Dead Dogs Still Fetch (ft. Braden Gardner & Goosebumps Completionist)

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[00:01:16] The Goosebumps Crew is a great opportunity to do this. From the pages of Ariel Stein's best-selling books, I'm a screen, go on forever and ever. We now return to Goosebumps.

[00:02:45] Greetings Goosebumps fans. Young and old, big and small. Welcome back to The Goosebumps Crew Podcast. As always, I'm your host Isaiah Vargas. And I'm joined by the rest of The Goosebumps Crew, the our panelic and Nick Shaw. And we're also joined once again by our good buddy Austin.

[00:02:58] Also known as Goosebumps Completionists. And we're also joined by a very special guest. We have here, Brain Gardener. And he is the little boy who won the Brain Juice Terrifying Title Contest. The contest that was the partnership of Goosebumps and General Mills in 1998.

[00:03:17] And he's here today to talk some Goosebumps with us. Thanks for joining us, Britain. Thanks for having me. Great to be here. Absolutely. And we're happy to have you. So as you guys may have known, if you guys watched our last episode where we talked about

[00:03:30] Boston, Cancel Goosebumps books. There were a few Goosebumps stories that started out as titles. But did not get made into full stories or maybe the stories were made but they kind of fell into obscurity. Two of those titles were the product of these Goosebumps Contest

[00:03:48] done in the 90s. One of them, as we mentioned in the last episode, was a title called Slime Doesn't Pay. That was a made by a boy named Jimmy S. And he won with his title, Slime Doesn't Pay. And even though there was eventually, as you can see,

[00:04:04] Bjorn holding it up, there was eventually an RL Stein novella called Slime Doesn't Pay. It only took 20 years for that book to get made because it never got made in New Goosebumps book. Until Jim's brother went on to like a tweet or a live story.

[00:04:23] And asked RL Stein is like, hey, my brother came up with this title called Slime Doesn't Pay is like it never got made into a book. And then RL Stein said, ooh, that title was good. The good thing I came up with it,

[00:04:35] I might be paraphrasing a little bit. But another title that was the product of a Goosebumps Contest was the title that brain here came up with. For the brain juice terrifying title contest, it was a contest that was a partnership of scholastic in general meals in 1998.

[00:04:54] Where kids all across America were given one task to come up with a title that RL Stein will turn into a Goosebumps story. They got away with it too because he wouldn't turn it into a full book.

[00:05:06] It would be a short story, so they didn't have to write a little metal in kids. I've got away. Oh, they have a word for you meddling middle age adults. Or better, yeah, the South Park one. What have gotten away with it for you meddling policemen?

[00:05:23] But we had this contest and brain was a winner and he won with his title, Dead Dog Still Fetch. And a brain if you could tell us how did you get involved with this contest, what made you want to enter?

[00:05:44] So I didn't find out about the contest until they were airing it on blocks kids, so I watched cartoons after school. You get your ex-men, you get your spider-man. And I saw the contest advertised periodically on there. Like, what's going to cool?

[00:06:01] And my dad actually happened to be in the room when the contest advertisement was running and told me that I should enter that. And I was like, okay. So after school one day shortly after that we started brainstorming titles back and forth and went back and forth.

[00:06:22] They were a title out there. We tried workshop it if we thought there was merit or we'd skip it for the next one and eventually I suggested Dead Dog Still Fetch. There wasn't really a lot of workshopping with that one like we tried a few variations of it

[00:06:36] but nothing really rang as well as the original. So that's what got in. Nice. And I mean, this contest again, this was task for all kids across America. So there were thousands of entries that were given to this contest and it was a big deal.

[00:06:53] It had a lot of promotion behind it. You had commercials, you had news coverage, you had print ads and general mills was really leading hard into this. There was radio ads and local radio stations across the country and everything culminated in about, I believe February of 1998.

[00:07:15] And it was actually coincidentally it was around the time that the book brain juice in goosebumps series 2000 was released and the winner was officially announced to be you. So how did you find out that you were the winner of the contest? Well, funny story.

[00:07:35] I found out when I came face to face with the school of people, shading my name and our health dying standing on the steps through the door I came in. I didn't know until the day of. It was a well engineered secret. I'll give them that.

[00:07:56] So your whole school kept that like a secret from you. You didn't even know until you walked into the door? No clue that they have the event. The gym was closed off, so you couldn't go into the gym that day for whatever reason I'd tape across the doors

[00:08:10] and the whole deal. But what do you know, I was going on and it was about midday right after lunch. They called me in from recess to the principal's office. I mean, loving your meal. It's one of the good kids I didn't get into trouble.

[00:08:26] So it's like, what did I do? Why am I going into the principal's office? I went on and wasn't for anything bad. That was going to wipe away pretty quick. And we had a conversation I could not tell you what about at the time.

[00:08:43] And eventually, we started making our way to the gym for an assembly that was scheduled that day. So made our way through. And I remember distinctly that the principal kind of for out each opt through the masking tape, blocking the door.

[00:08:58] And I was like, I want to do that. And then we opened the door and wow, it was so much to take it. Everybody's chaining my name. I have no idea what's going on. And I have to actually kind of be cute a little bit

[00:09:15] to turn and see the man himself. Or else, I'm standing there waiting to greet me. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, shoot. 11 year old me's bringing a short circuit in that moment. There was so much going on.

[00:09:31] I needed a moment to process what all was going on. There's an incredible. He thought, like they said, you had to be cute. You just be looking out there and then they're like, hey, what's that over there? Oh, we crap. Right?

[00:09:45] I think basically one like you want the goosebumps lottery of sense. Like that's what it would have felt like. It was, yes, I'm a percent. And I live in small town. I always, again, like our community of multiple small towns couldn't have exceeded 2000 people. Like it wasn't.

[00:10:06] Things like that did not happen in communities like ours. Yeah, I mean, that's what's been really incredible. The have like a big name author just come to your school one day in front of the whole school and then there you are right along

[00:10:22] side of them, everyone's chanting your name. I mean, I can't imagine anything just like as a kid just to how your entire class, like just clapping and applauding you. It's just like, you know what? This is a good day. Right? It's just the, go ahead.

[00:10:40] You're gonna get the goosebumps too, man. That's just insane. I couldn't even imagine it, you know what I mean? Because I don't do things like that now with goosebumps. So that's why it's just amazing hearing these stories, you know? A hundred percent.

[00:10:55] Like the author of your favorite series of books, showing up to your school to shape your hand and create your story. Like you said, goosebumps lottery. Yeah, really is. Shamed that didn't give you walk out music. They're chanting your name and cheering, you know what I mean?

[00:11:15] Like walk out music should have been played. You know the goosebumps theme song or something. You know in a really cynical comedy they would have like have a big red carpet and it would go around and you'd be like waving every been

[00:11:27] be cheering and it would lead out the other gym door on the other side. They closed it and like, all right, he's gone. Let's get the real winner out. He's in the free plant we chose to win.

[00:11:39] Or it's like they we did the door and they open it and you're like, I'm the winner is like, no, we're actually pointing to the kid right by me. You know that does happen a lot. I'm gonna send it. Oh, that was it? That'd be really sad.

[00:11:55] We're even being at a school assembly. And I don't know how common what year it was but it was, it was at some school assembly and they were just kind of like, they'll give that a pointing to people in the crowd.

[00:12:07] You know, like come up and grab their prize. I remember they did point like right at me and I got up and started walking and it was like, oh no, I'm so sorry my little dude. It's actually the person behind you.

[00:12:17] So I've been in that situation where I was like, well, I mean, kind of like, I mean, it's not as bad as Newlander when they call for Hansel and he gets up and literally walks on stage. Not that bad but you know what I mean?

[00:12:29] It was still pretty embarrassing for me. Or it's like a sponge Bob where you just run up in your, you're just like people of the Keene bottom. Yeah. It's like, I think I could have been what? I'm making a complete one of myself.

[00:12:44] The most embarrassing thing you've ever seen. But unfortunately that that didn't happen. You were the actual winner of the contest. Now, so I mean, you said you walked out to like, cheering crowds all your classmates there and then you got to meet the RL sign itself.

[00:13:03] I mean, what was it like? Just in that moment, I mean, your goosebumps fan, being RL signed. It was incredible. Like a drink come true for 11 year old me and again, things like that don't happen in the middle of nowhere.

[00:13:21] I was so this was just like, oh my gosh, this is so exciting and incredible. And honestly, I was completely caught off guard. I had no idea at one of the contest. I did not find out until I walked through that door.

[00:13:37] So the con that had to be set up to keep me in the dark for that was clearly very upset. Yeah, I mean, because something like that, it's cool. And you need to keep playing that dog. Just to keep that secret.

[00:13:55] Yeah, if anybody found out they were brought back and kept. It's a big one about this. It's kind of like that. Like they clearly had been sitting on this for at least several days. I had family from how to town there.

