30 Rock Studio 6-B

[Kevin Vahey]

While he has officially retired from NBC and has moved to Arizona,
Lorne Michaels flies him in for SNL to this day.

I have heard him tell the story that he was upset at NBC when they
pulled the plug on a popular game show he was working on in 1975
called Jackpot because they needed 8-H for SNL. He was convinced SNL
would last 13 weeks.

NBC wanted to move Jackpot to Burbank but producer Bob Stewart would
not leave NYC because he had a cash cow at CBS called $10000 Pyramid
that taped at the Sullivan.

He also told the story of how his good friend Johnny Olson told him to
stay in NY as Olson came to hate California but when Goodson-Todman
stopped producing in NYC in favor of LA and Montreal (yes Montreal)
Olson moved west.



On 11/25/08, Bill O'Neill <billohno@gmail.com> wrote:
> TVNETDUDE@aol.com wrote:
>> And we  all know the story of how the announcer in 8-H told WNBC he
>> would retire  when this new show he was given in 1975 was cancelled.
>> Don Pardo really  never retired until he hit 90.
> Someone should be helping Pardo with his memoir for goodness sake. What
> are we waiting for, 100? Not that the next ten years won't be action
> packed, but this guy _started_ his SNL gig when he was _57_. The stories
> he could tell.  BTW, I thought I heard Pardo intro'ing the Palin bits
> this season.
>
> Aside from Paul Harvey, there are few who have been behind a mic this
> late in life.
>
> Bill O'Neill
>