Werewolf: The First Half - Frank Lupo - (1987-1988) DVD

Summary: Young Eric has been bitten by a werewolf. However, he's not particularly thrilled by this turn of affairs and wishes to escape his curse. To do so, he must find and kill the founder of his particular werewolf clan. The series traces his efforts to (A) track down the founder; (B) keep from hurting innocent lives due to his lycanthropy; and (C) stay one step ahead of folks who wish to kill him due to his werewolf nature.

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 skepticism, 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.

Episodes:

1. Pilot Movie (Meat the Parents)
2. Nightwatch
3. The Boy Who Cried Werewolf
4. The Black Ship
5. Spectre of the Wolf
6. The Wolf Who Thought He Was a Man
7. Nothing Evil in These Woods
8. Running with the Pack
9. Friendly Haven
10. Let Us Prey
11. A World of Difference: Part 1
12. A World of Difference: Part 2
13. The Unicorn

Quality Rating Score:
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