User Reviews

After recently discovering a short-lived show called "Wolf Lake", I began reminiscing about the best werewolf show that I can remember as a series on television. I miss this show "Werewolf". I remember watching this show on USA on Friday or Saturday nights. It was either preceded by or followed by another great show called "The Hitchhiker". These two shows made for one heck of a night of television watching for not only a young teenage boy (me), but for anybody who enjoys supernatural monsters (i.e. werewolves) and thrilling tales of fantasy. I thought the werewolves on this show were the most vicious, coolest looking werewolves that I had seen yet. And while the pentagram on the palm doesn't go with traditional folklore, I like it. This is definitely a show that I yearn to see as reruns on cable t.v, or better yet, picked up by a network and continued where it left off.

Short-lived Fox TV series from the late 80s that spins off such werewolf movie classics as The Howling and An American Werewolf in London. A young man, John York, becomes a werewolf thanks to an infected roommate and decides to hunt down the werewolf who started it all,who is played by Chuck The Rifleman Connors. Pursued by a grizzled bounty hunter, he hits the road, in the style of The Fugitive and The Incredible Hulk. Great werewolf design by Rick Baker. A bit slow-going in the pilot, but hey, it's a low-budget TV show, not a big-budget movie. Aimed as much as the kiddies as adults, so there's little to no gore, at least in the pilot. I don't recall this show when it was on the air. It is a major find for werewolf lovers.

I remember when I was a little kid back in 1987 I was so fascinated by "Werewolf", a very well made TV series by then newborn FOX network. The premise of the show rang familiar, a lone good guy wanders the country helping people, always on the run from the law. This brings back memories of "The Fugitive". Ofcourse, said lone good guy who was named Eric Cord also uncontrollably transforms into a massively frightening werewolf beast. This harkens back to "The Incredible Hulk" TV series.

Eric Cord is a typical college student who is told by his roommate Ted that he is a werewolf and must be killed. Eric doesn't believe him until he sees Ted actually transform into a werewolf and Eric is forced to kill him with the silver bullet that Ted gave him. Sadly, Eric is bitten, and the curse is passed onto him. Eric must then track down the head werewolf and kill him or her to break the curse. Cord is a wanted fugitive for killing his roommate Ted, and a tough as nails bounty hunter named Alamo Joe Rogan is relentlessly on his trail. Rogan grew up thinking that he could stand up to anything if he could look it in the eye,...if he could look it in the eye that is. So part of Rogan's obsession is confronting Eric's werewolf, and his own fear of the one thing in the world that momentarily scared Rogan sh*tless and made him "blink"---seeing that terrifying werewolf. The special effects by Rick Baker were OUTSTANDING for a TV series made in 1987.

The main difference with Eric Cord and Dr. Banner was that, you knew that the Hulk would never intentionally kill anyone. Even if people attacked the Hulk, he would never kill them. Toss them 20 feet through the air maybey, but "Hulk no kill". A werewolf is a different story. And with Eric Cord's werewolf, there was ALWAYS the lurking menace of his werewolf killing innocents, not just the "bad guys". And in some episodes, Eric's werewolf actually did kill some innocent people. It was clear that towards the end of the 1st season, that Eric was not as in control of his beast as he was in the beginning. (losing control of the werewolf was something his friend Ted warned him about). Unfortunately, the FOX network in all it's grand stupidity decided to cancel "Werewolf" in 1988 after just one measely season and replaced it with that idiot program called "It's the Gary Shandling Show".

The only weak spot about "Werewolf" was that it was only 30 minutes long an episode, when it really should have been a full hour long. This show preceded WB's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" by 10 years, and FOX will never live down canceling this great series.

Werewolf. Almost no one remembers this little gem of the 80's! It was a breakthrough in special effects! Especially since it was a television series. It was definitely movie quality at the time and can stand on it's own today. The story was so engrossing that I remember planting myself in front of the television, guarding the dial like a rabid dog, just so no one changed the channel as I waited for the show to come on. I would love to see this on DVD in the near future. That heaven seems to be fading by the day. I;m keeping my fingers crossed! C'Mon Fox or Tristar or whoever has the rights to this show... How about Frank Lupo? Is he still alive? I'd love to spread knowledge about this great series... but I can't even find it on VHS!!! All i ask is for this to be brought back into the spotlight where it belongs.

"Werewolf" was one of the first tv series that the FOX channel aired in its early years when it was trying to prove to the FCC that it could become a new network, and eventually did. John J. York plays a young man, Eric, in search of his arch-enemy Skorzeny. He must find him because if he can get the blood from the head of the wolf line that attacked him, a possible serum could be made to end his fits of rage that turn him into a werewolf. However, Skorzeny can sense the young man's presence before he can find him. When they do find one another, it could be a wolf fight to end all wolf fights. It could mean one of them will die and Skorzeny is the strongest and biggest of them all. To make matters worse for Eric, he has a bounty hunter by the mane of Alamo Joe Rogan that is on his trail ready to shoot to kill.

