Living Doll (The Twilight Zone)

"Living Doll"
The Twilight Zone episode
"Talky Tina" whose design was inspired by Chatty Cathy and was voiced by June Foray (the original voice for Chatty Cathy),
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 6
Directed by	Richard C. Sarafian
Written by	Jerry Sohl (Credited to Charles Beaumont)
Featured music	Original score by Bernard Herrmann
Production code	2621
Original air date	November 1, 1963
Guest appearance(s)
Telly Savalas: Erich Streator Mary LaRoche: Annabelle Streator Tracy Stratford: Christie Streator June Foray: Talky Tina (voice)
Episode chronology

"Living Doll" is the 126th episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration

“

Talky Tina, a doll that does everything, a lifelike creation of plastic and springs and painted smile. To Erich Streator, she is the most unwelcome addition to his household—but without her, he'd never enter the Twilight Zone.

”

Plot

Annabelle buys her young daughter, Christie, a talking doll named "Talky Tina" in order to comfort Christie. Annabelle has recently remarried to an infertile man named Erich Streator, who is hostile toward the child. Erich begins to transfer this hostility to the new doll.

When Erich finds himself alone with the doll, it tells Erich she hates him and warns him to be nice to it. At first, Erich thinks Annabelle is playing a trick on him. He places the doll in a trash can in the garage, but then receives a phone call and hears the doll's voice threatening to kill him. Erich attempts to destroy the doll using a vise, a blow torch and a saw, but fails each time. Erich then places the doll in a burlap sack and returns it to the trash can weighing the lid with bricks.

He returns to his bedroom to find Annabelle packing to leave, unable to tolerate his hostility and irrational behavior any longer. She insists that Erich should see a psychiatrist. Erich maintains that the doll was talking to him, but offers to return it to Christie if Annabelle will stay. He returns to the garage and finds the doll still in the trash can. It says "My name is Talky Tina and I don't forgive you!" Erich desperately urges it to be quiet, and reluctantly returns the doll to Christie.

Later that night, Erich is awakened by muffled noises from within the house. He tells Annabelle to stay in the bedroom, and leaves to investigate. Christie is in bed, but Tina is gone. Skulking down the stairs, he trips over Tina, who is lying on one of the treads, and falls. Sustaining fatal injuries, he sees the doll watching him as he dies. Attracted by the noise, Annabelle screams and runs down the stairs. She picks up Tina, who says, "My name is Talky Tina... and you'd better be nice to me!" Annabelle drops the doll in shock.

Closing narration

“

Of course, we all know dolls can't really talk, and they certainly can't commit murder. But to a child caught in the middle of turmoil and conflict, a doll can become many things: friend, defender, guardian. Especially a doll like Talky Tina, who did talk and did commit murder—in the misty region of the Twilight Zone.

”

Episode notes

The score composed by Bernard Herrmann consists of a solo bass clarinet, flourished by harps and celesta. This ensemble creates the sinister tone appropriate for the episode's mood.

The house in this episode was also used in another Twilight Zone episode, Ring-a-Ding Girl (1963).

The doll used to play Talky Tina was a doll named Brikette that was made by the Vogue doll company. Brikette is a non-talker, except in the Twilight Zone; however, the inspiration for Tina was Chatty Cathy, a talking doll manufactured by Mattel. Cathy and Tina were both voiced by June Foray, one of the most prolific voice actresses of the era.^[1]^[2]

In popular culture

This episode was parodied in a The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror segment, "Clown Without Pity" (1992), where Homer buys Bart a talking Krusty the Clown doll for his birthday that tries to kill Homer.

In the Californian and Parisian versions of the popular Disney attraction The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, what some mistakenly think to be a Talky Tina doll can be seen on a couch in the lobby as guests wait in line.

The X-Files episode "Chinga," written by Stephen King, features a murderous talking doll.

A mute telepath in the French film Bloody Mallory (2002) is named Talky Tina.

