Jack Narz (1922-2008)

[Don Howard]

I have the unhappy announcement for you that Jack Narz, host of Dotto, Now You See It, Concentration and many others died this morning at the age of 85.

[friendsfan77]

I just read this on another board. Very sad news indeed.

RIP, Jack.

[Zoneboy]

Link


Jack Narz, the host on "Dotto" when it became one of the first television programs ensnared in the quiz-show scandals of the 1950s and who went on to emcee "Concentration" and other game shows, died Wednesday. He was 85.

Narz, brother of veteran game show host Tom Kennedy, died of complications of a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a family spokesman announced.


While lined up to get tickets for a Broadway show on a Friday night in 1958, Narz was paged to the telephone. On the line was a spokesman for "Dotto" sponsor Colgate-Palmolive, who told him that CBS had determined the daytime show was rigged and that it would not air the next Monday. The version that aired nights on NBC also was pulled.

Narz was as surprised as anybody by the show's sudden cancellation, Steve Beverly, a game-show expert and professor of broadcasting at Union University in Tennessee, told The Times on Wednesday.

"Jack was called to give a deposition before the grand jury investigating. He passed the polygraph test and was completely exonerated," said Beverly, who became a close friend.


Before he testified, Narz said he was "unaware" of the game-show cheating, Narz recalled in a 1990 interview with The Times.

"While we were on the air, one of the future contestants on the show went through a woman's purse in the contestants' dressing room," he said. "While going through the purse, he discovered someone had given her some answers."

Narz said he had never met the standby contestant who charged that another contestant received answers in advance. On the show, contestants won the right to connect the dots and try to identify a famous figure by answering questions correctly.

The abrupt cancellation of "Dotto" in August 1958 helped trigger a widespread investigation of the game-show industry that revealed rigging to be rampant.

Almost all prime-time quiz shows were taken off the air. Congress held full-scale hearings in 1959 and federal regulations of quiz shows were instituted.

Game show hosts from that era -- including Narz -- were little more than hired guns who showed up about half an hour before the live broadcast and ran through the material, Beverly said. They were not tightly connected to the producers, many of whom fixed the game shows to heighten the drama.

Although Narz would host several more game shows, he told Beverly on more than one occasion: "I always felt that I was a 'day late and dollar short' kind of guy. From that point on, that maybe there were some shows I didn't get because they said, 'He was on that show, maybe we shouldn't take a shot on him.' "

Narz may have been best known for hosting the mid-1970s remake of "Concentration," which filmed 195 shows -- a season's worth -- in nine weeks. The schedule left plenty of time for him to golf, which he did at least three times a week, Beverly said.

Among the other game shows Narz hosted were "Video Village," "Seven Keys" and a syndicated version of "Beat the Clock" that debuted in 1969.

"He was the Dean Martin of game-show hosts. . . . because he was so easygoing, so smooth . . . when you saw him on the air, you felt he was a guest in your home," Beverly said. "He never overpowered his shows . . . . He was a textbook example of what an emcee ought to be."

Narz and Kennedy were the only brothers to make their living primarily as game-show hosts, according to Beverly.

Kennedy, who hosted "Name That Tune" in the 1970s, changed his name from Jim Narz to avoid being confused with his older brother, whom he followed into the business.

Jack Narz was born Nov. 13, 1922, in Louisville, Ky. He served as a military pilot during World War II.

After military service, he broke into radio at a station in El Centro, Calif., and worked for several stations before landing a job as an announcer on television's "Queen for a Day," which led to a spot on the popular 1950s children's science-fiction program "Space Patrol."

"Narz is fondly remembered by many baby boomers as the announcer who got us to scarf down cereal that tasted like cardboard so we could get box-top premiums for '25 cents in coin,' " Jean-Noel Bassior, author of the 2005 book "Space Patrol: Missions of Daring in the Name of Early Television," told The Times in an e-mail.

In addition to his brother, Narz is survived by his wife of 39 years, Delores "Dodo" Vaiksnor; his children from his first marriage, John, Michael and David Narz and Karen Ferretti; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a sister, Mary Lovett Scully.

Instead of flowers, the family suggests donating to the American Cancer Society

[Zoneboy]

I saw the notice of Jack's passing earlier today on Wikipedia but since they're not a very credible source of info and didn't give any verifiable links to his obit, I decided not to post anything about it. I've trusted them and IMDb before and have learned my lesson. I'm still watching reruns of Life with Elizabeth with Jack as narrartor and of course he and Tom Kennedy will be remembered for their game show tenures.

Mr. Narz

[bossradio93]

There's a special edition of tvgameshows.net in a tribute to Jack that Mr. Steve Beverly's put together in his online magazine.

Jack Narz tribute:
http://www.tvgameshows.net

Jack was a great, great man. Thanks for making my childhood very special when I was growing up.

[Brian Damage]

[friendsfan77]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

I saw the notice of Jack's passing earlier today on Wikipedia but since they're not a very credible source of info and didn't give any verifiable links to his obit, I decided not to post anything about it. I've trusted them and IMDb before and have learned my lesson. I'm still watching reruns of Life with Elizabeth with Jack as narrartor and of course he and Tom Kennedy will be remembered for their game show tenures.

