'Live from New York …'

"That is one tough, old son of a bitch," Sudeikis says of the famed announcer. "How old are you, Don?"

The white-haired man in the gray suit answers, "92."

"That is old," Sudeikis says. "Don was quoted in the Bible."

Tough. Old. Independent. Combative.

Pardo, who moved to Tucson six years ago, is all of those things. He's also one of the most famous voices on television.

During a 60-year career at NBC, announcing shows from "Caesar's Hour" to "The Price is Right" and "Jeopardy!" Pardo became a household voice and, eventually, a celebrity in his own right.

In January, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences inducted him into its Hall of Fame. He was part of a class that also included actress Candice Bergen, "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, and comedians Tom and Dick Smothers.

But enshrined or not, Pardo isn't slowing down much.

The deep-voiced television vet flies to New York more than 20 times a year to lend his voice to the opening of "SNL." From the show's studio in the GE building at Rockefeller Plaza, he also introduces "Weekend Update" and does any other voice work the show requires.

Modern technology being what it is, Pardo could easily record his voiceovers in Tucson and send them to NBC electronically.

That's what he has done on the rare occasions that he didn't feel up to traveling, or bad weather kept him grounded.

But "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels likes having Pardo on-set.

"Lorne sees Don as a good-luck charm," says Jeff Davis who records Pardo when he's stuck in Tucson.

Traveling man

The flight delays. The airline food. The time change. It's an exhausting lifestyle for anyone. For a nonagenarian, it's nothing short of miraculous.

In 2005, Pardo moved to the Old Pueblo to live in the same condominium complex as his daughter, Dona Pardo.

He lives alone in a modest two-bedroom, two-bath unit he says he spent $22,000 improving, installing parquet flooring and other decorative touches.

A living room shelf is cluttered with photos of his children and grandchildren.

In the kitchen is a framed letter from Steve Martin thanking him for appearing in an NBC special, and a framed crossword puzzle where his last name was the answer to the clue, "Announcer Don _ _ _ _ _".

His fridge is stocked with sparkling cranberry juice and two 64-ounce jars of olives. The vegetable crisper is full of mini chocolate bars, which he keeps on hand for when his great grandchildren come to visit.

"Things that he likes he stockpiles," Dona says.

During the week, Pardo's routine is relaxed. For breakfast he'll often eat half a banana and oatmeal. Some afternoons he'll drive his Lexus SUV to the bank, to the doctor, or to Trader Joe's, where he'll buy fruits and vegetables.

"He's very conscientious about what he eats and his health," Dona says.

At night, Pardo watches TV. A sports fanatic, he gravitates to basketball and golf if he can find them on.

As the weekend approaches, Pardo's schedule gets more interesting.

On Wednesday afternoons, he packs a maroon suitcase with T-shirts, cargo pants, a baseball cap and several pairs of red socks.

Since he quit drinking more than 30 years ago, that's the only color socks he's worn.

"It's a reminder for him to not drink," says Dona.

On Thursdays around 8:30 a.m., a black Lincoln Town Car picks him up and takes him to the Tucson airport.

He used to head out on Fridays, but this TV season he began leaving a day earlier, at Dona's suggestion.

"It seems like everybody and his mother flies to New York on a Friday," Don Pardo says. "Sometimes I wouldn't get into New York until 1 a.m., and that's murder."

Pardo flies first class on American Airlines, changing planes in Dallas on his way to LaGuardia.

"I get fed twice," he says.

Another black Town Car meets him at LaGuardia and brings him to the Club Quarters hotel, across from Rockefeller Center.

When Pardo finally arrives, he takes it easy.

"On a Friday, I just rest a little bit," he says. "Especially if I had a bad flight."

Tell them what they've won, Don Pardo

Pardo attributes his excellent enunciation to the work he did preparing for a high school speaking competition.

He won that prize, the Newton Perkins Medal for Declamation, in his senior year at Norwich Free Academy in Connecticut.

"You had to have perfect diction," Pardo says. "I studied for that."

While in school, he acted on stage, starring as Bob Cratchet in "A Christmas Carol."

After high school, Pardo declined his father's offer to work in the family bakery and instead took a job as a ticket taker at a theater in Providence, R.I.

