Werewolf (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Werewolf is an American horror
series, and one of the original shows in the Fox network
's broadcast line-up during its inaugural season of 1987–1988.
The show follows the adventures of Eric Cord (John J. York
), a college student transformed into a werewolf
who undergoes a quest to rid himself of his curse by killing the apparent originator of his 'bloodline,' a drifter named Janos Skorzeny (played by Chuck Connors
in his last television role). While pursuing Skorzeny, Cord himself is pursued by the persistent bounty hunter "Alamo" Joe Rogan (Lance LeGault
). However, Cord then begins to hunt down Nicholas Remy (Brian Thompson
), the real originator of the bloodline.
The show aired a two-hour pilot and 28 half-hour episodes before being cancelled in 1988.
The series was similar in tone and formula to shows like The Fugitive
and The Incredible Hulk, but achieved a contemporary feel by mixing a decidedly rock
soundtrack with suspense-themed music. Eric wandered from place to place, hitchhiking, taking odd jobs and befriending various characters whose paths he crossed along the way, before invariably being transformed by his werewolf curse just in time to save his new friends from the clutches of some evildoer. Though Eric appeared to have no control over his actions while in werewolf form and typically retained no memory of them afterward, he seemed to prey almost exclusively on villainous characters, never attacking or killing an innocent person. There were hints as the series progressed, however, that this self-control was slowly eroding, as indeed Ted had warned him it would, threatening to destroy Eric's conscience/will if he couldn't end the curse soon.
Near the end of the series' run it was revealed that the originator of Eric Cord's bloodline was not, in fact, the evil Janos Skorzeny, but rather an even more powerful and malevolent werewolf named Nicholas Remy (played by Brian Thompson
). The series ended before Eric could be rid of his curse.
The special effects techniques used in production were considered first-rate and impressive for the time, specifically the transformation sequences, in which, for example, the pentagram-shaped scar on Eric's right hand would rise, thicken and grow three-dimensionally, and begin to bleed.
The werewolves in the series were apparently vulnerable to harm in human form from ordinary weapons but with no permanent effects. In an episode titled "A World of Difference", Eric is shot dead in human form (he was just beginning to undergo the change), only to resurrect in the morgue by transforming into his werewolf form at sunset. In another episode titled "Nightmare at the Braine Hotel", Eric meets a werewolf named Servan, who tells him a story in which he had been executed by hanging in his human form. He seemed greatly amused by the memory of the looks on his executioners faces as he leapt off the undertaker's table when he transformed at sunset and rose from death. Another werewolf character, a hobo named Hank who was featured in the episode "King of the Road", dies in human form from having his throat cut, only to resurrect in werewolf form as soon as night falls. This ability is reminiscent of the "Eddie Quist" character in "The Howling", who is shot dead by police during the beginning of his transformation at the adult movie theater, only to come to life later by transforming in the morgue.
The werewolves themselves transformed into large, almost bear-like bipedal wolves with long simian arms that allowed them to run on all fours as well as two. All the werewolves transformed by sprouting fangs, claws and fur, except for Skorzeny, who peeled back the skin of his face to reveal the werewolf form within. In human form they had no traditionally distinguishing marks, such as eyebrows meeting over the bridge of their nose, or hair on the palms of their hands. It was also never explored as to whether or not werewolves could reproduce sexually in their human bodies.
Although the werewolves did completely recover from wounds made by non-silver weapons, the series never explored whether or not werewolves could regenerate missing limbs. Skorzeny, who wore an eye patch over his left eye, did seem to regenerate his missing eye when he transformed into his werewolf form. But when he returned to his human form, he once again wore the eye patch. It was never explained why this was, or if he lost the use of the eye or the eye itself when he was in human form.
Werewolves in this series did not transform during the full moon: The pentagram on their palm was the only signal that the change was approaching. In the pilot, Eric Cord's roommate Ted stated that its appearance was very random, and that he had not discerned any pattern to when or how often the change would occur. Older werewolves like Skorzeny and Remy had the ability to induce the change without the appearance of the pentagram, unlike Eric, who seemed to be at the mercy of the curse's cycle. In the episode "To Dream of Wolves", Remy also showed an ability to shapeshift single body parts at will, as shown when he turned his right arm into its werewolf shape to kill Dianne for disobeying his order to kill Eric. Remy also seemed to have a form of psychic control over those of his bloodline: In "To Dream of Wolves", he toys with Eric by telepathically forcing him to press a silver dagger to his own throat, drawing blood.
released a six-issue comic book series based on the show.
aired reruns of Werewolf. Chiller premiered the series with a marathon on June 6, 2007.
by October 6, 2009, but was later pushed two weeks to October 20, 2009 to include special features. The release was eventually canceled as Shout! was unable to attain the rights to several songs, when agreement could not be reached with the artists.
