's like, What were you kids up to?
And it's like that's Don Pardo just tattling just the voiceover of him.
Well, Billy Smith was saying naughty words and just like it was like it's just is perfect because it's just silly and ridiculous.
[21:15] But it's short and it's sweet. It's like they just use it and get in and get out because you don't want to like drag that on.
Sometimes he would go four or five plus seasons in between appearances, like on-camera appearances.
So he would go like that Sammy and Frank one that I mentioned, and then we didn't see him again for another five years, really, on camera.
He was in a sketch with John Lovitz, it's called Get to Know Me, and Don did a testimonial for getting to know John Lovitz, and how that changed his life, essentially, wasto get to know John Lovitz and stuff.
Hello, before I got to know John, I was nothing, nowhere, nobody.
I was stuck in a room reading voiceovers I could barely understand.
And then I got to know him and now I get to be on TV and today they call me Don Pardo.
[22:14] So every few years he would kind of pop up on screen and you're like, oh my God, like That's kind of a special special moment to look back on.
Yeah, he was in this game breakers Sketch was a game show sketch hosted by Phil Hartman, of course Who was the resident game show host in the early 90s?
Susan Lucci was on playing her Erica Kane character and it's a game show, but they get caught up in a love affair and Don, that ends up officiating their wedding. Thatgame show in that sketch is based on a game show.
He was the announcer for in real life. Right.
So it's like and that's when you do these parodies, you have these connections to like the real life edities and it just makes it it's nice because it kind of makes it feel thatmuch more genuine, in a way to be like, yeah, he's really he's ready to jump in and and still like, you know, so he's like this touchstone for so many corners of people's liveslike at the time he you know was doing this like you know there's a generation you remember him as being guy who first announced Kennedy was assassinated indowntown Dallas President Kennedy was shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas mrs.
Kennedy jumped up and grabbed mr. Kennedy she cried oh no the motorcade sped on a photographer said he saw blood on the president's head.
It was believed two shots were fired.
[23:40] Keep tuned to your NBC station for the later news.
He was the newscaster who literally broke the story first.
So you have like him touching on like this counterculture thing and this this this major historical event and game shows.
So it's like he covers the spectrum of culture in a way that I don't think anybody else ever has. No, no, he's like the he's like a Forrest Gump kind of figure as far asBroadcasters go.
Yes. Yeah, it really sounds like it and if you think about it He's been there for for so many amazing things not just at SNL, but with NBC gosh Like the stories did he writea book and I don't know This is probably research I should have done before but but I would have I would love to read a Don Pardo Like that is a memoir.
I'd love to listen to the audio book. No, you're right.
Actually, yeah, like that would be. And that's the thing you don't like.
I was I watched a bunch of interviews with him that were done by the Television Hall of Fame or something like that.
But they're all on YouTube. Just look up Don Pardo.
[24:47] And it's the guy I love telling stories. And that's the thing I don't think we get enough of because of as an announcer, he's like just little snippets and very briefmoments. and then the occasional sketch.
But he loved it. He's like an old guy who loved telling stories about his life, you know? So if he didn't write a book, it's a shame.
So it'd be an amazing book that I would love to read. If there is not an audio book of it, you need to get Daryl to do a reading of this book if it exists.
Just like, please, give it to give us this in his voice.
Exactly. Gosh, that yeah, that would be so great. And with this kind of a couple more for me, like on-camera moments.
We saw Don Pardo, the physical comedian, he'd need Johnny Knoxville in the nuts in a monologue.
Johnny Knoxville was hosting, he was doing a backstage kind of thing.
Or no, it wasn't a backstage, it was a here's what happened over the week and it was basically the cast doing jackass like things to Johnny Knoxville and he meets DonPardo and he's like, oh my god I got to meet Don Pardo and Don Pardo just kind of like need him in the nuts and I think I'm pretty sure that was Don Pardo unless it wasreally great editing.