John J. York plays Eric Cord and is perfect for the role. Chuck Connors is deliciously chilling and delightfully eerie as Captain Janos Skorzeny, wearing a one-eye patch and speaking in a pirate-like voice. It is always a treat and a grand highlight when Chuck Connors guest stars. "Werewolf" is a well-developing werewolf story and each episode is a story of its own. The highlight of most episodes is when Eric turns into a werewolf and when he fights with another werewolf in other episodes. There are many surprises and twists in this series. You don't have to wait for the last episode to see a grand finale. The story attempts to make several turns. So you never want to miss not one episode. Another plus for the series is the heart-pulsing guitar rock music they play. It really sets the tone and mood of the show.

During the first few episodes, there contained male nudity, mostly of John J. York, which was necessary to the scenes, especially after he became a werewolf. Sometimes we would see him laying on the ground bare backside not knowing if he survived or died. The nude scenes were tastefully done. However, when the tv series was repeated on the USA Network, the USA Network deleted the nude scenes and some gore along with too many commercial interruptions.

Never since, The Fugitive (ABC,1963-67), The Incredible Hulk (CBS,1978-82), Lucan (ABC,1977-78) and Hot Pursuit (tv-1984) has there been a tv series with such continuing momentum and suspense.

The FOX channel even tried a genius gimmick to get people to watch the "Werewolf" tv series by displaying a toll-fee number on the screen that if they have seen or know someone that is a werewolf, to give them a call. And the people responded.

Yet another of those "Innocent man roams the country while pursued by a man who believes he's doing good, helping people and making friends along the way on a quest to clear (or cure) himself. No name cast (apart from Chuck Connors who was hardly top of the tree) and it seems all the money was paid to Rick Baker for the effects.

The 22-23 minute episodes were what really killed it - no character development for those in any episode was possible in such a short time and everything just seemed very rushed, no real story either (or attempt at a back story). Seen it all before - The Fugitive, Bixby's Hulk. Logan's Run, The Hitchhiker and dozens of other shows.

Awesome bring it back. It's a great show. The werewolves actually look like werewolves and not dogs. It's very well written

I was a ten year old boy when Werewolf premiered on Fox and I became an instant fan. I have always loved scary movies and Halloween and I have to believe that I must have been the exact target audience for the show. The werewolf effects were simply awesome, and still stand up much better than most more modern CGI werewolf effects to this day, having been being created by a master of special effects makeup Rick Baker who just happened to also have created the most iconic and best werewolf ever on film in the movie American Werewolf in London.

The basic plot of a desperate man on the run from the law accused of crimes trying to fix his life, although an old plot trope too often used by Hollywood and TV countless times including the Incredible Hulk and the Fugitive and countless other shows, was still intriguing enough.

Tying into werewolf folklore beliefs that a werewolf curse could be ended by killing the progenitor werewolf, we automatically get a protagonist with motive against a murderous villain setting up writing each episode fairly easily. They could have run this show for many seasons just following the murders and the good guy trying to find the killer while not becoming a killer of innocents himself.

Sadly we will never see a home release on DVD or Blu-ray because the show is thoroughly peppered in every episode with rock music contemporary to the time it was filmed which makes it a huge problem if not impossible to release to home video because of music rights and ownership conflicts. Any profits to be made by a distributor would quickly get gobbled up by the original music rights holders. Sadly the fate of many TV shows who used hit music in the 80's and 90's.

However plenty of people besides me loved this old show and faithfully recorded every episode on their VHS machines. Numerous poor quality VHS taped videos exist so you can at least glimpse what the show was like from bootlegs out there.

11 year old me loved this show in 1988. I just rewatched it in my mid 40s and it was so painful. I couldnt help but think what AMC could have done with this in modern times. Kind of has Werewolf by Night themes with the "hero" wolf. He does get a few innocents, but crap happens. There was potential for a show there but it really missed the mark. I giess that's why it was cancelled after 1 season. But no budget, terrible writing, and below average special effects (even for the 80's) was just too much for the show to overcome. I also deplored the accompanying music, but am giving a pass on the shows failure. As bad as it is to endure, it was typical for the time.

