James Edward Peck (born April 16, 1939) is an American television and radio personality based in Milwaukee and is perhaps best known for his time as a game show host.
[2] Peck then hosted the unusual Hot Seat, a Merrill Heatter-Bob Quigley production which featured an oversized lie detector to measure a spouse's responses to personal questions.
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?"
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.
Except for several weeks of subbing for Cullen on The Joker's Wild during its final season (1985–86), and the unsold pilots The Buck Stops Here (taped in 1985 for Procter & Gamble Productions) and the 1990 Marty Pasetta pilot Suit Yourself, Peck moved away from game shows altogether; he went on to serve as the court reporter and announcer for a revival of Divorce Court from 1985 to 1989, when he was replaced by actress Martha Smith.
One of Peck's last jobs before leaving national television was as host of the annual Drum Corps International (DCI) competitions, which was seen on PBS.
In 1994, he began working in public relations for his alma mater, Marquette University, as a fundraiser, and in February 1995 began hosting I Remember Milwaukee (later titled simply I Remember) on PBS station WMVS (Channel 10), a series revolving around the history of Wisconsin's largest city,[3] as well as the Saturday edition of Wisconsin's Morning News on WTMJ-AM (620).