I Was a Teenage Werewolf
Encyclopedia
I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film
starring Michael Landon
as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell
as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen
, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures
(AIP). It was originally released as a double feature
with Invasion of the Saucer Men
.
Rebel Without a Cause
tradition, who seeks hypnotherapy
for his problem.
Unfortunately, the practitioner he seeks out, played by Bissell, is also a very disturbed man with definite mad scientist
overtones who, with the help of scopolamine
injections, successfully regresses his patient into a werewolf
with tragic results.
He is under the belief that man, instead of moving forward, must go back to their pre-evolution states (for some reason, a werewolf).
Tony, meanwhile, knows nothing of this. Tony transforms in the high school gymnasium (after he is startled by the school bell suddenly ringing close to him) and kills a girl who is there practicing gymnastics.
Realizing that something is wrong, Rivers goes back to the doctor for help. The doctor hypnotizes him again, making him turn back into a werewolf.
As he and his assistant, Hugo, prepare to take pictures of this achievement, the telephone rings, which wakes up Rivers and causes him to kill both the doctor and Hugo. He is then shot by the police as he runs from the doctor's building.
The film was very profitable, as it was made on a very low budget but grossed as much as US
$2,000,000, compared to its $82,000 budget.
Released in July 1957, it was followed four months later by I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
as well as Blood of Dracula, and by the sequel How to Make a Monster
in July 1958.
and Aben Kandel
), features many other similarities to I Was a Teenage Werewolf - for instance, both have (among other things): a teenager with social behavior problems, an adult 'mad scientist' who is searching for the perfect guinea pig under the guise of helping troubled youth, an observer who can tell the killings are the work of a monster, a disbelieving police chief afraid of the press, a song written by Jerry Blaine
and Paul Dunlap
accompanied by a choreographed "ad-lib" dance number, hypnosis as scientific medical treatment, drug injections, specific references to Carpathia
, hairy transformation scenes, and even some of the same dialogue. In addition, two prominent actors from I Was a Teenage Werewolf are also featured in Blood of Dracula, Malcolm Atterbury
and Louise Lewis, with Lewis's villain, 'Miss Branding' a practically perfect female version of Whit Bissel's 'Dr. Brandon.' However, few critics have drawn a connection between the two films, and while most reference works consider I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and How to Make a Monster as direct follow-ups to I Was a Teenage Werewolf, not even cinema guru Leonard Maltin
speaks of Blood of Dracula as even being related to the trilogy.
only two years later.
Although today the film is largely regarded as a source of "camp
" humor and while at the time of release the idea of an adult human turning into a beast was nothing new, the idea of a teenager doing just that in a movie was considered avant-garde
and even shocking in 1957. I Was a Teenage Werewolf likely paved the way for Walt Disney
to do his version of a Felix Salten
shapeshifting novel, The Hound of Florence. Featuring Disney favorite Tommy Kirk
as the hapless teenager and A-lister Fred MacMurray
as the answer to B-lister Whit Bissell, it was released in 1959 under the title, The Shaggy Dog
. The film betrays its successful forebear with Murray's classic bit of dialogue: "Don’t be ridiculous — my son isn’t any werewolf! He’s just a big, baggy, stupid-looking, shaggy dog!"
The film's Police Gazette
-style title (which had already been used by Hollywood previously with pictures such as 1949's I Was a Male War Bride
and 1951's I Was a Communist for the FBI
) with the inclusion of the adjective "teenage", was used again by AIP for their sequel, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
, and the original working title for their 1958 sci-fi film Attack of the Puppet People was I Was a Teenage Doll. Due to the success of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, this convention was constantly mocked in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Many sitcom television series in particular had characters going to movies titled I Was a Teenage Dinosaur, Monster, etc., and it was often referenced in monologues by comedian
s and bits by disc jockey
s. Examples include Stan Freberg
's 1957 radio series, which featured a Madison-Avenue/horror-movie spoof titled "Gray Flannel Hat Full of Teenage Werewolves"., and the 1959 "Dobie Gillis"
novel
I Was a Teenage Dwarf by Max Shulman
.
