"Night of the Living Dummy II" is the tenth episode of season one of the Goosebumps TV series. It premiered on January 12, 1996 on Fox during the Fox Kids block.
Cast[]
- Maggie Castle as Amy Kramer
- Caterina Scorsone as Sara Kramer
- Andrew Sardella as Jed Kramer
- Gina Clayton as Mrs. Kramer
- Richard Fitzpatrick as Mr. Kramer
- Cathal J. Dodd as the voice of Slappy the Dummy and Dennis
- Kerry Duff as Margo
- Shadia Simmons as Alicia
Blurb[]
Amy is tired of being a middle child. Her older sister, Sara, gets to do whatever she wants and her younger brother, Jed, gets away with everything! Family Nights are the worst -- Sara is good at everything, and Jed makes everyone laugh. It seems like Amy can't do anything right. When Amy gets a brand new dummy named Slappy, she may finally have a chance to shine. While Amy's act with Slappy is getting better, life is getting stranger. There is something eerie about this dummy. Then, horrible things begin to happen around the house. Her family blames her, though Amy insists she is not responsible and that Slappy is! But who would believe that a wooden doll can come to life?
Differences from the book[]
- The accidents Slappy causes are slightly different from the book such as trying to smash Dad's guitar.
- In the book, the girls had already made a plan to take out Slappy by having Jed dress up as Dennis and have the parents hide in the closet. But in the television episode, they didn't do this.
- The book ends with them wondering who saved them, but in the episode, it is made clear that Dennis was the one who defeated Slappy. Dennis, in a Goofy-esque voice, remarks that "it's good to be back in the family again."
- Instead of Slappy's head being broken on the bedpost, it is the end of the living room fireplace, and rather than cracking in two, the top half of his head shatters.
- Instead of the big white worm coming out of Slappy's broken head, it is an eerie green mist, presumably representing Slappy's evil spirit.
- Margo's sister, Alicia, is exclusive to the television episode. The little girl is actually the birthday girl at her party.
- The scene where Slappy clenches Alicia's fingers happens at Amy's house in the episode, instead of at The Party House in the book.
- Moreover, Margo blames Amy for the incident, which causes her to break off their friendship, which did not happen in the book.
- In the book, Sara and Amy have black hair and dark skin. However, both are Caucasian and have brown hair. On the other hand, Jed has red hair and freckles in the book, whereas in the episode, his hair is brown and has no freckles.
- The other characters that don't appear in the book are George, the family's pet cat, Amy's math teacher, Phoebe and Jennifer, who are two girls that got invited to Alicia's party, Alicia's mother and Margo's father.
- In the episode Alicia and Margo are sisters, but in the book, they're not.
- Amy doesn't do her ventriloquist act performance at Margo's father's restaurant like she did in the book.
- David Miller, the boy that Amy has a possible crush on at her school, isn't mentioned in the episode.
- Matt and Josh, who happened to be Jed's two friends, aren't mentioned in the episode.
Other media[]
Goosebumps Presents[]
No. | Cover | Release date | Pages |
---|---|---|---|
5 | November 1996 | 56 |
Home media[]
Title | Release date | Media type |
---|---|---|
Night of the Living Dummy |
September 11, 2007
September 11, 2012 |
DVD |
3-Pack Thriller |
August 26, 2014 | DVD |
Trivia[]
- This was the first Goosebumps episode to feature Slappy.
- According to Ron Stefaniuk, Slappy's appearance in the episodes differed from his appearance on the covers because the show sometimes allowed them a certain amount of creative freedom over the design elements. They would typically come up with a few different drawings for each creature, with one being selected by the higher ups for the final design.
- Goof: When we see a long shot of Slappy about to smash the guitar on Amy and Jed's parents, you can see that he is propped up on a stand. It is easier to notice if you turn the brightness up and look carefully.
- The soundtrack to Jed's video is a remix of the opening theme played with an organ.
- Caterina Scorsone (Sara Kramer) later played Jessica Walters in the only Goosebumps mini-series, "Chillogy".
- Richard Fitzpatrick (Mr. Kramer) later played Dr. Richard Hawlings in Season 4's "How I Got My Shrunken Head".
- Kerry Duff (Margo) played Dori earlier in season one's "Welcome to Camp Nightmare".
- Kerry Duff and Shadia Simmons also appeared together as sisters in another program. They also appeared as sisters Nicki and A.J. in the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "The Tale of the Night Nurse".
- The credits have Jed Kramer as Ted Kramer.
- The original Fox Kids promo accidentally refers to the family by the wrong surname. In the book and episode, Amy is part of the Kramer family, but in the promo, the announcer says the Davis family instead.
- Slappy's voice is also different in the promo, sounding deeper.
- In an added bit of confusion, the promo also refers to the episode simply as Night of the Living Dummy, not Night of the Living Dummy II. Though this was likely done to avoid confusion.
- According to Rick Drew in The Goosebumps TV Companion, this book was adapted instead of the first one simply because Billy Brown and Dan Angel felt it was a stronger story to start with. [1]
- After Slappy mentions the magic words that bring him to life, he says "You and I are one now". He doesn't say if this is what the words mean. However, the Goosebumps Presents book has him state that this is the case.
- It’s unknown if Margo still hates Amy, but it could be possible that they patched up their friendship at the end of the episode with Amy proving that Slappy was behind it all.
- Ron Oliver didn't want to do this episode at first as he thought the evil dummy/doll idea was done to death already.