What a Dummy

Any storyline involving a ventriloquist dummy. Usually a character fancies themself a ventriloquist, but they stink at it. Sometimes they only talk through the dummy. Occasionally the dummy comes to life.

The Dick Van Dyke Show

Appearances

• The Dick Van Dyke Show: Season 3, episode 6, "Too Many Stars" (1963). Mel auditions for the annual amateur variety show by doing a pathetic ventriloquist act.
• My Mother the Car: Episode 10, "My Son, the Ventriloquist" (1965). Dave is courting a new client who loves throwing big parties, and he needs a new act for an upcoming shindig, so Dave's mother/car helps him pretend he's a sensational ventriloquist. Dave controls the dummy while Mother supplies the voice.
• Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: Season 2, episode 131 (1977). As part of the telethon to raise money for Merle's presidential campaign, Mac performs a sad ventriloquist act where he moves his mouth when the dummy speaks and laughs at his own jokes.
• The Bob Newhart Show: Season 6, episode 3, "A Jackie Story" (1977). Bob's new patient is a ventriloquist who claims his dummy wants to break up the act and go solo.
• Soap: Season 1, episode 7 (1977). Burt's son, Chuck, arrives from Hawaii with Bob, his ventriloquist dummy that he treats like a real person.
• Barney Miller: Season 4, episode 20, "Hostage" (1978). A ventriloquist is arrested for assaulting a woman, but he claims his dummy is the guilty one.
• Night Court: Season 4, episode 1, "The Next Voice You Hear..." (1986). The courtroom is full of ventriloquists with dummies when three of them are arrested for rioting at a kids' show audition. One of them hasn't found the right dummy yet, but when he meets Bull, he finally comes up with the perfect look.
• Cheers: Season 6, episode 2, "'I' on Sports" (1987). Sam gets a job hosting a sports segment on a local news channel, but his commentary is a bit bland, so he tries to spice it up, first by rapping, then by introducing a ventriloquist dummy into the act.
• Mr. Belvedere: Season 4, episode 1, "The Initiation" (1987). Wesley wants to be in his school's talent show, but he doesn't have a talent besides playing the accordion, so he decides to learn ventriloquism and makes a dummy version of Mr. Belvedere.
• ALF: Season 2, episode 23, "I'm Your Puppet" (1988). Alf's ventriloquist dummy, Paul, develops a personality of his own, and he's a total asshole.
• Wings: Season 3, episode 19, "Four Dates That Will Live in Infamy" (1992). When the gang decides to try a video dating service, Joe goes on a date with a ventriloquist who will only speak through her dummy.
• Herman's Head: Season 3, episode 2, "There's a Fly Girl in My Soup" (1993). Herman discovers that Mr. Bracken's dream was to become a ventriloquist and reminds him by bringing his old dummy to the office.
• NewsRadio: Season 4, episode 8, "Stupid Holiday Charity Talent Show" (1997). When everyone else fails at the talent show, Matthew takes out his ventriloquist dummy and takes the stage, but it turns out he sucks too, but he tells the audience his sad story about being fired, and he's so sad and pathetic that he wins the same way he wins everything, "on a pity vote."
• Spin City: Season 2, episode 9, "Family Affair: Part 1" (1997). Nikki's blind date turns out to be a ventriloquist who only talks to her through his dummy.
• Malcolm in the Middle: Season 3, episode 1, "Houseboat" (2001). After Malcolm betrays Hal twice, he decides to spend more time with Dewey, and since Dewey told him he wanted to be a ventriloquist, Hal buys them both dummies.
• The Goldbergs: Season 4, episode 22, "Smother's Day" (2016). In an attempt to convince Murray to let him go to space camp, Adam decides to find out what Murray's dream was, so he visits Pop-pop, who shows him Murray's ventriloquist dummy, Maury, which looks just like Murray.