'Jeopardy!' announcer Johnny Gilbert, more great voices of TV

"Jeopardy Masters!" arrives Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ABC/7, along with the most familiar voice on all of television. Johnny Gilbert, who turned 98 in July, has been with "Jeopardy!" since its second re-launch in 1984. Gilbert's "This is Jeopardy!" opening ranks with Don Pardo's "It's Saturday Night Live!" and Johnny Olson's "Come on down!" among the most iconic phrases in TV history.

Here's a look at the three announcing giants and why they still matter.

Johnny Gilbert

As a teen in his home state of Virginia, Gilbert was trained by an opera coach who taught him projection, tempo, pacing and (naturally) dramaturgy — fine game show announcer skills, as it would turn out. Before TV, Gilbert sang with bands and in "supper clubs" which were ubiquitous in the late '40s and '50s. For Gilbert, singing always came first; announcing just happened along.

The announcer of any show establishes what might be called the "emotional temperature" in the studio, and for the audience at home — a mood lightener, but also a mood heightener. At the outset of any "Jeopardy!" edition, there is edge, tension, suspense. When that famous theme strikes up, followed by "THIS is Jeopardy!", the emotional temperature warms up. When Gilbert announces the contestants' names — a life-changing moment for each of them over the decades — it warms up some more. Suddenly, everyone is ready to go. The game is on. The temperature is exactly right.

In a 2022 video interview with veteran producer (and "Clues Crew" member) Sarah Whitcomb Foss, Gilbert (who pre-tapes his contributions from a home studio) said that "when I meet people who find out who I am, [they] say how much I've helped them in their lives. [But] I don't know what I've done! I just did the announcing [and] talked to people in the [studio] audience. God gave me a strong throat and the ability to use it. Can't ask for more than that."

Johnny Olson

Olson, who died in 1985, was the Pavarotti of game show announcers. His "Come on down!!" on "The Price Is Right" was the pop-culture equivalent of hearing that high B at the end of "Nessum dorma" (from "Turandot"). His voice was magnificent (and gloriously camp), and yet, when occasionally seen on screen, Olson was bespeckled and unassuming — suddenly the Mr. Peepers of game show announcers.

This remarkable voice from Wisconsin was first and foremost the voice of a musician. In the 1930s, he led a band called Johnny Olson and the Rhythm Rascals, then headed west in the 1950s where his talent was matched to the most prolific form of early television. He announced dozens of game shows, and the occasional music one too, like "The Jackie Gleason Show" (they were close friends). Game show stardom began with "To Tell the Truth" (1960-68), and later shows like "What's My Line?" (1968-74). His long run on "The Price is Right" (1972-1985) spanned 2,840 episodes. According to his wife, Penelope Kathleen Powers, he said "Come on DOWN!!" 42,000 times.

The Bob Barker era of "Price" was all about frenzied consumerism, but it was Olson who got the party started everyday. By the time his warmup was over, studio audience members were not merely ready to guess the price of that Kimball Spinet piano but they were ready to shred any personal dignity or decorum in the process. In those fevered moments, it was Olson who made guessing the right price one of life's crowning achievements.

Don Pardo

Pardo joined NBC in 1944, or shortly after D-Day, and there he stayed for the next 70 years. He was an announcer, host, news reporter, did baseball play-by-play, read intros, outros, promos, bulletins and commercials. During the radio years, you probably couldn't listen through an entire broadcast day without hearing that Pardo voice at least once. But it was the visual medium of TV, where the voice achieved lasting fame.

Pardo (who died in 2014) was founding announcer of two classics — Bill Cullen's original "The Price is Right" in 1956, then Art Fleming's "Jeopardy!" in 1964. That distinctive Pardo style — drawn-out vowels, tremulous delivery, the authoritative pronouncement — came directly from "Price." As Pardo later explained, when cameras were trained on the products, he had to describe them slowly, to match the camera's ponderous movement and build drama. That deliberative "Price is Right" cadence lasted through the "SNL" years until he retired in 2004 — a bridge from the network's past to an essential part of its future.