I watched Werewolf as a young boy, and was fascinated with it, wholly. It was a great show, featuring make up and special effects by monster master, Rick Baker. The story was a re-tread of Bill Bixby's Incredible Hulk, but wherein that beast was a heart of gold, in lies Eric Cord's chest beats the heart of a beast. Cord journeys to find the malevolent sea captain, Janos Skorzeny, portrayed by the late, great Chuck Connors, who was responsible for his transformation. Connors' metamorphosis into his lycanthrope form is second only to An American Werewolf In London. Alas, Werewolf died after only 28 episodes, not the victim of a silver bullet or blade, but the pen stroke of wary Fox executives, who decided Married With Children is better Sunday night fare.

The only print I could find is so poor. Wonder if they have original somewhere they could release remastered. It embodies everything great about 80s tv. An age when it was still cool to die young with long hair and a leather jacket. It has been a while since I seen it, so this is going to be difficult to reach the character limit. It was a decade where some of the best werewolf movies were released. From John Landis's American Werewolf in London, Neil Jordan's Company of the Wolves. And Joe Dante's The Howling, all having a remarkable input in the field of SFX at the time.

This series is more character based, and has a really catchy guitar based intro. It may not be ground breaking SFX wise as the aforementioned Hollywood movies were, but it holds its own in other areas. I would even recommend this to people who do not usually like horror. Please someone sort the sketchy copy out that is in circulation, but even that doesn't take away from the shows viewing pleasure.

This has to be one of the most creative and imaginative television shows of the 1980's. It's incredible to believe that there were only five postings before this one. Previous reviews have already outlined the plot so it won't be repeated here. Some reviews (here and elsewhere) tend to unjustly compare this series to 'The Fugitive' and 'The Incredible Hulk', as if those are the only two shows centering on a man on the run. Truth to tell, there was a show even called 'Man On The Run' well before the Hulk series, and there were other similarly-themed series like 'Starman', 'The Immortal', 'Otherworld', 'Logan's Run', and even the 'Planet of the Apes' TV series, as well as a parody of 'The Fugitive' that aired at the same time as it did. The idea of a "man on the run" show is as valid as a "hospital show" or a "lawyer show" or "ship in space show" or what have you. It is unfair to simply dismiss 'Werewolf' as just a copy of any similar show that preceded it.

'Werewolf' possessed many original features that separates it from the untold number of horror-themed shows that now flood the channels. Remember, there weren't many shows even like this at the time or before. The driving electric-guitar music, the graphic violence, and the mature themes (for a non-'dramatic' show) make every episode something new to enjoy. This series was the first in a long time, if not the very first, to have a weekly show deal with regular ongoing horror characters in a serious way. There were other shows that dealt with the supernatural, but they were anthologies like 'The Outer Limits'. The original nemesis for 'Werewolf' was played by Chuck Connors, who, through disputes with the producers, was written out and replaced with a new villain called 'Nicholas Remy'. Unfortunately the series was canceled shortly after this occurred and the final resolution has never been told (Sci-Fi Channel, where are you?!). Episodes such as 'The Wolf Who Thought He Was A Man', 'Running With The Pack', 'A World of Difference', 'Nightmare in Blue', and 'To Dream of Wolves' represent some of the best episodes of this too-short series.

Some previous reviewers have complained about the supposed 'inconsistencies' with werewolf lore, like seeing the pentagram on his own palm as opposed to the palm of his next victim. These people obviously know nothing of historical werewolf lore outside of film or else they would realize that the whole palm thing was created by Hollywood in the first place. Almost every culture on earth has legends regarding people transforming into animal form, be it wolf or fox or bear, dating back to the ancient Greek story of King Lycos. ANY Hollywood story must be viewed like any other adaptation, in that the 'facts' were changed where deemed necessary. It is doubtful that any film or television series has followed the historical rules regarding lycanthropy.

The 'Werewolf' TV series was no more accurate or inaccurate than 'The Howling' or 'An American Werewolf in London' regarding established werewolf lore, but it presented a new and creative series that attempted to bring to the screen the best of everything that happened before while not being simply a copy-cat of those stories. This series has many fascinating and compelling levels working in its favor, and it only takes the attention of the viewer to appreciate them.

Back in 1988, kids and adults all over America would sit down on those long weekend nights to watch the latest episode of "Werewolf", the new horror series from the creators of "The A-Team". It tells the story of Eric Cord (John J. York), a college kid whose world is ripped apart when his roommate tells him that he is a murderous werewolf and asks to be shot with a silver bullet. Despite his initial scepticism, Eric witnesses his friend change into the beast and is forced to shoot him -- but not before he gets bitten by the monster.

Now he knows that in order to break the curse he must severe the bloodline by killing the original werewolf, an insane sea captain called Skorzeny (Chuck Connors, replaced by a stand-in for the later episodes), while he is also chased by a relentless part-Indian bounty hunter, Alamo Joe Rogan (Lance LeGault). On his travels, hitchhiking his way from job to job while hunting Skorzeny, he finds that ordinary humans can be even more evil than the beast inside of him, but there are also those who try to help and understand him. He even meets others like himself, although they are almost always insane or evil, or both. Later he discovers that his true nemesis is actually a particularly powerful and ancient werewolf named Nicholas Remy (Brian Thompson).

