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JACK NARZ

Jack Narz (November 13, 1922 – October 15, 2008) was an American television announcer and game show host. Narz was the elder brother of Tom Kennedy and the former brother-in-law of Bill Cullen. Narz eluded the infamous quiz show scandals to forge a respected hosting career.

Narz began his early career doing voice work as one of the narrators for Adventures of Superman. Narz also made appearances in local Los Angeles television and served as the announcer on one of TV's first nationally-broadcast children's shows, Space Patrol.

Narz first achieved television fame in 1952, when he was the on-camera announcer and narrator of the sitcom Life with Elizabeth starring Betty White. In 1955, as he did on radio, Narz served as the announcer-sidekick of bandleader Bob Crosby on the former's daytime TV show. That same year, he also worked as announcer on Place The Face, a game show hosted by Bill Cullen. By the end of 1957, Narz's career success forced his family to relocate from southern California to the suburbs of New York City.

In January 1958, Narz began hosting his own game show, presiding over CBS's Dotto. Within a very brief time, this show became as popular, with Dotto running five days a week on CBS and, beginning in the summer of 1958, weekly in prime time on NBC. Dotto was later part of the quiz show scandals and was the first popular quiz show to be canceled as a result.

MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Narz

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2008-10-16-jack-narz_N.htm

Jack Narz, host of numerous game shows including Dotto and Concentration, passed away on October 15th 2008 due to complications following a stroke. He was 85 years old.

Narz was born on November 22nd 1922. He started his television career as an announcer for various shows, and in 1958 he became the host of the CBS daytime game show Dotto. The show took off, and that summer a prime time edition was added on NBC, with Narz at the helm of both programs. Dotto was based on Connect the Dots, and contestants had to answer general interest questions to connect dots in the puzzle to reveal a famous figure.

MORE: http://gameshows.about.com/od/obituaries/a/jack_narz.htm

Jack Narz’s hosting career almost ended as quickly as it began. Eight months after Dotto debuted in January 1958 it was revealed that the show was “fixed” and Narz became embroiled in the famous Quiz Show Scandal of 1959. Luckily, a polygraph test proved that Narz was innocent of all charges, and two years later he continued a career that included games shows such as Beat the Clock and Concentration. Narz, whose brother Tom Kennedy is also a veteran game show host, was a fighter pilot during World War II and won a Distinguished Flying Cross for missions in the China-Burma theater. After the war he enrolled in broadcasting school and landed several jobs doing voice work for radio commercials. One of his TV gigs was as the off-camera announcer in the two-part pilot episode of The Adventures of Superman. Narz was paid $150 for saying “Join us every week for the adventures of Superman!”, and then received a royalty check for $1.98 for the rest of his life any time that episode was aired.

MORE: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/44004

Game show host and announcer Jack Narz died at the age of 85, after suffering a couple of massive strokes in the last month. He's probably best known for hosting 'Dotto' at the time of the big quiz show scandal (I think 'Dotto' was the first show to be outed, but his career was not damaged by the association.)

Narz was also the announcer for 'Space Patrol' and for the first episode of 'The Adventures Of Superman', as well as for TV Crossover Hall of Famer Betty White's sitcom from the early 1950s, 'Time For Elizabeth'.

MORE: http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2008_10_12_archive.html

Hosted by the late Jack Narz, this show was one of the few clunkers in the Mark Goodson catalog. Knowing Goodson’s style, though, he even made the mediocre concepts look like gold. This show went through a couple format changes during its 14 months on the air. Yet the main object of the show was contestants  competing to find words in a format similar to a word search puzzle. The winner would go on the bonus round, called the “Solo Round”, where if they found 10 words on the gameboard in 60 seconds they would win a cash jackpot. I’m not sure about this but this might have been the first game show to ever use a telestrater.

Speaking of which, here’s a video featuring the biggest bonus round win in this version of Now You See It’s history. Don’t you just love that gameboard?

MORE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC_NESltPfc&feature=player_embedded

The Great Quiz Scandal of 1957.
"Rigged" games rocked the TV world.

In the Spring of '57, before computer graphics and electronic wizardry turned game shows into kaleidoscopic casinos, the hot program on the airwaves was called TWENTY-ONE, a quiz game with point values loosely based on blackjack.

The Set was simple: a lectern for the host, quiz-king Jack Barry, two isolation booths for the opposing contestants and a banner proclaiming "Geritol," the show's sponsor.

Herbert Stempel vs. Charles Van Doren

Herbert Stempel, who said he was a struggling ex-GI, was the reigning leader that season, fighting off challengers for weeks on end, accumulating $48,000 in winnings.

Enter one Charles Van Doren, a rakishly handsome Columbia University professor, who toppled Stempel, eventually w

MORE: http://www.tvtix.com/great-quiz-scandal.php

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