[00:14:10] And the morning of my folks convinced me to wear my t-shirt for the goosebumps of the time. I was like, oh, I'm not sure if I can see the wrong game to school. And I like the t-shirt. Like the game sounds like a bit sure.

[00:14:24] Yeah, whatever didn't suspect the thing, just the fact that they kept it for me. They kept it from my siblings. They kept it from the student body and large. Like I had no idea. Genuine surprise. What's up with the CD? How many girls and others did you get?

[00:14:42] None. That's a bigger band. You're king of the school now, you got a sign there. You got to use a play of fruit rollups. You got all the goose bumps. Because you're watching. Yeah, for sure. You get some, get some digits.

[00:14:58] So wasn't that CD role game shut like another prize that you had to win from something? Did you win another goose bumps prize? Was that when you could buy in the school? I think it was the game. If I'm remembering correctly, but I don't remember for sure.

[00:15:12] I think some bumblead had the game with the shirt. They must have been like a promotion in the store. Like if you ordered it or something, you know, like if you pre-order a game, you get something. Yeah, because like I swear, I don't see many of those shirts.

[00:15:26] I've seen maybe like three in 20 years. So that shirts also are very reshared. Got the brain juice blown and then you got the CD rum shit. Like man. Just to put a cap on the whole, you know, secrecy thing.

[00:15:39] It's just like, oh, what it is to be like a child. You don't question many things. You're just kind of like, oh, the gyms walled off for no reason. That's cool. They want me to specifically wear this shirt and go to this place at school to stay. Okay.

[00:15:54] They want to bring just me to the office while the entire school goes elsewhere. Oh, sure. You know what? You know?

[00:16:01] Yeah, it's like, I like thinking of as like somebody they call you to the office and then all the kids do that ass hole thing where they're just like, I think those one time, or something like, you're gonna call the office or go on trouble.

[00:16:15] I think there was time for me or something else. I think there was one time I did that too when I was like, I was like, I was like, I'm already in a bad mood that day.

[00:16:26] It wasn't even anything bad but like, I was called to the office. I was already in a bad mood and everyone just did that like, Ooh, and I wanted, I was this close to snapping back and be like, Shut the fuck up.

[00:16:38] I was like, oh, you're so, where are you going? I'm not supposed to. But anyway, so yeah, but you got there. So you got to meet our all-stime because you came up with the winning title. And so what was it like, you know, getting to write that title?

[00:17:01] Did you guys come up with a good story? So as far as coming up with the title itself, you know, brainstorming ideas back and forth, we didn't really do the story when we submitted the title because I'm an additional title. We didn't need the story.

[00:17:17] But once we got into the event after I'd won the contest, once we got into the event, we did some introduction and then the story was basically the main event of the assembly where

[00:17:31] our all-stime had volunteers from the audience start volunteering pieces of information and he'd take them and he'd spend them into what eventually became a short storytelling session. And it just went really smoothly. It was awesome.

[00:17:50] And if I remember correctly, it was a combination of RL-stime, you and the audience. So like the audience basically got to spitball ideas out to create the story. Correct. I know for sure that the audience was responsible for names and locations and some other details.

[00:18:11] And in the end of your old me, it didn't really want the moment to end. Like it was incredible. I mean, light storytelling and I like writing. So this would getting to be involved with it with my favorite authors. Just like, you have this as awesome.

[00:18:27] This is dream control best day ever. Absolutely. And then looking back on the experience after finding the footage, I was genuinely impressed with how approachable RL-stime was how careful he was to make sure that he was getting a good mix of voice and burrows involved,

[00:18:47] making sure that he was picking a variety of people. I love in your old me probably instinctively picked up on that which is why I had such a good time, but I wouldn't have been able to put the words to it until kind of revisiting it now.

[00:19:05] That's a lot of different long when we had her on actually said that she always thought when she met him as like a creepy Mr. Rogers, which is kind of true. I mean, he's super nice but he's just got that little neighbor.

[00:19:20] Yeah, he's got that weird character to him but you'd like it anyway. It's interesting. I don't know if he wakes up like that or if he just goes out to the world like that she says and it really sparked that interest.

[00:19:35] Is that a face he puts on or is that behind closed doors? It's a different kind of style. So. But I don't say this, Braden. I think you lived out of fantasy that many goosebumps fans throughout the history of this franchise have always wanted.

[00:19:52] And that was like to be able to like maybe just sit down with Oralstein and collaborate with him on an idea.

[00:19:58] And the fact that you got to be essentially the celebrity of the moment and be cheered on by your peers get to meet your idol, get to sit down and write a story along with your idol on a title you came up with.

[00:20:16] It's such a special thing I feel and I mean literally it's like a stuff of legend. Because before the footage that surface because of your doing.

[00:20:26] It was talked about in kind of mythological almost to find this story because not only was it a lost piece of media that we can get more content out of it was mostly just the idea of hey this kid got to live something we want to see if the experience and what it was like so yeah.

[00:20:48] I just had to throw that in there because what you what you got to experience is something that I could only dream of. It was the story of Braden the contest winner. Well, it was incredibly cool because for years afterward I was the new swimskayle.

[00:21:10] That's how people recognized me for years after the fact like at least a decade it was like hey you're the kid who won the goosebost contest and like yep that's me. Cool. There's a funny thing. That's actually so funny that I said that.

[00:21:29] I'm a guy because like that's how I've become here in Australia because like I went to a I go to like different SWAT mates and stuff and I know pretty much everyone now within the community here in Australia.

[00:21:41] But not just the good like goose bumps like just people that buy and sell and collect you know whatnot and I always just set call me the goosebumb guy.

[00:21:49] So like oh goosebumb guys here you got a goosebumb stuff you know me like that's just how it's become now and like because I was even at a SWAT mate recently called James old toys.

[00:21:57] And it's like one of the biggest SWAT mates for toys and collectibles in Australia that they put together and yeah I'll just be walking around the stalls there and it's just oh that's the goosebumb guy oh I'll see if I've got any goose bumps and then like I'll get people like walking up to me.

[00:22:13] In the event like from different stalls being like oh I have got this if you're interested and I'm like I have 10 of those I don't need it.

[00:22:19] Yeah I mean I totally get what you mean like you just sort of become like you know the goose bumps guy like especially after winning a contest like that like.

[00:22:29] Austin said you know it's a dream come true for us goosebumb fans to be able to live out that fantasy man like it's just amazing you know.

[00:22:39] I think it's incredible that we actually have an identity to a contest winner and be able to put a face in a name to somebody and have tangible connections to that person.

[00:22:51] Because when you look at the history especially in the 90s of these sweepstakes contest winners you have to really dig to find them and there's only a handful that are well publicly known like Jim yeses slimes doesn't pay contest title.

[00:23:05] That became kind of popular on the wiki forums and that kind of blew up on its own thing.

[00:23:10] And then you have Jack Archer who won the contest that allowed him to become the main character of invasion of the body squasers and he was also put into the hornom s 2 episode as an extra.

[00:23:22] So your kind of like one of the many faces that represent the 90s and the popularity of goose bumps and you probably don't feel that but you are that you you embody what the kids were of the time in the fan base.

[00:23:38] And I think that's really cool and I envy you for that. But you really have no idea how much it was it was kind of a stuff of legend during the you know the lost media years of this story that before it was found.

[00:23:53] Of you just trying to find you and trying to get in contact with you. So I guess a question to you was were you shocked when people reached out to you about. The contest. I was genuinely surprised.

[00:24:10] My first contact with someone reaching out to me was through Jude and they'd reach out to me and said that they found that I was the winner of the contest wanted you know more information about it. So I was like okay sure.

[00:24:27] I was genuinely surprised they'd actually reach out to my elementary school who then reached out to my folks who let me know and then I went ahead and. Started communicating with you about things and while I did not know at the time.

[00:24:47] I lost the media was as everyone was trying to run it down believe me the detective work to on earth the footage. Give me a first hand appreciation. I talked to everybody to try and run this down.

[00:25:03] So what I had initially was a videotape or two that had kind of become unusable due to you know time and a rough VCR and some other things.

[00:25:16] So I sent Jude what I had which was a scan of the original article from the Des Moire Register and then. I remembered that there had been three cameras running that I knew about at the time.

[00:25:32] Two of them would have been new stations in one of them would have been footage from my grandparents. So we ran down the footage from my grandparents and I got to tell you that video cameras have come a long way since the 90s that footage is.

[00:25:51] Very, very blurry and very hard to actually make too much out of so it wasn't really suitable to look to us like it was something like I can send you this you're not going to get much out of it.

[00:26:05] So I started asking around I reached out to see to the local CBS and NBC TV stations to see if they had. Park I footage I even have a connection over at the CBS station who was able to dig super deeply for me nothing.