While for the most part this was a fairly lighthearted thriller series at least partly aimed at children, there is also some truly dark subject matter in some of the episodes, and it becomes genuinely more and more surreal as it goes on. It has a great eighties-style soundtrack, although the constant guitar solo in the background becomes a little intrusive in some episodes ... is this a horror show or a Guns n' Roses music video? The episodes themselves are only thirty minutes long, which often feels too short. Many of the episodes could easily have stood being extended to an hour -- the standard length for most series of this type.

After the feature length pilot episode, there were a total of twenty eight episodes that were produced. It also sparked a six-issue comic book adaptation, although that's difficult to find these days. Fox, still in it's early years, cancelled the show after one season -- regardless of the superb quality of the later episodes (it's slot was taken by "Married with Children"). Since then, the show has been completely neglected. Due to the lack of reruns and the fact that it still hasn't been released on DVD, hardly anyone knows about it except those who loved it during it's initial run. This series remains a forgotten gem.

I liked WEREWOLF and remember watching the entire season. Cool FX (esp for it's day on TV), solid acting and writing. It did make me think: Incredible Hulk meets The Wolfman. I was disappointed it didn't return for another season. It was one of the shows that got me watching FOX when it premiered as a network. Ah, the 80s. Good times. I keep saying it but TV Land should do a "lost shows weekend" and run all episodes! Or perhaps, Fox should do it themselves during the summer slump... run the old shows that put them on the map... like a retro-tribute... and show WEREWOLF, DUET, TRACEY ULLMAN, etc. In any case, a DVD wouldn't sink the studio, would it?

When the FOX network started they had a lot of quirky, interesting shows. One of them was Werewolf, which unfortunately, didn't last beyond its first season. The opening credits to this show was great, showing a full moon in the sky before panning down to a werewolf hidden in the bushes. Chuck Connors was great as a malevolent werewolf who gave the impression that he could control when and where he transformed into one, unlike the hero of the show. Connor's character was killed off near the end of the show's run, I believe. However, the main character discovered that there was another werewolf more powerful than Connor's character that had to be dispatched as well before the curse could be broken. That plotline had much potential, but FOX didn't stick with it.

I remember this show from my youth. I remember being pretty into it. The werewolf transformations were incredibly well done... the work by Baker fantastic. I also remember Skorzeny scaring the crap out of me as an impressionable youngster. Really, really creepy character. A shame the show didn't last longer.

I remember when I was younger and use to not be able to wait for the show to come on because, I could not wait to see the werewolf. The werewolf was the reason I wanted to watch the show, not to mention the whole story line. The fact that Eric was bitten and sets out to find the werewolf who could be the cure makes for an incredible series of events that could take place. What makes it more exciting is that Skorzeney is a bigger more powerful werewolf. I have to agree that the show had great potential especially after finding out that there is a werewolf more powerful than Skorzeney. Why they didn't stick withit I don't know.

This show featured great special effects for a tv show, and I found myself loving every episode. The adventures of a young man inflicted with the werewolf curse and helping others as he sought out the one man who could rid him of it made this an above average fare.

With regards to this series, I thought it was awesome. So I have searched and finally struck gold. I found this series on DVD at target.com. Unfortunately they are out of stock at the moment, but it gives one hope and joy to know that it was finally released for those of us that watched it religiously or almost. I agree with some of the other people out there that say they need to do a remake of the series and continue the storyline to it's actual conclusion. I am thought that the special effects were very good for the time, especially for a series. I also like that the show gave a good visual for the struggle within of man versus beast, of the effort to control man's more violent instincts.

Fox television was just starting out, so it is not fair of me to judge too harshly the low-budget fur-suit effects of Werewolf. Even if they were often ridiculous.

However, as a genre fanatic I stuck with the show religiously in '87, despite the modified gorilla suits. The series started out well and remained engaging for the better part of it's run, following the tradition of the Fugitive, the Incredible Hulk and the Night Stalker.

Then it started trying to become artsy. The imagery of Werewolf's last episodes may remind some viewers of David Lynch's work a few years later, or vice versa. Whether this was the director's attempt to make up for increasingly dodgy writing, or an exercise of artistic freedom following early news of cancellation, the result was arguably a bad end to a potentially classic TV show.

For the sake of nostalgia, I do hope to see this series published on DVD. Newcomers would probably dig the show, though it isn't going to live up to the high praise some reviewers give it.