Mike Darow (born Darow Myhowich; January 8, 1933 – December 7, 1996) was a Canadian-born television

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

host. He is best known for hosting the 1968–1970

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

run of '' Dream House'' in the United States, the 1985–1988 Canada-produced run of the Bob Stewart game show, '' Jackpot'' (seen in the U.S. on the

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

), and ''

Club 6 ''Club 6'' is a Canadian music television series which aired on CBC Television between October 1960 and 1962. CHUM deejays Mike Darrow and Bob Willson played popular music for teens to dance to with featured performances by Tommy Ambrose, P ...

'' from 1960 to 1962. He also hosted the first season of the game show ''

The $128,000 Question ''The $128,000 Question'' is an American game show which aired from 1976 to 1978 in weekly syndication. This revival of ''The $64,000 Question'' was produced by Cinelar Associates and distributed by Viacom Enterprises. Originally, Viacom had i ...

'', a syndicated revival of ''

The $64,000 Question ''The $64,000 Question'' is an American game show broadcast in primetime on CBS-TV from 1955 to 1958, which became embroiled in the 1950s quiz show scandals. Contestants answered general knowledge questions, earning money which doubled as the ...

'', in 1976. Darow's announcing work included the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

game show ''

The Who, What, or Where Game ''The Who, What, or Where Game'' is an American television game show that was broadcast weekdays on NBC from December 29, 1969, to January 4, 1974. The host was Art James, and the announcer was Mike Darow; Ron Greenberg packaged the show, which ...

'' (1969–1974) and sub-announcing duties in 1980 for the

Wink Martindale Winston Conrad "Wink" Martindale (December 4, 1933 – April 15, 2025) was an American disc jockey, radio personality, game show host and television producer. Regarded as a pop culture icon, he was known for his outgoing and jovial demeanor and ...

version of ''

Tic Tac Dough ''Tic-Tac-Dough'' is an American television game show based on the paper-and-pencil game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer trivia questions to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on a tic-tac-toe board. Four versions were produced: the initi ...

''. He also hosted the game show ''Bluff'' in 1976 and ''A Go Go '66'' in 1966. He also hosted the Canadian game show ''Going Places'' from 1973 to 1980. Darow also worked as an on-air disc jockey, first at CFRN in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

in the late 1950s and in the early 1960s in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

at radio station CHUM. While there, he sang on two novelty recordings made as promotions for the station. Along with

Bob McAdorey Robert Joseph McAdorey (July 24, 1935 – February 5, 2005) was a Canadian television and radio broadcaster, most noted for his roles as a radio DJ for Toronto radio station CHUM in the 1960s, and as an entertainment reporter for the Global Televi ...

and other on-air personalities at CHUM, they recorded songs as The Chumingbirds (play on words). One song as "Mike Darow and the Chums" was ''The Battle of Queenston Heights'' in 1959. It reached #17 on the

CHUM Chart The CHUM Chart is a long-running Canadian hit parade countdown radio show, originally aired on Toronto radio station CHUM AM then later revived on its sister station CHUM-FM. It consisted of 50 top tunes from May 1957 to July 1968, but in Augus ...

s in July 1959 as a Canadian version of

Johnny Horton John LaGale Horton (April 30, 1925 – November 5, 1960) was an American country, honky tonk, and rockabilly musician during the 1950s. He is best known for a series of history-inspired narrative country saga songs that became international ...

The Battle of New Orleans "The Battle of New Orleans" is a song written by Jimmy Driftwood in 1936. The song describes the Battle of New Orleans from the perspective of an American soldier; it tells the tale of the battle with a light tone and provides a rather comical v ...

. He later hosted Toronto-based segments of the

MDA Labor Day Telethon The ''MDA Labor Day Telethon'' was an annual telethon held on (starting the night before and throughout) Labor Day in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). The Muscular Dystrophy Association was founded in ...

on Global Television from 1977 until the early 1990s,"Jerry Lewis Telethon", ''Toronto Star'', August 28, 1990, page D1 as well as emceeing the annual ACT Telerama for

CFRN-TV CFRN-DT (channel 3) is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside cable-exclusive CTV 2 Alberta. The two outlets share studios with siste ...

. Darow died on December 7, 1996, aged 63.

References

External links

Mike Darow profile
at The CHUM Tribute site * * 1933 births 1996 deaths Canadian game show hosts Canadian radio hosts Canadian emigrants to the United States {{US-tv-bio-stub