The episode also was spoofed in an episode of Cartoon Network's animated series Johnny Bravo (1997–2004), "The Man Who Cried 'Clown!'/Johnny, Real Good/Little Talky Tabitha!", in which the character of Suzy receives a talking doll, Tabitha, that, unbeknown to all of the other characters in the series, is alive and relentlessly terrorizes Johnny.

References

↑ Clare, Nancy (June 18, 2010). "June Foray". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
↑ Clare, Nancy (June 18, 2010). "June Foray". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 4, 2015.

DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0
Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
Photo and description of replica Brikette doll

External links

"Living Doll" at the Internet Movie Database
"Living Doll" at TV.com

The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes

Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgment Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"

Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "The Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble with Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"

Season 3	"Two" "The Arrival" "The Shelter" "The Passersby" "A Game of Pool" "The Mirror" "The Grave" "It's a Good Life" "Deaths-Head Revisited" "The Midnight Sun" "Still Valley" "The Jungle" "Once Upon a Time" "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" "A Quality of Mercy" "Nothing in the Dark" "One More Pallbearer" "Dead Man's Shoes" "The Hunt" "Showdown with Rance McGrew" "Kick the Can" "A Piano in the House" "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" "To Serve Man" "The Fugitive" "Little Girl Lost" "Person or Persons Unknown" "The Little People" "Four O'Clock" "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" "The Trade-Ins" "The Gift" "The Dummy" "Young Man's Fancy" "I Sing the Body Electric" "Cavender Is Coming" "The Changing of the Guard"

Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"

Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" "Steel" "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Last Night of a Jockey" "Living Doll" "The Old Man in the Cave" "Uncle Simon" "Probe 7, Over and Out" "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" "Ring-a-Ding Girl" "You Drive" "The Long Morrow" "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" "Black Leather Jackets" "Night Call" "From Agnes—With Love" "Spur of the Moment" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" "Queen of the Nile" "What's in the Box" "The Masks" "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" "Sounds and Silences" "Caesar and Me" "The Jeopardy Room" "Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Encounter" "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" "The Brain Center at Whipple's" "Come Wander with Me" "The Fear" "The Bewitchin' Pool"

Richard Matheson

Novels	I Am Legend (1954) The Shrinking Man (1956) A Stir of Echoes (1958) The Beardless Warriors (1960) Hell House (1971) Bid Time Return (1975) What Dreams May Come (1978)

Short stories	"Born of Man and Woman" (1950) "Blood Son" (1951) "Button, Button" (1970)

Screenplays	The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) House of Usher (1960) "The Last Flight" (1960) "Nick of Time" (1960) "A World of Difference" (1960) "A World of His Own" (1960) Master of the World (1961) The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) "The Invaders" (1961) "Once Upon a Time" (1961) Night of the Eagle (1962) Tales of Terror (1962) "Little Girl Lost" (1962) "Young Man's Fancy" (1962) The Raven (1963) "Death Ship" (1963) "Mute" (1963) "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1963) "Steel" (1963) The Comedy of Terrors (1964) The Last Man on Earth (1964) "Night Call" (1964) "Spur of the Moment" (1964) Fanatic (1965) The Young Warriors (1966) "The Enemy Within" (1966) The Devil Rides Out (1968) De Sade (1969) Duel (1971) The Night Stalker (1972) The Night Strangler (1973) The Legend of Hell House (1973) Bram Stoker's Dracula (1973) The Morning After (1974) Scream of the Wolf (1974) Trilogy of Terror (1975) Dead of Night (1977) The Martian Chronicles (1980) Somewhere in Time (1980) Jaws 3-D (1983) Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) "Button, Button" (1986) Loose Cannons (1990) The Dreamer of Oz (1990) Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994) Trilogy of Terror II (1996)

Adaptations by others	"And When the Sky Was Opened" (1959) "Third from the Sun" (1960) Cold Sweat (1970) The Omega Man (1971) The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) What Dreams May Come (1998) Stir of Echoes (1999) "Dance of the Dead" (2005) "My Ambition" (2006) I Am Legend (2007) I Am Omega (2007) The Box (2009) "The Splendid Source" (2010) Real Steel (2011)

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