The Magic School Bus + Rides Again Wiki
The Magic School Bus + Rides Again Wiki
Big discoveries, tiny explorers.
908
pages
in: Episodes, Episodes focusing on Carlos, Episodes focusing on Dorothy Ann,
and 12 more

In the Haunted House

View source
Episode Gallery Transcript


◄ All Dried Up
In the Haunted House
Gets Ready, Set, Dough ►

"It all started one Halloween. He was desperately hunting for just the right sound. But, inexplicably, inexplainably, incomprehensibly, his search became an uphill struggle."
—Dauntless’s segue into the episode from “A Magic School Bus Halloween”

In the Haunted House (Sound) is the eighth episode of the first season of The Magic School Bus. It first released on PBS stations in the USA on October 29, 1994.

This episode serves as part one of the series' 1995 Halloween special, A Magic School Bus Halloween. Part two is “Going Batty.”

Plot

Episode

In Ms. Frizzle's class, the students rehearse their symphony orchestra for the musical program at the Sound Museum. Dorothy Ann is the conductor, while the others, including Liz play instruments. Carlos has a special invented instrument and is preparing it, but when he begins to play his instrument, it only makes strange noises, which his classmates refer to as "ploopy". As Carlos begins to fret the failure of his instrument, Ms. Frizzle enters the room wearing an instrument costume as a one-person band. She takes off the costume and greets the class. Dorothy Ann and Carlos speak worriedly to her about the invented instrument's defectiveness, and being overdue for their rehearsal at the sound museum this afternoon.

Ms. Frizzle, optimistic as always, brings the class to the Bus. During the drive Carlos decides to keep preparing his instrument more, trying to make it sound better, but to no avail with Dorothy Ann worrying that his instrument will make them the laughing stock of the whole school. When Carlos says that he needs more time, Ms. Frizzle pushes a button, making the bus act up wildly until it suddenly breaks down. After stopping, Ms. Frizzle takes the bus' temperature before she finally concludes that the it has overheated and telling the class they will be stuck in the woods for a while. This upsets Dorothy Ann who fears missing the rehearsal, while Carlos is pleased as this buys him time to work on his instrument.

With no one else around to help them, the students have to push the bus the rest of the way while the Frizz pulls it with a rope. They struggle on as night falls. Meanwhile, Carlos tinkers with his instrument. He tries adding an umbrella to it, hoping it will give it a thunder sound, then a "mane" to make a sound like a lion's roar. Dorothy Ann rebuffs those decisions.

As the other students continue to push the Bus, they suddenly hear a long musical drone. They think that the sound was from Carlos' instrument, but Carlos denies it and points to an old mansion sitting at the end of the road as the place from which it came. The whole class are willing to explore the strange house while Arnold, Ralphie and Liz are clearly frightened. The Friz pushes the doorbell button, which sets off a bell in the tower and wakes up bats. Arnold and some of the others think they should leave, but Carlos wants to know what made the droning sound. The door suddenly opens and the class walks inside, when all of them have entered, the door mysteriously slams shuts behind them.

As Ralphie tries to open the door, only to find it locked, Ms. Frizzle says "hello" in a loud voice and listens to her voice echo through the house. Dorothy Ann, wanting to phone for help, finds a phone book which makes the sound of a phone ringing. Ms. Frizzle takes another book off the shelf, which blows a foghorn when flipped open. When another book makes a scream, Ralphie tries to leave, only to trip over another book that makes the sounds of ghouls laughing. Ms. Frizzle then shows the class a picture of Professor Cornelia C. Contralto, eccentric collector of sounds and the former owner of the mansion. Ms. Frizzle then tells the students that after her disappearance (possible passing), the house turned into a sound museum, which confirms Dorothy Ann's prediction that the class missed the rehearsal. Ms. Frizzle also explains that Professor Contralto devoted her life towards sound and her whereabouts are obscure. Ralphie surmises that Professor Contralto is a ghost seeking the perfect sound. Ms. Frizzle also tells the class that they would be spending the night, much to Arnold's fear while claiming that their permission slips didn't say anything about haunted houses. When Tim steps on a panel, the class comes across a rotating wall, which propels them to an adjacent bedroom replete with ample beds.

