Click ripped off Goosebumps!

[Sam Fisher]

I was looking at the episode guide for Goosebumps and saw this.

49. Click
First aired: 9/27/1997 Production Code: 305
Seth is interested to see the advanced catelouge-ordered remote he just got appears to be a universal one - it works on the stereo as well as the TV. But he's even more amazed when, turning it on "PAUSE" on his younger sister Jamie as a joke really does shut her off from tap-dancing while he watches TV! He's then informed by the still-playing tape that came with the remote by Tony Hutchins that "it's not a toy!" Interested to see what else it can do, he continues testing it: changing the color of his fish, rewinding/fast-forwarding passerby, hitting channel change so the school bully transforms into something more benign. But soon he goes on to bigger things, like pausing his teacher to cheat on tests, or his family when they want him to give the remote to Janie, despite his best friend's opposition. After all, none of Tony's phone-recorded warnings mean anything. Right.

Sound familiar?

 

[StrainedEyes]

Gasp!

 

[SuperFerret]

That story is too old and too iconic for R.L. Stine to have come up with.

 

[DACrowe]

I think it ripped off It's A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol well before some forgotten Goosbumps book.

 

[TNC9852002]

Exactly...It's an old story retold.

-TNC