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 NARZ: 1922-2008 Narz, whose broadcasting career began shortly after World War II, was best known for the game shows "Dotto," "Video Village," "Seven Keys," "Beat the Clock" and his longest-running----a '70s remake of "Concentration." His brother Jim, better known to television viewers as game show host Tom Kennedy, said: "He was a triple threat----looks, voice and personality." Born in Louisville, Ky., Nov. 13, 1922, Narz served in World War II as a "hump pilot" in the China-Burma-India Theater, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for his many missions. His buddies called him "Cap'n Jack of the CBI." Returning to civilian life, Narz headed for Hollywood to pursue his lifelong ambition of broadcasting. He began his career as an announcer in Los Angeles radio but made an early transition to television as it emerged in the late 1940s. After attending an L.A.-based broadcasting school, Narz began as a staff anouncer at stations KXO, KWIK, KIEV and KLAC. Next came work in local television. One of his early commercial assignments was for Barr's Men's Shop in suburban L.A. He delivered commercials as Jack Narz----the man from Barr's. In 1950, he became Captain Jack from Checkerboard Square on Saturday morning's "Space Patrol" for ABC. The sci-fi series was one of the first transcontinental half-hours on the network. Narz would have to be in the studio in the wee hours of the morning for rehearsal. The show went live to New York at 11 a.m. (8 a.m. PT). In the days before videotape, the entire show was re-performed three hours later for the West Coast. Said Narz: "We were doing television before electricity. People had to watch by candlelight." Years later, Narz still enjoyed re-creating his opening call for viewers to "stand by for.......SPAAAAAAAAAACE PATROOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!" In 1951, he was tapped for a role that still enjoys a cult following. Narz was hired to narrate the opening episode of TV's "Superman" to set the stage for how the Man of Steel originated. "Superman on Earth" was not distributed to stations until 1953 when Kellogg's agreed to sponsor the adventure series. "I got a call from my agent one day. He sent me the script and asked me if I wanted to do it," Narz said nine years ago. "I said, 'Sure.' I remember going over to Glen Glenn Sound to tape the narration. They paid me $150 to do it. I had no idea it would still be around today. I still get a check every once in a while for $1.98 in residuals." His first on camera evening job was in syndication as Betty White's announcer and narrator on her first sitcom, "Life with Elizabeth." White appeared in a trio of eight-minute vignettes detailing her exploits with TV husband Del Moore. Narz appeared on camera to introduce each scenario. After Elizabeth would create chaos, Narz would end the episode asking a question such as "aren't you ashamed of yourself, Elizabeth?" White would promptly respond with a firm shake of the head "no." "Elizabeth" was the launching pad of a lifelong friendship between White and the entire Narz family. "We were so lucky to get him," said White of Narz in a 2003 interview with TVgameshows.net. "Here he was, this young, handsome guy with a voice that seemed to come from out of the ground. Jack was a wonderful part of our show." Narz was the spokesman for a major group of auto dealers in Los Angeles and became more in demand as a network announcer. "Place the Face," a Ralph Edwards production, was his first foray into game shows. He did on-camera commercials as Johnny Narz when the show began. "Jack Smith was the host," Narz said in a 1999 interview with TVgameshows.net. "You know how these things go. CBS thought it would be too confusing for viewers to have the host and the announcer both be called Jack. My real name is John, so they asked if I wouldn't mind being Johnny Narz. That was okay with me as long as I was getting a steady paycheck." When Bill Cullen took over as host of "Face," Johnny again became Jack Narz. Cullen and Narz became lifelong friends and eventually had a family connection. Narz, then married to Mary Lou Roemheld, introduced Cullen to Mary Lou's sister Ann. Cullen married Ann, making him and his "Place" announcer brothers-in-law. Daytime television beckoned in 1953 when CBS premiered "The Bob Crosby Show," starring the bandleader. Narz did commercials for Betty Crocker products. Once a week, usually on the Friday show, Narz was given a shot to sing and displayed a rich bass voice. The Crosby show ran until 1957 when the star bought out of his contract in an effort to take the show to prime time. A kinescope still exists in tape trading circles of Narz singing "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" with his children on a Christmas episode. In 1954, Kay Kyser's "Kollege of Musical Knowledge" was revived as a summer show for NBC but with Tennessee Ernie Ford as host. Narz was the announcer. A few years back, Narz said, "That was one of the great