Click/TV episode

"Click" is the fifth episode of season three of the Goosebumps TV series, and the forty-ninth episode overall. It premiered on September 27, 1997, on Fox during the Fox Kids block.

Cast

 * Dan Warry-Smith as Seth Gold
 * Trevor Ralph as Kevin Kertz
 * Tabitha Lupien as Jamie Gold
 * Gary Pearson as Mr. Gold
 * Catherine Bruce as Mrs. Gold
 * David Huband as Tony
 * Gabe Cohen as Mr. Graves
 * Matthew Lemche as Richard Holman
 * Scott Yaphe as Wink Yahoo (Uncredited)
 * Mike Beaver as The Punisher (Uncredited)

Plot
A teenage boy named Seth Gold mail orders a new remote control, the Verona XG-20 Universal Remote, which works on both his stereo and television, while his younger sister disapproves this. Then, when his younger sister starts to annoy him by practicing her dancing class in the room Seth is in, he jokingly points the remote at her and hits the PAUSE button. Much to his amazement, she really pauses! Beyond that point, Seth receives specific, and often immediate, instructions tailored to the situation he is addressing (including one by Tony Hutchins, the spokesman of Armchair Electronics, indicating that the remote "is not a toy!").

Undeterred, Seth begins to test out the remote in other ways, such as changing the color contrast of his fish, rewinding and fast forwarding people, and retaliating against the school bully by changing the channel on him, all the while ignoring Tony's repeated warnings. Seth shows his best friend Kevin the remote, who thinks that it is cool, until Seth uses it to cheat on a test. Kevin objects to Seth misusing its powers, but Seth doesn't listen.

Later on, Seth pauses his whole family, so that they can stop nagging at him for fighting his sister over the remote. But then remote suddenly begins to malfunction (due to Seth dropping the remote during a struggle with his sister) and he cannot un-pause his family. Seth and Kevin initially try going to Armchair Electronics for help, but they can't contact nor locate the company. As a last resort, Seth fixes the remote himself and manages to un-pause his family, much to their relief. Kevin suggests that they should throw the remote away, as it is too dangerous. That night, Seth and Kevin throw the remote in a trashcan. However, as soon as Kevin leaves, Seth goes back to retrieve the remote.

The next day, after noticing that Seth still has the remote, Kevin decides to forcibly take it away from him, but fails to do so. The remote starts to malfunction again, and Seth presses random buttons, hoping that one would work against his friend even after dismissing one of Tony's repeated warnings and treating it as a nuisance. Finally, he pushes a power button and the world around Seth suddenly disappears, leaving him in an empty black void. Seth notices that remote ran out of batteries. He then sees Tony in the void with him and pleads for help from him. But the spokesman merely repeats that he warned him that the remote wasn't a toy and leaves the boy to his fate.

Differences from the story

 * In the episode, someone from the company Seth ordered the remote from, keeps calling him to warn him against misusing the remote, albeit Seth disregards these warnings.
 * In the story, the climax happened during lunch after Seth kept freezing people. In the episode, it happens in the school hallway as he is trying to prevent his friend from taking the remote from him.
 * In the story, Seth's sister was named Megan. In the episode, her name is Jamie.
 * In the story, Seth's dad buys the remote from a strange store. In the episode, Seth orders it himself.
 * The episode adds in a friend character named Kevin.
 * The episodes gives the remote extra powers, such as the ability to change the channel on people and replace them with the people from different shows.
 * The episode adds in a section where the remote stops working after his family gets paused and Seth must go to the company who made it to get it fixed.

Home media
"Click" was first released on DVD on September 5, 2006, as the second episode on Shocker on Shock Street. It was included in a 3-Pack Thriller DVD on August 26, 2014.

Trivia

 * Tabitha Lupien (Jamie Gold) played Ginny Swanson in season two's "Bad Hare Day".
 * Dan Warry Smith (Seth Gold) played Skipper in season two's "Attack of the Mutant".
 * Matthew Lemche (Richard Holman) played David in season two's "Calling All Creeps".
 * The television program that Seth was trying to watch when his sister was practicing dancing was an episode of YTV's Uh Oh! game show. In the scene where Seth changes channels on Holman, Jeopardy! is also referenced.
 * In a scene in Seth's bedroom, books from the original Goosebumps series are seen on a bookshelf.