When the students go to bed, Carlos decides to put a blanket over his instrument to make it sound like a ghost. When Dorothy Ann once again rebuffs that tactic, Carlos asks for Professor Contralto's help, which elicits a tremendous lightning. Convinced that it's the call of Cornelia, Carlos leaves the room to find the sound and the students reluctantly follow along. The sound gets louder as they get closer to it. They hear a yodeling sound through a door, which Carlos enters, only to find a jungle inside. There is also pictures of a beach and city inside as the class enters and the yodeling continues. The students have a vociferous conversation, eliciting echoes. Just then, Ms. Frizzle arrives and is revealed to be the one yodeling. In the mountain paintings, she gives the students a ride up the chair lifts and they fall into a room of instruments. Ms. Frizzle elucidates that Professor Contralto built every room in the house to show different things about sound. Dorothy Ann comes across a harp and pulls the string, vibrating it. Carlos then concludes that the vibration of the string is what was making the sound. Tim and Phoebe try out the drum and Wanda tries out the gong, both of which vibrate to make sound. Carlos then figures that he needs vibration to make his instrument sound better. The sounds the students make cause the wall to crack open, revealing a different room. Carlos notices a pair of goggles on a statue and puts them on, which causes him to see the sounds. The other students put on goggles for themselves as well, and Ms. Frizzle informs them that high sounds elicit vibrations close to another, made by something vibrating quickly, and the low sounds elicit vibrations far apart from each other, made by something vibrating slower. Ralphie compares the motion of the vibrations to ripples in a pond when something is thrown inside of it. Carlos then figures that his instrument can vibrate regardless of its appearance and runs inside the bedroom to grab it, only to find that it is now missing.

When the students search around the room, wind blows out the candles, dimming the bedroom, and they hear the sound again. He opens a closet door and falls into a secret dungeon-like room. The students follow along and use their goggles to follow the mysterious sound. They soon learn that it's the sound waves that elicits echoes and find that the sound waves are coming from a mysterious door they come across. Carlos opens the door and finds a woman playing the sounds with her organ. The woman introduces herself to the students as Professor Cornelia C. Contralto II, and that she is the great granddaughter of Contralto I herself. She tells Carlos that she is helping him make his instrument sound better for the concert tomorrow. Carlos then learns that his instrument had too much stuff on it, which prevents any form of vibration, and that is what made it sound bad. So he eliminates any unwanted materials out of his instrument.

The next day, the class performs at the sound museum and when it comes Carlos' turn, his instrument elicits a unique, harmonic sound and ends with a thunder sound (which involves a shoe kicking a trash can lid). The audience applaud at the performance and Dorothy Ann tells Carlos that it was the perfect sound, and hugged him. Professor Contralto II also asks him if she could add this sound to her great grandmother's collection, which Carlos agrees since the professor helped him. Cornelia and Ms. Frizzle, the latter in her instrument costume, then make a performance of their own of the Pitch Song as the students watch in amusement.

Producer Segment

  • Hosted by the late Dr. Cornelia C. Contralto I † (implied) and Liz
  • Caller: Maia Filar

During a stormy night inside an office, the phone is answered by what sounds like a woman, in which a girl over the phone asks about the house and how sound can be seen since it goes too fast. The woman responds that was what the magic goggles the class in the episode were using were for. When asked by the girl what exactly is doing the vibrations of the sound, the woman answers that thin air being pushed back and forth is the cause of the vibration, which travels through the air to someone's ears as a soundwave. A loud sound is a big vibration, while a soft sound is a tiny vibration. The girl also asks about ears since they were hardly mentioned in the episode, and the woman replies that ears turn sound into something the brain can handle, which is how a human is able to hear. The girl also replies that not everyone's ears work the same, using her grandmother wearing a hearing aid as an example. The woman then replies that even without a hearing aid, a person would use his/her brain with other senses in order to replace hearing. The girl then adds her disappointment of the episode not adding any other differences of sounds besides loudness and pitch, using the disparities of the sounds of a violin and saxophone as an example. The woman then replies that although there are all different kinds of sounds around the world, the time limit of the episode is what kept the exploration of those different sounds from being presented, as well as leaving room for hilarious jokes. Before she hangs up, the girl then adds that the part with the ghost can't be true since no one believes in ghosts. The woman then agrees, right before the chair turns around to reveal no visible person sitting in it, frightening Liz (who was earlier trying to get a good hard look at the person behind the chair) as the invisible woman hangs up the phone and starts laughing maniacally.