[00:26:25] I reached out to my school district they didn't have anything. I checked with my parents obviously they didn't have anything. I reached out to general meals themselves and gotten contact with their archival department. They didn't have anything.

[00:26:42] I was just turning up dead and dead and dead and then I went to go visit my folks for holiday and they had found some pictures of the event so I was like oh that's cool that's more than I had to work with the figure.

[00:26:58] So I have those stashed away somewhere and then. The day after I get back home from visiting the family dad reaches out to me and let's me know that he actually found a video tape.

[00:27:13] And he's going to send me and like okay also so rather than risk the tape in a VCR known for eating video tapes I just like okay we're not putting anything in there we're not risking this I have no idea what's on it.

[00:27:28] I was going to take the tapes I have over to get them digitized so that I don't have to worry about it and when I got the tapes back.

[00:27:39] I actually found that I had three files that were functional whatsoever and then I had the footage that you all are familiar with today on last one and I was like this way I think it is.

[00:27:55] A complete run of the assembly just even the new stations wouldn't have had the full thing recorded at the time it was all pencil and paper predominantly for how they were taking notes.

[00:28:07] And some small video clips but not much more than that now this was basically the assembly almost on a bridge like there clearly some spots that get shipped but it was a little bit and.

[00:28:23] I got it over to June and you got it over to Austin and rest of history. And that's awesome I mean again it's always interesting to find like lost media like that but especially a relic of the past like that.

[00:28:38] It's too good to be lost at time so the fact that it was able to be uncovered like that and now can live on and you know in history is always always a great achievement for you know lost media hunters and just the world of entertainment in general.

[00:28:54] Going off of all that is like it's incredible and not only were you like a celebrity in your school but you're also celebrity in your town and across.

[00:29:06] Like the entire country because again this had like a lot of news coverage behind it many different news affiliates were coming to you and interviewing you and seeing like like what did you think about like the title and like how do you feel like winning the contest.

[00:29:22] And just you know like thinking about being an 11 year old and just know being on TV meaning your favorite author being like a hero at school it's like it seems like a lot but it's also just like.

[00:29:35] You feel like on top of the world in that kind of scenario I would feel.

[00:29:40] I definitely did feel that way and again I'm not I was not someone accustomed to getting that kind of attention so it was also a little overwhelming to be honest like it was just so much to take in.

[00:29:56] It was an incredible experience but I was processing it for a's afterward and even the local news outlets were running the story with for a solid week afterwards it showed up on pretty much every news show for the next weekend change it was really cool.

[00:30:16] I couldn't like being on TV. Yeah everyone loved being on TV except people who don't like being on TV. Right.

[00:30:27] So not only did you get to have your story created with our al-Stine but you also got to get some prizes what were some of the prizes that you had received.

[00:30:38] Well the prizes were kind of splitting the two categories there are stuff that my school got and there's stuff that I got as far as what I got I got a year supply of fruit roll-ups which was awesome. I got to a signed book from.

[00:30:54] The part I now have one of the Fright light books I still have it to those day actually it's on my desk right next to me. I was just got here and you know there's even a nice little. Personalization there. which is super cool.

[00:31:16] And that's a pretty hard to find book nowadays too. So not only do you have it signed, but it's not a super common one to find either. So your whole A holy grail in the goosebumps community I would say. That's there.

[00:31:34] But your school received some stuff. What did your school get? And so school got $1000. They got an iMac, which at the time was V-new hotness for computers. Man how far we've gone. And then the library also got a full set of the original 62 books, which was super cool.

[00:31:56] I think both the elementary school libraries got one. And I think they still have them to this day. So an enduring prize like that is just excellent. Oh yeah, it's awesome that your school can benefit from this contest as well.

[00:32:12] It's not prizes that are solely exclusive to you. Like your school is able to get, you know, we just about the computer. But it was a high-end computer at the time and, you know, many schools probably couldn't afford it. So they get something new like that.

[00:32:27] And yeah, just getting all those books which were super popular at the time. And I mean, even now, I mean, there are still kids who will read the original 62 goosebumps books and really enjoy them.

[00:32:38] So it's something that's really cool that it's not mutually exclusive to you, even though you probably get the better prizes. Oh yeah, and of course we can't forget about the visit from the big man themselves. Like that was the top tier prize out of all of it.

[00:32:56] Well, again, like even, you know, not your whole school is like shown up and then RL Stein is there. And that's like I could imagine for the entire school that was an amazing day. It was just more amazing on your part because he was there because of you.

[00:33:12] Well, yeah, I mean everybody got full goosebumps brain juice T shirts and it was just an incredible experience. And I'm seeing everybody wearing the new shirts and then getting to meet RL Stein and making the story.

[00:33:26] It was a good day for everybody involved. It was nice to be able to share it like super cool. I don't have words to properly express I'll also know what I was. I've seen pictures of those brain juice shirts and they're really cool looking.

[00:33:42] Well, anybody out there watching this has one you need to me in the comments. Okay. Yeah, you need to send it over right now. I'm going to put them for one. That's probably like the rarest goose bumps shut in existence right now would be that brain juice shut.

[00:33:57] Like, I would have probably made well out of a many they needed for the for the contest like for the kids. Well, unfortunately most kids are not collectors and they don't hold on to that stuff.

[00:34:06] So I can imagine that most of them probably ended up in a way and fill somewhere. I might be surprised. I mean, it'll a small town. I know what I've been willing to betch other some of them kicking around in various boxes and garages and what he had.

[00:34:21] Well, if anyone in Iowa is watching this episode and hit us up. It's up. Don't throw in your eyes well. Yeah. Don't give it to Joe. You know, give it to goose bumps. We need to go. We need exactly four of them. Okay.

[00:34:37] People are watching this four guys here. So. But, but, Braden, I think the fact that you were able to save the footage and like preserve it, It's just it's a time stamp in a forgotten thing that we don't see in goose bumps anymore.

[00:34:55] I think the other guys brought it up that the sweepstakes promotions that we're like a main stay in early goose bumps. There's there's not really video evidence of any of that online.

[00:35:06] And the fact that you were able to preserve something that everybody was kind of curious and out of experience what unfold. I think that's incredible personally. And I, I'm just I want to thank you for allowing me to upload the video to my channel personally.

[00:35:24] As to me, every time I watched that, not only do I get to see the enjoyment and your eyes about the whole event, but we get to kind of live what it was like to be there as well. And you gave that to the community. So thank you.

[00:35:39] No problem at all and you know, on the stay, you might not have gotten the footage at all. Like the. I think that was the original tape that General Mills actually recorded. And we had a house fire a few years after that event.

[00:35:54] So what I suspect happened with that tape was that they gave it to the school at some point after the fire, the school gave it to my dad.

[00:36:06] And of course, nobody at the school involved with the event remember any of this when I was reaching out to them and then. And it up stashed somewhere and that found it. So there were so many opportunities where this low tape could have been lost forever.

[00:36:23] And I'm just as happy you are as you are that it wasn't because that was a big event, just my childhood. I've been a tragedy for that to disappear. Absolutely. I think I lost again. No, the internet now way of holding on to things like that.

[00:36:43] It's in the goosebumps. Yeah, it's in the archive. It's forever forever going to be this. I had three copies. I have one of my MacBook hard drive. I got one on a. On a USB file and I have a copy on YouTube.

[00:36:56] So it's never going to go anywhere. You know, it would be funny is if somebody took the video file and then recorded onto a VHS tape. It all comes full circle.

[00:37:08] Going back to you said you got a year supply of fruit roll ups. I mean, first of all, I hope they included a year supply of dental insurance for all that sugar. Well, they forgot the fine print as it happens. So they're not well. No, no, no liability.

[00:37:27] Wasn't this wasn't this at the time when goosebumps was they had fruit roll up goose bumps series 2000 promotion. Was it like the do you remember if the blocks had the goose bumps series 2000 promotion on the actual boxes? Oh, turn remember I don't think it did.

[00:37:46] They were just standard food roll ups from what I remember in standard. Yeah, that would have a good memory in this opportunity. I have a box of the fruit roll ups.

[00:37:57] Like it's like the original box and it's just 2000 and funny enough, it has brain juice on the screen. Like on the side part. So I think that's so funny.

[00:38:07] And I thought maybe it was that box that you got that had brain juice like on the actual side of it. But I have one of those just flat, you know, packed in a in my archives and the collection. So that's really cool.

[00:38:19] So I was like, no, what I think it's a little out of place that they gave you for Rollups and not gushers, which is probably the more fitting snack for a brain juice contest since ahead. They had that old goose bumps too.

[00:38:32] That fruit gushes goose bumps promotion too. Yeah, that's so funny. But a year's, oh, years to pie a fruit roll ups is a lot of for roll ups. Oh, you have no idea they were stacked up on our table for months.