[25:59] Yeah, I think it would be something he'd do.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's that's within his his gameness, his personality.
Yeah, to do something like that. But that that was a wonderful moment and a very touching moment is actually from what I can find the last time that Pardo appeared oncamera.
And it was fitting because it was February 23rd, 2008.
During the good nights, they brought out a birthday cake.
Don Pardo has been with NBC since 1944, yesterday he turned 90, happy birthday Don!
[26:37] He blew out the candles and that was really touching. I remember when it happened in the moment, but even going back and watching, that's like, that was so such atouching moment, Matt.
And I mean, they don't celebrate, they've never celebrated Lorne in that way, or anybody else, you know, there's very few people. And I mean, I think it's like an egalitariansense, like they don't want to elevate people above the rest of the cast.
But there's certain people where they really feel, I feel like they recognize that there's intrinsic part of the heart of the show.
And Don is one of them where they'll, they acknowledge the gift that he's given them.
And you know, all of those decades of dedication to not just NBC, but specifically to SNL. Like he left NBC, but came back for that show.
Yeah. When I'm in my 80s.
[27:29] I am not going back to my day job. Oh, it'll take a lot of convincing and money or or me not having any money to get back to that.
Exactly. Yeah, I think I'd be good, too.
And he wasn't like he wasn't just the heart to like.
That's kind of the main thing is first. When I think about Don Pardo is the heart of in a more clinical sense.
He was so crucial to the branding of the show. And it's really hard to overstate and hard to quantify.
Just how important Don Pardo was to SNL's branding.
Because when you think about it, part of the branding is their intros.
They have the same similar intros every show. So people kind of get used to that.
They get used to the voice. And so Don Pardo is part of the fabric of the brand of SNL.
And I mean, Matt, that's so important. People don't just kind of, I can openly say how important he was in that regard.
Yeah, and I mean, even when you look at parody SNL, the Don Pardo element is often a part of those parodies, like the the bombastic announcer.
I kind of feel to me, Matt TV never really.
And part of that was it kind of lacked something magical about it.
I mean, it was fine. I didn't hate it.
It had a few good sketches over the years. It really wasn't my jam.
[28:54] I'm with you. But yeah, but there's just something missing.
And I kind of feel like it's that energy that and it's not just Don as a person, but the energy that's that's manifested by knowing that Don is an important part of it throughoutthe entire show.
Because like Lauren was like when he came back, one of the first things he did is he brought Don back on board.
Don was laid off of the job during those years when Lauren was away.
You know, like they're like, we're getting a new start. We're going to get a new announcer. and they realized, no, we need...
And we need that. So it's like it's all part of that sort of spirit that I think goes into SNL that makes it so special.
Right. Is it's all tied together in this magical brew.
Yeah, that's a lot of what has separated SNL from a lot of sketch shows for me. I mean, there's a lot of sketch shows, a lot of sketch shows that I really like.
[29:47] But I think Lorne and the people who have helped make us know what it is, they know how to put on a show.
It's not just here's some here's our attempt at some sketches, and that's that like Lorne They wanted to make a whole show an Entertainment entity out of it and part of thatwas Don Pardo the energy of the band of G Smith or whoever was leading the band at the time.
It was all that Secret sauce that made SNL not just a show that had some sketches and you're gonna get music or whatever However, it was an event and it sounded like anevent and somebody like Don Pardo can convey that this is an event that you're watching right now and that that's so huge and it's hard to do.
People who have big booming voices can't even do what Don Pardo did.
Because there is there was nuance to it in a lot of ways that you don't.
It's not just being loud.
It's it's being in the moment.
It feels live. You know, like it's not like canned or phoned in, even when it was recorded separately in the later years.
It didn't really feel that way, which is really special.
[31:04] So before we get out of here, is there anything else about Don Pardo that that you could find that you wanted to make sure that we that we covered here?
Yeah, I mean, like I just I think it's it's just really awesome how game he was to make fun of himself in all levels.
