The Gauntlet of Villains were (from left as in the intro and this photo◊):
Alphonse the Gangster
Bruno the Headsman
Mr. Van Louse the Landlord
Nero the Fiddler
Count Nibbleneck the Vampire
Frank and his little friend Stein
Kid Rotten the Gunslinger
Jeremy Swash the Pirate
Dr. Deranged the Mad Scientist
Lucretia the Witch
Keep Circulating the Tapes: For four decades, this was the only way to see the series outside of YouTube. Burt Sugarman has the entire series (plus format and trademark rights), but was unwilling to share. The Television Production Music Museum has the premiere, the 3/10/80 show (erroneously mislabeled as the last pre-Celebrity episode), and the Grand Finale available for viewing in its Vault (paying member) section. Rescued when Buzzr began airing it in September 2021; to say the fandom rejoiced was an understatement.
Laugh Track: Played after almost every blooper read by Tom. The same audience groan track was also used any time someone ran out of time in the Gauntlet of Villains.
Screwed by the Network: Jay Wolpert stated in an interview that the show actually was doing well against All-Star Secrets, when NBC decided to play dirty and put The Hollywood Squares up against it insteadnote though that was more of an aftereffect of Fred Silverman's attempts over at NBC to shut down the Squares - Silverman hated game shows, and particularly hated the Squares as he had rejected it while at CBS and was obviously very annoyed that it had succeeded on NBC. Trying to switch the timeslot around was the first part of that plan. CBS' daytime department realized they needed to counter it, and asked the promo department for more advertising. They didn't get it, and they had to resort to the "add celebrities" as a last resort given how the promotional guys had screwed them over, but it was too late.
Signature Sound Effect: Any time a contestant ran out of time in a main round or the Gauntlet of Villains, instead of a typical buzzer sound or Losing Horns, an audio clip would play of the "villains" tauntingly saying, "Time's up!"
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