‘Werewolf’ Retrospective – The First Time The Fox Network Dropped The Ball On A Decent Series
Werewolves are all the rage again, though their return to notoriety in the cultural consciousness is producing mixed results. Two movies with the savage and afflicted creatures of the night, one of which is a Wolf Man reimagining, came out in the last two months and flopped hard despite initial buzz.
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They aren’t garnering the best reviews either, but they can’t all be gems, right? Sadly, the metaphorical mine of werewolf cinema is full of almost nothing but coal as far as the eye can see. You have to dig diligently to find a diamond. I assure you, there are quite a few down there. Every generation gets to gaze upon one, two, or even a handful.
In the 40s, The Wolf Man astounded audiences for the first time, and it was followed very soon after by Cat People, which was one smart cash-in. Going back a decade earlier, there was the test run for the concept in Werewolf of London. It didn’t take the world by storm the way Lon Chaney, Jr., did but small audiences grew fond of it over the years.
Hammer Films, who had fun adapting Universal Monsters throughout the 50s and 60s, eventually got around to Wolfmen in The Curse of the Werewolf with Oliver Reed. However, that film was a high point in an era that was mostly a lull outside of cheesy drive-in double bills. (You probably don’t remember Werewolves on Wheels, but don’t worry, you’re not missing much.)
When the 80s dawned, everything changed and the sub-genre experienced a renaissance. An American Werewolf In London led the charge, setting a high bar that’s never been surpassed. Still, John Landis’s darkly comedic opus and Rick Baker’s timeless effects weren’t alone.
The Howling, directed by Joe Dante with makeup FX by Rob Bottin (John Carpenter’s The Thing), rose like a full moon to rival London. It’s adored in some circles – at least, the original is – but it isn’t as polished, despite its atmosphere and transgressive themes of mental illness and cults that aren’t as common in these affairs as you’d think.
Not to be outdone, Paul Schrader woke Cat People up from its cat nap for a remake that follows the original closely while adding more sexuality. However, his vision was unique enough to add another entry into cult status. Then there was Wolfen which took a different approach from the rest of the pack but still marked territory in the hearts of horror fans.
It was a historic time to be one, and things got even better when the fledgling Fox Network hit the airwaves. While none of their maiden programming lasted more than a year or two, aside from 21 Jump Street, a few stood out (except that sitcom where George C. Scott was President; that surely doesn’t).
One dared to be different by bringing the thrills and cursed tragedy of a Howling or AAWIL to prime time. That show was Werewolf, which came from the creator of The A-Team, the ironically and aptly named Frank Lupo (as in ‘lupus’ or ‘lupine,’ meaning ‘wolf’). After that popular series about hired guns on the run, Lupo unleashed a different animal, a college student – on the run.
That wayward student was Eric Cord, the protagonist played by General Hospital star John J. York. Cord was a guy who had everything going for him including a pretty girlfriend, but everything changed when his roommate and best friend Ted (Raphael Sbarge) came back from a trip acting weird. When Eric confronts him, Ted tells him something he doesn’t believe.
Ted says he is going to turn into a werewolf and he needs Eric to kill him with a silver bullet. Skeptically, Eric refuses until he finds out too late that Ted is telling the truth. He shoots the monster Ted becomes dead but not before getting bitten which passes the curse onto him. All anyone deduces in the aftermath, of course, is he killed his best friend in cold blood, so once he gets the chance, Eric goes on the lam.
From there, Werewolf takes an episodic turn that earned comparisons to The Incredible Hulk starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. As Eric hitchhikes the country and figures out how to manage his curse, he hunts the patient zero of the lycanthropic bloodline who bit Ted: a creepy one-eyed seaman named Janos Skorzeny.
That name should ring a bell to Kolchak stans as it was also the name of the vampire in The Night Stalker TV movie. The character’s connections to vintage Boomer television don’t end there. Skorzeny was played by crusty TV legend and Rifleman actor Chuck Connors, who still had some name value that helped boost the show’s profile, but that didn’t last long.
Connors promoted the show on the talk show circuit after it premiered, but he quickly became a nightmare for Lupo. The actor pushed the producer into a corner with a sudden contract renegotiation he and the network couldn’t afford, costing himself a job. Halfway through the show’s run, Connors was written out without a resolution to his arc, although not before Skorzeny was emasculated to prop up the new lead villain.
Nicolas Remy, played by the ubiquitous Brian Thompson (Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), was introduced as the new alpha wolf and progenitor of the curse. Eric’s quest to end his living nightmare diverted in his direction, but the series didn’t pull through to wrap up that plot thread either.
Despite its short stint, Werewolf brought everything it could to lift its black ship on dark waters. The effects were designed by the legend Rick Baker, who went for more bipedal beasts than he’s known for. To score the series, Sylvester Levay – the composer for Airwolf, the Stallone thriller Cobra (which also had Thompson), and a collaborator on Flashdance – was enlisted to give the atmosphere a foreboding and forlorn feel befitting Eric’s tortured journey.
Levay’s score is also perfect for its era with its heavy use of synth guitar sounds. That takes nothing away from the soundtrack which featured the likes of Bob Seger and Mike and the Mechanics, who were very much products of their time. The same can be said of the cast. Sharp-eyed TV junkies will notice Linden Ashby, Tony Todd, and Amy Yasbeck make cameos early in their careers.
Despite so many young, hip, timely, and gripping elements, it shouldn’t shock you to learn Werewolf didn’t catch on the way Fox hoped it would. It was a fairly extravagant show for the time, due especially to the advanced makeup effects, and they did whatever they could to keep costs down. This included getting rid of Chuck Connors and limiting episodes to a half hour. Even then, that was unheard of for a new drama with a feature-length pilot. Still, their tactics didn’t offset ratings enough to justify the expense.
The series would live on in a short-lived indie comic you can find on eBay before resurfacing on the USA Network and then again much later on the defunct Chiller channel. Shout! Factory tried to release a Blu-ray collection only to be stymied by rights issues. A French outfit named Elephant Films eventually got that job done although they didn’t remaster any episodes. If you can’t get your hands on that, episodes including the full pilot are on YouTube in varying quality.
Werewolf rode the waves of the lycanthropic renaissance in the 80s, the launch of Fox, and the courting of YA Gen-Xers, among other cultural touchstones, to no avail, but it still set a trend. It doesn’t just join a litany of Fox shows canceled before their time that went on to become cult classics; it was the first. If you remember Brimstone, MANTIS, or The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., (or even Strange Luck), you know what I am talking about.
They – and Bruce Campbell along with them – owe Werewolf a small debt. Honestly, since we’re here and I’m feeling indulgent, I’ll say we all do except for Robert Eggers and what he has marinating. In that case, it should be double.
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