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{{other uses|Dummy (disambiguation)}}
{{no footnotes|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox television episode
| series = [[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]
| image =
| caption =
| season = 3
| episode = 33
| airdate = {{Start date|1962|05|04}}
| production = 4826
| teleplay = [[Rod Serling]]
| story = Lee Polk
| director = [[Abner Biberman]]
| guests = [[Cliff Robertson]]: Jerry Etherson/Voice of Willie/Voice of Goofy Goggles [[Frank Sutton]]: Frank, Jerry's agent [[George Murdock (actor)|George Murdock]]: Willie (as ventriloquist) [[John Harmon (actor)|John Harmon]]: Georgie, nightclub manager [[Sandra Warner]]: Noreen [[Rudy Dolan]]: The M.C. [[Ralph Manza]]: Doorman [[Bethelynn Grey]]: Chorus Girl [[Edy Williams]]: Chorus Girl
| music = Stock
| season_article = The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 3)
| episode_list = List of The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes
| prev = [[The Gift (The Twilight Zone)|The Gift]]
| next = [[Young Man's Fancy (The Twilight Zone)|Young Man's Fancy]]
}}

"'''The Dummy'''" is episode 98 of the [[American television]] anthology series ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]'' starring [[Cliff Robertson]] as a [[ventriloquist]]. It is not to be confused with a similar episode "[[Caesar and Me]]", in which [[Jackie Cooper]] plays a ventriloquist.

==Opening narration==
{{cquote|You're watching a ventriloquist named Jerry Etherson, a voice-thrower par excellence. His alter ego, sitting atop his lap, is a brash stick of kindling with the sobriquet 'Willy.' In a moment, Mr. Etherson and his knotty-pine partner will be booked in one of the out-of-the-way bistros, that small, dark, intimate place known as the Twilight Zone.}}

==Plot==
[[Ventriloquist]] Jerry Etherson ([[Cliff Robertson]]) is performing an act with his dummy Willy in a small club in [[New York City]]. At the end of the act, Willy seems to bite Jerry's hand, and after he goes back to his dressing room he finds teeth marks on his finger. He begins to drink from a liquor bottle he had hidden in a drawer. His agent, Frank, comes in and is upset that Jerry has resumed [[Alcoholism|drinking]]. Jerry tells Frank, as he has numerous times before, that Willy is alive. Frank does not believe Jerry and has already pushed him into getting psychiatric help. Jerry is convinced that further psychiatric sessions would be redundant and that the only solution is to get rid of Willy and perform with a different dummy, "Goofy Goggles", from now on. He quickly comes up with new material for Goofy Goggles and locks Willy in a trunk.

After the second act, Jerry refuses to comply with the owner's wish that he and his dummy mingle with the audience. His agent considers this the last straw and quits, saying that Jerry's behavior, in particular what he sees as his delusional belief that Willy is alive, are keeping him from being a star. Jerry tells Frank he is leaving for [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] to get away from Willy. After leaving the theater, Jerry hears Willy's voice following him wherever he goes and sees his shadow on a wall. No one else can hear Willy, apparently confirming Frank's belief that Jerry is suffering from delusional fear.

Jerry runs back into the theater. He goes into the dark dressing room, opens the trunk, throws the dummy on the floor, and smashes it. But when he turns on the light, he realizes that he destroyed the Goofy Goggles dummy instead of Willy. He cannot understand how he could have been mistaken. He then sees Willy sitting on the couch, talking to him and laughing at him. Willy tells him that it was he, Jerry, who made him alive. Realizing the truth, Jerry lowers his head as Willy cackles crazily.

The scene cuts to a man in Kansas City announcing the next act, "Jerry and Willy". The ventriloquist is actually Willy, and he is holding Jerry, who has been turned into a dummy.

==Closing narration==
{{cquote|What's known in the parlance of the times as the old switcheroo, from boss to blockhead in a few uneasy lessons. And if you're given to nightclubbing on occasion, check this act. It's called Willy and Jerry, and they generally are booked into some of the clubs along the 'Gray Night Way' known as the Twilight Zone.}}

==Production notes==
[[Abner Biberman]] also directed "[[Number 12 Looks Just Like You (The Twilight Zone)|Number Twelve Looks Just Like You]]".

The dummy used in this episode to portray "Willy" was originally created in the 1940s by puppetmaker Revello Petee. The same dummy was used later, in the 1964 ''Twilight Zone'' episode, "[[Caesar and Me]]". The actual original dummy which was used in both episodes had been housed in a private collection in Connecticut since the late 1970s, but now resides in David Copperfield's [[International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts]] in [[Las Vegas]], along with the Cliff Robertson dummy effigy which appears at the end of this episode. Both puppets were subject to a careful, preservative renovation by American artist and puppet restoration expert Alan Semok. {{citation needed|date=May 2011}}

==References==
*DeVoe, Bill. (2008). ''Trivia from The Twilight Zone''. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. {{ISBN|978-1-59393-136-0}}
*Grams, Martin. (2008). ''The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic''. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-9703310-9-0}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb episode|0734636}}

{{The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dummy, The}}
[[Category:1962 American television episodes]]
[[Category:The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series season 3) episodes]]
[[Category:Ventriloquism]]
[[Category:Television episodes written by Rod Serling]]

The Dummy - Revision history

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GOTV>Jnestorius: Sandra Warner|Sandy Warner