Living Doll (The Twilight Zone)

"**Living Doll**"
"Living Doll"
The Twilight Zone episode
	"Talky Tina" was voiced by June Foray
Episode no.	Season 5; Episode 6
Directed by	Richard C. Sarafian
Written by	Jerry Sohl ; (Credited to Charles Beaumont)
Featured music	Composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann
Production code	2621
Original air date	November 1, 1963
Guest appearances
	Telly Savalas; Mary La Roche; Tracy Stratford;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "The Last Night of a Jockey"	Next →; "The Old Man in the Cave"
	The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 5)
	List of episodes

"Living Doll" is the 126th episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. In this episode, a dysfunctional family's problems are made worse when the child's doll proves to be sentient.

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 daughter, Christie, a wind-up doll named "Talky Tina" in order to comfort her. When wound, the doll says, "My name is Talky Tina and I love you very much." Annabelle has recently remarried to an infertile man named Erich Streator. Frustrated by his inability to have his own children with Annabelle, Erich directs his hostility toward Christie. Annabelle tries to persuade him that if he gives himself the chance, he will be able to love Christie.

When Erich winds up the doll, it substitutes its catchphrase with antagonisms such as "I don't like you". At first, Erich blames the doll's manufacturer. However, when the doll begins engaging him in a more elaborate conversation, he comes to the conclusion that Annabelle is playing a trick to get back at him for his treatment of Christie. 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. Checking the trash can, he finds it empty. He confronts Annabelle, but she pleads innocence. It occurs to Erich that since his wife was upstairs putting Christie to bed, she could not possibly have made the phone ring.

He runs upstairs to find the doll in bed with Christie. Erich takes the doll away against Christie's tearful protests and angrily corrects her when she addresses him as "Daddy". He attempts to destroy the doll using a vise, a blow torch and a circular saw, all to no effect. He ties the doll in a burlap sack and returns it to the trash can, weighing the lid with bricks. Annabelle begins packing to leave, unable to tolerate his hostility and irrational behavior any longer. She says that Erich should see a psychiatrist. Erich begins to question whether the doll talking to him was just his imagination, and he offers to return it to Christie if Annabelle will stay. He takes the doll out of the trash and returns it to Christie.

Later that night, Erich is awakened by muffled noises. He tells Annabelle to stay in the bedroom, and leaves to investigate. Christie is in bed, but Tina is gone. Going down the stairs, he trips over Tina, who is lying on one of the treads, and falls, sustaining seemingly fatal injuries. Attracted by the noise, Annabelle finds Erich's body. Beside him is Tina, who opens her eyes and threatens Annabelle by saying, "My name is Talky Tina... and you'd better be nice to me!"

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.

Cast[]

Telly Savalas as Erich Streator
Mary La Roche as Annabelle Streator
Tracy Stratford as Christie Streator
June Foray as Talky Tina (voice) [uncredited] ^[1]

Mary La Roche, Tracy Stratford as well as June Foray each worked in one other episode of the original series. La Roche was one of two female leads in first season's last episode "A World of His Own" (July 1960), Stratford was uncredited as third season's "Little Girl Lost" (March 1962) and Foray was again uncredited as the voice of Mary Badham's character in the series' final episode "The Bewitchin' Pool" (June 1964).

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

The doll used for Talky Tina was produced by the Vogue Doll Company between 1959 and 1961 and marketed under the name "Brikette".^[2] Contrary to its depiction on The Twilight Zone, Brikette was a non-talker; however, in its televised portrayal as Tina it was modeled after Chatty Cathy, a popular talking doll being manufactured by Mattel toy company at the time "Living Doll" premiered. The voices for both Talky Tina and the original Chatty Cathy dolls were provided by June Foray, one of the leading voice actresses of the era.^[3]

In popular culture[]

"Living Doll" is parodied in "Clown Without Pity", a segment in a 1992 episode of The Simpsons, which is one of the installments in the cartoon series' Treehouse of Horror presentations. In the story Homer gives Bart a talking Krusty the Clown doll for his birthday, and the toy tries to kill Homer.^[4]

"Living Doll" is also parodied in the "Little Talky Tabitha!" episode of Johnny Bravo.

The character of Gabby Gabby in the 2019 film Toy Story 4 is inspired by Talky Tina, according to director Josh Cooley.^[5]

References[]

^ June Foray Commentary on Living Doll CBS Twilight Zone DVD
^ "1959 Vogue Brikette", Worthpedia, WorthPoint Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia. Retrieved January 5, 2019.
^ Clare, Nancy (June 18, 2010). "June Foray". Los Angeles Times.
^ Serafino, Jason (October 30, 2011). "The 25 Best Simpsons 'Treehouse Of Horror' Stories". Complex, Complex Media, Inc., New York, N.Y. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
^ Snetiker, Marc (March 28, 2019). "Meet Christina Hendricks' 'cold, terrifying' Toy Story 4 villain". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 21, 2019.

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)

External links[]

"Living Doll" at IMDb

[1] June Foray Commentary on Living Doll CBS Twilight Zone DVD

[2] "1959 Vogue Brikette", Worthpedia, WorthPoint Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia. Retrieved January 5, 2019.

[3] Clare, Nancy (June 18, 2010). "June Foray". Los Angeles Times.

[4] Serafino, Jason (October 30, 2011). "The 25 Best Simpsons 'Treehouse Of Horror' Stories". Complex, Complex Media, Inc., New York, N.Y. Retrieved February 20, 2019.

[5] Snetiker, Marc (March 28, 2019). "Meet Christina Hendricks' 'cold, terrifying' Toy Story 4 villain". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 21, 2019.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

v t 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" "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"