Teen Wolf
- This article is about the TV series. For the character occasionally referred to as Teen Wolf, see Scott Howard.
| Teen Wolf | |
|---|---|
 On-screen title card. | |
| Network | CBS |
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera Australia |
| Original release | September 13, 1986—November 7, 1987 |
| Run time | 24 minutes |
| Starring | Townsend Coleman James Hampton Stacy Keach, Sr. June Foray Don Most Jeannie Elias |
| Executive producer(s) | Buzz Potamkin Jonathan Dana |
| Producer(s) | Gordon Kent |
| Music composed by | David Kitay Richard Kosinski Wells Christie John Lewis Parker John Donnellan |
| Writer(s) | Buzz Dixon Gordon Kent |
| Director(s) | Gordon Kent |
| Animation director(s) | Jon McClenahan Darrell Van Citters |
Teen Wolf is an American-Australian animated supernatural TV series co-produced by Southern Star and Hanna-Barbera Australia in association with Clubhouse Pictures (season one) and Atlantic/Kushner-Locke (season two) for CBS' Saturday morning children's programming. It ran from 1986 to 1987, airing 21 episodes spanning two seasons. The TV series is a spin-off of the big-screen film of the same name starring Michael J. Fox in the title role. Fox did not reprise the role, with Townsend Coleman cast instead, although James Hampton returned as the father.
The series deals with 16-year-old Scott Howard, who on top of dealing with the usual problems of a boy his age, has to deal with the added burden of living as a werewolf with the rest of his family, which he must hide to the rest of the Wolverton. The only people who know his secret are his best friend, Stiles, who would also happen to sell him out in an instant if he could, his other friend, Boof, and the housekeeper, Frieda. He is constantly pining for the most attractive girl at his school, even in spite of her alpha jock boyfriend.
If the reader is familiar with the film, they already know this greatly diverges from the film, making it a loose inspiration, instead of a direct continuation. In the film, Scott only lived with his father, had the same two friends, while his secret became known to the whole town, which was known as Beacontown, and he was propelled into a mini-celebrity. With this knowledge, his unrequited crush, Pamela, took more of an interest in him, eventually leading to seducing him, but in reality, she was still with her first boyfriend, Mick. Scott ended up seeing the truth and no longer relied on his werewolf form to impress his friends, while also ditching Pamela, and finally seeing Boof as more than just a friend, who in turn had the same feelings. Scott is two years older in the film.
Also worth noting is that the last episode also has ties to the sequel, Teen Wolf Too, as it features the same cousin, Todd. Both the episode and the film are also different from each other, with the latter having Todd learn about his family heritage and becoming a werewolf for the first time, while in the movie he knew about his heritage, but hadn't shown signs yet.
The entire series has been released on DVD in Australia. The entire series almost got released in the United States in 2017.
Production
Development
Music
The music was composed by David Kitay and Richard Kosinski, Wells Christie, John Lewis Parker, and James Donnellan. Music was supervised by Steve Tyrell. The music design was performed by Tyrell/Mann.
The opening music was written by Parker and Barry Mann, and sung by Tyrell. While the closing music was written by Ashley Hall and Stefanie Tyrell, and sung by Hall.
Episodes
The correct order is unknown, so some episodes might be listed incorrectly.
| Title | Original air date |
|---|---|
| 1x01 | September 13, 1986 |
| 1x02 | September 20, 1986 |
| 1x03 | September 27, 1986 |
| 1x04 | October 4, 1986 |
| 1x05 | October 11, 1986 |
| 1x06 | October 18, 1986 |
| 1x07 | October 25, 1986 |
| 1x08 | November 1, 1986 |
| 1x09 | November 8, 1986 |
| 1x10 | November 15, 1986 |
| 1x11 | November 22, 1986 |
| 1x12 | November 29, 1986 |
| 1x13 | December 6, 1986 |
| 2x01 | September 19, 1987 |
| 2x02 | September 26, 1987 |
| 2x03 | October 3, 1987 |
| 2x04 | October 10, 1987 |
| 2x05 | October 17, 1987 |
| 2x06 | October 24, 1987 |
| 2x07 | October 31, 1987 |
| 2x08 | November 7, 1987 |
Release
Dates are in order of release:
- United States: September 13, 1986 at 8:30 pm on CBS
- United Kingdom and Ireland: March 2, 1989 at 4:25 pm on Premiere
- Australia: November 11, 1989 7am-12am on TCN 9
Cast
- Townsend Coleman as Scott Howard
- James Hampton as Harold Howard
- Stacy Keach, Sr. as Grandpa Howard
- June Foray as Grandma Howard
- Don Most as Stiles Stilinski
- Jeannie Elias as Boof Marconi
Merchandise
Home media
In the UK, the series debuted on VHS in 1987 almost two years before it was aired on TV, in three VHS tapes called The Cartoon Adventures of Teen Wolf, by Entertainment in Video. In 1989, Video Gems also released a VHS.
VHSes were also released in the 1990s in the United States and Australia.
On April 18, 2008, Australian distributor Beyond Home Entertainment the series was released on a three-disc DVD set called Teen Wolf: The Complete Animated Series.
The American distributor Shout! Factory announced on June 6, 2017, that they planned to release the series on DVD later in the year on September 5, but on June 29, they canceled it indefinitely due to unforeseen legal issues.
