Plot synopsis: What a Dummy is a syndicated television sitcom that lasted for one season in 1990. The premise of the show was that the Brannigan family of Secaucus, New Jersey was getting advice from a talking, thinking ventriloquist’s dummy named Buzz, who had been locked in a trunk for fifty years before being discovered by the family. Kaye Ballard played the family’s next-door neighbor, Mrs. Treva Travalony.