Jack Narz

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.

Narz first achieved major television fame in late 1957 as the host of CBS's Dotto. Within a very brief time, this show and its host became as phenomenally popular in 1958 as The $64,000 Question and its host became three years earlier. Dotto ran five days a week on CBS and, beginning in the summer of 1958, once a week at night 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 The $64,000 Question.

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 months of the quiz show scandal's resolution, when he appeared as a host of Video Village (future Let's Make a Deal star Monty Hall also hosted some episodes and later hosted a juvenile version of this show) and Top Dollar in 1960. This was followed by Seven Keys (1961-1964). Then, in 1969, Narz picked up where Bud Collyer had left off in the latter 1950s and hosted a 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 -- switching with his brother to serve as host for one memorable round.


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Narz, Jack
Narz, Jack
Narz, Jack
Category: quiz show scandal

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