Mr. Narz

Quite honestly, when I saw the link on another board for a thread that said "RIP Jack Narz", I didn't want to believe it myself for a second. I didn't know he was having health problems.

[Mr. Television]

R.I.P. Jack

[Jude The Obscure]

Sad to hear.......I loved "Now You See It" but never got to see his version of "Concentration", sadly.

[70s show watcher]

Originally Posted by Jude The Obscure

Sad to hear.......I loved "Now You See It" but never got to see his version of "Concentration", sadly.

he did a great job on it

[friendsfan77]

There are some clips of his version of Concentration on YouTube.

[howierules86]

I had the pleasure of taping about a dozen episodes of his version of "Now You See It" when GSN aired it last fall, and I was very impressed with his hosting. I'm surprised he didn't get to host any game shows after 1978, when his version of "Concentration" ended. He did get to be the announcer for a few shows after that, and even filled in for Tom Kennedy on an episode of "Password Plus."

[Bob's TV Treasures]

Not only did Jack host numerous game shows over the years, he was
also announcer on numerous shows, including LIFE WITH ELIZABETH
which starred a young Betty White. That series runs on FAMILY NET.
I don't think a lot of cable companies CARRY that channel, however.

[Zoneboy]

Jack Narz was Host During TV's Golden Era


Link

Television isn't what it used to be.


Certain types of programs and personalities that dominated television not so long ago are now endangered species, if not extinct: the variety show, the daily network kids' show, the talk show and host who dominated the ratings for 30 years, the game-show emcee.

Which is a way of getting around to saying we lost Jack Narz last Wednesday. He was 85 years old and died of complications following two strokes, a family spokesman said.

Narz was a Louisville native, like his brother, fellow game-show emcee Tom Kennedy (real name is Jim Narz, and he's still with us at age 81).

It's hard for today's audiences to imagine what TV game shows were like in a much more genteel time. They were very low-tech, and the emcee did all the heavy lifting, including trying to distract the viewers if something went wrong on live television.

He introduced contestants, tried to make them feel comfortable and did commercials for the sponsor. If you look at photos of game shows from that era, the host can even be spotted standing behind a giant-sized can of Comet cleanser or some such consumer staple.

So it was a complicated job, and Narz was a pro. He was a pleasant-looking guy with a great radio voice, which wasn't surprising, considering he started as a radio disc jockey.

Your memories of Narz may involve one of several game shows. Maybe "Dotto," the quiz he hosted in the late-1950s.

The sole distinction of "Dotto" is that it was rigged and therefore the subject of the first quiz-show investigations in 1958.

It all started when a losing contestant discovered that his opponent had been given answers to questions in advance. But Narz was never charged with any wrongdoing and he cleared a lie-detector test.

Or maybe you remember Narz from "Concentration" -- he hosted the syndicated, nighttime version of the show from 1973-78. Or "Now You See It" (CBS, 1974-75) or "I'll Bet" (NBC, 1965).

He also was the announcer for "The Spike Jones Show" and "The Bob Crosby Show" and for Betty White's first series, "Life with Elizabeth."

Or maybe you have a copy of "Sing the Folk Hits with Jack Narz," a long-playing record album that actually exists. Or you may even remember that in the 1950s, Narz and game-show emcee Bill Cullen were brothers-in-law, married to sisters.

My most vivid memory of Narz involves "Beat the Clock." This was a game show where contestants tried to win prizes by doing strange physical stunts -- like "Wipeout," but without padded vinyl.

There were several incarnations of "Beat the Clock," and Narz was the host of a syndicated version that ran from 1969-72. To be honest, this version had a bargain-basement look to it, like it was filmed in a waterfront warehouse in a dicey section of New York City.

But Narz was a game-show host, in more ways than one, and he did more than his part to whip up enthusiasm among the audience, contestants and whatever "celebrity" was the guest that week.

I'm sure Narz was grateful for the work. By that time, he'd probably already developed the perspective that comes with a lifetime in broadcasting.

He'd come a long way from Louisville. He'd been a pilot in World War II and received the Distinguished Flying Cross. He'd had a front seat for the quiz-show scandals. He'd spent hours in front of TV cameras, beamed into millions of homes.

He'd even carved out a tiny place in trivia history as the announcer on the TV series "The Adventures of Superman."

Watch a rerun today -- listen to the guy at the end who says "Join us every week for 'The Adventures of Superman!' " That's Narz. The story goes that, as part of his compensation for saying that into a microphone in 1951, he was still getting residual checks for minuscule amounts 55 years later.

It must have been a pretty interesting life. It's one that certainly was emblematic of a certain generation who began in radio and moved to television when it -- and we -- were very young.

[Schmoopie]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I'd never heard of Jack Narz before but looking at his pictures, I noticed that he resembled both Dennis Quaid and Richard Gere a little bit. Sorry to hear that he died. Thanks for the info about him and his life. When I have more time, I'll do some more reading about him. He sounds like he was a great guy.

Andrea