That's where he met Catherine Lyons, who went by Kay and did the same job at another theater in town.

He was 18. She was 16.

Two years later, they were married.

While working at the theater, Pardo was offered an acting job. But it wasn't what he had in mind.

The director of a local radio station saw promise in Pardo's booming voice.

"He said, 'How would you like to go on the radio as an actor?' I said, 'Raaaaadio? Oh my God. I'm an actor. A thespian. I want Broadway. New York.' "

Pardo put pride aside and took a job acting on a Sunday afternoon radio drama.

He also left his ticket-taking job and went to work for the Brown & Sharpe manufacturing company, where he was an internal gear grinder.

But it wasn't long before Pardo's voice opened up another door.

"One day, John Boyle - he was a station manager - he called me into his office. He says, 'I heard you Sunday on the drama that you did. You have a beautiful speaking voice. Have you ever considered announcing?' I said, 'Announcing? No, I'm an actor.'"

The announcing job offered $30 a week. Pardo was paid $57 a week making airplane parts.

He asked his wife what he should do.

"She said, 'Look. You've been studying. You've been acting. And you wanted radio. If you pass this up, there'll be no living with you for the rest of our lives.'"

Pardo took the job. Then, during a weekend trip to New York City to watch the taping of a couple of daytime soap operas, he met an executive at NBC. A few days later, he was offered a job as a staff announcer at the network.

Pardo announced the original "The Price Is Right" from 1956 until it moved to ABC in 1963, then the short-lived "Call My Bluff."

On Nov. 22, 1963, he was first to announce to NBC viewers, via audio bulletin, that President John F. Kennedy had been shot.

His career was booming, and so was his family. The Pardos had five children: two boys and three girls.

They bought a five-bedroom house in New Jersey.

"My mother used to say there's only room for one star in this family," says Dona Pardo, who retired from teaching a few years ago. "My older sister did do some modeling for a while, but she's the only one who even slightly got into that world."

In 1964, Pardo moved over to "Jeopardy!", which he announced until the original version of the series ended in 1975.

The show was off the air for a year before it was picked up by ABC and moved to Hollywood. Pardo could have gone with the new "Jeopardy!" but he had already found a new gig.

In 1975, he started "Saturday Night Live." The show was an instant hit, making stars of Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner.

"I wasn't about to give that up," he says.

Life in the big apple

Standing in his living room in Tucson, Pardo studies a list of NBC staff announcers from 1949.

He points to each name on the list and offers that person's status.

"He's dead. Dead. Dead. I don't know what happened to him. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Arthur Gary, dead - just died. Bill Hanrahan, dead. Mel Brandt, dead. Ed Herlihy, dead. Ben Grauer, dead. Lionel Ricou, dead. Don Pardo, alive."

Loneliness is Pardo's price for living a long and healthy life.

His wife, Kay, died in 1995, and his children are spread across the country: one in Hawaii, one in California, two in Florida and Dona here in Tucson.

When Pardo returns to New York, he has no one to visit.

Lorne Michaels has asked Pardo to spend more time in New York, and Pardo has tried staying in town for two weeks at a time. But he gets bored.

"What the hell is there for me in New York?" he says. "All I've got is my wife's grave up in Nyack, which is quite a ride and I only went up there once to see when I had my name put on the gravestone."

Pardo's New York weekends are spent mostly in his hotel room watching TV and on set.

When Saturday rolls around, he dresses casually and walks from his hotel to Rockefeller Center.

When showtime creeps closer, he changes into a suit.

"Saturday Night Live" airs at 11:29:30 p.m. EST, but earlier in the night the cast does a dress rehearsal, also for a live audience.

Pardo greets both audiences, building their excitement with a promise: "We've got a great show tonight!" Then he introduces Jason Sudeikis, who explains the rules (no flash photography, no cell-phone use, etc).

During a recent show, Pardo went a little over his allotted three minutes.

"I got my cue to introduce Jason," Pardo says, "but I figured, 'Nah, I'll take my time.' "

Why not? He's earned it.

Live from New York

Fred Armisen is on stage, dressed as President Obama, walking the television audience through the intricacies of the 2010 census.

"If some member of this household had to die so that others might live, who should that be?"

Pardo is in his booth, a cozy room the size of a large closet with gray carpet on the walls.

