The Headless Ghost/TV episode

"The Headless Ghost" is the fifth episode of season two of the Goosebumps TV series, and the twenty-third episode overall. It premiered on September 21, 1996, on Fox during the Fox Kids block.

Cast

 * Andreanne Benidir as Stephanie Alpert
 * Kenny Vadas as Duane Comack
 * Dennis O'Connor as Otto
 * Sean Ryan as Seth
 * Daniel Goodfellow as Andrew Craw

Blurb
Duane and Stephanie love exploring Hill House, the most popular tourist attraction in town. It's dark and scary and haunted, they say, by the 100-year-old ghost of a 13-year-old boy. A boy who lost his head! Duane and Stephanie must help him find his head —or else he's going to have to borrow one of theirs!

Differences from the book

 * In book, Seth was Otto's nephew, and not confirmed to be a ghost.
 * Edna, another tour guide, is omitted from the episode.
 * Andrew's sister and father are never mentioned in the episode.
 * In the book, Annabel, the wife of the sea captain, was said to have fled the house when her husband never returned. In the episode, it is said the captain actually returned, only to find his wife left him for another man, leading him to die of a broken heart.
 * In the television episode, Otto is depicted as really being the ghost of the sea captain who built the house. In the book, the captain's ghost has long since vanished before the events of the story take place.
 * In the book, Andrew meets the Captain's ghost in another room of the house. In the episode, the ghost appears in Andrew's bedroom in the middle of the night and decapitates him there after Andrew mocked the ghost by calling it stupid.
 * Andrew is much nastier and brattier in the TV version than in the book, insulting and threatening Stephanie after she finds his head instead of thanking her, like in the book. In the book, he is nicer and thanks them before vanishing.
 * In the episode, Stephanie constantly annoys Otto and her fellow visitors to Hill House by pulling scary pranks on them and sneaking away to look for Andrew's head, with Duane roped along as a reluctant accessory who has concerns about the effects their pranks may have. In the book, they are nicer to Otto and they are welcome at Hill House.
 * Duane and Stephanie only do pranks at Hill House in the episode, while in the book they went around the neighborhood to prank people while they didn't prank people in Hill House.
 * The climax is different from the book. In the book, Andrew simply took the head and the kids left. In the episode, after the confrontation with Andrew's ghost in the attic, Otto appears, revealing Seth as his assistant, then dismisses Duane but insists that Stephanie remain as he wishes to have a word with her. After Duane leaves, Otto reveals himself to be the ghost of the old sea-captain while Seth turns out to be the ghost of the boy who fell down the dumbwaiter shaft. The ghosts decide to punish Stephanie by painting her portrait with the Captain's cursed paints which, when they finish, will turn her into a ghost doomed to haunt the house forever. Duane rushes back upstairs to the attic, arriving just in time to save Stephanie by splashing her portrait with paint thinner. He and Stephanie then flee from the house with the angry Otto in pursuit.
 * The ending is different. In the book, Duane and Stephanie visit Hill House for old times sake but after they took the tour, they are informed by some police officers that the house was shut down months ago, and it is revealed that Otto is a ghost. In the episode, we see that the house been shut down as a museum and is up for sale, but as a couple interested in purchasing it ask about the rumors that it is haunted, the real estate agent, who is Otto, comments, "Sure, and I'm a ghost."

Filming Locations

 * This episode was filmed at the Cawthra Estate (also known as the Lotten House) in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Trivia

 * This episode was adapted into Goosebumps Presents book #7.
 * Andreanne Benidir (Stephanie Alpert) played Jillian Zinman in season three's "Bride of the Living Dummy".
 * This is one of three episodes featuring a custom closing theme, the other two being A Night in Terror Tower/TV episode and Bad Hare Day/TV episode.
 * The original Fox Kids and YTV airings of this episode featured a custom closing credits theme, utilizing a piano, drums and woodwind instruments fitting with the music of the episode. It is currently not available on any form of Home media, and any modern airing of the episode only features the normal closing theme.
 * Andreanne Benidir and Daniel Goodfellow, also worked together in couple of episodes of the children's show "The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon" as Dudley's human friends, Laura and Mickey.
 * Sean Ryan starred as Buzz Crocker in the very first Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "The Tale Of the Phantom Cab".
 * The director of this episode, Brian R.R Hebb, is primarily a director of photography on the show, and this is the only episode he directed.
 * In the Goosebumps Presents book, Seth adds more to the Sea Captain's backstory. In the episode proper he only says that he paints portraits of his victims but in the TV book he adds that when the painting is vanished, the victim becomes a ghost.
 * Neither the book or TV episode state what year the Hill House backstory went down in, while the TV book says Andrew's head was taken in 1880.
 * Additionally, the TV book clarifies that the dumbwaiter boy died in 1920.
 * After Seth says taking Stephanie's head would look "kind of funny", the TV book adds in her saying "It would look terrible".
 * The TV book adds in a moment where they distract Seth by throwing a fishing net on him.
 * After Andrew gets his head back, the TV book adds in Andrew commenting on his body smells bad.
 * In the episode, Seth is holding strawberry ice cream after revealing himself to be a ghost. In the TV book, he isn't and says he wants some. Andrew comments that ice cream is what made him a ghost in the first place.
 * The TV book clarifies that the liquid Duane throws on the painting is paint remover.
 * In the episode, only Otto chases them as they run out. In the TV book, the other ghosts chase them as well.
 * Kenny Vadas and Dennis O'Connor previously starred together as minor roles in the Disney holiday movie The Santa Clause.
 * While this was the 5th episode of Season 2 to air, it was the first to be produced.
 * The portrait of Andrew looks similar to the book's cover, although here he is not transparent.

Gallery

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