Night of the Living Dummy III/TV episode

"Night of the Living Dummy III" is the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth episodes of Season 2 of the Goosebumps TV series. The episodes are based on the fortieth Goosebumps book of the same title. The episodes aired on Fox on July 20, 1997, as a one-hour special. They were directed by Timothy Bond.

Cast

 * Erica Fairfield as Trina O'Dell
 * Blair Slater as Dan O'Dell
 * Hayden Christensen as Zane O'Dell
 * Cathal J. Dodd as Slappy the Dummy
 * Eugene Lipinski as Rocky the Dummy
 * Martin Doyle as Mr. O'Dell
 * Belinda Metz as Mrs. O'Dell
 * Ray Kahnert as Cal

Blurb
Trina O'Dell's dad used to have a ventriloquist act. Now he stores all his old dummies in the attic. He calls it his Dummy Museum. Trina and her brother Dan think dad's dummies are pretty cool. Until one day they notice one of the dummy's hands is warm, humanly warm! Then they hear eerie voices coming from the attic. Could the dummies be leading lives of their own?

Differences from the book

 * Zane actually finds out that Slappy is alive, gets in on the adventure, and is more friendly with the kids as he helps them get rid of Slappy. By the end, they plan on seeing each other again. In the book, he never discovered Slappy was alive and caught the kids with the dummies, assuming they were behind everything.
 * In the book, the other dummies attack Slappy, but in the television episode, he gets destroyed in a different way. After Rocky throws him out the window, he is struck by lightning and explodes.
 * Rocky's design in the book and episode differ greatly. In the book, Rocky is depicted wearing a red and white striped shirt and blue jeans. In the episode, he's wearing a pinstripe suit and fedora, reminiscent of a 1930s gangster.
 * Rocky's role is expanded, as Slappy brings him to life to be his partner.
 * The ending of the episode is different. At the end, Zane's head twists all the way back. In an evil voice he says, "I'll be back ...cousins," just before he enters the car. This implies that he is still part dummy somehow and that Slappy has some control over him. In the book, he merely receives Slappy as a gift, and Slappy is revealed to still be alive.
 * In the book, Uncle Cal stays over along with Zane. In the episode, he drops him off and doesn't stay.
 * In the book, Mr. O'Dell found Slappy in the trash. In the episode, he found him at a junk store.
 * In the book, the prank the kids pulled during his last visit was that they made him think the house was haunted. In the episode, they dragged him out to the middle of a field while he was asleep.
 * In the episode, Slappy has powers that he did not have in the book. He can turn people into the dummies, and he is seen being able to repair himself.
 * In the book, Slappy is initially called "Smiley". In the episode, Mr. O'Dell knows his real name from the start.

Trivia

 * Rocky's voice actor, Eugene Lipinski, played Mr. Mortman in The Girl Who Cried Monster.
 * This was the final special to include R.L. Stine as the host for wraparounds.
 * In Night of the Living Dummy II when Slappy's head falls on the fireplace, his entire face breaks off. But when they show what is left of him in the sequel, only the part around his eye is missing.
 * Blair Slater (Daniel O'Dell) played Cooper Holmes in Season 3's The Barking Ghost.
 * Cousin Zane was played by a young Hayden Christensen, better known to fans of the Star Wars movies as teenage/young adult Anakin Skywalker.
 * In some camera shots, Slappy has moving eyebrows, and in other shots, he does not. In these shots, he has a different-looking face. This is because two dummies were made to appear in different scenes.
 * In certain camera angles in the scenes of Zane's bedroom and the hallway as Trina and Daniel swept, a black line can be seen at the bottom of the screen. This is clearly a crack in the special camera's lens, as it only appears in the two types of angles, while the camera shots made from other angles were made with a different one.
 * Slappy is bigger in this television episode (and the continuation) than he was in Night of the Living Dummy II. This is because, in this installment, Slappy needs an actor to properly animate him (in the previous installment, he was simply a puppet with limited motion). For consistency, they made the puppet the same size as the actor.
 * If you pay close attention, you will be able to tell when Slappy is a dummy or an actor in a costume. The costume's face stretches like rubber when the mouth moves, and it can't move its eyes or eyebrows. The dummies also have human hands when actors wear costumes.
 * Most of the "dummies" featured in the episode are actually dolls.
 * Notld3_Zane_Marker_Lines.jpg Dan and Trina talk to Slappy in Zane's bedroom, you should notice that some camera shots are Zane's dummy, while others are actor Hayden Christensen as human Zane with marker lines drawn over his mouth to simulate that of a dummy.
 * Goof: If you look very carefully as Slappy tries to squirm away from Trina and Dan as they wait for Zane, you can faintly see black wires moving his arms.
 * On the VHS/DVD release of the episode, the music recording is cut short, stopping before the credits are actually over, though just by an inch.
 * Rocky is the second dummy to defeat Slappy, following Dennis from Night of the Living Dummy //, and later followed with Mary-Ellen from Bride of the Living Dummy.
 * Near the end, when there is a scene with Rocky in the chair, there is some "Godfather" music playing in the background.
 * In the scene where Slappy shows off his "friends" to Trina and Dan, if you look closely, you can see Dennis from Night of the Living Dummy II.
 * The cracked Slappy head used at the beginning of the episode was later reused in Season 3's Bride of the Living Dummy, in the scene where Slappy and Mary Ellen are destroyed in the workshop.
 * In a scene where Trina and Zane are having breakfast, a box of cereal named "Aunt Deb's Wacky Wheat Cereal" is seen on the table. The name "Aunt Deb" is a reference to Goosebumps' producer, Deborah Forte.
 * This episode is the 6th special to air in Primetime on Fox, as opposed to Fox Kids.