Through the booth's window he can see Michaels walking with purpose through the swinging doors that lead from the makeup chairs to the stage. Nearby, Steve Martin sits in a director's chair waiting to do a cameo during host Tina Fey's opening monologue.

Pardo puts on his glasses, which hang from a gold chain around his neck. On the podium in front of him is the script, printed on pink paper.

Armisen's almost done with his Obama bit, which Pardo watches on a monitor that shows what the TV audience is seeing.

And then, the magic words: "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

Through headphones, he hears the familiar wail of the show's theme song, and he's off:

"It's 'Saturday Night Live!' with Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Seth Myers …"

He pauses for a beat between each name.

Since it debuted in 1975, Pardo has announced every season of "SNL" except one. In season seven, the show opted for a fresh start, ditching the opening monologue, changing the name of Weekend Update to "SNL Newsbreak," and bringing in a new announcer.

None of the changes was popular, and Pardo was asked back the next year.

"It was a disaster year," Pardo says.

Last year, Pardo appeared on former "SNL" cast member Jimmy Fallon's late-night talk show.

Fallon told the audience that it never got old hearing Pardo say his name at the beginning of a show.

"You almost want to cry," Fallon said.

Pardo, who retired as an NBC staff announcer in 2004, says he misses the days when he played a larger roll on "SNL."

"I'm not as busy as I used to be," he says later. "I used to intro every skit, or almost every skit."

The famous announcer has tried to leave his weekend gig. But Lorne Michaels has always convinced him to stick around, asking him to do just five episodes, then five more, then just until Christmas.

Of course, Pardo could tell Michaels no.

"I've got enough money," he says. "I could retire."

But he plans to be back in the booth in the fall, when "Saturday Night Live" returns for its 36th season.

The truth is, he says, he's having fun:

"I still enjoy it all."

A Don Pardo timeline

• 1918 - Born in Westfield, Mass.

• 1938 - Hired for his first radio position at WJAR-AM in Providence, R.I.

• 1944 - Joined NBC as an in-house announcer.

• 1950 - Announcer for "Winner Take All" with Bill Cullen.

• 1952 - Announced "U.S. Royal Showcase," hosted by Jack Carson.

• 1952 - Announced "Winner Take All" with Bill Cullen

• 1954-1957 - Announced "Caesar's Hour" with Sid Caesar.

• 1953-1954 - Announcer for "Kate Smith Hour."

• 1953 - Announced "Judge for Yourself" with Fred Allen.

• 1954 - Announcer for "World of Mr. Sweeney," starring Charlie Ruggles.

• 1956-1963 - Voice of "The Price Is Right" with Bill Cullen.

• 1956 - Announcer for "Choose Up Sides" with Gene Rayburn.

• 1963 - Via audio bulletin, was the first to announce to NBC viewers that President John F. Kennedy had been shot.

• 1964-1975 - Announced "Jeopardy!" with Art Fleming.

• 1974 - Announcer for "Winning Streak" with Bill Cullen.

• 1975 - Started at "Saturday Night Live."

• 1974-1975 - Announcer for "Jackpot!" hosted by Geoff Edwards.

• 1976 - Participated in an "SNL" performance by Frank Zappa, reciting a verse of the song "I'm the Slime"

• 1981 - Was replaced at "SNL" by Mel Brandt.

• 1981 - Provided opening narration for the U.S. version of "The Secret Policeman's Other Ball" featuring members of Monty Python.

• 1981-1988 - Announcer for WNBC "Live at Five."

• 1982 - Returned to "SNL."

• 1984 - Made a cameo voiceover in Weird Al Yankovic's song "I Lost on Jeopardy" (a parody of the Greg Kihn Band 1983 hit song "Jeopardy.")

• 1986 - Took over as the announcer on the NBC soap "Search for Tomorrow," which went off the air in 1986.

• 2009 - Appeared in an episode of "30 Rock" as Sid, the announcer of the fictional "The Girlie Show," who had been repeatedly struck by lightning.

• 2009 - Made an appearance on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon."

• 2009 - Inducted into the Rhode Island Radio Hall of Fame.

• 2010 - Inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.

Contact reporter Coley Ward at cward@azstarnet.com or 807-8429.