[00:38:46] And I've got siblings and plenty of friends who like fruit rollups, like they got spread around and they just endured for so long. I enjoyed it. Yeah, it's a lot of fun to such a long time.

[00:39:02] Like every school, like every day at school you must have had one in your lunch box. Old two, old three, oh. How many do you want to just go to school snacks?

[00:39:11] Yeah, or just like fill your book bag full of them and like deal them out at one time as it's just be like, okay, I got the great stuff right here. I got the good stuff. I said you got my money if you don't got my money.

[00:39:22] I just like, but shit could keep going on. It's not that serious. So when you got the fruit rollups, did they just drop them all off in one month some? Or did you get a mail to periodically lump some with the whole.

[00:39:35] So they just got a big dump truck and put it right on your front lawn where like, good luck. But 300 plus boxes not too far off. I'm not going to lie to you. It was a gigantic box. Wow, that's so cool.

[00:39:52] It's like, I'm thinking of like sort that there was a goofy cartoon where he ordered like a war, a large TV. And basically how they delivered it to him is they tore off his roof, put the box inside and then put the roof back on.

[00:40:10] So boy, it could have been done like that. Yeah, we ended up opening the box outside and bringing the fruit rollups inside. The box was not comfortably getting through that door. Whoa, must've been a big box. It was a big box. Oh man, I love that.

[00:40:27] I love that. Oh man. I love that. No, and you know, going off of all of that. I mean, you had obviously it had to have been a goose bumps fan before joining this contest.

[00:40:40] What what did you like about the goose bumps books that made you a fan? So goose bumps was kind of my initial forage or which ended up being a genre that I enjoy meeting to this day.

[00:40:54] But my first goose bumps book that I actually read was piano lessons can murder and I was taking piano at the time. And I'm like, oh yeah, this is a pretty good story.

[00:41:06] I wonder how many of these goose bumps books are out there because and piano lessons was in the teens somewhere. And I go to library and this would have been about the time that the bargain ghost came out. And they had most of them.

[00:41:23] So I'm like, oh, there's so many of these. So yeah, I was hooked pretty much immediately. And my mom being happy that I was reading was more than happy that by books for birthday holidays that kind of thing to kind of keep the origin that.

[00:41:40] So yeah, that's kind of how I got my starts. Funnily enough, that's almost exactly like my story because I was the same way. I just discovered it at school.

[00:41:49] My I was not a good reader up to that point, but I was reading all of a sudden these big these chapter books like super fast and then they're like, well we better keep it going so he keeps really keeps reading.

[00:42:01] What did they know it was going to spiral into an obsession and now that is the result. So we say are we stay red. So yeah, there's not just got a lot of kids under reading.

[00:42:18] Yes for sure. And reading it was a whole article on that when they were trying to ban them and then there was a lot of people coming up saying no like the only reason my daughter or the only reason my brother, the only reason whoever it was is reading is because of goose bumps.

[00:42:33] So they decided no we are not taking them off the shelves because it's getting kids to read you know, so we've always said that goose bumps is like what I like to call the gateway drug into the horror genre because it really is.

[00:42:47] I mean a lot of people who get into horror movies and literature and TV shows some of them get their start and stuff.

[00:42:54] You know, it's not exclusive to goose bumps but like stuff like goose bumps and are you afraid of the dark or even like cartoons like courage, a cowardly dog is like

[00:43:02] those things as kids kind of we do into horror movies and stuff growing up because you get sucked in with those kinds of stories. But goose bumps was definitely for kids in the 90s where a lot of people's obsession with horror came from.

[00:43:18] And that's just a testament to the kind of franchise it was. Yeah, actually. And I eventually ended up when I stopped reading goose bumps I still stuck with our all-stime through fear street and other works that he'd written that were meant for older kids so.

[00:43:38] It was nice to be able to stick with the author even if I wasn't necessarily reading goose bumps in my teen years as much so. Much appreciated a lot of good reading there.

[00:43:48] Have you ever had any contact with our else-stime following the contest or has it been radio silence. No, not so. However, I. It's one of those things that I've always wanted to go to a convention and say hi kind of catch up and.

[00:44:03] All that but the timing's just never quite worked out for that. And it was probably one event among many that he went to who I don't know how vivid his memory is of the actual event itself.

[00:44:16] But it less to big impression on me and those he visited at my school so I love the opportunity to do that someday. Absolutely. Awesome. Yep.

[00:44:26] And yeah, so going off of the talk earlier about that footage that was uncovered you know this footage was uncovered about two years ago and it was a pretty big deal in the goose bumps community when it came out.

[00:44:41] So what we're going to do now is we're going to watch that footage. We're going to watch through it and we're going to look at it and see for ourselves what the buzz was about at the time.

[00:44:54] All right, so we're going to watch the original video that depicted the news coverage of the contest both before and after the winner was announced.

[00:45:05] We're going to watch the assembly video. So we're going to see for ourselves what we've all been talking about so far. So let's get started. And now just a time for Halloween. There's an nationwide contest on for kids to write a scary goose bumps story.

[00:45:23] The winner gets the author of the popular children's tales as an English teacher for a day. They brain juice contest celebrates the release of RL Stein's newest goose bumps book the best selling children's author will appear at the winner school.

[00:45:36] The teacher creative writing class. I was a very fearful child. I was scared of a lot of things.

[00:45:42] I would just stay in my room writing. I started writing when I was nine years old and now I can think back and try to remember that feeling of fear and try to remember what I was scared about when I was a kid.

[00:45:55] He's not scared anymore over 200 million copies of his books in print the contest winner will be announced on October the 19th. Well now RL Stein is heading up a contest with the grand prize of personal visit to your kid's school around Halloween.

[00:46:12] We talked to him about it my satellite. We have a brain juice terrifying title contest. I don't know how it's going to work. We're going to be doing it. We're doing it. We're doing it. General Mill.

[00:46:24] I have this book. I have this goosebumps book coming out called Brain Juice which I love that title. I love titles. So we thought we'll have kids send in titles send me your goose bumps titles. Let's see what kind of great titles kids come up with.

[00:46:38] And I'm going to pick a winner and then I'm going to pay a surprise visit to their school and we're going to write a story with the kids based on the winning title. That will be lots of fun.

[00:46:54] Well some students who have been sitting on edge will find out today who's the freakyest. It's down to 50 finals and they brain juice terrifying title contest. The winner to be announced today will get a school visit from goose bumps author RL Stein.

[00:47:09] What did you think when you saw his face in the union with him? I was just amazed. Imagine who being ten years old winning a national contest and having your hero come to your school. Talk to you in your classmates. That's pretty cool.

[00:47:26] Well that's exactly what happened down in the South Central Iwatown of Le Colnet today. If you don't know who RL Stein is or his best-selling series of scary goose bumps books, then you probably haven't been hanging around in 8 to 12 year old lately.

[00:47:45] These kids at Southeast Warren Intermediate School know, especially this kid that you see the surprises visit from his favorite author. He is Brady Gardner and imagined a� 10 year old who entered his suggestion in the brain juice terrifying title contest.

[00:48:04] His grand prize winning entry dead dog still fetch was inspired by the family pooch Bonnie. Sometimes he is like you could throw a stick and she might go get it but it really won't happen. So she's the dead dog. He's still fetched.

[00:48:18] Yeah. Thousands of kids from across the country enter. But why this kid? From a town of 300 in the country. It just sounded like something I might come up with for goose bumps. If you've never read a goose bumps book, they're kind of scary. Can they teach scary?

[00:48:34] Uh-uh no. I never have nightmares. No nightmares. And according to the author, they're habit-forming. Kids who read 30 goose bumps, 40 goose bumps, they're all developing a reading habit. I love that.

[00:48:47] Brady says the visit from our all-stine was pretty cool but it's also pretty cool being the most popular kid in school. Oh, it feels good. And Brady knows it'll feel even better than this when he follows in the footsteps of his hero.

[00:49:07] I'm writing a book now. It's not very good because it has a lot of grammar problems and stuff but I hope to correct it and publish it. In Lakona, I'm Steve Carlin covering Central Iowa for news channeling. Jake, nice to meet you. I like this shirt.

[00:49:24] I'm so missy. I'm not too big. I'm just a little bit sick. Oh, thanks. I think your life's brain is yours. We drive the Chicago line. All right. You just do it.

[00:49:45] Before we continue any further, first of all, I just want to say we got a good look at the back of that shirt there. And again, it's a really cool looking shirt. This is my brain on brain juice. I like that. It's a really good one.

[00:50:02] There's a lot of cool man. Also, these shirts are in sync. There's big cardboard displays with the big cardboard box of the actual fruit rollups with goosebumps on it. And that would just be insane to even something like that.

[00:50:16] Also, so the story, as it said in there, the story was actually based on the family dog. Yeah. I had actually forgotten that detail. Amazing what time does to memory. Yeah, Bonnie would have passed within the year.

