John Byron Jacobs (June 22, 1916 – February 8, 1982) was an American television announcer, often for Chuck Barris productions—namely, The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game.
Early life
He was born in
Wisconsin.
[ "How to Detect Shoddy Wikipedia Entries", Ryan Jacobs, August 13, 2014, Pacific-Standard]
Early career
Radio
Jacobs was the announcer for
The Steve Allen Show on
CBS in 1950. The program was a summer replacement for
Our Miss Brooks, which starred
Eve Arden.
In 1952–1953, he was the announcer for
The Doris Day Show on CBS.
In 1955, he was the announcer for the
Gary Crosby Show on CBS.
[ ]
Television
In the early 1950s, he was the emcee of a television show called
Bachelor's Haven. Also, he was the original announcer for the last season of
I Love Lucy, in 1956. He was a regular on
Betty White's comedy show in 1958 and did announcing work for the early 1960s revival of
The Steve Allen Show. Other shows he worked on included the
Gene Autry Show and the
Dinah Shore Show. Throughout his career, he occasionally acted in television shows, making guest appearances on
Batman (episode 3),
Leave It to Beaver and
The Munsters. He also appeared, as himself, in
The Gong Show Movie.
Game shows and final years
He was the first announcer for
The Joker's Wild, which starred Jack Barry and debuted on
CBS in 1972. Barry employed Jacobs to announce many such Jack Barry/Barry & Enright Productions game shows during the early to middle 1970s as
Blank Check, the 1976 ABC run of
Break The Bank, and
Hollywood's Talking for CBS.
Most notably, however, Chuck Barris employed Jacobs's voice talents on the aforementioned The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game, and also for other such Barris productions as The Gong Show, Three's a Crowd and The $1.98 Beauty Show. His last job was announcing a Barris-produced version of Treasure Hunt which was syndicated during the 1981-82 season (Jacobs had also announced the 1970s syndicated version of Treasure Hunt as well). However, illness forced him to step down from this version of Treasure Hunt by late 1981, and he was replaced by frequent Barris fill-in announcer Tony McClay.
Jacobs died in Stockton, California, where he owned radio station KWG radio, at the age of 65.
Filmography
|
|
| 32 episodes, Uncredited |
| |
| Episode: "Beaver on TV" |
| 1965 | The Munsters | TV Announcer | Episode: "Country Club Munsters" |
| Episode: "Fine Feathered Finks" |
External links
