Living Doll

And that, again, was redone very successfully, I think, in the movie.

Living Doll was a predated Chucky from Child's Play in that we had Talking Tina, which was a demonic doll with the great Telly Savalas.

Simpsons Clown Without Pity was a Simpsons version.

Mm-hmm.

So if the Warrens didn't encounter a demon in that apartment, where did Annabelle come from? A religion professor named Joseph Laycock has an answer, and once you hear it, it's hard to unhear.

On November 1st, 1963, The Twilight Zone aired an episode called Living Doll.

It's about a talking doll that torments a cruel stepfather, threatens to kill him, and finally does it, tripping him down the stairs in the night.

It's one of the most famous episodes of television ever made.

[crying] Whether it's the way they look, sound, or even interact with their owner, the eerie nature of dolls has made them a staple of urban legends for decades, and centuries of horror stories.

Long before M3GAN, Annabelle, Chucky, and even Talky Tina, there was Okiku and the Tsune-no-Tsuki.

But where and when did mankind's fear of these harmless toys originate? Is it from a time where these dolls weren't harmless or considered toys? And how do we distinguish between a doll that is haunted and one that's simply alive? Are you sure you wanna know? It might freak you out.

Those are just some of the questions that I'll be answering in this extra special spoopy episode of Messed Up Origins.

A ghost theory.

What, did you think I was gonna say Game Theory?[eerie music] Anyway, I probably spent way too long unpacking those, but I also wanna point out that Robert, Annabelle, and even Okiku gained infamy in the decades following the airing of a certain Twilight Zone episode called Living Doll.

My name is Talky Tina, and I don't think I like you.

Originally airing in 1963, it follows a mother coincidentally named Annabelle who buys her daughter, Christie, a wind-up doll named Talky Tina that starts saying threatening things to Annabelle's husband, Eric.

I get, always get confused, 'cause there's a couple different, like, mannequin or doll episodes.

Uh, is it The Living Doll?

Ding, ding.

[bell dings] Two for two.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Artifact, a short-form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time.

Who doesn't love a good creepy talking doll? Our horror films and TV shows are, of course, full with them, from Talkie Tina in the Twilight Zone episode Living Doll back in '63, uh, Chucky in 1988's Child's Play, to more recent high-tech terrors such as Megan and its sequel.

Even the old Twilight Zone episode that was based on an actual Mattel talking doll, Chatty Cathy, which debuted in 1959.

But all of this has a creepy and much earlier predecessor in the form of Thomas Edison's singing phonograph doll.

Yes, long before Teddy Ruxpin or any of the AI horrors that we have today, uh, back in 1889, American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison produced a toy that certainly looked like your standard issue doll, like not quite a baby doll, but like a young girl doll.

But here's one last little bit of horror flavoring for you.

Imagine those little voice boxes, those little phonographs buried somewhere secretly, perhaps still whispering, pleading for the day when they might be reunited with their little antique bodies.

Tune in for additional episodes of The Artifact, The Monster Fact, or Animalia Stupendium each week.

I think there was another thing I had in my notes with, um, in an episode, kids playthings, if you will, in, in the world of their own.

You know, we g- we get the Talking Tina episode, the Living Doll episode.

Stop over in A Quiet Town, where we get to see humans as somebody else's plaything.

Perhaps we'll look at that episode, too.