[00:50:34] I think of when that was recorded. She was one of the two shelters we had growing up. And yeah, she would have just passed a whole day at that point. She was on say 14. So it would all age for a dog.

[00:50:49] But that would have been great reason in my memory for sure. Yeah, well, that's pretty cool that you know, you got to pick from a real life to help inspire the title. But another thing I got to bring up is did you ever end up making that book?

[00:51:06] I did not. The manuscript of the book was launched as part of the house fire sadly. So no, but the news is I blog for our gaming website and how we sorted me books. So I'm able to still enjoy my love of writing through that just through games.

[00:51:25] Absolutely. All right, let's continue. Hello, I'm Slice. I thought my son the other night he never read a book and his life. And I found him a tool in the beginning for some reason. That's the most exciting thing. He's the very good.

[00:51:42] It sounded like a goosebumps title to me. And that's really got thousands of great titles. It just sounded like something I might come up with for men in the afternoon. I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this.

[00:52:01] I'm really going to write a real book and I'm going to say this. I'm not going to ask if kids who want to write this, to write something every day. People die or they keep it general. Just make sure you write every day.

[00:52:14] I started writing this kind of a match with a picture. I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this. You're not. No, I'm not working. I'm not too many books to be the man. I like to go to the office. Sure.

[00:52:37] I love all these comments that you can hear Stein giving in the background. Like, no, I write too many books. I'm too write too many books to be demanded. Or even the fact that he insinuates that Matt actually did read a goosebumps book because

[00:52:54] you hear him in the background. He's like, I caught my son never read a book in his life. And like, wait a minute, you always say he never read goosebumps. Me things is another mystery to be solved.

[00:53:10] I said earlier about, you know, it's time to say one thing. But then the story changes like next week. So it's kind of interesting. You like never know what's true with Stein. Sometimes you think you do, but then you turn around and find out the trees.

[00:53:27] You're like, see messing with me or was this like a legit thing? Like you just totally forgot how to sort of wind down. Like you don't even know. The man's in a nigma. You really is. Yeah. I was so sorry about what could be this fun to me.

[00:53:44] It sounded scary and funny at the same time. Now, was that like candy they were pulling out? It looked like they were pulling it out of a skull. I don't think it was candy. I think it was candy. Oh, really? Unless I'm misunderstanding what I'm seeing here.

[00:54:22] It looked more like confetti than candy, but I like I couldn't tell. Honestly at first I thought they were pulling out gushers. I was like, you know, general milk. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It made sense.

[00:54:34] But if it's mixed with confetti, it's going to sticky. It's sticky confetti. Yeah. Yeah. But and almost looked like they were pulling it out of a little skull head. Like that would have been neat too. Yeah. All right. I think we're coming up on the big moment here.

[00:54:51] You see the big. What was that? You see the brain juice banner right there? Yeah, I wonder if that's still a little bit of something. It might have been brain juice contest winner. Yeah. Oh, it says brain juice channels. Chalins. Chalins. What's up? It says challenge.

[00:55:11] Maybe maybe there was a mix up in the marketing department. I am mentally challenged. It's okay. Oh, don't worry. So am I. Okay. I've got a lot of us. And we've got a goosebumps people here too. You all know who they are? I'm worried that maybe it's not.

[00:55:57] Oh my god. Is surprised? This right here is the. Thanks. It's our awesome. Oh, so what is this? Oh, yeah. Thank you. Why is it? Why is it? Oh, hello. I'm Ariel Stein. I'm glad to use Bumsburg. I'm glad to use Bumsburg. It's a goosebumps book.

[00:56:25] And I'm wearing this book for a minute. If you're going to be being the brain juice contest winner. It's so still to it and like unenthusiastic. Yeah, he comes up and he has his back turn to the kids like he's trying to ignore them.

[00:56:41] He's like, oh my god, it's all starting. He's like, get away from me, kid. It starts like kicking. He starts kicking him, punching him away. Leave me alone. I just want to go grocery shopping. Give it to it. It's faster now. Do you want anything? That's it? Yeah,

[00:57:10] Rachel. I'll stop. You got to stop me, too. You want the car in your senses. You right? No. The whole nighty. Congratulations! One of the two roll ups contest. That's great. Okay, let's go. Okay, let's go. Yeah, I needed to be cute. I did not have non-edal.

[00:58:05] What's 42 because you put his hand on your shoulder and you're still like so in thus with all the audience, that you just look over like, wait a minute, who's grabbing me right now? It was so much to take in. Like, there's still processing.

[00:58:21] You can see just if there were a load of screen in front of me, that would be just perfect. Because that's basically what was happening. I was just processing everything that was going on because I went front. No, it's super quiet. Oh, wait talking to the principal too.

[00:58:36] What's all this then? I played it. And then I'm a part of the time you won the contest. Uh, I did. Yeah, the last thing you expect from a hungry on school day is to meet one of your heroes. Holy moly. Yes.

[00:58:55] That is got to be the greatest day of your school life period. Yeah. And definitely not awesome. Every time I watched this clip, this part when he first walks in the gymnasium, it makes me smile either to ear because seeing his face is exactly how would react.

[00:59:16] I would be like, in somewhat shell shock, I wouldn't even know what's going around. Exactly. Here's the puzzle. What's going on? I see goosebumps. It's just the oral sign. That's insane. I want to contest. Why? I just bullshit my way through that.

[00:59:35] It's like five minutes on that title. Uh, who was it? We used to give me some credit. Yeah. We picked your title to be the winning title. You're going to write a story with your title today. Okay, man. That was terrific. Thank everyone's pretty excited. Where's Brandon going?

[01:00:23] He's sitting over here. Are you going to give him prices? Great. I have to let her under there and you have all your stuff. That was just a surprise. Oh yeah. What's going on? Brandon, of course you know that it ran today. That was a lot of surprises.

[01:01:43] You're welcome. Oh right. We got a call. Yeah, that box is really cool looking like that is the old-fashioned box. That is the ultimate grail right there. That box. That's the box that I have there like the miniature like the actual first.

[01:02:38] Is that the box they shipped to your house? It hadn't had all the true growth. It is not. That would've been cool. Oh, God. Yeah. No, they were both conventional about it. Wow. I do have that box just miniature. Yeah.

[01:02:53] You know, you know what's funny about the search when we were trying to find you, Brandon. I actually came across the lady that's talking on that microphone.

[01:03:03] She was a contest promoter for general mills and I found her website and I tried to get a hold of her like a couple times. I've never got through to her. But she had a picture on her website of this event. I've heard wearing a brain juice t-shirt.

[01:03:18] And that's what prompted me to reach out to her, but luckily we ended up finding you. But it was probably the biggest hurdle in this discovery process. It was trying to find somebody that was actually at the event that can possibly lead us somewhere. Yeah, but yeah.

[01:03:35] No, it's awesome. So crazy. It's so cool. I just love the, again, just the utter look of just like taking everything in and like just being overwhelmed. Like, you can hear like, it's almost like hearing the dial up like modem sound. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:03:54] You're just trying to process everything. And I like how the cameraman is trying to capture like, I guess, Braden's point of view of it all. Like his reactions and then getting behind him to see what he's looking at in that moment. I think that's awesome.

[01:04:08] Great cinematography for that. Absolutely. Good job. And you can kind of see me just kind of be in lead across the floor kind of floating on cloud nine from that staircase to the chair. It's. Yeah. It's awesome. It's really cool.

[01:04:25] Just being like, we're sprayed and going was Brandon going. I think you're done with the night. We're talking to yeah, I think you threw that. I was. Equal parts nervous on and confused and was gracious enough to help me along the way.

[01:04:40] I needed to go which I really needed in those moments. It's been like, we're going over here now. We're going over here. I'm like, cool awesome. Thank you. Thank you. I would be the exact same way. I can just imagine.

[01:04:56] But I would be like, honestly, I probably wouldn't even move. You would have to like pick me up and put me on the chair. I would be so stiff. I think it out. Thank you. Thanks. A very scary crowd. You guys are scaring me. Well, congratulations, Brandon.

[01:05:42] This is a very exciting day. I'm so excited to be here. I don't quite know where I am, but very excited to be here. I've been traveling around a lot in the past few weeks. So I'm a little dizzy from it all, I think. I was in.

[01:05:59] We had another contest couple weeks ago. I was up in Toronto. We had a contest where two kids won a trip to Toronto where we film the goosebumps TV show. And they got to go on the set of the goosebumps monsters by our makeup person.

[01:06:15] And I went up there, I wanted to see what they looked like. And I got up to the studio. They came running based on Braden's title, Dead Dog Still Fetch. Thought I would talk a little bit about it.

[01:06:28] Let me ask you a couple questions before we get started. What do you think is scarier? Spiders are jellyfish. How many think spiders are scarier? How many think jellyfish? I think this is a spider crowd. It's close, I think this is a spider crowd.

