Jim Peck
| Jim Peck | |
|---|---|
| Born |
James Edward Peck June 5, 1943 Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
James Edward "Jim" Peck (born June 5, 1943 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American television and radio personality based in Milwaukee and is perhaps best known for his time as a game show host.
After Peck graduated from Marquette University with a double major in English and Psychology, he worked as an admissions counselor for Marquette. He also served in the United States Army Reserves and was stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina eventually attaining the rank of Sergeant by the time he was discharged in 1970. While thinking about his career options, Peck became interested in broadcasting. He had dabbled in acting by appearing in several theatrical plays on campus during his college years and the idea of performing intrigued him.
In 1968 he joined the staff of WISN-TV in Milwaukee as a booth announcer doing station breaks and other announcing chores. The following year in 1969, Peck moved across town to station WVTV in Milwaukee as host of the talk show "Confrontation" from 1969 to 1971 and "Jim Peck's Hotline" for station WTMJ-TV from 1971 to 1973. He then moved to Washington D.C. in 1973 to host the talk show Take It From Here for station WRC-TV where he remained for the next three years.
Wanting to try something new in broadcasting, Peck turned his attention to game shows. One day while watching the NBC game show The Who, What, or Where Game, he was reading the closing credits and saw that the show was produced by Ron Greenberg. Peck contacted Greenberg about auditioning for any new game show projects the producer had in mind. Greenberg was developing a game show called Showdown for ABC and hired Peck to host the pilot. ABC did not pick up the show but in 1974, Greenberg taped a second pilot and the show was retitled The Big Showdown. This time, ABC picked up the series and the show ran from December 23, 1974 until July 4, 1975. Peck continued hosting Take It From Here in Washington D.C. during this time and commuted to New York City every three weeks to tape episodes for The Big Showdown.
Peck then hosted the unusual Hot Seat, a Merrill Heatter-Bob Quigley production which featured an oversized lie detector that was used to measure a spouse's responses to personal questions. Hot Seat began airing on July 12, 1976 along with Family Feud, but was gone after fifteen weeks and aired its final episode on October 22 of that year.
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