Ah, "Werewolf". I still remember looking forward the being thrilled and chilled on the night of the premier episode, and I wasn't disappointed. The show boasted a fine cast including lead John J. York, who would go on to become a long-term cast member of General Hospital and now General Hospital: Night Shift, as Eric Cord, the unfortunate who is bitten, and the late, great Chuck Connors as Janos Skorzeny, the werewolf who, Eric believes, is the progenitor of the "blood-line" that he must kill in order to lift the curse of lycanthropy from himself. There was also Raphael Sabarge, who played Ted, Eric's best friend/roommate in the pilot episode, and later, Brian Thompson as another more-ancient-than-Skorzeny werewolf. Those are the stand-outs for me. Also look for future "NYPD Blue" cast member Gail O'Grady as the female werewolf victim in the opening.
Make-up/creature effects? No problem there: They were done by Oscar-winner Rick Baker. Occasionally, we would get a glimpse of Eric/some other werewolf in mid-transformation (mostly fangs & contacts, possibly some facial fur or a shot of a shirt tearing open to reveal furry flesh underneath). Mostly, Eric/whoever would fall out of frame, and a fully-transformed werewolf would emerge a moment later.
The plot? Simple enough: Young, happy college student Eric (York) comes home after an afternoon with his cutie of a girlfriend (Michelle Johnson) To find the lights out. At first, he thinks his best friend/roommate Ted (Sabarge) has neglected to pay the electricity bill, but then he finally finds Ted in the process of loading a gun - with, as it turns out, silver bullets. Ted confesses to being a killer to the disbelieving Eric, and then blows Eric's mind even more when he reveals the reason he is responsible for the deaths: He is a werewolf. He was attacked by, as it turns out, a fishing-boat captain named Janos Skorzeny (Connors), although at the time he thought it was a dog. He survived, and, several nights later, the sign of the pentagram appeared on his palm. This was followed by his first transformation - and his first night of killing. He confesses that, initially, he would try to confine himself to keep from hurting anyone when he knew he was going to change again . . . but he is losing his desire to do so. "I knew I was going to change . . . and I wanted it", he says. He has determined that "The only thing that can help me is my dying".
Eric, of course, thinks that his friend has gone off the deep end. . . until the sign of the pentagram appears on Ted's hand and begins to bleed - the first sign of transformation. He witnesses his friend's transformation and shoots him with a silver bullet - but not before he is bitten. The remainder of the episode - and all future episodes - centers on his tracking down Skorzeny and trying to elude "Alamo Joe" Rogan, the bounty hunter who has been sent after him since he went on the lamb after being charged with Ted's murder. In the process, he meets some interesting people and gets into some scrapes - always, of course, being saved by transforming at a good time - for him, not for the bad guy/guys of the episode.
I feel sorry for anyone who missed this the first time around - definitely worth a look.
Cheers.
Make-up/creature effects? No problem there: They were done by Oscar-winner Rick Baker. Occasionally, we would get a glimpse of Eric/some other werewolf in mid-transformation (mostly fangs & contacts, possibly some facial fur or a shot of a shirt tearing open to reveal furry flesh underneath). Mostly, Eric/whoever would fall out of frame, and a fully-transformed werewolf would emerge a moment later.
The plot? Simple enough: Young, happy college student Eric (York) comes home after an afternoon with his cutie of a girlfriend (Michelle Johnson) To find the lights out. At first, he thinks his best friend/roommate Ted (Sabarge) has neglected to pay the electricity bill, but then he finally finds Ted in the process of loading a gun - with, as it turns out, silver bullets. Ted confesses to being a killer to the disbelieving Eric, and then blows Eric's mind even more when he reveals the reason he is responsible for the deaths: He is a werewolf. He was attacked by, as it turns out, a fishing-boat captain named Janos Skorzeny (Connors), although at the time he thought it was a dog. He survived, and, several nights later, the sign of the pentagram appeared on his palm. This was followed by his first transformation - and his first night of killing. He confesses that, initially, he would try to confine himself to keep from hurting anyone when he knew he was going to change again . . . but he is losing his desire to do so. "I knew I was going to change . . . and I wanted it", he says. He has determined that "The only thing that can help me is my dying".
Eric, of course, thinks that his friend has gone off the deep end. . . until the sign of the pentagram appears on Ted's hand and begins to bleed - the first sign of transformation. He witnesses his friend's transformation and shoots him with a silver bullet - but not before he is bitten. The remainder of the episode - and all future episodes - centers on his tracking down Skorzeny and trying to elude "Alamo Joe" Rogan, the bounty hunter who has been sent after him since he went on the lamb after being charged with Ted's murder. In the process, he meets some interesting people and gets into some scrapes - always, of course, being saved by transforming at a good time - for him, not for the bad guy/guys of the episode.
I feel sorry for anyone who missed this the first time around - definitely worth a look.
Cheers.