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-right episode overall. Part one and part two premiered on September 14, 1998 and September 21, 1998 on Fox Kids Network respectively.

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 as Kareen Hawlings (as Rebecca Henderson)
 * Laura Press as Carly Beth's Mom (credit only)
 * Richard Fitzpatrick as Dr. Richard Hawlings

Differences from the book

 * Mark's sister and his friends do not appear in the television episode.
 * Mark's bedroom is jungle-themed; the book does not mention this.
 * The entire episode turns out to be a story Mark tells to his mom's boyfriend.
 * The pilot in the TV version is a Filipino man who dresses like Elvis Presley, not a military officer.
 * Mark discovers Aunt Benna's video journals in a cabinet full of VHS tapes and a television (not written journals).
 * The only obstacle that Mark faces is quicksand.
 * The book does not mention that Aunt Benna's coin necklace is the source of Mark's Jungle Magic (as it did in the television episode).
 * The ending is different. In the book, the two adults and Kareen run into the jungle. But in the television episode, they end up in a fish tank in Mark's bedroom. He feeds them crumbs of his sandwich and the tiny people fight over the crumbs. Mark says that someday Aunt Benna will turn them back to normal, when she visits him on his sixteenth birthday. Then they panic that they may never return to normal size. The television episode ends as Mark closes his closet that contains the tiny people.

Home releases
"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.