Heard, But Never Seen

[RicoGregg]

"the guy who made the public-address announcements on MASH"

Wasn't that done by Gary Burghoff, who was very visible in the role of Radar and probably making those announcements in character, for at least part of the show's run--and didn't they have Jamie Farr (who played Max Klinger) do it late in the show's run as well? In short, didn't the PA job fall to the 4077th's company clerk, whoever he was?

Most of the M*A*S*H PA system announcements were done by actor Sal Viscuso.

 

[bpatrick]

Shaaron (the second "a" was some eccentricity on the part of her parents when they named her) Claridge was indeed a real-life police dispatcher in one of the LA suburbs. Jack Webb, a stickler for authenticity, liked the sound of her voice when he was auditioning women to play the dispatcher who said, "1 Adam-12." IIRC, she wasn't paid much more than union scale to be heard on "Adam-12," but the money probably helped all the same.

Speaking of game-show voices, there was one called "The Sage," who was the announcer on the short-lived ABC show "Treasure Isle" in 1968. Years later, I found out his real name was Bill Templeton.

 

[JeffM]

All the "guest stars" who phoned Dr. Frasier Crane on "Frasier."

 

[Ultimajock]

duplicate post, sorry

 

[Ultimajock]

...The Inquizitor on Game Show Network's Inquizition. To this day, GSN claims they're contractually bound from identifying who it was when he left the hangar...

 

[bpatrick]

The dealer who offers contestants an alternate cash award rather than their taking a chance that the box they chose has a small amount of money on "Deal Or No Deal."

 

[Avid Listener]

Wikipedia used to have a lengthy list of such characters (heard but not seen; referred to repeatedly in dialog, but neither seen nor heard, etc.), but it seems to be gone -- probably purged in their general discouragement of lists of trivia.

I wish there were more places that generally discouraged lists of trivia.

 

[JeffM]

i wish there were more places that generally discouraged lists of trivia.

and you kids stay offen my lawn!!

 

[danderson4411]

Johnny Olsen was a mystery guest at least once on "What's My Line?"...I'm thinking it was near the end when they were phoning it in with mystery guests like the hosts of all the other Goodson-Todman shows, the "To Tell The Truth" panel, etc.

Ken Roberts...Tony Roberts' father and the guy who told us to "Now sing a song with the Dutch Masters!"

There was one other long-time booth announcer who got to be on camera once...Don Roberts, who was the voice of CBS Sports for years, was shown on his last "NFL Today" before retiring.

yep remember Don Robertson being shown on his NFL Today before retiring before a falcons game what year would have this been?

 

[LKellerIII]

The always excited and excitable narrator on Rocky & Bullwinkle. If course, it was William Conrad, of Gunsmoke (on the radio), and later Cannon and Jake and the Fatman fame. In the mid 60s, about the same time as Bullwinkle, Conrad was also the dramatic narrator in The Fugitive who reminded you at the beginning that Dr. Richard Kimble was "an innocent victim of blind justice," then in the "Epilogue" re-reminded you that Kimble would be running off and hiding in a new place, working odd jobs, and never knowing any peace or rest.

 

[LKellerIII]

...which reminded me of other later Quinn Martin shows, including Cannon, and the ubiquitous Hank Simms, who later parodied himself on the opening to Police Squad! ("In Color")It occurred to me that it must have amused him to say "Leslie Nielson" again given that he had probably said the name a couple dozen times in his QM days, where Nielsen helped make his living as one of the "guest stars."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm_t3g4RhpY

 

[danderson4411]

...which reminded me of other later Quinn Martin shows, including Cannon, and the ubiquitous Hank Simms, who later parodied himself on the opening to Police Squad! ("In Color")It occurred to me that it must have amused him to say "Leslie Nielson" again given that he had probably said the name a couple dozen times in his QM days, where Nielsen helped make his living as one of the "guest stars."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm_t3g4RhpY

hank simms also announced the soap morning star

 

[Ultimajock]

...I seem to recall that both New Wave Theater, the USA Cable Network punk rock show nestled inside Night Flight, and Angelo Poffo's regionally-syndicated International Championship Wrestling both used unnamed interviewers that would ask questions off-camera. On New Wave Theater, they were identified as "Ghost Hosts," and on the ICW show he was identified as "The Mystery Host" or some such...

 

[danderson6500]

I've always loved the older announcers; a few i've always liked have included Jay Stewart("Sale of The Century," "Let's Make a Deal," "Tic Tac Dough") Rod Roddy("The Price Is Right," "Press Your Luck"), Mel Brandt ("The Doctors"), Bill Wolff("Another World"), Bob Warren("The Lawrence Welk Show"), Dan Region("As The World Turns"), Ken Roberts ("Love Of Life" and"The Secret Storm"), Dwight Weist("Search For Tomorrow") and Ed Chandler ("General Hospital").

 

[danderson6500]

I've always associated "The Doctors" with Mel Brandt and "Another World" with Bill Wolff; those were two cases of an announcer and a show done right. Johnny Olsen on "The Price is Right" would be another one, as well as Jay Stewart on "Let's Make a Deal." Bill McCord on "21" would be another one.

 

[BD Sullivan]

On Seinfeld, Kramer's friend Bob Saccomanno was mentioned frequently but never seen nor heard.

 

[skippercollector]

Who were the narrators at the opening and/or closing of Batman and Lost in Space?

 

[LKellerIII]

Who were the narrators at the opening and/or closing of Batman and Lost in Space?

A bit of Googling revealed your answers. Batman (I assume you mean the 60's TV series) was narrated by William Dozier, the producer of the show. His role as narrator was uncredited.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dozier

Lost in Space was narrated by one of early TV's most ubiquitous voice actors, Dick Tufeld, who also voiced the robot, and according to his credits, revised his role as a robot in an episode of The Simpsons. It was pretty common in the 60's and 70's to watch a variety show, or a special like the Oscars telecast, and hear at the end of the closing credits, "This is Dick Tufeld, speaking."

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0876185/?ref_=nv_sr_1