The Cuckoo Clock of Doom (TV episode)

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"The Cuckoo Clock of Doom"
Based On	The Cuckoo Clock of Doom
Season	1
Episode	3
Air Date	November 3, 1995
Runtime (Approx.)	22 minutes
Directed by	John Bell
Written by	Billy Brown and Dan Angel
Chronology
Previous Episode	"The Haunted Mask"
Next Episode	"The Girl Who Cried Monster"

"The Cuckoo Clock of Doom" is the third episode of season one of the Goosebumps TV series. It premiered on November 3, 1995, on Fox during the Fox Kids block.

Cast

• John White as Michael Webster at 12
• Kyle Fairlie as Michael Webster at 6
• Kristen Bone as Tara Webster
• Cynthia Belliveau as Mrs. Webster
• Larry Mannell as Mr. Webster
• Alyssa Gebert as Mona
• Jake Roberts as Anthony
• Sam Hilwi as Josh at 12
• Brandon Smith as Josh at 6
• Christopher Chung as Henry at 12
• Michael Ho as Henry at 6
• Steve W. Smith as Scary Man

Plot

Michael Webster's life is pretty good, except for one tiny detail: Tara. Tara is Michael's bratty, obnoxious, impossible little sister. She gets Michael into trouble with their parents, humiliates him in front of his friends, and is always playing mean tricks on him. Michael has had it! So when Dad comes home with an eerie old cuckoo clock and tells Tara not to touch it, Michael sees his chance to get even. What Michael doesn't realize is that the cuckoo clock has mysterious powers of its own, and his little prank is about to set back the hands of time . . . forever!

Differences from the book

• While the episode depicts Michael Webster regressing to age 12, 6, and a baby, the book has him experience a much longer time reversal- starting with age 12, to 3rd grade, 2nd grade, kindergarten, nursery school and finally a baby.
• Michael's birthday is depicted differently in the TV show than in the book. In the TV show, Michael opens his own gifts. In the book, Tara opens all of Michael's gifts before he enters the room. There is no bicycle for Tara to knock over and scratch in the TV show, which was a big deal in the book.
• Michael does not experience getting beaten up by Kevin Flowers or being seen in his underwear. He also does not break his arm in nursery school as he does not regress to that age.
• In the book, the clock is described as being painted black with gold highlights, with a white face, gold hands and gold Roman numerals. The year dial is a small physical clock-like dial on the side of the clock. In the TV version, the clock is a classic wood brown color, with a gold face and black hands, and black Roman numerals and minute markers ("5", "10", "15", etc.). The year dial is two chains with small number plates on each chain, lined up to show the current year.
• In the book, Michael describes himself as having short, thick brown hair, but John White (the actor who portrays him in the episode) has blonde hair that's a tad bit thick and quite loose.
• Speaking of which, although it's never stated in the book, there was no indication Mrs. Webster had eye problems, which means she could see just fine. In the TV episode, she wears glasses.
• Michael's dream is also quite different. The book shows his dream as a scary version of his birthday, while in the episode, the dream shows the clock with Tara's head for a cuckoo chasing him.
• Mr. Webster is visibly more upset in the episode when he tells Tara not to touch the clock. He is also a lot angrier that Michael snuck off to Anthony's Antiques in the episode than in the book. Near the end, Michael gets scolded for touching the clock, but his happiness at seeing his parents again catches his father off guard.
• Mr. Webster shows Michael the cuckoo clock and mentions that there is a strange design flaw on it. In the book, Michael is the one to notice that the year 1988 is gone from the clock. However, in the television adaptation, Michael's father is the one who notices the missing year and laughs it off, while Michael realizes that's the year Tara would've been born and that his mistake led to his bratty little sister never existing.
• In the book, baby Michael has to move a chair towards the clock in order to reach the cuckoo to turn its head around. In the episode, he climbs up steps leading to a table conveniently placed there.
• In the book after waking up as a baby, Michael gets his diaper changed and fed a bottle of juice by his mother before the two of them meet Mr. Webster at the antique store. However, in the episode, the whole family debates on whether to the visit to the antique shop after Michael gets his temperature taken with a rectal thermometer.
• When Michael was a baby in the book, he is able to speak a few words, much to his frustration. In the episode, baby Michael can’t talk at all, and we instead hear the voice of 12-year-old Michael's inner thoughts coming from his baby body.
• In the book, after Tara is erased from existence, her bedroom becomes a guest room with 2 beds. In the episode, it becomes Mr. Webster’s office.
• In the book, the clock brings Michael back to his twelfth birthday. In the episode, the clock brings Michael directly to the present, presumably the day after the clock arrived at the Webster house.

