Jackie Brannigan (& Buster) - On the sitcom WHAT A DUMMY/SYN/1990-91 aging vaudevillian performer, Jackie Brannigan dies and leaves his possessions to relatives Ed and Polly Brannigan. Their inheritance included a ventriloquist dummy found in a truck that came to life (voice of Loren Freeman). Called Buster (or "Buzz"), the dummy spouted wisecracks and interacted with the Brannigans who tried to keep Buster's existence from the prying eyes of their nosy neighbor Mrs. Travalony (Kaye Ballard) Some of Buzz's vital stats: he is made of oak (also given as redwood); his mother died of Dutch Elm Disease; and he loves to eat pepperoni pizza.

TRIVIA NOTE: Erich Von Stroheim's motion picture The Great Gabbo (1929) - based on a story by Ben Hecht - told the tale of a ventriloquist who goes mad, destroys his dummy and then spends the rest of his life on the run from the law under the delusion that he has committed murder.