Jim Peck - Later Career

Later Career

In the fall of 1978, Peck was called on to host a second revival of the 1960s classic word game You Don't Say! that Tom Kennedy had hosted. Suffering from low ratings and a lack of major market clearances, You Don't Say! did not last a full season and aired its final episode in March 1979.

Afterward, Peck became host of the controversial Chuck Barris game show Three's a Crowd, which asked the question, "Who knows a man better, his wife or his secretary?" Three's a Crowd only lasted for 4 1/2 months (September 17, 1979 to February 1, 1980) due in part to both the low ratings the show pulled in and the backlash caused by the show's content.

Since then, Peck hasn't emceed game shows on a full-time basis. Beginning in 1981, however, he returned as a frequent substitute for Jack Barry on the syndicated quiz The Joker's Wild. Over the next three years, Peck began appearing more often as Barry, who was in his mid-sixties at the time, was beginning to ease himself into retirement. Although Peck was not the popular choice among staffers at Barry & Enright Productions, Barry and producer Ron Greenberg continued to groom the frequent sub for the position. The plans were to have Peck take over the hosting position permanently at the beginning of the 1984-85 season, with Barry announcing his retirement on-air and handing the show over to his successor.

However, on May 2, 1984, Barry suddenly died of cardiac arrest in New York City shortly after filming for the seventh season of The Joker's Wild had concluded. Upon Barry's death, his partner Dan Enright took control of the production company and over Peck, hired Bill Cullen, who was finishing up his run as the host of another Barry & Enright-produced program, NBC's Hot Potato.

Except for several weeks of subbing for Cullen on The Joker's Wild during its final season (1985–86), Peck moved away from game shows altogether; he went on to serve as the court reporter and announcer for a revival of Divorce Court during its run from 1985-92.