Reconsidering “Twilight Zone” classic “Talky Tina”

OK, everyone knows the character played by Telly Savalas (Erich Streator) is nuts. Right?

Well, have you stopped to think that he might have been driven to it?

Early in the episode, which first aired on Nov. 1, 1963, he asks his wife how much the talking doll she purchased for his stepdaughter cost. Clearly it was expensive.

Remember how she reacts?

She immediately becomes exasperated and dismissively says she put it on their account. As if that’s an answer.

So he asks again. And she offers the same testy reply.

Well, Mr. Streator may well have been certifiable. But perhaps he was made that way by being married to someone who believed charging purchases was somehow this magical thing that made the cost considerations vanish.

You can almost hear the doll say what we’re all thinking at that point.

“My name is Talky Tina, and I am going to be an ugly surprise when the credit card bill comes.”

Of course, Streator breaks his neck and dies before that happens. Was he better off? To those among you who wish to say so, I will not say ye nay.