Like you like you hear those stories about like his time on the show, like watching him talk about that.
And he's half the time he's just being self deprecating.
You know, like I lost on Jeopardy. He was nailing the lines as if he was doing his job on Jeopardy.
I think what makes him special is that he was always he was dedicated 70 years with the company and a part of culture, but never was arrogant about it.
But understood where he felt it fit in and was a guest in people's lives.
He was a humble guy, but a compassionate one at the same time.
Yeah. For those reasons, that's why Don Pardo is an SNL Hall of Famer. No vote necessary.
The Veterans Committee got together and decided that Don Pardo is in the SNL Hall of Fame.
[32:14] So before we go, you had touched on it before. So I've heard comedians throughout the years basically do impressions of Don Pardo.
Scott Aukerman, if you listen to Comedy Bang Bang, Scott Aukerman likes to say Nassim Padrad in a Don Pardo voice.
That's a funny bit that he does. Daryl Hammond, as we mentioned, essentially pays homage to Pardo every week by doing his voice on SNL.
So Matt, I thought that in honor of Don Pardo, I think we should each do Pardo impressions of our own by taking turns naming three cast members from SNL history in ourDon Pardo voice, paying tribute in our own little way to Don Pardo. What do you think? That'd be fun.
All right, I'll start it and then we'll just volley here. Three each. Okay.
Nora Dunn. Bill Hartman.
Melanie Hutzel. Michael. Mike Meyers.
Finesse Mitchell.
[33:21] Okay.
Okay. Sorry.
Billy Crystal.
How did that happen? I was like, okay, I'm going to do, I didn't even, Billy Crystal wasn't even who I was going to do. I was going to do Dana Carvey.
And it's just like, every name went out of my head in that moment.
I think I was just overwhelmed by the sense of Don Pardo.
Like, you know, it's just too much voice, too much voice. Exactly.
So again, Don Pardo, we love you.
Congratulations, Don Pardo. Welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame.
Matt, thank you so much for joining me and celebrating Mr. Pardo.
Track 2:
[34:20] So there's that Thank you so much Thomas and Matt.
That was wonderful and celebratory and I think very, Appropriate for somebody as synonymous with SNL as Don Pardo is, So that's really wonderful Normally at thispoint we play you a clip to seal the deal Uh, we're going to do the same this week, uh, although again, this isn't to influence your voting because you don't get to vote forthis, uh, award.
This is somebody who is automagically inducted into the hall of fame, but let's listen to the maestro do some of his, uh, maestroing work.
[35:08] Um, this is Don Pardo introducing the season 16 cast of SNL during the opening credits.
[35:19] So give this a listen and, uh, we'll meet you on the other side.
[36:44] Oh, that was fantastic. That was very nostalgic.
A Trip Down Memory Lane. That's my cast. That's a little later than my cast, in terms of the featured players, but that's my group.
That's really wonderful, and I'm glad that we got to hear that.
I liked Daryl Hammond doing the opening, but there was something about Bardo, you know? And it's hamstrings Hammond in a way, because he, he doesn't want to just beDon Pardo.
He's doing something different. And, uh, I appreciate that.
But, um, what do you think?
What do you think of this award? Who else should be a recipient of the Don Pardo award when you're thinking about season five? Is there anybody that comes to mind?
Well, we've got a few people in mind. We'll share that with you as the time progresses, But that's pretty much what I've got for you this week.
I wanna make you aware of the fact that voting will open December the 5th for the Hall of Fame, and the finale will be December 18th, I believe.
[37:54] So there's that. So get ready, buckle up, and yeah, we're gonna elect a new group of Hall of Famers, or you are, I suppose.
So, enjoy, and thanks to Thomas and Matt for doing Yeoman's work.
And for you, there's a job. It's on your way out as you pass the Weekend Update exhibit.
Do me a favor and turn out the lights, because the SNL Hall of Fame is now closed.
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