, 1992's I Was a Teenage Mummy, 1993's I Was a Teenage Serial Killer
, 1999's I Was a Teenage Intellectual and the 1963 Warner Bros.
cartoon
, I Was a Teenage Thumb. The script title for 1985's Just One of the Guys
was "I Was a Teenage Boy", a title that used a year later as an alternate for 1986's Willy/Milly. An alternate title for the 1995 hit Clueless was "I Was a Teenage Teenager".
Scenes from I Was a Teenage Werewolf were included in the 1973 fifties nostalgia concert film, Let the Good Times Roll
, featuring Madison Square Garden
performances from Chuck Berry
and Bill Haley and the Comets.
was entitled "I Was a Teenage Head-Writer". Episode 1.18 (1967) of The Monkees
was entitled "I Was a Teenage Monster".
In 1987, the NBC-TV series Highway to Heaven
featured "I Was a Middle Aged Werewolf" (episode 4.5), written and directed by Michael Landon
. Landon, as angel Jonathan Smith, transforms himself into a werewolf, initially to scare off some teenage bullies. During the earlier scenes, Jonathan's buddy (played by Victor French
) watches the original film, remarking: "You know, the guy in this movie reminds me a lot of you!" After Jonathan thanks him sarcastically, Victor adds, "No, when he's a regular guy, not when he's got fuzz all over his face."
In an early episode of Spongebob Squarepants
(I was a Teenage Gary), Squidward neglects to feed Gary after petsitting him, leading Spongebob to take him to the vet, where the doctor gives them a needle to give to Gary. Squidward attempts to give Gary the shot, but is disrupted by Spongebob and applies it to his nose. Gary feels better after eating, but Spongebob feels feverish after the shot and turns into a snail. He gets into Squidward's house and stalks him, scaring Squidward so badly he flips his house over, with the needle landing on his nose, too. In the end, Gary, Spongebob, and Squidward, now a snail, sing a song, only to disturb Patrick, who was sleeping, angry with them and throws a shoe that knocks only Squidward off the fence was sittting on.
In April 1997, the movie was mocked directly when it was featured in episode 809 of Mystery Science Theater 3000
. Episode 1.25 (1982) of SCTV
featured a comedy black out skit of the movie called "I was a Teenage Communist," mixing horror with the politics of Red Baiting during the 1950s.
, several of the characters watch this movie. Afterwards, Pennywise takes the form of a real teenage werewolf to frighten them, particularly Richie. When the Losers Club first attacks Pennywise, it takes the form of the werewolf. In 2002, Last Gasp
published I Was a Teenage Dominatrix, a memoir by Shawna Kenney
.
, whose songs routinely reference horror and sci-fi films, have a song titled "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" in their album Songs the Lord Taught Us
.
Rock band Queens of the Stone Age
have a song on their self-titled debut album with the title, "I was a Teenage Hand Model."
Australian rock band Faker
released a song in 2005 entitled "Teenage Werewolf".
Anarchist vegan punk band Propagandhi
wrote a song titled "I Was a Pre-Teen McCarthyist" and is featured on the album Less Talk, More Rock
.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
starring Michael Landon
Michael Landon
Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...
as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell
Whit Bissell
Whitner Nutting Bissell , better known as Whit Bissell, was an American actor.-Early life:Born in New York City, Bissell was the son of prominent surgeon Dr. J. Dougal Bissell. He trained with the Carolina Playmakers, a theatrical organization associated with the University of North Carolina at...
as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen
Herman Cohen
Herman Cohen was a producer of B-movies during the 1950s, who helped to popularize the teen horror movie genre with films like the cult classic I Was a Teenage Werewolf....
, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
(AIP). It was originally released as a double feature
Double feature
The double feature, also known as a double bill, was a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatre managers would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.The double feature, also known as...
with Invasion of the Saucer Men
Invasion of the Saucer Men
Invasion of the Saucer Men is a 1957 sci-fi comedy film starring Steven Terrell and Gloria Castillo and personally produced by James H. Nicholson for his American International Pictures...
