Radio During World War II, as part of the
Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), he entertained troops in the Pacific with his program of comedy and music, where he created the character of Tokyo Mose, a lampoon of Japan's
Tokyo Rose. After his discharge, Averback's big break came when he was hired to announce the
Jack Paar radio show, which replaced
Jack Benny for the summer of 1947. From there,, he became the announcer for
Bob Hope on NBC in September 1948, and announced NBC radio shows
The Sealtest Village Store and ''
Let's Talk Hollywood.
He announced the Sweeney and March
show on CBS in 1948, and became the voice of Newsweek'''s weekly radio magazine show on ABC's West Coast stations. Averback was also an actor, appearing a number of times on the
Jack Benny radio show, beginning in January 1948. In 1952, Averback starred in
Secret Mission, a transcribed program "dealing with factual stories of escape from behind the Iron Curtain" on AFRS. In 1955 he joined the ensemble cast of
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, playing multiple character roles in support of leading actor
Bob Bailey.
Television Doing comedy on early television, he appeared on
The Saturday Night Revue (1953–54),
Tonight (1955) &
NBC Comedy Hour (1956). He was a series regular as Mr. Romero on the
Eve Arden sitcom
Our Miss Brooks & appeared on
I Love Lucy & other 1950s comedies, then moved into directing at the end of the decade. He directed
The Real McCoys with
Richard Crenna. Crenna had been a cast member with Averback on
Our Miss Brooks. Averback also directed for
The Dick Powell Show (1961–1963), ''
Burke's Law (1963-1964), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–1968), The Flying Nun (1967–1970), Columbo: Suitable for Framing (1971), McCloud (1971), McMillan & Wife (The Face of Murder, 1972), M*A*S*H (1972), Needles and Pins
(1973), Quark (1977–1978), the miniseries Pearl
(1978), Matt Houston (1982–1983), The Four Seasons
(1984), Murder, She Wrote (1985), & The Last Precinct (1986). For CBS, he produced Mrs. G. Goes to College (aka The Gertrude Berg Show'') in the 1961–1962 season. He co-produced the popular 1960s sitcom
F Troop and supplied the voice over the loudspeaker heard on the television series
M*A*S*H. His actual recording from a Bob Hope show was used in
M*A*S*H episode 63, "Bombed," from season 3 where he announces himself as Hope's announcer.
Film Averback co-narrated
The Story of Life, a 62-minute sex educational film, released by Crusader Productions in June 1948. It featured live action as well as animation by former
Walt Disney artists
Lester Novros and Robert Moore. Film credits include his acting as Willard Alexander in
The Benny Goodman Story (1956) and directing
Chamber of Horrors (1966),
Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968),
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968),
The Great Bank Robbery (1969), and
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came (1970) as well as the TV movie
The New Maverick (1978) with
James Garner and
Jack Kelly. ==Personal life==