I'm thinking of setting up one of these. Voting would be the same as the process used for the greatest hosts and shows. Would there be enough interest in people voting, or are you all against it? I'd be in charge of the vote counting, and such.

I'm not sure why it would be remotely interesting after about #5.

I might go a tick further, maybe putting the number around 8...but you're right, after that, there really is no point.

I could prolly come up with 10. But 20's way too extreme.

Thing is, I see no reason not to do it. it certainly does no harm, and there might be some who get a kick out of it. I for one will be interested in seeing it work from the outside of the process for once.

Well, when you see people such as "Henry J" and Tiffany Phillips be included on a list of "greatest" announcers, perhaps people will change their minds about a list of 20. I'd be in favor of approximately eight as well.

Sure, go for it. Set it up and I'll play. I've been hoping this would come up.
Summoning twenty names and comparing those to what the crowd brings to the countdown would be most interesting.
Will Don Pardo rank higher than Harvey? Gene Wood higher than John Harlan? Burning questions indeed.

Oh, yeah, there's no reason not to, absolutely. But I would bet that he gets more participation if he cut it down to 10 rather than ask people to decide whether Ernie Anastos was better than The Disembodied Voice Of Ron Maestri.

Here's how I would do it. We submit a list of no more than five. Then Josh can still compile a list of as many as he wants (whether it be the top 20 or top 10 or whatever).

Wasn't Anastos the news anchor and Anderson (the Luuuuh-ve Boat) the announcer?

Yeah, but I thought I remembered reading someplace that he announced for Break The Bank for a while.

I could also be high on crack, too.

EDIT: Upon further review....yep. High on crack. Never mind.

I think it would be reasonable to allow the voters to list up to 10 announcers. Then, like with the hosts list, you can list all of the announcers who got more than one vote.

Echoing others, I'm for rounding it up to 10. Makes it nice and even, especially since past 15 things start to get murky.

Yeah, I'm starting to think that 20 will be a bit much. I personally would rather not see some certain announcers on a TOP list of anything. Would ten be much better?

I think ten would do the trick.

Count me in!

Never mind them people, the real question is: Is Edgar better than Malcolm??? THAT'S The Question!!! :-P

Alright, we shall get started, then. I hope this gets a lot of participation.

Everyone, please e-mail me your top ten announcers:

FamicomJL@FamicomWorld.com

Ernie Anderson *did* do "BTB '76"--at least the syndicated version. So Chris is not on crack.

Wasn't he the guy who did ABC show promos for a while? I remember hearing him announce America's Funniest Home Videos during Saget's run as host.

Did he ever. He was the voice of ABC--and I mean *the* voice of ABC--for a long, long time.

Perhaps best-known for "The Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuv Boat."

If any here have the first two volumes of Animaniacs on DVD, Ernie Anderson narrates a couple of Bible-based episodes, and even works in a small reference to his ABC work in each one.

As Don Howard or anyone from the Cleveland area can tell you..Ernie was huge as Horror Show host "Ghoulardi" on WJW-TV 8 in Cleveland from 1963-66..The successor to that show."Houlihan and Big Chuck"/"Big Chuck and Little John" just celebrated 40 years at channel 8 (1966-2006).Chuck Schodowski is set to retire in June 2007..

Back to Ernie, he earlier (1961) hosted a morning movie on channel 8, doing skits with sidekick Tom (Tim) Conway just before Conway hit it big on the "Steve Allen Show" and "McHale's Navy"

Yes, but Chris confused Ernie Anderson with Ernie Anastos, who to the best of my recollection did not announce BTB76.

I'm pretty sure he did the daytime version as well - at least later in the run. Too bad we don't have video evidence...

What am I--chopped liver?

Ahem.



OK, so I had fewer U's.

:-)

Correct. So my status of being On Crack is preserved.

Oh my! Mea culpa. :)

Anderson was also your "dummy [or whacko] announcer" for The Carol Burnett Show.

/Burnett owned Studio 33 before Barker did.

I shall be happy to do so and soon.
What, please, is the deadline by which to submit our entries?
And just to be clear, are people like Bill Barber (Illinois Instant Riches) or Paul King (The Ohio Lottery Show) eligible for consideration?
P.S. on Tim's statement earlier: He was not exaggerating. "Huge" is the perfect word to describe Ernie Anderson's impact during his Cleveland days. And I'm not even from Parma (that's for you, Northern Ohioans). He and Tim Conway and the best announcer in Cleveland TV John FitzGerald made a whale of a team in that broadcasting era.