.
Plot
Landon's character is Tony Rivers, a disturbed, angry young man in the James DeanJames Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments...
tradition, who seeks hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.The word "hypnosis" is an abbreviation of James Braid's term "neuro-hypnotism", meaning "sleep of the nervous system"....
for his problem.
Unfortunately, the practitioner he seeks out, played by Bissell, is also a very disturbed man with definite mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
overtones who, with the help of scopolamine
Scopolamine
Scopolamine, also known as levo-duboisine, and hyoscine, is a tropane alkaloid drug with muscarinic antagonist effects. It is among the secondary metabolites of plants from Solanaceae family of plants, such as henbane, jimson weed and Angel's Trumpets , and corkwood...
injections, successfully regresses his patient into a werewolf
Werewolf
A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
with tragic results.
He is under the belief that man, instead of moving forward, must go back to their pre-evolution states (for some reason, a werewolf).
Tony, meanwhile, knows nothing of this. Tony transforms in the high school gymnasium (after he is startled by the school bell suddenly ringing close to him) and kills a girl who is there practicing gymnastics.
Realizing that something is wrong, Rivers goes back to the doctor for help. The doctor hypnotizes him again, making him turn back into a werewolf.
As he and his assistant, Hugo, prepare to take pictures of this achievement, the telephone rings, which wakes up Rivers and causes him to kill both the doctor and Hugo. He is then shot by the police as he runs from the doctor's building.
Release and reception
Variety reported: "Another in the cycle of regression themes is a combo teenager and science-fiction yarn which should do okay in the exploitation market [...] Only thing new about this Herman Cohen production is a psychiatrist's use of a problem teenager [...] but it's handled well enough to meet the requirements of this type film. [...] good performances help overcome deficiencies. Final reels, where the lad turns into a hairy-headed monster with drooling fangs, are inclined to be played too heavily." Variety went on to say that Landon delivers "a first-class characterization as the high school boy constantly in trouble."The film was very profitable, as it was made on a very low budget but grossed as much as US
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$2,000,000, compared to its $82,000 budget.
Released in July 1957, it was followed four months later by I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein is a film starring Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates and Gary Conway released by American International Pictures in November 1957. It is the follow-up to AIP's box-office hit I Was a Teenage Werewolf released less than five months earlier...
as well as Blood of Dracula, and by the sequel How to Make a Monster
How to Make a Monster (1958 film)
How to Make a Monster is a 1958 American horror film released by American International Pictures. The film is a follow-up to both I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. Like Teenage Frankenstein, a black & white film that switched to color for the final moments, How to Make a...
in July 1958.
AIP's female "teenage vampire" companion piece
Less than four months after the release of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, and coinciding with the release of I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, AIP released Blood of Dracula, a film which bears more than a passing resemblance to their summer box office hit. More or less a remake, and with the hero and villain roles now both played by females, Blood of Dracula could have easily been titled "I Was a Teenage Vampire"; Blood of Dracula, with a story and screenplay credit by I Was a Teenage Werewolf writer Ralph Thornton (a pseudonym for AIP producer Herman CohenHerman Cohen
Herman Cohen was a producer of B-movies during the 1950s, who helped to popularize the teen horror movie genre with films like the cult classic I Was a Teenage Werewolf....
and Aben Kandel
Aben Kandel
Aben Kandel was an American screenwriter, novelist, and boxer. He was screenwriter on such classic B movies as I was A Teen-Age Werewolf, Joan Crawford's final movie Trog, and one of Leonard Nimoy's first starring vehicles, Kid Monk Baroni.Kandel had an earlier scandalous success with his gritty,...
