Favorite Announcer

While we're watching all of these shows and movies-- somebody has to do the trailers and the narration. One of the coolest trailers ever talked about on here was for "Comedian" even though the movie wasn't so hot-- but that guy and that VOICE who does all of those trailers.

Overall, however, I've got to go with James Earl Jones. Considering he stuttered when he was young, he is just the best all around. Paul Turner (he's one of the SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!!! and WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP guys) comes in second on my list.

 

Don Pardo - Long, wonderful career. It's amazing the guy can still go out there every week and do SNL at his age.

Bill Wendell - Worked for Letterman from the beginning until retiring in 1995. Great voice.

Alan Kalter - Has worked for Letterman since Wendell retired. Very funny guy.

Joel Goddard - Conan's announcer. Often provides comic relief for the show.

 

Here's another vote for Don Pardo.

 

As a narrator Sir Laurence Olivier was beyond compare for The World at War television series.

All the best - Andrew

 

Gotta give my vote to the late, great George Fennemen

 

ERNIE ANDERSON.

 

I always liked the late Johnny Olsen of the Price is Right. Come on down!

 

Jackson Beck began his career on radio in the '40s or '50s and currently does commercials for the Little Caesar's pizza chain. But his greatest role by far was as the narrator in Woody Allen's Take The Money And Run. (He also made a brief appearance in Woody's Radio Days.)

How about sports announcers? I have many favorites, with pride of place going to Ernie Harwell, the now-retired radio voice of my Detroit Tigers.

 

The guy who does the Price Is Right? Johnny Olsen-Let's Make A Deal? My favs...

 

Oh, yeah. He did the Sports Illustrated magazine ads and America's Funniest Home Videos towards the last of a fantastic career. I forgot about him.
Doug

 

There are some really good guys out there now doing stuff...

Brian Christopher (my voice guy at eh station)
John B Wells
John Willard
John Pleise
Disk Ervasti
Chuck Riely (a legend)
Brian James

And his voice rocks when he does it... (however rarely)..... James Earl Jones!

 

Harry Kalas

"SWING AND A LONG DRIVE...WATCH THAT BABY...OUTTA HERE...HOME RUN, MICHAEL JACK SCHMIDT!"

 

Chick Hearn, R.I.P.

 

That wacky duo of Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall broadcasting for the White Sox was always memorable; Harry'd get all fired up on Falstaff, Jimmy, being kinda reality disoriented needed no help from libations, and you never knew how they'd blast the crummy team o' Sox next. It was a treat when Harry would be out in the stands near the cool-off showers at Comiskey Park...

 

Jackson Beck also did the National Lampoon piece, "Deteriorata"(from the Radio Dinner album). Funny stuff!

 

How about Rod Roddy?

 

Ken Nordine! Such a rich voice and those Word Jazz albums from the late 50's and early 60's still provide wonderful listening. I would love to have them all in a box set

 

There's a book which anthologizes Phil Rizzuto's accidental eloquence -- HOLY COW! -- usually a rambling and somewhat pointless personal anecdote he interrupts with actual game call. Best of all, it's broken into stanzas like poetry. I think it began as a gag in THE VILLAGE VOICE, complete with straight-faced academic gloss.

They go something like this (not an actual quote, just an imitation):

Guidry looks in for the signal.

I have a foot itch.
Not like the one I had in Chicago.
I ended up going to the doctor.

Stares the runner back to first. No throw.

He said I needed to wear better socks.
How would I know which sock is better?

Throw to first, and Bumbry is back in plenty of time.
He's really got Guidry thinking out there.

A sock is a sock, right?
So he tells me --

Fastball fouled off.
Bumbry was on the move!
He got a good jump.

I'll know which socks are better when my feet don't itch.
How much did that advice cost?

And Guidry strikes out Singleton!
Bumbry is stranded at first.

I love it, because here's the richest, most successful team in baseball history, and they got the chatterbox from the corner pharmacy to announce their games. Seriously, he humanized what might otherwise have been impersonal, corporate presentation of the Microsoft of baseball.

Additional Phil trivia: he was the very first mystery guest on WHAT'S MY LINE?

 

Reds Announcer Marty Brenneman

 

Vin Scully is a master anouncer but Chic Hearn pretty much wrote the book on basketball anouncing. He pretty much created most of the lingo. Slam dunk, mustard came off the hot dog, no-look pass, shoot from 2 miss by three, brick. All his inventions along with many others. Kieth Jackson has to be my favorite football anouncer and the late great Howard Cosell was the definitive color man. Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!

 

Jack Buck was the greatest, and Vin Scully is excellent, too. Jack's son, Joe, is very good. I really like Gus Johnson on CBS, who calls several different sports. Marv Albert still has it and is very entertaining. As a HUGE college football fan, I think Ron Franklin is one of the best play-by-play announcers in sports.

 

In D.C., Washington Redskins games are blessed with the long-standing trio of Frank Herzog, Sonny Jurgenson, and Sam Huff. Lots of people turn off their television sound and listen to the radio while watching the Fox broadcast (although WJFK's Fox-quality bumpers make that a decreasingly attractive strategy).

Herzog's got the thankless play-by-play job, which he performs professionally. Hall-of-fame quarterback Jurgenson is the adept analyst who calmly dissects each play.

And Huff? Well, back in the day when men were Neanderthals and drank from a hose on cheerleader-free sidelines, Sam made his reputation by relieving offensive players of their teeth and consciousness. I think he gets a little thirsty some afternoons, what with all that talking, and after a while he gets agitated with how the game's changed since he was clothes-lining tight ends cutting across the middle.

Huff can get apoplectic when the opposing team gets flagged for a late hit, or, God forbid, roughing the passer, which Huff regards as part of a conspiracy to sissify American culture. As a team's franchise player picks himself up haltingly from the turf, Huff will say something like, "He's acting like he's hurt, trying to draw a flag."

Jurgenson: "He is hurt, Sam, he got hit full-speed by a 300-pound lineman."

Huff: "What, he's not wearing a helmet and pads? This is football. You're supposed to get hit. If you don't like it, don't get behind the center."

Jurgenson: "Sam, the ball was gone. The hit was late -- "

Huff: "You can't stop in mid-stride! That is such a stupid rule."

Jurgenson: "Sam, no one's going to pay money to watch games featuring third-string quarterbacks."

Huff: "No one's going to pay money to watch touch football, either. Why don't they just put a skirt on the quarterbacks and be done with it?"

Believe me, this doesn't capture it. Competing with the wildly popular Jurgenson, Huff tries to be equable for three quarters, but by the fourth he's just had it, especially if it's not a good game. When he gets bored or angry he just stops talking, interjecting the occasional "That didn't look good," or "He'll be working with the coach on that all week, I can tell you." Some days, to listen to Sam Huff is to hear the cry of an aged warrior, lost and adrift amid our decadent and effeminate age.