"Viewer beware — you're in for a scare..."
Running from 1995 to 1998, Goosebumps was a television adaptation of R. L. Stine's book series of the same name, originally airing on both Fox Kids and YTV. Like the books the show was an anthology series and focused on a different group of characters each episode, though there were a few recurring elements, such Slappy from the numerous Night of the Living Dummy stories. Goosebumps was a joint Canadian/American production and was shot in both Ontario and Washington.
The show reran for two years on Cartoon Network (usually around Halloween timenote , but it lasted a bit longer in 2007 due to the Writers' Guild going on strike and producers scrambling for filler programming until the strike ended), then aired on The Hub Network in the early 2010s alongside R.L. Stine's then-new anthology series, The Haunting Hour. The entire show can now be found on Netflix.
For tropes from individual episodes based on the original books, see the Recap pages.
For the remade live-action series, see Goosebumps (2023).
The TV series in general provides examples of:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: The TV adaptation changed a few endings from the books. Most of them make the ending happier, but A Night in Terror Tower alters the end to suggest the Lord High Executioner is still able to come after them.
- Adaptational Karma: Some of the Karma Houdini characters from the book series get punished for their actions in the TV episodes. This includes Judith from "Be Careful What You Wish For", who is Taken for Granite, Mr. Saur from Say Cheese and Die — Again! who loses all his hair thanks to the camera while everyone laughs at him, the older brother from The Barking Ghost who is the only one who gets turned into a chipmunk.
- Adaptational Villainy: The series did this in a number of its book adaptations, either turning good characters into villains to create new plot twists or stripping already existing villains of any potential redeeming qualities.
- Adaptation Distillation: Even though most of the original books were fairly short, a number of them had pretty complex plots. So much so that even the ones that required two-parter adaptations mostly retain the basic outlines of the books. Calling All Creeps!, for instance, streamlines the story by removing a set of flashbacks.
- Adaptation Expansion: This happens sometimes, mostly due to the source story being too thin. The Haunted Mask II, for instance, adds a subplot about the original Haunted Mask returning to try and claim Carly-Beth as a host again.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Quite a few of them, just like the books, with the most notable examples including Jamie in Click and Tara in The Cuckoo Clock of Doom.
- Asshole Victim: Several. Major McCall from "Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes", Ritter from Deep Trouble, Judith in "Be Careful What You Wish For", Mr. Wright from A Shocker on Shock Street and Adam from The Blob That Ate Everyone.
- Canada Does Not Exist: Toronto, Canada was one of the series' primary filming locations, but most episodes were set in a vaguely American town. This trope is most obvious in "Attack of the Mutant", when a boy asks an old man if he can see a strange building in front of them. The old man says, "building? Where?" while the camera unintentionally gets a very good, clear shot of the C.N. Tower (one of North America's tallest skyscrapers). The building the boy was referring to in the story was actually a bright pink building that his comic book hero the "Masked Mutant" lives in, which nobody but he can see. This episode also wants viewers to pretend they don't see the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) logo on all the distinct red-and-white buses and streetcars.
- Compressed Adaptation: The Adaptation Distillation of the books sometimes would amount to this if necessary, especially if said episode was only a one-parter. Night of the Living Dummy II, for example, omits the majority of Slappy's pranks, compressing them to a single act.
- Content Warnings: The Fox Kids run coincided with the rise of the American TV rating system, so many episodes started with a warning that "Goosebumps is rated TV-Y7, because it may be too spooky for kids under seven." Originally, it had their own rating called "GB-7," but when the FCC and the television industry created the content ratings that were imposed on all TV shows (except for news shows and sports), they had to conform to that. During the broadcasts on the Hub, the warning returned, stating, "The following program is rated TV-Y7-FV. Some scenes may be too spooky for children under 7. We recommend watching together as a family."
- Genre Anthology: With the exception of some sequel episodes, each one is based on one of the Goosebumps books and are thus their own contained stories.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The TV series implies that it's actually R.L. Stine himself who's behind everything in all the stories (in a meta sense he is) and the ultimate evil of the series, even though he doesn't appear in any of them. In the intro, a man in black walks up to a town, and his briefcase (clearly marked with his name) flies open. The papers fly out and morph into the Goosebumps logo, which proceeds to spread misery around the town until it reaches a creepy mansion, which then shows clips of some of the stories. In the intro of the last season, he has the ability to turn into a swarm of bats.
- Here We Go Again!: Several of the endings, in correlation with the books. In fact, the adaptation of My Hairiest Adventure ends with this trope being quoted word-for-word.
- Horror Host: Several two-parters were given intros and outros hosted by the books' writer, R. L. Stine himself, with Cryptkeeper-esque jokes and puns, but mixed with stoic Rod Serling-esque delivery. For unknown reasons these were abandoned after season two.
- Lighter and Softer: Some of the darker elements of the books have been made less scary when adapting them to television, such as some of the violence being toned down, and the Cruel Twist Endings either give the characters a ray of hope or even turn them to Karmic Twist Endings for the antagonists.
- Named by the Adaptation: The episodes will sometimes give the characters last names that the book did not mention, such has Mark Rowe in How I Got My Shrunken Head. They will also give the parents' first names, such as Mark's mother Alice.
- Nobody Poops: Largely played straight, and Toilet Humor is completely absent. When bathrooms do appear, they are being used for other purposes (such as brushing one’s teeth or washing one’s face). The one notable exception is “Strained Peas”, where poop and vomit feature prominently, but that episode was about a baby.
- Synchro-Vox: A frequent special effect, used in The Haunted Mask, Strained Peas and My Best Friend is Invisible.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: In the show's intro, when the G of the Goosebumps logo passes over a dog (the dog form of Larry at the end of My Hairiest Adventure), and the dog's eyes turn gold.
Other episodes provide examples of:
- Cassandra Truth: In the Night of the Living Dummy series, every kid tries to tell their parents that their ventriloquist dummy happens to be alive, but no one believes them.
- Informed Ability: Slappy claims that reading the incantation not only brings him to life but makes the one reading it his "slave". We're never given any indication that this is the case. His second and third appearances at least give him the power to sort of back this up (he can turn people into dummies and possess people), but in both cases, these powers are shown being used against people who didn't summon him.
- Jacob Marley Apparel: Averted in "Ghost Beach", where the ghost kids who died in the 17th century wear contemporary 1990s attire. Played straight in "The House Of No Return", where the ghost couple wears very old-fashioned clothes, hinting they've been dead for at least fifty years if not more. The wife appears to be wearing a wedding dress, which fits with the couple being newly married when they died.
- They Killed Kenny Again: No matter how many times Slappy gets destroyed, he's somehow able to be repaired by the next episode.
