I used to watch Newhart with my folks all the time when I was a child in the eighties, so I was already aware that the two brothers named Darryl never spoke. I've never watched this episode of Super Password until now, but I bet the audience was shocked to finally hear Tony Papenfuss actually talk. What I don't get is why the voice of the person speaking what the passwords were always had to sound so creepy! The voice was so maniacally malicious sounding, that I couldn't help but to feel cringed out by it! In this episode, I especially got goosebumps during the "Nightmare On Elm Street" category when I heard the voice say "The password is "Freddy"! That was creepy to the extreme! An interesting fact, Tony Papenfuss was born on the same official day as the babyfaced comedic actor, Martin Short! Tony Papenfuss and Martin Short were both born March 26 1950! ~Dutch
Man I love this! Just the energy and the spontaneous outbursts on the show make this one of my favorite game shows! Also, the adorable Bert Convy is easy on the eyes! Today's game shows suck with the slight exception of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. Even the brand nameless plugs on The Price Is Right is unforgiving. I cannot continue watching it. It's not 100% Drew Carey's fault.
I remember seeing this actually on Tuesday, July 7, 1987, though it was originally scheduled to be aired Monday, July 6. Some network preemption had happened a week or two before, so the episode that aired on July 6 was the episode that should have aired the previous Thursday, July 2. Bert ended that program by saying that the next day's program (which under normal circumstances would've been Friday, July 3) would be preempted by NBC's annual Wimbledon coverage. Then on Tuesday, July 7, daily coverage of the Iran-Contra Hearings ripped apart network daytime schedules for at least the next month. Super Password & the game show that followed it that summer, Wordplay, were usually still aired, but just in part, because of the lunchtime recess that the hearings would take at noon Eastern time. However the hearings often ran past noon, and sometimes past 12:30 PM, ET, so these shows would be joined in progress. I remember going out of my way to tape this particular show because Tony would be speaking on tv for the first time, so I was pretty peeved when the first 10-15 mins were preempted by I-C coverage, so no one, at least in Eastern or Central time, and probably across the rest of the time zones too, could see the opening of this and several other episodes, until GSN finally aired it several years later. I remember at least a few times that the hearings ran past 12:30 PM ET, so Super Password was completely preempted and Wordplay was JIP. I know Wordplay had at least 2 complete preemptions as well because the week that Jamie Farr sub-hosted for Tom Kennedy only had 3 shows taped for that week.