Although it's highly unlikely the complete series will ever be released on DVD, the two-hour pilot was released in the UK in PAL
VHS
format by Entertainment in Video.
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
series, and one of the original shows in the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
's broadcast line-up during its inaugural season of 1987–1988.
The show follows the adventures of Eric Cord (John J. York
John J. York
John Joseph Robert York is an American actor. Although York has made appearances on such television shows as Dynasty, Family Ties, and 21 Jump Street, he is most recognizable for playing the role of Malcolm "Mac" Scorpio on the daytime soap opera General Hospital...
), a college student transformed 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...
who undergoes a quest to rid himself of his curse by killing the apparent originator of his 'bloodline,' a drifter named Janos Skorzeny (played by Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....
in his last television role). While pursuing Skorzeny, Cord himself is pursued by the persistent bounty hunter "Alamo" Joe Rogan (Lance LeGault
Lance LeGault
Lance LeGault , sometimes credited as W. L. LeGault, is an American film and television actor, best known as Colonel Roderick Decker in the 1980s American television series The A-Team.-Personal life:...
). However, Cord then begins to hunt down Nicholas Remy (Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson (actor)
Brian Thompson is an American actor. His distinctive square-jaw profile, powerful voice, and imposing stature has led him to be typecast as a villain in many action films and TV series, and a some comedies: Joe Dirt, The Three Amigos, Weird Science, Key West, and Life Stinks.-Career:Thompson has...
), the real originator of the bloodline.
The show aired a two-hour pilot and 28 half-hour episodes before being cancelled in 1988.
Synopsis
Eric Cord is a college student whose average life comes to an end on the night that his roommate Ted hands him a gun loaded with silver bullets. Ted is a werewolf who has been killing people, and tells Eric to kill him, seeing this as his only way out. A red pentagram on Ted's right palm is the sign that the change is coming. Confronted with Eric's disbelief, Ted decides to prove his situation, and asks Eric to tie him up in a chair and wait until midnight, at which time he'd either see for himself or call in professional help. When midnight comes, Ted transforms into a werewolf, forcing his friend to shoot and kill him—but not before he manages to bite Eric. Before long, Eric discovers a pentagram on his own palm, and soon after undergoes his own transformation into a seven-foot-tall werewolf. Now on the run for his friend's murder, Eric Cord spends the remainder of the series on a quest to find and kill the originator of his bloodline, the mysterious Janos Skorzeny, which will break the curse.The series was similar in tone and formula to shows like The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
and The Incredible Hulk, but achieved a contemporary feel by mixing a decidedly rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
soundtrack with suspense-themed music. Eric wandered from place to place, hitchhiking, taking odd jobs and befriending various characters whose paths he crossed along the way, before invariably being transformed by his werewolf curse just in time to save his new friends from the clutches of some evildoer. Though Eric appeared to have no control over his actions while in werewolf form and typically retained no memory of them afterward, he seemed to prey almost exclusively on villainous characters, never attacking or killing an innocent person. There were hints as the series progressed, however, that this self-control was slowly eroding, as indeed Ted had warned him it would, threatening to destroy Eric's conscience/will if he couldn't end the curse soon.
Near the end of the series' run it was revealed that the originator of Eric Cord's bloodline was not, in fact, the evil Janos Skorzeny, but rather an even more powerful and malevolent werewolf named Nicholas Remy (played by Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson (actor)
Brian Thompson is an American actor. His distinctive square-jaw profile, powerful voice, and imposing stature has led him to be typecast as a villain in many action films and TV series, and a some comedies: Joe Dirt, The Three Amigos, Weird Science, Key West, and Life Stinks.-Career:Thompson has...
). The series ended before Eric could be rid of his curse.
The special effects techniques used in production were considered first-rate and impressive for the time, specifically the transformation sequences, in which, for example, the pentagram-shaped scar on Eric's right hand would rise, thicken and grow three-dimensionally, and begin to bleed.
