What a Dummy

As embarrassed as I am to admit it, I actually watched this show when I was little. Most short-lived shows that I've watched, I usually forget about. But this show was stupid to the point where you almost couldn't forget it. Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, almost every syndicated show was awful ("Small Wonder", "Out Of This World", "Learning The Ropes", "She's The Sheriff", "The Munsters Today") and the bar was already set pretty low.

The thing that gets me is how in the world someone could pitch an idea of a family comedy which centers around a talking dummy and not get laughed out of the room. The fact that this show was actually picked for syndication makes me wonder what in the world these people were thinking. Didn't someone have the courage to stand up and say how unbelievably stupid of an idea this show was? I mean come on: A talking dummy? That is sure to give people nightmares for years to come.

I know that "Mr. Ed" had a far-fetched plot about a talking horse and became a successful sitcom. However, that show had wit and charm and a talking horse is a lot less freakier than a talking dummy.

I remember that every episode would use the same joke. Someone would say something stupid and the dummy would always respond by saying, "And they call me the dummy?"

Well, no, you're not the only dummy. The people who decided to put trash like this on the air are beyond stupid.

I've been telling people about this TV show i watched when i was like 14 for years, i really didn't think anyone else had ever seen this show. I would always tell people about the show Stephen Dorff was on before anyone knew who he was, i just couldn't believe that someone really made a show about a talking dummy. But i do have to admit that i watched the show a lot. Although i do not think that i ever actually enjoyed it, I'm not sure why i watched it. It is kinda of like a car wreck you just have to watch. I'm not sure i can even think of a show that was worse than this show, although i have seen a lot of really bad shows that were only on for maybe half a season. But i would have to say this is one of the worst ideas for a TV show. There are some runner ups in this contest, Alf being one of them. It made perfect sense when i found out the guy that created Alf was on drugs, who would have guessed. I'm sure i could go on and on about this subject, but I'm going to bring this to an end for now. Id also have to recommend Hey,Dude for this contest even though i really did love that show.

I am still in disbelief this show was canceled. It just goes to show that network execs have no freakin clue what the public wants. I remember when Alf came out, I was the first person to say "this is the most unrealistic show I have ever seen." I mean, come on people... a talking Alien?!? Give me a break! Its common knowledge that if aliens would come to Earth, they wouldn't speak English. And lets just face it, Alf was not even that funny (although that Lynn Tanner did have a nice set of hooters) Now that leads me to this great show. What a Dummy is not only a realistic account of what happens when dummies go wild, but it was HILARIOUS too! I love all of Buzz's little comebacks. Oh man, I remember rolling on the floor after Buzz goes "and they call ME the dummy" LOL! After being a fan of ventriloquists for the last 17 1/2 years, I totally get what they were going for. My only gripe about this show is Stephen Dorff. I think they could have found a better actor for this role. Perhaps if they ever do a remake, I would want to see someone like Heratio Sands, Pauly Shore, Steven Wright, or perhaps the guy who played Paul on the Wonder Years as a possible replacement. That is considering Stephen DorK probably thinks he is too good to go back to the roll that launched his career. I think its a shame this show is no longer on. I would like to propose to all the fans on here to start a letter writing campaign to try to get this finally released on DVD. I would buy a Blu- Ray machine just for that! If those gosh dark studio heads do not release it after that... well maybe they are the one's who are hallow!

I actually remember, God only knows why, tuning into this show quite by accident the Sunday morning it premiered on the Fox network (I'm pretty sure it was on FOX Sunday mornings)and thinking to myself, "What an awful title for a show, some kid is gonna get ragged on because of this in some grade school." So I sat down to give it a see. Pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated though it was, by no means, a real winner either. Still, it was easy enough to pass the time on an otherwise empty time slot for the time it was on. It was a guilty pleasure that I fondly remember to this day of tuning in to view to see what that wisecracking Buzz would do and say resulting in mayhem for that day. Go get 'em Buzz, we need more dummies just like you in this world.

I remember watching What a Dummy when it was in first-run syndication in the early 90s and thought it was one of the worst sitcoms of the decade. Here's a show that had a very far-fetched premise about a late ventriloquist's dummy named Buzz who was locked in a trunk for years before was finally brought out by the Brannigan family. Almost every episode had the family lying to keep Buzz a secret and that started to wear thin after a while.

On the brighter side of things, it was one of the first shows to see Stephen Dorff before he went on to several movies. He played the oldest son Tucker. It was also great to see sitcom veteran Kaye Ballard as the neighbor Mrs. Travalony. Other than that, What a Dummy was a big dummy of a sitcom that fortunately was not renewed after its only syndicated season.