Bad Hare Day/TV episode

"Bad Hare Day" is the fourth episode of season two of the Goosebumps TV series, and the twenty-third episode overall. It premiered on September 14, 1996, on Fox during the Fox Kids block.

Cast

 * Dov Tiefenbach as Tim Swanson
 * Tabitha Lupien as Ginny Swanson
 * Mike Carbone as Amaz-O
 * David Ferry as El Sydney
 * Colin Mochrie as Rabbit El Sydney/Heavy
 * Robert Hamilton as Foz
 * Harvey Atkin as Mr. Malik

Blurb
"Pick a card, any card," says Tim Swanson, an amateur magician who loves to perform magic tricks, especially before an enthusiastic audience. Someday, Tim hopes to be a real magician, as good as his idol, Amaz-O. But when Tim goes to Amaz-O's magic show and participates in a disappearing act, he decides his hero is a total jerk! Tim steals Amaz-O's secret bag of tricks, but he gets more than he bargained for — Amaz-O's bag of tricks is full of live fluttering doves, hissing snakes... and one very angry rabbit!

Plot
Tim Swanson and his friend Foz enter the shop selling magic equipment for performance tricks and are given two tickets for Amaz-Os show by the shops owner Malik. Foz can't go because his parents won't let him, since the show starts late at night, but Tim decides to sneak out of the house. He is caught by his sister Ginny who threatens to tell on him unless he lets her go with him. They go to the show and as they're watching it, Amaz-O asks for a volunteer to perform a disappearance trick on and picks Tim. Tim enters a box on stage and falls through a trap door to the basement and the trick is successful, however, Tim gets stuck in the basement and can't get out until the show ends. As he's about to leave, he notices Amaz-O's dressing room and decides to tell him about the basement, but hears a voice from the room telling him to get lost. Disappointed, he steals his magic kit. The next day, him and Ginny open the box and Ginny disappears after using the magic curtain. A white rabbit appears and tells Tim his name is El Sydney and that Amaz-O had trapped him a long time ago when he was still a kid after he gave him a magic wand he had found. He says Amaz-O was his idol and asks Tim to help him find his wand again. Tim agrees and they go back to Amaz-O's place from before. They find the wand and Tim manages to bring Ginny back, who threatens she's going to tell on him and leaves, and free El Sydney. Tim gives El Sydney his wand back right before Amaz-O walks into the room. He recognizes Tim and thanks him for finding his magic kit. Tim confronts him about the rude behavior earlier in the dressing room, but Amaz-O claims he never talked to him after the show. He warns Tim about an evil magician named El Sydney and says he turned him into a rabbit for the sake of everyone's safety. At that moment El Sydney appears again, this time with the magic wand, and turns Amaz-O and Tim into rabbits. The episode ends with El Sydney performing a decapitating trick on the two rabbits and asking for a volunteer.

Differences from the book

 * Unlike the book, Ginny accidentally makes herself disappear (by the magic curtain), not transformed into a rabbit by eating two bites of a magic carrot.
 * In the book, Ginny takes karate lessons, and often uses what she learns there to beat up on Tim. In the episode, she has no interest in karate.
 * While Foz plays the guillotine prank in the book, Malik plays the guillotine prank in the episode, and he also does not pull the sword trick he does in the book.
 * Foz plays a much smaller role in the episode, only appearing in the opening magic shop scene.
 * In the episode, the rabbit is an evil magician named El Sydney. Amaz-O had turned El Sydney into a rabbit to prevent him from using magic to take over the world. El Sydney had lied to Tim before, saying that he was Amaz-O's biggest fan, but was conned into being part of the act as a rabbit. In the book, the rabbit was Amaz-O as he was turned into one by a jealous sorcerer named Frank. Also, the Amaz-O that was on stage was a puppet he had built, which is not mentioned in the episode.
 * Tim does not take a peek at the magic kit among arriving home the night of the performance; he and Ginny actually open it together as planned. Instead of an explosion sound effect, the case makes stereotypical cartoon noises when opened. There is no ball-and-cup trick.
 * The ending of the television episode is different from the book. At the rising action, El Sydney is now human and takes over the act by performing a decapitating "trick" on his two new rabbits (who are actually Amaz-O and Tim) as he asks for a volunteer. When Amaz-O says that he will figure out a way to get out of the situation, Tim replies "What, and quit show business?" The last sound made is a rimshot.

Trivia

 * This episode was adapted into Goosebumps Presents book #10.
 * Tabitha Lupien (Ginny Swanson) played Jamie Gold in the season three episode "Click".
 * The scene with Malik pretending to have his hand hit by the blade was cut from some airings of the television episode.
 * Mr. Malik's actor Harvey Atkin is known for voicing Bowser "King Koopa" in the Super Mario Bros. animated shows produced at DiC in 1989–1992, and also voiced "Sam" in the The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police animated series in 1997–1998.
 * Colin Mochrie, a comedian best known for the improv comedy series Whose Line is it Anyway? has an uncredited cameo and is also the voice of Rabbit El Sydney (also uncredited).
 * The closing credits for this episode used an alternate version of the main theme song. The altered theme uses an organ, trumpets, and drum-rolls to mimic carnival music. This is one of three custom ending themes, the other two being A Night in Terror Tower/TV episode and The Headless Ghost/TV episode.
 * The advertisement for the Goosebumps Presents book included in How I Learned to Fly mentions Ginny eating a magic carrot that turns her into a rabbit. This does not happen in the episode, although it did occur in the original book.



Gallery

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