Traits
The werewolves in the show were immune to the effects of aging or disease, with the exception of Skorzeny himself. Although Skorzeny was apparently a young man as shown in a flashback scene when he was bitten by Nicolas Remy in the 19th century, he appeared to be in his mid sixties in 1987. Nicolas Remy explained to Eric Cord that Skorzeny was slowly dying from a "sickness brought about by his own evil" that was decaying him from within. Nicolas Remy himself was over two thousand years old, yet appeared to be a man in his late 30's with the exception of a streak of gray hair near his right temple. His companion and fellow werewolf Dianne, still looked as though she were in her late twenties despite having been bitten by Remy back in World War II. Dianne was a Jewish concentration camp prisoner who the Nazis had singing in a theater. Remy was an officer in the SS when he heard her performance and decided to turn her as shown in a brief flashback scene.The werewolves in the series were apparently vulnerable to harm in human form from ordinary weapons but with no permanent effects. In an episode titled "A World of Difference", Eric is shot dead in human form (he was just beginning to undergo the change), only to resurrect in the morgue by transforming into his werewolf form at sunset. In another episode titled "Nightmare at the Braine Hotel", Eric meets a werewolf named Servan, who tells him a story in which he had been executed by hanging in his human form. He seemed greatly amused by the memory of the looks on his executioners faces as he leapt off the undertaker's table when he transformed at sunset and rose from death. Another werewolf character, a hobo named Hank who was featured in the episode "King of the Road", dies in human form from having his throat cut, only to resurrect in werewolf form as soon as night falls. This ability is reminiscent of the "Eddie Quist" character in "The Howling", who is shot dead by police during the beginning of his transformation at the adult movie theater, only to come to life later by transforming in the morgue.
The werewolves themselves transformed into large, almost bear-like bipedal wolves with long simian arms that allowed them to run on all fours as well as two. All the werewolves transformed by sprouting fangs, claws and fur, except for Skorzeny, who peeled back the skin of his face to reveal the werewolf form within. In human form they had no traditionally distinguishing marks, such as eyebrows meeting over the bridge of their nose, or hair on the palms of their hands. It was also never explored as to whether or not werewolves could reproduce sexually in their human bodies.
Although the werewolves did completely recover from wounds made by non-silver weapons, the series never explored whether or not werewolves could regenerate missing limbs. Skorzeny, who wore an eye patch over his left eye, did seem to regenerate his missing eye when he transformed into his werewolf form. But when he returned to his human form, he once again wore the eye patch. It was never explained why this was, or if he lost the use of the eye or the eye itself when he was in human form.
Werewolves in this series did not transform during the full moon: The pentagram on their palm was the only signal that the change was approaching. In the pilot, Eric Cord's roommate Ted stated that its appearance was very random, and that he had not discerned any pattern to when or how often the change would occur. Older werewolves like Skorzeny and Remy had the ability to induce the change without the appearance of the pentagram, unlike Eric, who seemed to be at the mercy of the curse's cycle. In the episode "To Dream of Wolves", Remy also showed an ability to shapeshift single body parts at will, as shown when he turned his right arm into its werewolf shape to kill Dianne for disobeying his order to kill Eric. Remy also seemed to have a form of psychic control over those of his bloodline: In "To Dream of Wolves", he toys with Eric by telepathically forcing him to press a silver dagger to his own throat, drawing blood.
Becoming a werewolf
While the bite of a werewolf was the standard way to pass the curse to another person, blood transfusion appeared to be effective in the episode titled "Big Daddy". No mystical talismans, salves or hexes seemed to have any place in the series. It was also never suggested that the curse was hereditary.Vulnerabilities
The werewolves had only three known weaknesses mentioned in the series: Any weapon made from silver, being killed by another werewolf, or suicide.Episodes
| № | Title | Original airdate |
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In other media
In July 1988, Blackthorne PublishingBlackthorne Publishing
Blackthorne Publishing, Inc. was a comic book publisher that flourished from 1986-1989. They were notable for the Blackthorne 3-D Series, their reprint titles of classic comic strips like Dick Tracy, and their licensed products...
released a six-issue comic book series based on the show.
Syndication
From 2007 to 2009, ChillerChiller (TV channel)
Chiller is a 24-hour American cable and satellite television channel specializing in horror and suspense programming. conglomerate NBCUniversal.- Origin :...
aired reruns of Werewolf. Chiller premiered the series with a marathon on June 6, 2007.
DVD releases
Werewolf: The Complete Series was to be released on DVD by Shout! FactoryShout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
by October 6, 2009, but was later pushed two weeks to October 20, 2009 to include special features. The release was eventually canceled as Shout! was unable to attain the rights to several songs, when agreement could not be reached with the artists.
Although it's highly unlikely the complete series will ever be released on DVD, the two-hour pilot was released in the UK in PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
format by Entertainment in Video.