NBC ON-AIR PROMO DEPARTMENT
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From 1996-1999, Mark Jonathan Davis was a writer/producer for the NBC Network's On-Air Promotions department. He worked with editors and directors to create and perform parody songs, jingles, and commercials about sitcoms like "Frasier" and "3rd Rock From The Sun," and movie specials from "Jurassic Park" to "Titanic." He also worked as a network announcer for NBC's Must See TV.
NBC also hired Davis to be the voice of "Johnny Chimes," a digitally-animated singing peacock mascot, who sang parodies about NBC primetime sitcoms. The character was used extensively in on-air promos, crooning about shows like "Mad About You," "Suddenly Susan," and "Just Shoot Me." His acclaimed promo spots, parodies, and interstitials played around the clock on NBC, and even aired during the Super Bowl. His work helped the network win 7 Promax Gold and Silver Awards and rave reviews in TV Guide and Ad Week. Davis also produced and directed corporate sales presentations for NBC marketing executives, and he won a Muse Award for a Johnny Chimes musical ad campaign for a network affiliate marketing convention. |
Here are just a few of the promo songs Davis wrote, sang, and produced for NBC:
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NBC "JURASSIC PARK" MEDLEY
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NBC "BORN TO BE NILES" PROMO
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NBC "MAVERICK SUNDAY" PROMO
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NBC "MAD ABOUT YOU CAROL/CARROLL" PROMO
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NBC "LET'S TWISTER AGAIN" PROMO
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NBC "TITANIC LOVE BOAT" PROMO
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NBC "MAD ABOUT YOU BABY" PROMO
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NBC "JOHNNY CHIMES - MAD ABOUT YOU BABY NAME GAME" PROMO
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NBC "JOHNNY CHIMES - JUST SHOOT ME PREMIERE" PROMO
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NBC "JOHNNY CHIMES - MONDAYS SUDDENLY SUSAN / CAROLINE IN THE CITY" PROMO
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NBC "THE SINGLE GUY RAWHIDE" PROMO
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NBC "JUST SHOOT ME GRINCH" PROMO
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NBC "MUST SEE TV" JINGLE BUMPERS
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THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC, JANUARY 1998
"The Major-Domo of TV Promos - NBC'S 'Jingle Boy' Got Start In Valley" by Dave Walker (excerpt) Mark Jonathan Davis sings for the largest TV audiences of our time, although lots of listeners likely hear his distinctive musical stylings from several rooms away. As the syrupy voice of "Johnny Chimes," Davis, a Valley expatriate, writes and performs pop parodies that fill the credits-squeezing promos linking NBC's prime-time programs. Visit the bathroom between "Seinfeld" and "Veronica's Closet" and you could miss Davis singing a zany Téa Leoni tribute to the tune of "La Bamba." Grab a cold beverage before "News Radio" and you'll probably miss his nutty "Born to Be Niles" (sung to the tune of Steppenwolf's "wild" open-road anthem, of course), or his inspired series of "3rd Rock From The Sun" promos, featuring that amazing, we'll-try-anything-for-NBC cast. It was hard to miss Davis's lengthy "Jurassic Park" promo, which aired Thanksgiving eve. Actually a rerun from previous airings, the spot was scored to corresponding clips from the movie. A zippy medley of tunes including "Hava Nagila" and "When The Saints Go Marching In" ("When T. Rex Goes Chompin' In!"), the original piece won multiple awards from PROMAX, a trade organization of promo professionals. In fact, Davis's voice was heard repeatedly over the long Thanksgiving weekend, singing the promotional praises of a string of NBC holiday movies. More recently, he has sung a parody promo --- to the tune of "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" --- for David Spade's "Just Shoot Me" character, Finch. Davis also called the oft-heard square-dance hoedown spot for "Caroline In The City." Delivered in a comfortably cheap, Bill-Murray-at-the-ski-lodge voice, the Johnny Chimes song parodies help provide NBC's between-show promotions an off-the-wall edge, combining left-field rhymes with power-alley gags. One memorable Leoni moment, for example, schooled viewers on how to pronounce the star's name. "Téa --- rhymes with Princess Leia." "He's very much like one of those writers you'd see in movies about TV, like My Favorite Year," said Galen Herod, a former promo alchemist at Channel 15 (KNXV) in Phoenix who has worked with Davis at NBC2000, the network's in-house promotions department, for the past year. "He has his own rules of comedy. When he throws in something that's unrelated to what the spot is about --- that makes it stick in your head." Which is, after all, what the promo business is really all about. |
