Be Careful What You Wish For.../TV episode

"Be Careful What You Wish For" is the first episode of season two of the Goosebumps TV series. It premiered on August 10, 1996, on Fox during the Fox Kids block.

Cast

 * Melody Johnson as Samantha Byrd
 * Ellen-Ray Hennessy as Clarissa
 * Susan Cooke as Judith Bellwood
 * Robin Weekes as Cory
 * Simone Rosenberg as Anna Frost
 * Catherine Fitch as Coach

Blurb
Samantha Byrd is the class klutz and laughingstock of the girls’ basketball team. And that rotten Judith Bellwood isn't making her life any easier by teasing and humiliating her in front of the whole class every chance she gets. But now, Samantha has found someone who will grant her three wishes giving her the chance to make Judith her friend. But be careful what you wish for... now Sam's wishes are turning her life into a living nightmare!

Differences from the book

 * Samantha is not unnaturally tall (though she's still clumsy and gets bullied for being a bad basketball player).
 * In the episode, Clarissa is played up to be more eccentric, while in the book she was quieter and calmer.
 * In the book, Samantha's first wish to be the best player on her basketball team ends up with everyone except her getting sick. In the episode, the result is everyone on the team being as clumsy and incompetent at basketball as Samantha is.
 * In the book, Samantha's second wish is to that Judith would vanish, which leads to everyone on Earth vanishing. On the TV episode, Samantha's second wish was for everyone to “buzz off”, which causes everyone except her and Clarissa to turn into flies (actually it wasn't a real wish since she said it out of frustration, but it's still granted because Clarissa is beholden to grant any wish Samantha commands).
 * The ending in the episode is altered. In the book, Judith's first wish from Clarissa is for Samantha to "Fly away, Byrd!" Samantha is then turned into a crow and happily lives a new life as a bird. In the television adaptation, Judith's first wish is to be so beautiful that people will come and admire her no matter where she is in the world, ending with Judith becoming a park statue and a crowd of people gathering around her.
 * Samantha's brother Ron, father, and dog do not appear in the episode.
 * In the book Samantha had blonde hair and Judith had red hair, but in the television episode, Samantha has brown hair and Judith has blonde hair.
 * In the book, Samantha's wishes are granted with a crystal ball. In the episode, they are granted with an amulet that Samantha finds in the gym. Also, Sam is given the amulet so she can make wishes without Clarissa, while in the book she had to be there for them to be granted.

Trivia

 * This episode was adapted into Goosebumps Presents book #8.
 * Robin Weekes (Cory) would later on play Nathan in "The House of No Return".
 * The school that was used to film Montrose Middle School is John English Junior Middle School in Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario.
 * René Bonnière, the director of this episode, also directed the episode You Can't Scare Me!.
 * While this was the first episode of Season 2 to air, it was the second to be produced.

Gallery

 * -|Scenes=