[01:06:52] Jellyfish honestly aren't kind of creepy. I love spiders. I have a pet tarantula. I would never say a lot of this, man. Gross. There's a more common. I can't go to the end of the game. I don't think there's a spider.

[01:07:09] You won't be able to get a spider. You have a spider. It's a spider. I can't believe it. I'm not sure if you will see it or not. It's a spider. I'm not sure if you'll see it. I'm not sure. There's a spider. Yes, we are.

[01:07:24] If you have a spider. If you have a spider. You can't. You can't. I'm going to do it. Yeah. Because spot is good here. I mean, you get like, well, I have 30 meters. It's like pretty big, like, you see them, you see those like Australian videos

[01:07:40] where they talk about like the deadly animals, like, and they generally will show us spider. But yeah, they, that's how big they grow. We have the Sydney Funnwib, which is like one of the most dangerous in the world, so there.

[01:07:52] And I've had them inside my house multiple times there. Yeah, I best of love them. I love spiders. Definitely. I don't, so that is your last. You can see in your crazy man. You're bed. Come in. How many think it would be scary you're finding in your sandwich?

[01:08:14] Pretty good. How many think it would be scary you're finding in your bed? Okay, so now we've got spiders in your bed. This is how, now if I wrote a book called Night of the Living Puppy, you probably wouldn't like it, right? It wouldn't be too sad.

[01:08:31] Isn't what's scary about a guitar? I've made a little mistake. So we changed it to piano lessons can be murder. This piano, I guess the question I'm asked most often is where do you get your ideas? And it's a very hard question. Two boys are teasing Carly Beth,

[01:08:50] and they give her a say. We had to do the scene 12 times. Isn't that terrible? How many of you have seen the Kuku Clock of Doom? Yeah, I'm just like, thank you. Oh, that's great. That's great. That's a story about a trillion little guy

[01:09:10] and we didn't know everyone was nervous. We didn't know if he could make it or not. His parents were there in the director and the producer. And he started out and we watched him

[01:09:19] and he made it up the first step and he got up to the second step and he was doing it. He got up to the top and he turned to the camera and he said, I have to pee. I have to pee. I have to pee.

[01:09:35] So we had to start all over again. Well, shall we try and write us a fetch? Let's see if we can do this. This is where first we need two kids names. We need two. Shall we call one braiden? Huh? We'll call one kid braiden.

[01:09:56] All right, then we need a girl's name. Who had? I would have liked it if they just said, no, that ain't sucks. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha. Oh, sorry. Wait to begin to the dog. It should be Isaiah. Oh. Oh. Oh. You are one.

[01:10:16] Well, my favorite moments of this video was coming in a few seconds when they get to the dogs' name. It makes me laugh every time. What he's done reacts to this. Yeah. Actually, I'm going to come out and dog. What kind of dog is it?

[01:10:33] Yeah, what kind of dog? A black lab. OK, braiden and Jessica have a black lab. That's good. How old? Three? Young, huh? Pretty young. That's good. My dog is three. My dog, Nadine has a very boring life. She sits under the desk, watches me write all day.

[01:10:59] Ha ha. It's not too exciting. OK, they have a black lab. What's the dog's name? We need a good name for the dog. All right, who is a good name? Let's do somebody in the back row. Yes. Yes. What's the dog's name? You. Yes. Yes. South.

[01:11:21] South for a dog? Ha ha ha. Yeah. All right, Seth. That was a dog's name. Seth, we have a black lab name, Seth. All right? That is a good name for a dog. You're right. It really actually gets me every time. It's like Seth for a dog?

[01:11:47] I'm like, all right, it gets a dog's name. It's a pretty good. A few mini goose bumps. I'm telling you. Yeah. Good dog. I would love it. This is just me and my cynical brain just him being like, no, that name sucks. Let's do another one.

[01:12:02] The name sucks. You suck. I was clearly incredulous. There's just like, that was all I was expecting. I thought it was a demon. I got the dog's name. Never tell them. That's awesome. That's a great reaction. Just like what? What? I know how to play with Brown. Yep.

[01:12:24] All right, now Seth loves to fetch and brave to think this is a scary story, right? We have to get started to pause itself soon after, but what was that laugh in the back there? It must have been this fun. Just 12-9 I guess. It's seven fun.

[01:12:50] I just love the laugh in the background there. I just love, again, how are we just adapt to that name? But he's also just kind of like, so Seth, Seth, the dog. Seth. Yeah. Well, think about the other dogs that he's named.

[01:13:09] What was the dog's name and welcome to that house? I can't remember. I was a PD. PD. PD. It was a PD. PD. I was like, what's the worst one? Not the one that he was talking. Barkey. Well, there was a thing about all the dogs.

[01:13:28] He came up with for his stuff. You know what I mean? Both of us, we were smaller than the episode they made them Vandal, which is even cool. Yeah. Well, they didn't get to Vandal's side. That's actually a good dog's name.

[01:13:39] Well, yeah, he even says like I'm all in the game. Vandal because of the way he broke in last night, it's like, yeah, that's a good name. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. But PD. Oh, I'm wrong. Seth. Seth. To make this story, it's scary. It's scary.

[01:13:56] So we need to think of a good scary place for them to be playing fetch. Where do you think? Where should they be playing fetch? In the forest. In the forest. All right, maybe. And you can be think of a scarier place in the forest.

[01:14:12] How about something scarier than a forest even? Yes. Yes. Okay, a graveyard. Oh, that's good. Okay, then. And their mom says, I don't want you playing fetch with the dog and the graveyard anymore. It's too scary. I don't want you going there.

[01:14:39] And Braiden says, but that's where I found Seth. That's where I found him in the graveyard. It's not back with. Oh, yes. A bone? A skull? A skull? A skull? A whole skull? The dog. All right, let's try it. All right, let's see what Seth got.

[01:15:01] What do you think it is? Yes. Yeah. A ghost. Interesting. Interesting. I know that's, I don't think you're less staggering out. Or it's head. This is good. I think this is working out. I think we're just going to have to think of a good ending here.

[01:15:23] We'll be in good shape. And the skeleton comes out and Seth and that Seth, Braiden and Jessica say they're not afraid. And do you know why they're not afraid? They point to a grave. This skeleton comes closer and closer, staggering.

[01:15:45] It's bones rattling and stops in front of a grave. And the two kids point to the grave. And the name on the grave is Seth because Seth is a dead dog. But see dead dogs still fetch.

[01:16:07] When the skeleton realizes that he's come after a dead dog, the skeleton turns around and goes back. And that's our story. Dead dogs still fetch. We did it. What a good story. He's probably riding it down. She's like, this is gold. I'm going to take it.

[01:16:32] Still all the credit. I'm going to take it and get this printed. I need to, I might need to employ these kids. I like the kids passing along. I believe it was a ghost of fear street book and one of them just passing along with

[01:16:47] that one kid is like, do you check this out? Gosh, I broke. You know, you know, the sad thing is that concept could actually work pretty well as a book. All you need is like, you know, the dog's Seth, Senate grave yard, and kid finds them there.

[01:17:05] And then a zombies pet. And that's the twist. And there you go. There's a ghost box book. That's the thing, it would have worked. That's honestly, yeah. I kind of think that they didn't get made into official book because it really would have worked.

[01:17:20] I think so, at least. All right, I thought I would read a chapter to you today from a book that isn't out yet. It's coming out next month. So you are the first kids in America to hear this chapter. Everybody's heard this or seen it yet.

[01:17:58] And it's from the book that's on your shirt, Brain Juice, which is my new favorite goose bumps. I love this one. It came out really funny and very scary. And I think it's coming out next month.

[01:18:13] Brain Juice is about two kids who drink this purple liquid and become smarter and smarter and smarter. They become so smart, no one can stand them. And they get kicked out of school because they're way too smart and they lose all their

[01:18:30] friends because they're too smart and ruins their lives. And then they get kidnapped by these two aliens. And the aliens say, well, they're smarter enough to be slaves on our planet.

[01:18:42] And they take them in their spaceship and on the way back to, on the way to this planet, the two kids get stupider and stupider and stupider. And where's off? And by the time they get to the other planet, they're so stupid they can barely walk.

[01:18:59] Anyway, this is an early chapter in the book where these two aliens, where it makes us five times as heavy. Morgles, tentacles, rides and rigged waves of thick perspiration rolled off his fat body. We shouldn't have landed in New Jersey. Maybe there are nicer places.

[01:19:20] Too late for that now, Gobble replied with his upper mouth. His bottom mouth was turned down in a tight sneer. It took so long to get to this house, Morgle complained, keeping in total darkness hiding every morning, Gobble. Shh, do not wake anyone.

