What horror movies (and TV shows) have featured ventriloquist dummies? I know there have been a few, but I am currently drawing a blank on any specific titles.
The Doctor Who story Talons of Weng Chiang (one of the best ever.)
I’m not sure if The Ventriloquist & Scarface appeared in any of the Batman TV shows.
“**Magic ** is fun…
When you’re dead.”
My friends and I used to use “when you’re dead” as catch phrase for a couple years after those commercials
Magic, an Anthony Hopkins flick from the late '70s.
Magic with Anthony Hopkins (screenplay by William, Goldman, based on his book)
The Devil Doll (spoofed on MST3K
Dead of Night, 1940s Brit horror anthology film
At least one, and probably more, episodes of the original Twilight Zone
These are all stories in which the dummy (at least apparently) comes to life, usually switching places with the ventriloquist. There’s also a sub-genre in which the apparent dummy is really a midget ventriloquist. This was done at least twice on live TV shows in the 1950s, but the best version was an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that starred a pre-Star Trek William Shatner.
There’s some interesting info here.
Including TV episodes?
Fantasy Island Had an episode in which Annette Funicello played a ventriloquist whose dummy became her evil twin. Whatever one felt, the other felt as well.
I was traumatized as a child by the scene in which the good Annette is sitting at home while the evil one is, um, knowing the charms of men for the first time. That was some look on her face…
One of the first-season episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer features a Dummy who hunts demons (See, he was a demon-hunter when he was human, but got his soul stuck in a wooden dummy as a curse). As an added bonus, he was a total horndog and spent the last third of the episode hitting on the female characters when he wasn’t actually trying to fight the demon in the episode.
If I remember correctly, there were two Twilight Zone episodes, one with Cliff Robertson and one with Jackie Cooper. I’m not so sure about the second, though.
The sitcom Soap featured Jay Johnson and Bob as a schizo son and his dummy. They also guest starred on an episode of Mrs. Columbo in an episode inspired by Magic (and damn but that “when you’re dead…” line used to scare the hell out of me).
Howdy Doody probably remains the most famous, of course (along with his sister Heidi Doody, Princess Winterspring Summerfall and other guests).
Does Howdy Doody have a USPS postage stamp? :dubious:
While he was a popular figure on radio, Edgar Bergen’s one television program, Do You Trust Your Wife?, lasted only one season.
There was also an episode of “Twilight Zone” with Telly Savalas, who’s (step?)daughter had a talking doll that would say evil things to him when nobody else was around. But it wasn’t a ventriloquist doll, just a regular girl’s doll.
The guy on “Soap” was the first thing that sprang to mind. Also Willie Tyler and Lester, although I remember them more as a stand-up act on the Tonight Show.
There was also an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond” where Robert was using a ventriloquist doll for Traffic School or something…
Bull had a lookalike ventriloquist dummy on at least two episodes of Night Court.
ALF and the Muppets and Sesame Street all seem too obvious of course.
Yeah, but he did make some movies, too.
Didn’t Sam Malone and Woody, at different time, use ventriloquist dummies on Cheers?
True, but none of them are horror movies, and the OP asked specifically for horror movies.
No one mentioned Mr. Hat yet? There’s a certain amount of horror in that. 
There’s also the early talkie, **The Great Gabbo **.
Well, I wasn’t responding to the OP but to the general assertion that Howdy Doody (not conventionally seen as horrific, though YMMV) “probably remains the most famous, of course”. And Sampiro began the non-horror dummy references anyway.
I’m innocent, I tells ya–Innocent!!!
And of course, the other Gabbo. And few things were more horrific than Krusty’s fist shattering the skull of his own, competing dummy, before throwing it into the audience of kids.