Something that people might overlook (or even might not know) is that Todd Russell announced WDYT for a while between Bill Nimmo and Ed McMahon.
One question before voting: How do you spell Holenriech?

I'll be resubmitting then. Thank you, Jimmy.
That'll knock Ed Reimers off of my list.

Don't forget that Phil McLean also had a big set of pipes back in the day -- made Ernie sound like Mickey Mouse.


And yes I'm part Polish, I have lived in Parma 2 different times in my life and I've got the white socks and the Pink Flamingo in the yard to prove it -- though I never shelled out the extra money to get one of them colored crystal balls nor the statue of Mary for the front yard.

And for those who lived in Middleburg Hts. or North Royalton in the 60s & 70s, you had to have a lawn jockey along the driveway to be cool!

Did you ever invite Paul Wilcox over to play polkas during a lawn-sprinkling party?
In the Slovak area of Lakewood, those were the living end.

Well, I can say that the "I before E" rule don't apply here.....

I don't blame you for picking him. His jolly voice really fit well on Wood BTC, but as for Mad Dash........wow.

And if we're counting Canadian-based announcers, I'll throw Dean "Talkabout" Hill into the ring.

Yeah...forgot about that deadline, sorry. The deadline for voting is January 20th.

Do tell me if that is too early or too late. I think seventeen days is adequate enough to get your ballots ready. :)

Already have gotten quite a few entries, with even someone sending me a list of twenty.

Thanks for reminding me to vote for Bill Nimmo. And don't forget to vote for Bill McCord and Ralph Paul. Or Bern Bennett.

Can we vote for Fred Saxon? PLEEEEZE?

If this isn't a cry to open up the balloting for the top twenty, I don't know what is.
I loved Fred. He was the best. I was deeply saddened when he died, if he's dead.
Who is he?

One word: Olmec.

I think he's still alive, but he worked on a Goodson show and said the immortal words..."Bill Cullen." One of the few guys to make the jump from CNN to Goodson.

This should be an interesting poll because it's all about the quality of the performer rather than the quality of the show. I'd be willing to bet that the announcer for what is universally regarded as the "worst game show ever" will be our choice for the best announcer ever.

Well it wasn't his fault it tanked. He may have been the best part of the show and his intro to show #2 is very memorable.

That is, if we're talking about the same show/person.

While the show of which you speak is historically notable for its brief run, I'm not sure anybody except The Great One himself would regard it as the worst game show ever. I'd be willing to bet that in the Invision group of that era, several of us would have pointed to the show's positive qualities (especially those of us who are predisposed to like panel shows), just as some of us have done for The Rich List.

You're right about the announcer, although he wasn't my #1 choice.

I think I know what our next poll should be - The Worst Game Shows of All Time. While we've been focusing a lot on the best (which is always a good thing to do), we've never really focused too much on the worst. It might be interesting to see what we as a group come up with.

Just a thought :)

Even if you mean it entirely tongue in cheek Ian, I just want it out there I think it's a bad idea. Not that my opinion alone matters in the grand scheme of things, but you may have noticed some weird omissions from ballots in the Best GS poll simply because people never saw such-and-such a show. I assume we'd get a list declaring certain shows bad only because the community gave them such a bad rap over the years. Given how much better TTD 90 looked than it was given any credit for here when I caught it at POC (still not saying much), and how utterly bad "Boggle" was when I got it in a trade...

Top 10 announcers by comparison looks terrific, but still not a grand idea.

-Jason

Would you rather have a show not voted on because they'd never seen it, or have someone say "I've never seen Blockbusters, but tons of game show pages say it is a good show. I rate it #5!

I'm not sure why it's really all that big of a deal.

That's the thing: whenever you have a vote like this, there's always the possibility of the dummy contingent stuffing the box. (JD Roth as part of the twenty best hosts? In what world?) Best to just let it be.

Hey guys,

Looks like we have a problem with the voting process. The FamicomWorld.com e-mail is having problems re-directing some e-mails people have sent. I have recieved the following people's votes:
JayLewis
dixonhayes
D.C. Lundberg
James Owen
Christopher Bligh
Don Howard
Seth
SRIV94
mst3kfan



If you sent me an e-mail and you're not on the above list, you may send your list again to FamicomFan@Gmail.com instead. The deadline will now be January 23rd.

Looks like we're almost a week away. So far I'm dissappointed in how many votes I've gotten, but I pretty much expected that that would happen. Oh well. Remember to send in your votes, if you haven't!

Just a reminder that TONIGHT is the deadline, everyone. :)