Other media

Goosebumps Presents

No.	Cover	Release date	Pages
2		May 1996	56

Home media

Title	Release date	Media type
(Spanish release)	1998	VHS

Trivia

• This, "The Haunted Mask", and "Werewolf Skin" are the only TV episodes to not be released on DVD in the US. Though the episode is accessible through iTunes and Netflix.
  • The episode was released on Mexican VHS in a double episode tape along with "The Girl Who Cried Monster".
• The second time Michael goes through his birthday, his mother asks him to help her with his cake. When he goes to her, you see they are outside. But the first time, they were inside.
  • This is also the case in the Goosebumps Presents book. Michael addresses the fact that she is in a different location than he expected based on the last time but it is not explained.
• In the scene where Michael is dreaming, he opens the door to the room the cuckoo clock is in and begins to scream. But we hear the scream a split second before his mouth opens.
• The first time when Michael's father tells Tara not to touch the clock, you see she has bangs on her forehead. But when she turns around to stick her tongue out at Michael, her bangs are gone.
• This episode, along with "The Girl Who Cried Monster", on their original premieres had a special opening theme in which there was a ten-second remix when R.L. Stine is walking through the grass with the briefcase. When the G passes the dog, that part of the music is played with a different instrument. There were also different scenes from the television show when the door opened.
• When Michael looks in the mirror at age 6, his scream and facial expression are exactly the same as Macaulay Culkin's scream in Home Alone (and he also bears a resemblance to him).
• John White (Michael Webster at 12) played Steve Boswell in season two's "Haunted Mask II".
• When Michael is 6, his father reads him Norman Bridwell's Clifford the Big Red Dog. Like Goosebumps, Clifford is also a Scholastic property.
  • The Goosebumps Presents book changes this to a made up story.
• John White also portrayed Thomas Jefferson Bradshaw, in the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "The Tale of the Carved Stone". His character in that episode was also a boy who traveled through time.
• This is the only episode where the opening text is white instead of the normal green color.
• The Goosebumps Presents book slightly changes the order of events. In the episode, the birthday party scene is presented as a flashback while in the presents book the opening scene happens before the birthday party and it is not a flashback.
  • The scene where a man asks 6-year-old Michael for the time is slightly extended, having him try to pursue him further; he is described as having a scar on his face and slinking from the shadows.
  • The book describes the clock's gong striking the hour before the cuckoo pops out. In the TV episode, on the top of the hour, the clock emits a single chime as the cuckoo bird pops out, as described in the original R.L. Stine book.
  • The dream sequence is slightly altered to describe the clock having legs.
  • There is an added moment where Michael draws a tombstone that says "R.I.P. Michael Webster. 1993-1981". The former year, the year Michael started in, is incorrect as the episode was released in 1995 and the Presents book released in 1996.
  • In the episode, when Michael gets up to turn the clock for the first time, the alarm clock says it is 11:59. In the TV book, it is 11:54.
  • A moment is added in the climax where Michael accidentally gets to the wrong clock before crawling over to the cuckoo clock.

Gallery

• Scenes
• Characters
• Promos

Tara gets Michael in trouble.

Tara trips Michael.

The cuckoo clock arrives.

Michael twists the head of the cuckoo bird around.

Michael is sent back to his twelfth birthday.

Michael is sent back to when he was six.

Michael runs to the antique store only to find it closed.

Michael is sent back to when he was a baby.

Michael knocks out the year "1988" on the cuckoo clock.

Michael twists the head of the cuckoo bird back around.

Michael returns to when he was twelve.

Tara is erased from existence.

Michael decides he will not go back for Tara.

Michael Webster (age 12)

Michael Webster (age 6)

Michael Webster (baby)

Tara Webster

Mrs. Webster

Mr. Webster

Mona (age 12)

Mona (age 6)

Anthony

Josh and Henry (age 12)

Josh and Henry (age 6)

Scary Man

Goosebumps Promo - The Cuckoo Clock of Doom