How I Got My Shrunken Head/TV episode

"How I Got My Shrunken Head" is the first and second episode of season four of the Goosebumps TV series, and the sixty-seventh and sixty-eighth episode overall. Part one and part two premiered on September 14, 1998, and September 21, 1998, on Fox during the Fox Kids block.

Cast

 * Daniel Clark as Mark Rowe
 * Barbara Radecki as Alice Rowe
 * Paul Eves as Ed
 * Dixie Seatle as Aunt Benna
 * Fred Lee as Chicken Man
 * George Chiang as Jimmy Lo
 * Beki Lantos (a.k.a. Rebecca Henderson) as Kareen Hawlings
 * Laura Press as Dr. Carolyn Hawlings
 * Richard Fitzpatrick as Dr. Richard Hawlings

Differences from the book

 * In the episode, Mark receives the shrunken head from a package mysteriously left on his doorstep. In the book, it is given to him by Carolyn Hawlings, who is introduced much later on in the episode than she is in the book.
 * In the book, Mark has a sister and several friends. In the TV episode, Mark is an only child, and it's implied that he has hardly any friends because of his jungle obsession.
 * Mark's bedroom is jungle-themed; the book does not mention this.
 * In the book, Mark has a dad who is away on a business trip. In the episode, Mark's mom is not married and has a boyfriend that she struggles to keep around.
 * In the TV version, the man who takes Mark to the island is a Filipino man who dresses like Elvis Presley, not a military officer.
 * In the book, Mark's flight goes smoothly, but in the episode they have troubles and Mark saves them with the Jungle Magic.
 * In the episode, Carolyn Hawlings is the wife of Dr. Richard Hawlings. In the book, she is his sister.
 * Mark discovers Aunt Benna's video journals in a cabinet full of VHS tapes and a television, instead of written journals.
 * When Mark is sinking in quicksand, he yells "Kah-lee-ah" and raises the shrunken head which frees him from the sand. In the book, he simply does the latter.
 * Mark never encounters the tiger in the episode.
 * The book does not mention that Aunt Benna's coin necklace is the source of Mark's Jungle Magic.
 * Aunt Benna does not leave Beladora at the end of the episode.
 * The ending is different. In the book, the two adults and Kareen run into the jungle after getting shrunk by Jungle Magic. When Mark returns home, the last scene shows Mark walking to school and the shrunken head telling Mark to let him tell the class about saving him from the tiger attack. In the television episode, Mark still shrinks them, but at home Mark is now keeping the Hawlings as pets, and vows to have the shrink spell removed... when Aunt Benna comes back on Mark's sixteenth birthday.
 * Additionally, it is shown that most of the episode was a story Mark is telling to his mom's new boyfriend.
 * In the episode, the head talks more often instead of just once. It is also more active, as it leads Mark to Benna's video diaries.
 * The episode goes into more detail on the origins of Jungle Magic, as well as explaining that "Kah-lee-ah" is the proper name for it and Jungle Magic is simply the English translation for it.

Home media
"How I Got My Shrunken Head" was released on DVD on April 12, 2005. It was included in a double DVD pack with "Night of the Living Dummy II" on September 16, 2008.

Trivia

 * The theme for season four is the same as season three's, but Slappy now says "Goosebumps", instead of "Ultimate Goosebumps".
 * Rebecca Henderson (Kareen Hawlings) played Margaret in season one's "Stay Out of the Basement." At one point Kareen's father calls her "Princess", which may be a nod to that episode.
 * Richard Fitzpatrick (Dr. Richard Hawlings) played Mr. Kramer in season one's "Night of the Living Dummy II"
 * Dr. Hawlings is stated to be sent from "Miskatonic University," a reference to the works of American horror author H.P. Lovecraft.
 * The announcer at the airport mentions "G.B. Flight 401". GB might be a reference to Goosebumps and 401 might be in reference to this episode's production code.
 * Director Ron Oliver has a cameo as a man in the background, sitting in a chair, in the airport scene.
 * Daniel Clark and Barbara Radecki previously appeared together in an episode of Eerie Indian: The Other Dimension, called "The Goody-Two Shoes People".