), features many other similarities to I Was a Teenage Werewolf - for instance, both have (among other things): a teenager with social behavior problems, an adult 'mad scientist' who is searching for the perfect guinea pig under the guise of helping troubled youth, an observer who can tell the killings are the work of a monster, a disbelieving police chief afraid of the press, a song written by Jerry Blaine
Jerry Blaine
Jerry Blaine was a bandleader, label owner, record distributor, and singer who recorded 18 sides for the Master and Bluebird labels in 1937-1938.-Biography:...
and Paul Dunlap
Paul Dunlap
Paul Dunlap was American composer.Born Paul A. Dunlap, he wrote the scores for several Three Stooges feature films, including The Three Stooges Meet Hercules, The Three Stooges in Orbit, The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze and The Outlaws Is Coming...
accompanied by a choreographed "ad-lib" dance number, hypnosis as scientific medical treatment, drug injections, specific references to Carpathia
Carpathia
Carpathia can refer to various things:*RMS Carpathia was a steamship, notable for its role in the rescue of survivors from the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912*Carpathian Mountains, part of a mountain range in Europe...
, hairy transformation scenes, and even some of the same dialogue. In addition, two prominent actors from I Was a Teenage Werewolf are also featured in Blood of Dracula, Malcolm Atterbury
Malcolm Atterbury
Malcolm Atterbury was a stage and vaudeville actor who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is probably most well known as Bixby in Wagon Train and Lee Reinhard in Dragnet...
and Louise Lewis, with Lewis's villain, 'Miss Branding' a practically perfect female version of Whit Bissel's 'Dr. Brandon.' However, few critics have drawn a connection between the two films, and while most reference works consider I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and How to Make a Monster as direct follow-ups to I Was a Teenage Werewolf, not even cinema guru Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
speaks of Blood of Dracula as even being related to the trilogy.
Legacy
I Was a Teenage Werewolf helped launch Landon's career, as he became a regular on BonanzaBonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
only two years later.
Although today the film is largely regarded as a source of "camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
" humor and while at the time of release the idea of an adult human turning into a beast was nothing new, the idea of a teenager doing just that in a movie was considered avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
and even shocking in 1957. I Was a Teenage Werewolf likely paved the way for Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
to do his version of a Felix Salten
Felix Salten
Felix Salten was an Austrian author and critic in Vienna. His most famous work is Bambi .-Life:...
shapeshifting novel, The Hound of Florence. Featuring Disney favorite Tommy Kirk
Tommy Kirk
Thomas Lee "Tommy" Kirk is a former American actor, and later a businessman.-Disney years:Kirk was discovered by talent agents at the age of thirteen in a production of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California...
as the hapless teenager and A-lister Fred MacMurray
Fred MacMurray
Frederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, from 1930 to the 1970s....
as the answer to B-lister Whit Bissell, it was released in 1959 under the title, The Shaggy Dog
The Shaggy Dog (1959 film)
The Shaggy Dog is a black and white 1959 Walt Disney film about Wilby Daniels, a teenage boy who is transformed into an Old English Sheepdog by an enchanted ring of the Borgias. The film was based on the story, The Hound of Florence by Felix Salten...
. The film betrays its successful forebear with Murray's classic bit of dialogue: "Don’t be ridiculous — my son isn’t any werewolf! He’s just a big, baggy, stupid-looking, shaggy dog!"
The film's Police Gazette
Police Gazette
The National Police Gazette, commonly referred to as simply the Police Gazette, was an American magazine founded in 1845 by two journalists, Enoch E. Camp, also an attorney, and George Wilkes, a transcontinental railroad booster...
-style title (which had already been used by Hollywood previously with pictures such as 1949's I Was a Male War Bride
I Was a Male War Bride
I Was a Male War Bride is a 1949 comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan.This film was based on I was an Alien Spouse of Female Military Personnel Enroute to the United States Under Public Law 271 of the Congress, a biography of Henri Rochard, a Belgian who...
and 1951's I Was a Communist for the FBI
I Was a Communist for the FBI
I Was a Communist for the FBI is the name of a series of stories written by Matt Cvetic that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. The stories were later turned into a best-selling book, an American espionage thriller radio series and motion picture in the early 1950s.The story follows Cvetic, who...
