# SNL Tonight: Was That Don Pardo Announcing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 3, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892 "2013-03-03T04:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Simmerdown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simmerdown/32/14859_2.png) [@Simmerdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simmerdown)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/1 "2013-03-03T04:50:32Z")
Didn’t sound like him. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/2 "2013-03-03T06:10:44Z")
Don is in his 90s and has been mostly retired for several years now. They usually have someone imitate his voice (a cast member for example). Sometimes he would prerecord the intro. He lives in the mid-west. ---
**Author:** ![Simmerdown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simmerdown/32/14859_2.png) [@Simmerdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simmerdown)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/3 "2013-03-03T06:46:26Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > They usually have someone imitate his voice It’s not implausible, but do you have a cite? I am aware of Don Pardo’s age and the fact that he has prerecorded the intro on numerous occasions. However: > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Although Pardo officially retired from NBC in 2004 and moved from Demarest, New Jersey to Tucson, Arizona, the producers of Saturday Night Live persuaded him to continue providing the introductions for their show. In 2006, he began prerecording his announcements from a home studio in Arizona. That arrangement lasted only a few episodes before producers insisted that they needed him in Studio 8H, and he resumed weekly flights to New York to do the show. On Saturday, February 23, 2008, Pardo appeared at the closing of SNL to blow out the candles of his 90th birthday cake. Upon his induction into the Rhode Island Radio Hall of Fame on May 14, 2009, Pardo suggested that the May 16, 2009, episode of Saturday Night Live would be his last. However, he did subsequently return for the show’s 35th season. > > Starting with the 36th season, Pardo once again began pre-recording his parts from his home in Arizona rather than performing live in New York City. Subsequent internet searches reveal that cast members have, on occasion, imitated Don Pardo, but I can’t find anything that definitively says that anyone’s doing this on a regular basis. If that wasn’t Don Pardo doing the intro tonight, who was it? ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/4 "2013-03-03T07:13:01Z")
We got a rerun w/ Louis CK tonight here in Utah; who did you have on SNL where you are? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/5 "2013-03-03T07:16:52Z")
It was [Kevin Hart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Parks_and_Wildlife_Service_(New_South_Wales)). The Walking Dead sketch was pretty funny, especially Dayrl’s line at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/6 "2013-03-03T07:20:19Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > It was [Kevin Hart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Parks_and_Wildlife_Service_(New_South_Wales)). The Walking Dead sketch was pretty funny, especially Dayrl’s line at the end. Does he work for the National Parks and Wildlife Service (New South Wales)? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/7 "2013-03-04T02:09:09Z")
I actually commented to my wife last night that it sounded like a less than perfect Don Pardo imitation. It was as much the cadence of the words that was off to me as it was the sound of the voice. FWIW I’ve heard that Darrell Hammond once – once, mind you – impersonated Pardo on the opening when Pardo was ill. ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/8 "2013-03-04T22:38:04Z")
According to a radio bit, Pardo had recent surgery and someone did this weekend’s narration. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/9 "2013-03-04T23:12:03Z")
He missed the previous episode as well, though this past Saturday’s “imitation” Pardo was worse than the previous episode, which wasn’t good either. Saw in TMZ that he had hip surgery and is expected to be back eventually. But it’s always worrying when 95 year olds don’t show up for work. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/10 "2013-03-04T23:15:53Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > We got a rerun w/ Louis CK tonight here in Utah; who did you have on SNL where you are? Wow… really? Black man hosted SNL preempted in Utah? I’m sure it was for completely legitimate reasons… ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/11 "2013-03-04T23:31:50Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > He missed the previous episode as well, though this past Saturday’s “imitation” Pardo was worse than the previous episode, which wasn’t good either. Saw in TMZ that he had hip surgery and is expected to be back eventually. But it’s always worrying when 95 year olds don’t show up for work. ☹ It’s worrying when they need surgery, too. Get well, Don! ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/12 "2013-03-05T10:40:46Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > Wow… really? Black man hosted SNL preempted in Utah? I’m sure it was for completely legitimate reasons… Possibly because he was so incredibly bad. Which his skin color had nothing to do with. I’d blame it on the writers but I think his monologue ratted him out as the perpetrator. ---
**Author:** ![Oglomott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oglomott/32/3543_2.png) [@Oglomott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oglomott)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/13 "2013-03-05T11:21:10Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > Wow… really? Black man hosted SNL preempted in Utah? I’m sure it was for completely legitimate reasons… For the past couple of weeks, they’ve been showing SNL reruns from 10 to 11PM, and then the “new” episode from 11:30 to 1AM. The Louis C.K. episode was shown at 10PM on Sat. March 2nd; the Kevin Hart Episode came at the usual 11:30 time. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/14 "2013-03-06T21:54:54Z")
> [@Oglomott](#): > > For the past couple of weeks, they’ve been showing SNL reruns from 10 to 11PM, and then the “new” episode from 11:30 to 1AM. The Louis C.K. episode was shown at 10PM on Sat. March 2nd; the Kevin Hart Episode came at the usual 11:30 time. Yep, I notice in the cable guide they have Kevin Hart on at 10pm this coming saturday. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/15 "2013-03-06T22:48:11Z")
> [@Oglomott](#): > > For the past couple of weeks, they’ve been showing SNL reruns from 10 to 11PM, and then the “new” episode from 11:30 to 1AM. The Louis C.K. episode was shown at 10PM on Sat. March 2nd; the Kevin Hart Episode came at the usual 11:30 time. > [@TBG](#): > > Yep, I notice in the cable guide they have Kevin Hart on at 10pm this coming saturday. Ohhh, that makes sense! They have done some changing of shows around due to content here in Utah, like ‘New Normal’ is replaced w/ a Joey Fatone cooking show and General Conference preempts broadcast NHL hockey games. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-tonight-was-that-don-pardo-announcing/651892/16 "2013-03-08T01:05:35Z")
I was listening to the Opie and Anthony show on Sirius XM today and Daryl Hammond was on. Daryl did the Don Pardo impression on the Kevin Hart episode. He talked about it and they played the intro while he was there.