'Grey's' Isn't Going Anywhere
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
All-time scariest TV characters -- #1: Talky Tina
by Jackie Schnoop, posted Oct 24th 2007 12:00PM
Character: Talky TinaShow: The Twilight Zone
Episode: "Living Doll"
I've become a jaded adult; not much really scares me these days. Well, health and financial worries aside, that is. I'm talking about that fear deep down inside give you nightmares for months kind of fright, monsters under the bed kind of fear. As an adult for decades now, I just don't have that in me anymore. Believe it or not, I miss it. I miss fearing that sort of unknown.
Let me tell you about Talky Tina.
The time was the early sixties. And, though tomboy I was, I had several dolls of the latest toy technology. Included in my doll menagerie was one called Chatty Cathy. You pulled a string and, lo and behold, she talked! Amazing! But, what if ...
The doll in the episode of The Twilight Zone titled "Living Doll" had the same exact voice. Talky Tina was not a very nice doll, especially if you weren't nice to her. Telly Savalas was the father determined to destroy Tina, but no matter what he did to her she kept coming back.
Savalas, in the role of Erich Streator, decided that Talky Tina was too expensive a gift for his young daughter (about my age at the time). Talky Tina picked up on his dislike and declared, "My name is Talky Tina and I don't think I like you." He tried to saw her in pieces, burn her, put her in the garbage only to receive a phone call. "My name is Talky Tina and I'm going to kill you." The voice was the same as my own doll! Both Talky Tina and Chatty Cathy were voiced by June Foray (who was also the voice of Rocky the Squirrel).
Gulp.
And, she did. She tripped him up on the stairs. His wife ran to him, then looked to Talky Tina nearby his body. Tina's eyes opened and she said, "My name is Talky Tina and you better be nice to me." It was unstated, but you could hear "or I'll kill you too" in your mind. I had nightmares for months and was always nice to my dolls, Chatty Cathy, in particular. I was nice to my Little Miss Echo, too. But since she eternally parroted my drunken uncle singing "Auld Lang Syne," she was a bit less frightening.
Rod Serling's closing for the episode: "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."
Yipes, it still gives me shivers.
YouTube has the episode online in three parts.
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