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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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-24-2007 @ 12:19PM
Sorceressss said...
Good list! I caught a few minutes of a few X-Files episodes, but could never watch a whole one because of the creep factor.
Also, Twilight Zone, one of the best shows ever, so many distrubing moments.
I had to watch The Day After in high school history, and yeah, almost 20 years after the fact, I still remember the trauma.....
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10-24-2007 @ 12:27PM
MB said...
Those blinking Who creatures were the first television characters to creep me out in eons.
But I'm surprised there's no Bob. There's nothing scarier than Bob.
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10-24-2007 @ 12:47PM
Jo said...
The Weeping Angels were far and above the scariest monsters I've seen on TV.
For me -
weeping angels, #1
the gentlemen #2
May I suggest to anyone who hasn't seen Blink, that they fix that right now, because I can't remember a TV program that impressed me so much. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
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10-24-2007 @ 1:08PM
Brad C said...
Any list that doesn't contain Sleestaks is bogus.
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10-24-2007 @ 1:48PM
cggiven said...
Excellent list, though I could quibble about the order.
Far and away the "weeping angels" are the scariest character to hit television. I remember sitting there at the end adrenaline still coursing through me, and the first thought as I let my "suspension of disbelief" cloak rise from me was: I can't name a character in television OR film that rivaled it for sheer capacity to frighten without the cheap thrills of gore or jump scares.
Heck, within the rules of the script, you knew that you would never see anything scary happen on screen which only made the suspense even more taught.
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10-24-2007 @ 1:52PM
Midnight13 said...
Talking Tina, great choice. Why? Once again Serling does it first. The scary doll concept has since been done numerous times, from Chucky, to the cult horrer movie of the 80's "Dolls". The scary doll thing has become a horrer cliche, but back in "The Twilight Zone" at least on television and film, it was freash, and very creepy. And we all know that if it hadn't been for the "The Twilight Zone", shows like "Buffy" would never have been made.
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10-24-2007 @ 2:20PM
Tess Capra said...
I agree with MB that Bob from *Twin Peaks* deserves placement.
And a subset of The Gentlemen entry should be those crazies that go around with them. In the largely silent episode, the clink of the buckles on their strait-jackets freaks me out.
There was also a Salem witch tale in, I believe, an anthology series called *Ghost Story* that ended on the image of a (possessed) baby laughing in woman's voice while in its crib that gave me nightmares for weeks as a child.
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10-24-2007 @ 3:17PM
Leslie said...
Ooo, and Pennywise the clown from the TV adaptation of *It.* The lack of clowns on the list is a serious oversight. Even Krusty makes me squirm.
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10-24-2007 @ 5:35PM
nattyff said...
im not a coward person, but the only thing that really freak me out for months was the mini series "intruders", i spend easiñy three month afraid of windows and wondering if maybe i have been abducted in my life!!. The most scary thing of that movie was tha fact that no one coud help you if they come for you, not even your husband, because he was soundly sleeping right next to you when the freakyn aliens came for you!! LOL (a saw these movie when a was about 14 years old, and an x files fan!!!)
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10-24-2007 @ 6:08PM
Crow said...
Does anyone remember an ABC movie from I think it was 1975-76 called "Don't be afraid of the Dark". Those creatures in it they kinda looked like the gremlin from the Twilight Zone episode but very small and they whispered to each other. Cree. Pee.
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10-25-2007 @ 3:29PM
Port said...
How is Leyland Palmer and/or Bob not included on the list? It was horribly terrifying was it when Leyland killed Maddie! And seeing Bob's face at the end of Laura's bed? Scary
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10-25-2007 @ 2:30AM
Stigmata said...
SO LAME! it really doesnt take much to scare u does it? are you over 50 years old? jeeez
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10-25-2007 @ 9:48AM
Philip said...
I'm not familiar with that episode of the Twilight Zone, but this write-up reminded me of another TV evil doll. The premiere episode of Friday the 13th: The Series back in the late 80s featured an antique doll named Vita (I think) who totally messed up a little girl (Sarah Polley!). I remember being totally freaked out, and that episode made the show into my absolute fave at the time. (Of course, looking back now, I wonder what I ever saw in it! My love for Robey remains strong, though).
And as for X-Files - the one creepy character that stands out in my memory was Eve, played by Harriet Sansom Harris.
And Twin Peaks' Bob definitely deserves a spot on the list! Twin Peaks replaced Friday the 13th as my favourite show back in the day - but unlike F13, it's a show I can still watch today...
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10-25-2007 @ 11:56AM
John W said...
That final shot of Karen Black in the Trliogy of Terror scared the living you know what out of me when I was kid. The only thing scarier than that final scene was The Exorcist.
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10-25-2007 @ 12:43PM
boleynfan said...
The scariest Star Trek creature for me was the Mugatu from " A Private Little War". He was a white gorilla with a unicorn horn and poisonous bites. I had nightmares where this thing was chasing me!
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10-25-2007 @ 1:07PM
srah said...
Can we count The Theme Music from Unsolved Mysteries as a character? Because that scared/scares the crap out of me.
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10-25-2007 @ 4:50PM
2utah2 said...
What about the BOB demon from Twin Peaks. scariest dude ever.
Brother Justin from Carnivale
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10-26-2007 @ 7:39PM
RetUSMCGunny said...
Wow, OUTSTANDING LIST! Thanks for the tips on shows I didn't watch "back in da day" that I will have to catch on DVD or something (The Dr. Who episode and the Buffy episode mentioned look inviting!) Talky Tina was an unexpected surprise for #1, but I grudingly have to agree.
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10-25-2007 @ 7:41PM
Ted Anderson said...
Not sure it has shown in the US yet, but by far the creapiest characters is on episode 6 of Torchwood called "Countrycide". Not giving anything away here...but it is a must watch....scared me more than any show in recent memory.
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10-28-2007 @ 6:37AM
rob in Louisiana said...
Richard Nixon on Television telling America "I am NOT a crook"....America has not had anthing close to a real president since then; would LOOK to watch a tape Of Bush on Sodium Pentothal; not THAT'S scarey. 2012 Looms America; many answers are coming.
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