Jack Narz (born November 13, 1922, in Louisville, Kentucky), the elder brother of game show legend Tom Kennedy (Jim Narz) and the brother-in-law of another game show legend, the late Bill Cullen, is an American television announcer and game show host in his own right, who eluded the infamous quiz show scandal to forge a respected hosting career.

Early career

Early in his career, Narz did some voice work. In the initial (1951) episode of The Adventures of Superman, he narrated at key points in the backstory of the title character. He was also very much a presence in the infancy of local Los Angeles television.

Narz first achieved major television fame in 1953, when he was the on-camera announcer and narrator of the short-lived, but Emmy-winning sitcom "Life With Elizabeth" starring future game show panelist and host herself, Betty White. In 1955, as he did on radio, Mr. Narz served as the announcer-sidekick of bandleader Bob Crosby (Bing's brother) on the former's daytime TV show (where he would periodically demonstrate his singing abilities, as well). That same year, he also worked as announcer on "Place The Face" a game show hosted by his future brother-in-law, Bill Cullen. (Jack and Bill were married to sisters Mary Lou and Ann Roemheld respectively. Their father, Heinz Roemheld, was an Oscar-winning Hollywood composer and musician.)

In January, 1958, he got his own game show, presiding over CBS's Dotto. Within a very brief time, this show and its host became as phenomenally popular in 1958 as $64,000 Question" target="_blank" >^* and its host became three years earlier. Dotto ran five days a week on CBS and, beginning in the summer of 1958, weekly in prime time on NBC, with Narz hosting both versions. And he was popular in his own right; his Q-rating (a measure of a broadcast personality's recognition and appeal to viewers or listeners) was said to be near enough to that enjoyed by Hal March in the heyday of $64,000 Question" target="_blank" >^*.

But Dotto turned out to be tainted---and the first popular quiz show to be cancelled as a result. Unlike other tainted quiz shows, Dotto's rigging was discovered rather than instigated by its sponsor and network. An executive producer admitted the rigging, at a meeting between CBS and Colgate-Palmolive. The trouble began when one contestant's notebook full of questions and answers she was to be asked on the air was found by another contestant, and the producers paid those two plus the notebook owner's incumbent opponent to keep quiet.

CBS yanked Dotto almost at once, in mid-August; NBC pulled the nighttime version shortly thereafter. Coming just days before newspaper accounts and a federal grand jury confirmed a former champion's charges that NBC's hit prime time quiz, Twenty-One, had been fixed, Dotto's cancellation lit the powder keg of the quiz show scandal.

But Jack Narz survived: he himself never knew Dotto had been fixed, in any way, shape, or form. (Neither, for that matter, did The $64,000 Challenge's host Ralph Story genuinely know there had been anything tainted on that show.) And Narz proved it by passing a polygraph test while testifying to a grand jury investigating the quiz scandal.

After Dotto

He was back on the air within a short period of time after "Dotto's" cancellation, hosting its replacement "Top Dollar" (succeeding its first host, Warren Hull, as part of an arrangement made with CBS and the ad agency representing the Colgate-Palmolive company and General Mills, with whom Mr. Narz was under contract at the time). In 1960, he guest-hosted for a month on "The Price Is Right," while regular host and brother-in-law Bill Cullen took a much-needed vacation. Later that year, he was the host of Video Village, but asked producers Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley to allow him to leave the show due to personal reasons. Red Rowe took over and was then permanently succeeded by Monty Hall, who also hosted the juvenile version of this show) After returning to Los Angeles, he hosted Seven Keys, which was at first a local show, then went network when ABC picked it up (1961-1964), after which, it returned as a local show in L.A. until sometime in 1965. This was followed by a 13-week run on a new NBC game show entitled "I'll Bet." In 1969, Narz picked up where Bud Collyer had left off some eight-plus years earlier with a syndicated revival of the classic slapstick stunt game Beat the Clock until 1972. He was succeeded by Goodson-Todman emcee and announcer Gene Wood.

In 1973, Narz took the helm of the revived Concentration, in syndication, emceeing the program until 1978. (NBC had cancelled the show earlier in '73, although it owned and still owns the program). That would be his longest-lasting job as host. While hosting that, he also emceed Now You See It on CBS (1974-1975). {In 1979-80, he worked for a season as announcer and associate producer for the CBS revival of his old show, Beat the Clock.)

When that run ended, Narz semi-retired, spending his time since as a celebrity golfer for various charitable causes.

'Brother' Act

While the Narz brothers have forged successful individual careers as broadcasters, they did make occasional join appearances. Jack Narz would appear on Tom Kennedy's You Don't Say during its NBC run, Tom Kennedy guested on Jack Narz's Beat the Clock, and Narz appeared on the Password Plus panel during the Kennedy era and switched with his brother to host for one round.

Like his brother, Narz appeared on To Tell the Truth as a celebrity panelist.

See also

• List of famous Louisvillians

External links

Game show announcers | Game show hosts | 1922 births | Living people | Louisvillians | To Tell the Truth panelists | game show panelists