''What a Dummy'' is a syndicated television

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

that lasted for one season in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

until 1991. The premise of the show was that the Brannigan family of

Secaucus, New Jersey Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 16,264,ventriloquist's dummy Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ve ...

named Buzz (voiced by Loren Freeman), who had been locked in a trunk for fifty years before being discovered by the family.

Kaye Ballard Kaye Ballard (November 20, 1925 – January 21, 2019) was an American actress, comedian, and singer. Early life Ballard was born Catherine Gloria Balotta in Cleveland, Ohio, one of four children born to Italian immigrant parents, Lena (née Nac ...

played the family's next-door neighbor, Mrs. Treva Travalony. The animatronic puppet used for Buzz was created by special effects artists Alec Gillis and

Tom Woodruff Jr. Tom Woodruff Jr. (born January 21, 1959) is an American actor, director, producer and special effects supervisor. He won an Academy Award for Best Special Effects for his work on the 1992 dark fantasy film ''Death Becomes Her''; that same year h ...

Amalgamated Dynamics Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. (ADI) is an American special effects company specializing in animatronics and prosthetic make-up, headquartered in Chatsworth, California. It was founded in 1988 by Stan Winston alumni Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gilli ...

, and puppeteered by

Mark Rappaport Mark Rappaport (born January 15, 1942 in New York City, United States) is an American independent/underground film director and film critic, who has been working sporadically since the early 1970s. Biography Born and raised in Brighton Beach, ...

Cast

Stephen Dorff Stephen Hartley Dorff Jr. (born July 29, 1973) is an American actor. He is known for portraying Roland West in the third season of HBO's crime drama anthology series ''True Detective'', PK in '' The Power of One'', Stuart Sutcliffe in ''Backbe ...

as Tucker Brannigan * Joshua Rudoy as Cory Brannigan * David Doty as Ed Brannigan * Annabel Armour as Polly Brannigan *

Janna Michaels Janna Michaels (born July 9, 1983) is an American former child actress. She voiced Molly Cunningham on Disney's ''TaleSpin''. Michaels was a regular on the short-lived television series, ''What a Dummy''. She later had a recurring role on ''Dr. ...

as Maggie Brannigan * Kaye Ballard as Treva Travalony * Loren Freeman as Buzz (voice)

Episodes

International broadcast

The series also aired in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, as ''Der Familienschreck'' (''The Family Fright''), Spanish countries as ''Vaya muñeco'' (''Go Doll''), and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

as ''L’amico di legno'' (''The Wooden Friend'').

External links

* * 1990s American sitcoms 1990 American television series debuts 1991 American television series endings First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Television series by Universal Television American television shows featuring puppetry Television shows set in New Jersey English-language television shows {{US-tv-prog-stub