) with the inclusion of the adjective "teenage", was used again by AIP for their sequel, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein is a film starring Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates and Gary Conway released by American International Pictures in November 1957. It is the follow-up to AIP's box-office hit I Was a Teenage Werewolf released less than five months earlier...
, and the original working title for their 1958 sci-fi film Attack of the Puppet People was I Was a Teenage Doll. Due to the success of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, this convention was constantly mocked in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Many sitcom television series in particular had characters going to movies titled I Was a Teenage Dinosaur, Monster, etc., and it was often referenced in monologues by comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
s and bits by disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
s. Examples include Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg
Stanley Victor "Stan" Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director whose career began in 1944...
's 1957 radio series, which featured a Madison-Avenue/horror-movie spoof titled "Gray Flannel Hat Full of Teenage Werewolves"., and the 1959 "Dobie Gillis"
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963. The series and some episode scripts were adapted from a 1951 collection of short stories of the same name, written by Max Shulman, that also inspired the 1953 film The Affairs of Dobie Gillis with Debbie...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
I Was a Teenage Dwarf by Max Shulman
Max Shulman
Max Shulman was an American writer and humorist best known for his television and short story character Dobie Gillis, as well as for best-selling novels.-Early life and career:...
.
Film
Over the years, the I Was a Teenage... title was played on by several unrelated films — usually comedies — wishing to make a connection with the cult AIP hit, including 1987's I Was a Teenage ZombieI Was a Teenage Zombie
I Was a Teenage Zombie is a 1987 film. Though it had a very low budget and unknown actors, it attracted a cult following.-Plot:The film begins like a '80s comedy with teens looking to purchase some marijuana but turns into comedy/horror genre when a drug dealer is pushed into the river and becomes...
, 1992's I Was a Teenage Mummy, 1993's I Was a Teenage Serial Killer
I Was A Teenage Serial Killer
I Was a Teenage Serial Killer is an underground no budget film written and directed by "The Queen of Underground Film", Sarah Jacobson. It is a short black-and-white film of a 19-year-old girl who is sick of sexist men and kills them. It was Jacobson's first film and it was released through her own...
, 1999's I Was a Teenage Intellectual and the 1963 Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
, I Was a Teenage Thumb. The script title for 1985's Just One of the Guys
Just One of the Guys
Just One of the Guys is a 1985 comedy film, directed by Lisa Gottlieb. The film is marketed with the tagline "Terri Griffith is about to go where no woman has gone before." This movie ranked number 48 on Entertainment Weeklys list of the "50 Best High School Movies".-Plot:Terry Griffith is an...
was "I Was a Teenage Boy", a title that used a year later as an alternate for 1986's Willy/Milly. An alternate title for the 1995 hit Clueless was "I Was a Teenage Teenager".
Scenes from I Was a Teenage Werewolf were included in the 1973 fifties nostalgia concert film, Let the Good Times Roll
Let the Good Times Roll (film)
Let the Good Times Roll is a 1973 rockumentary / concert film directed by Robert Abel and Sidney Levin. It features numerous stars from the American pop and rock music scene of the 1950s.-Summary:...
, featuring Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
performances from Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
and Bill Haley and the Comets.
Television
Episode 2.19 (1963) of The Dick Van Dyke ShowThe Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....
was entitled "I Was a Teenage Head-Writer". Episode 1.18 (1967) of The Monkees
The Monkees (TV series)
The Monkees is an American situation comedy that aired on NBC from September 1966 to March 1968. The series follows the adventures of four young men trying to make a name for themselves as rock 'n roll singers. The show introduced a number of innovative new-wave film techniques to series...
was entitled "I Was a Teenage Monster".
In 1987, the NBC-TV series Highway to Heaven
Highway to Heaven
Highway to Heaven is an American television drama series which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.- Season 1 :- Season 2 :- Season 3 :- Season 4 :- Season 5 :...
featured "I Was a Middle Aged Werewolf" (episode 4.5), written and directed by Michael Landon
Michael Landon
Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...