[01:19:39] Gobble ran his tongue over his tusks. We had to come to their house. We have to make his made their way down the dark hall. They stopped outside Nathan's bedroom and peered inside. The boy, Gobble whispered. He motioned with all four tentacles for Morgle to follow him.

[01:19:57] They stopped beside Nathan's desk. Gobble gazed at the two empty drinking glasses on the desktop. He lowered a tentacle and sniffed the glasses with his pods. Yes, he whispered. Smiles spread over his two mouths. Yes, two empty glasses.

[01:20:13] He turned to find that Morgle had stepped up to the bed. He was rocking on his short legs, studying the boy. The boy slept soundly silently on his back on top of the covers. Morgle come away. Gobble called in a loud whisper. Don't wake him.

[01:20:29] Come away from there. We've seen all we need to see. We know that he drank the formula. But Gobble, Morgle protested. Something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong. He waved frantically for Gobble to join him. Shhh, Gobble hissed. What does the matter?

[01:20:44] The boy, Morgle gased his face creased in horror. He isn't breathing. That's the end of chapter four. Chapter five. Gobble's mouth opened in alarm. He pulled his body quickly over to the bed. Did the formula kill the baby?

[01:20:59] Hey, Mr. Stein, you said you were going to read one chapter. Yeah, you're going to read it. I wouldn't complain if he was going to read two to me. Yeah, I'll say it. Honestly, he stopped there. I'd be like, what the hell? Finish it.

[01:21:13] I got to hear that. I'm going to ask you a very serious question. Nick, you grew up in the 90s. Did you have that bulk cut? Mine didn't look like that. Mine actually was good. That's a hybrid cut. That's not even the full on bulk cut.

[01:21:31] That is a global looking. You had more of the Leonardo's slash edged furlong. Like, undercut cool looking hair. Yeah, I had that kind of cut. And then I later got this bike tear thing that the 90s had to. So with the frost, the tips, bro. Interesting.

[01:21:50] Some of the kids in this video have that hairstyle I'm going to steal. I'm like, oh my god. It's crazy. It's back. I need to turn it down. Be fair. Be fair. Boy, morgal bent over the bed staring at Nathan's bear. Are you seeing him whispered? Not breathing.

[01:22:09] Goblin closer. He studied the boy for a long moment. Then he shut his eyes. When he opened them, his expression was angry. Morgal, you fool, he razz. Humans do not breathe through their arms as we do. Morgal raised himself and turned to his leader.

[01:22:25] He made a wet swallowing sound. They don't. Humans breathe through those two holes on their faces. Look carefully. The boy's breathing steadily. The fat alien turned back to the bed and watched the boy breathe through his nose. Gross, he murmured. He rose and disgusting.

[01:22:44] Gobbled not at an agreement. But if we can smarten up the boy in a sister whispered, then they will be what we came two smiles played over Gobbles' face. Then Morgal, you can kill them and eat their hearts, he said, my treat.

[01:23:00] And that's a chapter from brain Jews. Thank you very much. Now, how do I get so many books published? I write actually right two books a month. And the way I do it, I just treated as a full-time job and I just work at it every day.

[01:23:28] I work about six days a week and I write 20 pages a day. I think I'm kind of lucky that I can write really fast and that I like it so much. Because I started writing when I was nine and I've been writing ever since. Questions?

[01:23:45] Who has a question? Yes, huh? How did you get so many books published? No, it doesn't take 25 years to get a book published. It takes about nine months to get your book out. It takes about nine months to do it. I'm working on next summer's book.

[01:24:11] I've got to get back to the airport, fly back to New York. Yes, I have. My real name, Robert Lawrence actually no one ever called me RL in my life. Everyone just calls me Bob really. My name is Robert Lawrence.

[01:24:32] Everyone always expects a really exciting answer to that question. It's just my name. What can you do? Yes, can I do what? I don't think so. Nice try. There would be out the few weeks. All right, where are we? Here are questions over here. Yes, yes.

[01:25:00] Can I get a ride? You know when I was nine years old, I went up to the attic and I found this old typewriter and I dragged it down to my room. And I started typing little magazines and little stories just typing typing.

[01:25:14] And that's all I ever, I don't know why I found it so interesting. But I did, I loved it. And I used to do these little magazines, little comic magazines, and then bring them into school and pass them around.

[01:25:26] And I was always getting into trouble for it always. The teachers were always taking them away and saying, Bob, stop that. Could you stop? Nobody ever encouraged me. They always discourage me. But I kept doing it anyway. Yes, can you all have the fruit roll-ups?

[01:25:46] I think that's up to Braden. It's not up to me. I'll be out of here by then. You can fight over them. See, he's encouraging. He's encouraging the dealings in the world. Yeah, that's what we were carrying here. Yeah. Sharing is caring. Yeah, it's like, I don't care.

[01:26:12] I don't care what you do with them. I'll be miles away from here. Yeah. He's always talking about the dealings. He's been chilly each other. I'll be gone. No, no, no, but the time they fired out, I'll be miles from here.

[01:26:26] I'll be back to my private mansion on my private jet. I'm just going to be with two big buff security yards in front to keep whoever comes up out. Yes, what's happened with goosebumps in my fear street books and the fact that they

[01:26:46] become so popular has been really exciting for me. But I feel that I put in those 20 years, you know, I just kept going and I kept at it and worked hard for it. And I think that's made a real difference. And I'm having a great time now.

[01:27:01] I'm so happy that you all like the book so much and like the TV show and everything. It makes me very happy and I'm so glad kids are reading so much. I think that's terrific. Yes. Yes, today I was on a graphic as the mall of them.

[01:27:18] Okay, I just got to say I was exactly what you and that moment there, brain. I was exactly like you when I was a kid because whenever I had a question, I was so eager. I just be like me and they would never call on me.

[01:27:33] I would be like just answer my question. I can't remember what question I even was going to ask you. That's always the worst when they finally call on you and you're like, I don't remember and they're like, well too bad.

[01:27:51] But then you would remember it after they move on. So you just got up and walked over to him and like done his, I have to call the microphone away just be like, what this is my special day. And I'm my special day.

[01:28:06] I get to ask the questions. You know me did not have anywhere near that function. Yeah, I wouldn't either. Someone who does would do that. America, Minneapolis and this big kid was up came up on the stage and he said, but you sign a book for me.

[01:28:26] I said yes. His name was Jason and I signed a for Jason and he said, and would you sign one for my twin brother? And I said, sure what's his name and he said, Jason. And I said, no, that you say it. It's very exciting.

[01:28:44] Congratulations on a wonderful title. I enjoyed riding a story with you guys. And thank you very much. Do you have fun still? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You guys out there, everyone? Roll ups every day. How cool is that? Oh, yeah. Not like a real good guy.

[01:29:28] This cynical part of me just be like, I get to work with fruit. Well, I'll tell you how cool is that? Nothing. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, okay. I remember. I want to say those boxes were hollow. There was nothing at them. Yeah.

[01:29:47] Again, by the time they found out, I'll be about from here. I'm telling you, the general mills fruit products. I mean, at this time, remember that commercial we watched that had the stories on the fruit by the foot, wraparthing? Like, that was the coolest time to be alive.

[01:30:06] And that moment, general mills used to be cool like that. I mean, lunchables also had cool stuff like that too. Sometimes they'll have some weird stuff in the box. The box ones don't have puzzles or something or some inserts in there to have fun with. Exactly.

[01:30:23] Well, the goosebumps for roll ups were like they had the little peel out, they'd have a bat or a pumpkin. Even when fruit rolls had tongue tattoos, you would put on your dry. And then would weave like an imprint. Mine never worked.

[01:30:39] It always felt awkward to just putting a fruit roll up on your tongue and weaving it there. I think I once had like my grandma passed by me and be like, what are you doing? He's like, no, you're the one who's all right about it. Yeah.

[01:30:53] That's a fruit roll up. Don't write it. Those kids in the middle of the row in the back are just every time there's an announcement that they just stand up and have an ovation. It's electric. They're to have a ball back there.

[01:31:25] Just be like, you know, we have our all-stine with us. He's going to be writing a story with you guys. Yeah. Everybody gets a five minute bathroom break. Yeah. Oh, they're very excitable kids.

[01:31:48] I think you guys know how cool it was to have brave rates that Japan has the title and win a visit from our all-stine himself. But he also wins a really cool stuff for all you guys and for your school, which is really cool.

[01:32:08] So if principle we can come up with. Yeah, we're doing it. Very nice news, too. Thank you. Thank you for team upstairs. Oh, that's great. Thanks. Thank you. What was that you give him? Give him a phone number or something.

[01:32:30] I do not know what the deal is with that. She said it was a letter that you wrote to him. Do you remember that? I don't often. I, and she was very much a, an all business sort of person.

[01:32:52] So maybe it was a thank you know, maybe it was something else. I don't know. Maybe it was a Mr. Stein, they're currently towing your vehicle outside. You're flying the cancel. You're stuck here for. In the cone on no chance.

