The little girl is a very silly character with zero realism, the story has flawed and confusing morals, the doll itself has motives that are never explained (it is simply evil for the sake of it), and the dummy's accent is corny 30s gangster-speak. Just stupid all-round, amateur writing.
So who is Strassfield, the writer? Short answer: she was the producer's SECRETARY. The story he gave us was that she kept insisting she could write a story for TZ and that he finally relented. Translated from Malarkese into plain English, this means that the two were having an affair.
It is downright embarrassing that a show as successful as TZ would allow for such corruption, when there were dozens of actual - qualified - SF writers available who never got a chance to shine on TZ. Either because Serling felt he should hog all the "glory" (by contributing a much worse batting average than other writers), or, as in this case, by letting an amateur "mistress" write an episode just because she gave her boss sexual favours.
Yes, she was right that she could write an episode. Just not a good episode. Anyone can write a crap story.
So who is Strassfield, the writer? Short answer: she was the producer's SECRETARY. The story he gave us was that she kept insisting she could write a story for TZ and that he finally relented. Translated from Malarkese into plain English, this means that the two were having an affair.
It is downright embarrassing that a show as successful as TZ would allow for such corruption, when there were dozens of actual - qualified - SF writers available who never got a chance to shine on TZ. Either because Serling felt he should hog all the "glory" (by contributing a much worse batting average than other writers), or, as in this case, by letting an amateur "mistress" write an episode just because she gave her boss sexual favours.
Yes, she was right that she could write an episode. Just not a good episode. Anyone can write a crap story.