Cast (in credits order)

Trivia

  • Cornelia C. Contralto II was voiced by the late Broadway actress and singer Carol Channing.
  • Each of the students' parts in the concert were:
  • The TV tie-in book is called "In the Haunted Museum."
  • In the producer segment, an invisible ghost speaks to the caller instead of one of the producers. It is possible, though unconfirmed, that the ghost was of Cornelia C. Contralto I.
  • The episode's original teleplay had two scenes for which dialogue was recorded but never animated. One featured Ralphie comparing the motion of sound waves to ripples moving in water in a "report" segment preceded by Ms. Frizzle remarking "An observation worth commendation, Ralphie", in the other scene Keesha gave an extended explanation of how an echo is made. The unused dialogue was included on an audio cassette adaption of the episode titled Fun With Sound.
  • The musical piece the class was performing is "William Tell Overture - Finale".
  • Clips from this episode are used for the grand finale of the clip-show, Kids for Character in 1996.
    • Some clips from this episode were also used in the "We Are Family" children's music video in 2005.
  • This is the time the Bus breaks down; the second time is in "Revving Up". Only Ms. Frizzle intentionally caused the Bus to overheat itself in this episode in order to give Carlos more time and prompt the field trip, whereas in "Revving Up", it really did break down because of Mr. Junkett leaving his sandwich on top of the engine, which lead to peanut butter dripping into the fuel line.
  • This is the first episode in which the class believes there's a ghost about, the 2nd being "Gets A Bright Idea", and the third being "Ghost Farm".
  • The Bus plays a minor role in this episode as it's not seen for the rest of the episode or when Professor Frizzle and her class go into the sound museum.
  • This is the first episode where the kids wear eye gear that shows them scientific properties, however, unlike every other time, this pair of goggles is not provided by the Bus/Frizzles and are instead a part of the museum. The Magic Glasses convert sound waves into visual representations of them.

Dub facts

  • In the audio description, the narrator Vince Commisso mistakes the classroom for "the music room" while the class orchestra rehearses in the beginning of the episode.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, instead of hypothetically the late Cornelia’s ghost, it’s a different ghost voiced by Héctor Lee, who plays the male producer.
    • In the same dub, Tim doesn’t echo when he says “This is one weird house” (“Esa es una casa muy extraña.”). Everything else echoes once Wanda starts realizing it. The same also goes in most of the lower-budget dubs.
    • When the echoes do start happening, though, there is no reverb effect like English has. The voice clip repeats and gets quieter each time.
    • Also in this dub, when Cornelia II asks Carlos if he's got a concert the next day, he says "Mhm" when he nods.
  • In the Hebrew dub, when Ms. Frizzle proceeds to overheat the Bus, the kids don't scream before she says "An award-winning performance, Bus!"
    • Also in this dub, the ghost and caller are both male.
    • The kids also don't say "What happened?" after the Bus' grille starts to smoke. They instead just cough.
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Ms. Frizzle specifically says the Bus' overheating is an Oscar-winning performance.
    • In the same dub, instead of saying it’s a tantalizing tintinnabulation, Ms. Frizzle just reiterates to Phoebe that that was just the sound of a phone ringing.
  • In the French dub, “Be sure to get lots of rest, class…”, Ralphie's "You mean your house doesn't have a jungle…" line and Tim's response + his chance at the Carlos gag are left undubbed. However, the Belgian French dub fixes this.
    • On the Wiki’s Definitive Edition project, Ralphie and Tim’s joke are taken from the Belgian dub and are used in both French dubs to fix the problem. However, the original October 5, 2025 upload keeps the version with the undubbed line.
  • In the 2015 Dutch and German redubs, Lily's "Wahoo!" can be heard for a split second over her dubbers saying the catchphrase once Ms. Frizzle starts overheating the Bus. In the Danish dub, Lily Tomlin replaces her dubber for the line.

Errors

  • When Ralphie says "Ploopy?" the first time, his legs are missing.
  • Warner Media refers to this episode as "Inside the Haunted House", as seen on both VHS covers, the tape itself, and the 2002 VHS and Region 1 DVD releases of "Creepy Crawly Fun" (however the Region 1 Cinedigm release and the Region 4 FOX release both refer to it as its name in the title card, "In the Haunted House").
  • On the Warner DVD release of “Creepy Crawly Fun,” due to some errors on the VHS copy used to transfer the episode, there are some instances where the audio dips down in pitch, particularly when Arnold says "Please, let this be a normal field trip" and when Little Richard says “Cruisin’ on down Main Street” during the theme song.
  • When Ms. Frizzle tells Cornelia to "hit it!", Cornelia's collar turns magenta for a frame.

Gallery

Extras

In the Haunted House/Transcript In the Haunted House/Gallery

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.