[01:33:11] Wait, I'm stuck here but they're going to fight out. There's nothing in those furrow up boxes. They're going to go after me. I'm going to hear fast. I'm going to have to hitchhike. A couple of presentations to your school as a result of Brandon's excellent work

[01:33:27] in this fantastic title. We can bring him out here. We've got some really neat stuff for you guys. What a beauty. Right. What's back so many memories, man? That is sweet late 90s. I think he wants better than your computer Isaiah. God, I wish.

[01:34:18] Oh, like, any pictures of these things in a bedroom in the late 90s is just like, God, I think even grow up in the 90s and that's nostalgic to me. So try to figure that out.

[01:34:35] But all those books on the bottom there, hey, honestly, that looks like even more than the original. Those true first print. Oh, there it is. Seriously, 2000. I definitely see a GYG in there. I think it looks like almost triple head up to what's the lift.

[01:34:51] I think it's the triple head is. We've got all right here. It's not that. We can use your brain. You've got a home of heat. So all you guys want to keep reading. Keep learning to expand. All right, let's see. No. Of course.

[01:35:07] All right, this choose your an adventure. Seriously, 2000s. There was definitely secret agent grandma on there. You told us about the phone. Bumps right on the top left there. Yeah, looks like there were quite a few more in there than I remembered.

[01:35:20] Yeah, that is a lot of books for some black. Some black. Some black. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it did. Those are pretty rare nowadays. Oh, and you might have to hate your school up and be like, hey, I mean, using some of those books.

[01:35:35] If you still, I mean, assuming this show got them 26 years in circulation, those things have got to be beat to the Jesus. They're all non by a thread they're covered in hair and boogers. I'd still take them.

[01:35:56] That's all kids in the middle of the crowd are still standing in ovation for the fact that they got a free set of goose bumps books. I think they're more excited about the new computer. Whoa, I can't peel it. My school.

[01:36:13] I still want the principal comes out and does that one voice the background? Yeah, a principal. I got to say that RL Stein has such a way of looking like he'd rather beat anywhere else. It means the conversation. Yeah, I mean, it's not as this is the board.

[01:36:49] I know, but it's well, and he probably doesn't feel it, but he just has that resting face. But it's just like, yeah. So what is my flight leaving again? I think he's thinking about how to write full moon fever in the back of his brain. That's probably not.

[01:37:10] How am I going to write? I thought it was going to be monster blood five. He's like, I should do another monster blood. He's like, I'm going to be planning all the way up to like, how should I write monster blood 42?

[01:37:19] I'm most in all of our cereal and you guys in your school can go out and buy some really cool stuff for your school. Whatever you guys need and principal, we can figure out what that is and should be on. So enjoy this stuff.

[01:37:44] Well, we're going to stop the video right there. But I mean, wow, it's just, it's just incredible once again. Like, it was, it seemed like a really incredible time. It really was. Like that I can't say I've ever had an experience like it since it was just incredible.

[01:38:04] Like where do you go from there? I mean, wow. Yeah, I have officially peaked. I wasn't going to use those words. I like to think I did 10. What's the one thing that you remember the most about that event? You know, it's kind of watching the video of it.

[01:38:28] Like, what's the one thing that sticks with you whenever you think about it? Probably the thing that sticks with me most. I mean, that's going to be the entrance. Like, I'm just going to say that, I think there's not another answer to that question.

[01:38:46] And just that whole initial first couple minutes was just incredible it. There was so much going on it. I had no chance of taking it all in whatsoever, but taking turn and taking as much as you can.

[01:39:00] And then having someone try and get your attention and then after you finally have enough brain power freed up to a village that you turn. It's beloved children's out there are else died right out of my favorite series of books. Oh, back to the loading screen.

[01:39:23] I'm going to say, I think I don't think there's any like core memory that would possibly stick with you more than just that initial entrance and just being blasted with all that realization right there. And it seems like a wonderful experience through and through.

[01:39:40] But yeah, and I guess one last question to end off the night. Are you, would you still consider yourself a goose bumps fan now?

[01:39:49] I would consider myself a casual fan mental and I think a lot of that has really been as a result of bringing this information back into the light getting re-familiarized with it.

[01:40:04] I after finding the footage one of the first things I started doing was looking for a complete set of the original 62 in a series 2000 because those were the series I really grew up with.

[01:40:18] And planning to re-read through all of those and they're on the shelf behind me here on the second bottom there. I did read the regular six the original 62 in 2022.

[01:40:32] So, familiar again with all of those books and it was fun getting to re-live that experience again that was just excellent. series 2000 will come in time when I have a little free time and my.

[01:40:47] My high surgery finish is healing up so I can use both my eyes again so looking forward to that and looking for reading through those books and. Got to reread ranges at the point of special after hearing Stein.

[01:41:00] The first couple chapters and there chapter four and five there about just like yeah got to get back into that. Yeah, funny to that because he said he was going to read one chapter but honestly four or five chapters of a goose bumps book is probably.

[01:41:14] Acquading to one chapter of a normal book. Basically. Yeah, I think you guys noticed in that video but there was a copy of revenge of the law notes to you presents on the shelf and then. I was like what it's like.

[01:41:28] Oh man, that's how you can grab it. That was there then it was just another book. Yeah, should have casted in there more should have happened. I think you're not like who's bumpbook now. So that's crazy that it was just chilling on the shelf in the video.

[01:41:44] I'm like what that would have been the latest book. I will always say if the TV presents or yeah, awesome. Yeah, it's awesome that you're that you're still casual fan but you still are known to.

[01:41:57] Hardcore goose bumps fans is one of the lucky kids who got to experience a one of a kind experience. So that's awesome man. We were very happy for you. Well, I appreciate that this it's been just super cool kind of getting back in touch with.

[01:42:13] That time in my life because and. There was definitely staying tower after that. A assembly and having our all staying come in and lasted for years and then after school and it was just kind of a fun story.

[01:42:29] I could tell periodically, but a lot of people didn't really know a lot of it and just kind of faded away is many things do as you become adults and go to the working thing and all that and getting to kind of get back in touch with that and.

[01:42:46] They got these special memories and then being able to share them with everyone, especially after finding out just how long they've been buried and just how much research they've done for one.

[01:42:58] It's nice to kind of be able to bring that joy back out for everyone to enjoy and really glad to find it for not just me with her all the goose bumps fans out there. Yeah, you're a fully send you.

[01:43:12] I don't know if I would have ever shut up about it like the moment. I if I won and I've told everybody all the way up till this day about it.

[01:43:20] Like I don't know if you're familiar with Mary with children anybody out there, but I basically I'll bungee in his four touchdowns and one game story that he tells everybody all the time. That's me.

[01:43:30] Everybody all the time on the goose bumps contest winner. He came to my school brain juice contest. I'm going to go to. I'll go to school. I'll be telling you all. We're touched on one game. I love that.

[01:43:43] He says it like you'll be talking about something completely irrelevant and then you'll just go, Oh, and I did had four touchdowns in one game and you'd be like, just shut up. Yeah, that'd be that.

[01:43:52] Just be like, oh, and I want that goose bumps contest is like, yeah, we know. That's what I'm saying. I'll be saying out all the time. Well, that's going to do it for tonight's episode of the goose bumps group podcast.

[01:44:04] Brian, thank you so much for joining us and talking about goose bumps with us. Oh, my, thank you again for having us. I'm just a fun. Absolutely. And if you ever want to talk more goose bumps again, you know where to find us. Well, I'm on the line.

[01:44:19] Yeah, again, special thanks to brain gardener for joining us here today. And of course, also, thank you to Austin, aka goose bumps completionists for joining us today. And talking to goose bumps with us as well. And of course, make sure you go and follow the goose bumps crew.

[01:44:33] Booze bumps, honestly, fan, Bjorn Panlic and Chao and Nick Shaw on their social media and their YouTube. They really do deserve it. Make sure you follow goose bumps completionists on his social media and his YouTube.

[01:44:42] He's also got his own podcasts, goose junkies over on his channels to go check that out. And of course, make sure you subscribe to the goose bumps group podcast on the goose bumps group YouTube channel.

[01:44:53] Follow us on our audio platform, Spotify, Apple podcasts, Amazon, Music and I Heart Radio. And follow the goose bumps crew on social media, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. Also, don't forget to visit the link in the description for the kickstarter for one week at a horror wind.

[01:45:08] Only you guys can help us make this event a reality in November. So make sure you help us reach our goal by July 30th if you want to participate in the biggest goose bumps convention ever produced and meet some of the wonderful guests we have planned coming up.

[01:45:24] We're going to have a new episode for you next week of the goose bumps group podcast, but until then this has been the goose bumps group podcast. From all of us here, we want to wish you always, always, to take care.

[01:45:33] Stay safe and have a very scary day.