The Stinal Showdown #1: Piano Lessons Can Be Murder

I've been wanting for a while to find a way to cover the Goosebumps TV show. The problem with that is that most episodes do follow the same structure of the book. There are deviations, ones often needed to be changed to accommodate with TV standards and practices, or to make the episodes work far better. So, what better way to cover the episodes than by seeing which I feel works better, the book or the episode. And thus begins The Stinal Showdown. I'll do these from time to time and not precisely in episodic order. And with Piano Lessons Can Be Murder as my most recent reread, it's time to see which I like more. So let the showdown begin.

The Piano Lessons Can Be Murder book was released in November of 1993. The television adaptation premiered December 5th, 1995, smack in the middle of Goosebumps' first season. I recently reviewed this book in full right here, so if you want a full recap, check it out. For this, we'll recap the episode, then cover the notable changes, marking which I feel improve the story or deter it. 

EPISODE RECAP

Episode opens similar to the book. Jerry is in the basement of his new home. He sees the piano playing on its own, but not the ghost woman behind him. Where Jerry was a bit more indifferent to the idea of learning to play piano, Jerry isn't interested in piano lessons in the beginning. The episode also makes a point that his parents are concerned about how Jerry is constantly alone in his own world. Jerry meets Kim early on. Kim isn't Asian as in the book, but is instead played by African Canadian actress Kim Luttrell, who would return for season 2's "Attack of the Jack O' Lanterns"(Jerry's actor, Ben Cook, returns in "Shocker on Shock Street"). It's unclear why the change, but it's not a really major one as in both book and episode, Kim's role is more to be the giver of exposition, in this case telling Jerry that his new home used to belong to a piano teacher who passed away.

Jerry's decision to play piano comes from his friendship with Kim. Similar to the book, Jerry continues to hear hauntings from the piano and discovers the ghost teacher who tells him to stay away pretty quickly. Jerry heads to Shreek's Piano School much earlier in the episode, no tutoring early on either. Also, Jerry is never sent to a psychiatrist over his ghost sighting, though they do tell him that he's got issues and mention it. Similar to the book, music can be heard from within the classrooms, but it's hard to Jerry to see who's playing it. Dr. Shreek's design looks similar, only instead of just the mustache, he has a beard, making him more Santa-like than his description. 

Jerry's more focused to explore the school, which gets him confronted by the janitorial robot and Mr. Toggle. No scenes with Toggle's workshop, so no scene with the cried of help in a cabinet. We get sort of a similar nightmare scene, with the difference being Jerry is possessed by the ghost to keep playing until he faints, instead of being unable to control his hands as they play faster. Another ghost warning, the parents don't believe him, and send him back to the Shreek school to continue learning instead of him going back to quit. It's here where we get Shreek going hand crazy. Similar to the book, he discovers the room with the disembodied hands. Unlike the book, that's really all we get. 

Similar to the book, Jerry soon learns that it was all the plans of Toggle. The ghost saves Jerry. It's here where Toggle's real reason for his hand collection changes as the teacher mentions that he was too lazy and couldn't play the piano. Jerry runs out as the ghost haunts him out. Jerry's parents see the ghost this time, compared to the book, and they end up as the ones in therapy. The episode ends with Jerry playing baseball now instead, and Toggle's punishment being learning to play for all eternity.

GRADING

First notable change is Jerry's character. In the book, he's presented as a prankster, often liking to scare his parents. That ends up being the main reason they don't believe his claims of a haunted piano. In the episode, he's written to have a big imagination, which also works in why he wouldn't be believed about the ghost. You can go either way with this, but I'll say that the episode's portrayal wins.

EPISODE -1 BOOK -0

The next notable thing to cover is the ghost woman. In the book, she's written to be more of a young woman, a victim of Toggle's. In the episode, she's written as the ghost of Toggle's old piano teacher. She still haunts Jerry and gives him warnings, but they're far more tame in the episode. No face melting here. She doesn't have hands when confronting Toggle, meaning she was likely one of his victims, but the episode doesn't do any job in explaining that. While the episode's portrayal is fine, I think the book's take works better. Point to the book.

EPISODE -1 BOOK -1

While Toggle and Shreek do feature in this episode, and their characters are the same in both for the most part, I feel the episode really lacks in explaining anything. The episode gives a base explanation that Toggle needs the hands to play music, there's less of that feeling of underlying creepiness that the book had. Losing the scene in his workshop really made him feel more lacking. In the end, the book wins this one.

EPISODE -1 BOOK -2

Endings for both book and episode greatly differ, but both end with a ghostly revenge for Toggle. The episode's ending has Toggle play piano for all eternity, which feels more silly, but works. The book ends with the ghosts of his victims taking their hands back and dragging him into the woods, never to be seen again. A much creepier and more cathartic outcome over the episode. Both are decent, but book edges it out.

EPISODE -1 BOOK -3

And finally, we'll cover flow for the book vs episode. The pacing for both is really decent. The book ramps up the mystery and does a good enough job building the story up. Giving Jerry less of a reason to initially think the worst of Dr. Shreek or Mr. Toggle until things start to ramp up. The television adaptation loses a lot of that due to time, but still handles everything pretty well. The notable points in the story are all there, and the things that are missing feel superfluous enough. We really didn't need that therapy session, having it be mentioned is enough. It's close, but I feel the episode flows a bit better. 

EPISODE -2 BOOK -3

And with a score of three points over two, the winner is: The book adaptation! It was a close one and both versions work well enough in their own right, but the book handles the story and scare factor a lot better. 

I hope you enjoyed this blog concept, there are more planned in the future, and hopefully it won't be too long until I take another side by side look at both episode and book.