. Landon, as angel Jonathan Smith, transforms himself into a werewolf, initially to scare off some teenage bullies. During the earlier scenes, Jonathan's buddy (played by Victor French
Victor French
Victor Edwin French was an American actor and director.-Early career:Born in Santa Barbara, California,...
) watches the original film, remarking: "You know, the guy in this movie reminds me a lot of you!" After Jonathan thanks him sarcastically, Victor adds, "No, when he's a regular guy, not when he's got fuzz all over his face."
In an early episode of Spongebob Squarepants
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
(I was a Teenage Gary), Squidward neglects to feed Gary after petsitting him, leading Spongebob to take him to the vet, where the doctor gives them a needle to give to Gary. Squidward attempts to give Gary the shot, but is disrupted by Spongebob and applies it to his nose. Gary feels better after eating, but Spongebob feels feverish after the shot and turns into a snail. He gets into Squidward's house and stalks him, scaring Squidward so badly he flips his house over, with the needle landing on his nose, too. In the end, Gary, Spongebob, and Squidward, now a snail, sing a song, only to disturb Patrick, who was sleeping, angry with them and throws a shoe that knocks only Squidward off the fence was sittting on.
In April 1997, the movie was mocked directly when it was featured in episode 809 of Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
. Episode 1.25 (1982) of SCTV
Second City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
featured a comedy black out skit of the movie called "I was a Teenage Communist," mixing horror with the politics of Red Baiting during the 1950s.
Publishing
In Stephen King's 1986 novel ItIt (novel)
It is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King. The story follows the exploits of seven children as they are terrorized by the eponymous inter-dimensional predatory life-form that exploits the fears and phobias of its victims in order to disguise itself while hunting its prey. "It"...
, several of the characters watch this movie. Afterwards, Pennywise takes the form of a real teenage werewolf to frighten them, particularly Richie. When the Losers Club first attacks Pennywise, it takes the form of the werewolf. In 2002, Last Gasp
Last Gasp
Last Gasp is a book and underground comix publisher and distributor based in San Francisco, California.- History :Founded in 1970 by Ron Turner to publish the ecologically-themed comics magazine Slow Death Funnies, followed by the all-female anthology It Ain't Me Babe, Last Gasp soon became a major...
published I Was a Teenage Dominatrix, a memoir by Shawna Kenney
Shawna Kenney
Shawna Kenney is an American author and journalist.Kenney was born in Auburn, New York. She authored the memoir I Was a Teenage Dominatrix at the age of 29. The book developed an underground cult following, receiving a Firecracker Alternative Book Award in 2000, with translations published in...
.
Music
The CrampsThe Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...
, whose songs routinely reference horror and sci-fi films, have a song titled "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" in their album Songs the Lord Taught Us
Songs the Lord Taught Us
Songs the Lord Taught Us is the debut studio album by the American garage punk band The Cramps. It was released in 1980 on Illegal Records.-Track listing:-Personnel:*Lux Interior - vocals*Poison Ivy Rorschach - guitar*Bryan Gregory - guitar...
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Rock band Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1997. The band's line-up has always included founding member Josh Homme , with the current line-up including longtime members Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo , alongside Michael Shuman and...
have a song on their self-titled debut album with the title, "I was a Teenage Hand Model."
Australian rock band Faker
Faker (band)
Faker are an Australian alternative rock band, formed in Sydney in 1996. The band consists of vocalist Nathan Hudson and guitarist Nicholas Munnings....
released a song in 2005 entitled "Teenage Werewolf".
Anarchist vegan punk band Propagandhi
Propagandhi
Propagandhi is a Canadian punk band formed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1986 by Chris Hannah and Jord Samolesky. The band is currently located in Winnipeg, Manitoba....
wrote a song titled "I Was a Pre-Teen McCarthyist" and is featured on the album Less Talk, More Rock
Less Talk, More Rock
Less Talk, More Rock is the second full-length album by the punk rock band Propagandhi, and the last album to feature bassist John K. Samson. Released in 1996. It was re-released on CD, vinyl, and colored vinyl by Fat Wreck Chords on January 3, 2010. The colored vinyl pressing is limited to 666...
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