joys of my life and I still miss ol' Ern." In 1957-58, Narz was announcer on "The Gisele MacKenzie Show," a Saturday night half-hour on NBC with the former "Your Hit Parade" star. Narz even danced on the show. "I'd never done anything like that before," he said in 2000. "The choreographer said, 'I can show you the steps real easy.' So, that's how I became a dancer on a network variety show." MacKenzie's show failed but Narz did not. His major break came January 6, 1958. "Jack Narz, announcer, morphed into Jack Narz, host," his brother said. "Dotto" erupted into one of the biggest daytime game show phenomena in television's young history. Within six weeks, the connect-the-dots game produced by Frank Cooper Associates became the highest-rated show ever on daytime television. More than two million postcards flooded CBS weekly for the game's home viewer contest. Narz's popularity quickly began to rival that of "The $64,000 Question" host Hal March. Shortly after "Dotto" premiered, Narz appeared for a segment on "I've Got a Secret" looking like The Unknown Comic of later "Gong Show" fame. Entering with a paper bag over his head, Narz attempted to stump the panel as to his identity. He may have succeeded had his brother-in-law Cullen not recognized the tie Narz was wearing. So popular was "Dotto" that Colgate-Palmolive, its sponsor, opted for something tried only once previously on network television. C-P sold NBC on a summer nighttime version Tuesdays at 9. Only "The Big Payoff" five years earlier had aired a daytime edition of one network and an evening version on another. "Dotto" was on its way to nighttime stardom as well. Within four weeks, the NBC version was beating CBS's "To Tell the Truth" in the Nielsen and Trendex ratings and was up to number four in New York City. NBC had been looking for years for a candidate to challenge CBS's powerful "What's My Line?" head-to-head on Sundays at 10:30. TV Guide speculated "Dotto" would continue beyond the summer run and follow "The Loretta Young Show" on Sunday nights in the fall. Then August came. In a whirlwind, an internal CBS investigation concluded "Dotto" had been a fixed show, based on accusations from a standby contestant and kinescopes of a series of games featuring winning contestant Marie Winn. Immediately, CBS canceled its number one daytime show and NBC abruptly pulled the nighttime version. Within two weeks, New York newspapers revealed details of the brewing scandal. Narz, stunned to learn what had been going on behind the scenes, was subpoenaed to testify before a New York grand jury probe of network quiz shows. Taking a polygraph test to prove he, as host, was not in on the riggings, Narz was completely exonerated. Yet, he was shaken. "It didn't take a genius to know this wasn't pablum," Narz said in a conversation in 1999. "The night I was told what was going on, I literally saw my whole career flash before me. You knew this was going to be in every newspaper in the country and it was a big black mark for television. I wasn't sure I'd ever work again in television." Narz did work again---and quickly. His Q-score was still sky high and focus group research indicated viewers did not associate him with the quiz scandals. Thirteen weeks after the "Dotto" cancellation, Narz was brought back to CBS by Colgate-Palmolive as host of "Top Dollar," a daytime version of a Saturday night CBS game that had failed to catch fire. "Top Dollar" hung in until October 1959 but could not gain the traction of NBC's new monster hit at 11:30 a.m., "Concentration." Still, CBS was determined to find a new vehicle for Narz. In the summer of 1960, CBS found the show. Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley, in their first outing as independent producers, created "Video Village," television's first living board game. Laid out as a small town with three city streets, Narz was introduced as the village "mayor." He guided contestants on their paces as a chuck-a-luck dice cage controlled their fate along the streets. With dollar values supremely deflated from the big-money quiz show era, the game had to be good. Narz was a perfect compliment for "Village." The summer nighttime version did not catch on but the five-day-a-week morning version was a huge hit at 10:30. Narz was on the verge of a renaissance. However, personal problems began developing for Narz and he took a leave of absence from "Village" after the first 11 weeks. Old CBS standby Red Rowe finished up the final two nighttime shows. Up-and-comer Monty Hall was rushed in as a substitute on the daytime version. Ultimately, Narz asked out of his contract. "That was a very turbulent time in my life," Narz said several years ago in an interview with TVgameshows.net's 2000 annual. "For years, I've had people tell me how much they missed me when I left 'Video Village.' It was the right thing to do at the time but it also was another reason why I've always felt I was a day late and a dollar short kind of guy." Narz immediately hooked on with a local game on KTLA in Los