I seemed to build my collection of John Voldstad autographs in small steps. John Voldstad portrayed the second silent Daryl in one of my all-time favorite television series Newhart. When he first made his appearance at a Hollywood Collectors Show, all he had for sale were some small 4″ x 5″ portraits. So that was what I was stuck with adding to my collection. But for $5.00, it wasn’t a bad deal. Later on, he returned along with his Larry, Daryl, and Daryl cohort William Sanderson and Tony Papenfuss and I was able to get the complete signed cast shot as shown here.
Then Mr. Voldstad began selling off the original scripts that he used while filming the show. Bob called me right away to tell me that these were available for $20 each, a remarkable buy if I do say so. I had him read me off the episodes that were available and it just so happened that he had my very favorite episode Co-Hostess Twinkie. I had Bob snap it up and have Daryl sign his name on it. As a bonus, he had made some notes on the back of the script during the shooting of the episode.
The script
John Vostad’s handwritten notes on the back of the script. Tony is Tony Papenfuss, the first brother Daryl. Jule is Julie Brown, who played the pivotal and outrageous role of Buffy Denver in this episode.
Finally, the day came when I was finally able to meet Daryl. He was present at the October 2005 Hollywood Collectors Show, there with his son, selling signed photos of himself and brethren. I passed on purchasing anything further, but had a nice conversation with him nonetheless. It thrills me in a perverse way to speak to people who are known for not speaking (Teller would be another good example). We talked about the future DVD release of the Newhart show, which was supposedly going to be out in early 2007. Obviously that hasn’t happened, but Voldstad did state that he had been called in for interviews for bonus materials.
It was cool to meet him. He was very down to earth and actually spoke with a bit of a stammer (ala Bob Newhart). His son was a nice kid, too.
Continue with the celebrities of the 2005 HCS…
That must be one of the strangest TV jobs ever. At least he didn’t have to worry about forgetting his lines! And the SAG or AFTRA minimum scale would guarantee that he’d be paid pretty nicely for, ah, standing there.
Randy Skretvedt
September 27th, 2007
I’ve known John since we celebrated his and my birthday together in London when we were working in the theatre – which would be about 40 years ago. He’s a super person. We ‘did’ Disneyland one time when people kept staring at him – he wasn’t allowed to speak!!
Kate
January 24th, 2012