Angeles, "Seven Keys." Seven months later, ABC picked up the show for an eventual three-year run. The game returned to KTLA for another year after its cancellation from ABC. In a tip of the cap to "Keys," a clip of Narz and a contestant was included in one of the nostalgic "Still the One" promos for ABC in 1976 when the network ascended to the top spot in the Nielsens. In 1964, Narz subbed for a week on his brother's "You Don't Say!" on NBC. Kennedy played the game along with Pat Carroll, Abby Dalton and Peter Lawford. The week was used as a charity fundraiser for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library. In the fall of 1965, he was tapped for his first national colorcast with the Ralph Andrews-Bill Yagemann game "I'll Bet" on NBC. A celebrity couples game, "I'll Bet" was no match for CBS's "Search for Tomorrow" and "The Guiding Light" and ABC's repeats of "Father Knows Best." The show died in 13 weeks. Narz did several pilots that failed to click between 1966 and 1969 and virtually disappeared from network television. In the fall of 1969, he returned to the game show wars with a revival of Goodson-Todman's "Beat the Clock" in syndication. He stayed with the show for three years but after production moved in 1971 to Canada, Narz opted to leave "Clock" a year later. In 1973, Goodson-Todman licensed the only game the company did not create. Only weeks after NBC canceled the 15-year-old "Concentration," Goodson-Todman quickly moved to gain syndication rights from the Peacock Network. Narz took over the role held by Hugh Downs, Ed McMahon and Bob Clayton. While an end game was added to the show and continuing champions eliminated, the basic game was maintained. "Concentration" was Narz's last national game show but his longest-running, continuing through 1978. : During the "Concentration" era, Narz and his second wife Doe, a flight attendant who worked into her 70s, periodically played CBS's "Tattletales" and Narz would rotate as host to give the show's emcee Bert Convy a day to play the game with his wife Anne. His last network show was "Now You See It," an electronic word game picked up by CBS for mornings in 1974. While its fans fondly remember it today, along with its popular theme song "Chump Change," it was not a favorite of CBS programming chief Fred Silverman. In the summer of 1975, Silverman superseded daytime programmer Bud Grant and ordered the show canceled after a year. After the end of "Concentration," Narz was largely a nostalgic figure on television. At 56, he was still youthful but networks were increasingly looking for younger hosts. Narz had done the pilots for both "Family Feud" and "Tattletales" but was passed over for each. Daytime fans fondly remember his final network appearance, a week on his brother's "Password Plus" during the series' closing weeks in 1982. Playing against Jack Ford, son of former President Gerald Ford and then a CBS soap actor, Narz had fun with the Thursday show. At a strategic point early in the day, Narz told his brother, "Anybody can do this job." Promptly, Jack and Tom swapped places with Narz assuming the host role for the rest of the day and Kennedy playing the game. At 60, Narz went into retirement but came out in the mid-1980s to do a local children's game show on an independent L.A. station produced by "Name That Tune" veteran Ray Horl. In 2003, Narz appeared at the first Los Angeles-based Game Show Congress to offer a testimonial on behalf of Bill Cullen. The following year, Narz was awarded the Bill Cullen Lifetime Achievement Award by GSC in Glendale, Cal. All four of Jack's children and most of the entire Narz family were in attendance. Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters presented Narz its Diamond Circle Award, emblematic of career service and achievement among veteran broadcaters. When told of his selection for the Cullen Award, Narz said: "This is pretty amazing. I've never thought I did much more than help people pass a half-hour here and there and hopefully give them something they could enjoy." By his first marriage to Mary Lou Roemheld, Narz has three sons and one daughter. John, Michael, David and Karen, who have produced six grandchildren. He had two great grandsons. Besides his children and grandchildren, he is survived by his wife of 38 years, Delores "Dodo" Vaichsner, as well as a sister, Mrs. Mary Lovett Scully of Las Vegas and his brother Jim Narz. No memorials are planned. On the following pages, TVgameshows.net will present a series of pictures of Narz and excerpts from various conversations the legend has had with webmaster and game show historian Steve Beverly about his life and career. Jack Tribute, Part 1 Jack Tribute, Part 2 Jack Tribute, Part 3 Jack Tribute, Part 4 Jack Tribute, Part 5 Jack Tribute, Part 6 TheGameShowFix.com is a non-incorporated news website. The material used is the creation of the webmaster, unless otherwise noted. Use of stillframes from broadcasts is part of fair use news arrangements. 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