"Wolf Lake" Unaired Pilot (2001)

Director:

Rupert Wainwright

Writers:

James Duff (writer)
John Leekley (writer)

TV Series:

"Wolf Lake" (2001)

Original Air Date:

2001 (Season 1, Episode 0)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Werewolf

Cast

Lou Diamond Phillips	...	Noah Cassidy
Graham Greene	...	Professor Duke Joseph
Tim Matheson	...	Sheriff Jack Kohanek
Stacy Edwards	...	Alexandra Kelly
Jeff Fahey	...	Russell Kelly
Bruce McGill	...	Dr. Sokolov
Xander Berkeley	...	Carl
Mary Elizabeth Winstead	...	Sophia Kohanek
Paul Wesley	...	Luke Cates (as Paul Wasilewski)
Scott Heindl	...	Harvey Rockwell
Jodelle Ferland	...	Lily Kelly
C. Ernst Harth	...	Ray
Adrienne Carter	...	Davi Sokolov
Suzy Joachim	...	Hannah
Steve Makaj	...	Pool Hall Owner

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Trivia:

This was an unaired pilot episode for the TV show "Wolf Lake" (2001). While it has many of the same cast members, there are many important differences: - Rather than being a detective looking for his lost girlfriend, "Noah Cassidy" (later renamed John Kanin) is posing as a government wildlife management agent but is really investigating the werewolf clans of Wolf Lake. - "Sheriff Kohanek" (Sheriff Donner) has a wife who is missing rather than dead, and also has a sister-in-law to whom he is close. - "Dr. Sokolov" (Willard Cates) is not mayor of the town. He does have a son (and a daughter who is killed), but it is not Luke. Luke instead is his dead daughter's boyfriend, who is set to take over the werewolf clan. - "Professor Duke Joseph" (Sherman Blackstone) reveals that he is on a sacred mission to maintain balance between the clans. - Both the sheriff and the native American appear to be human. - There are differences in the way the werewolf pack is portrayed. Here there seem to be several clans, fighting against each other and against the humans. There is mention of "the great war of the clans".

Movie Connections:

Followed by "Wolf Lake" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Change (In the House of Flies)

Wrong time, wrong channel

"Wolf Lake" wasn't a bad show, but it had the misfortune of being on the wrong network (CBS) at the wrong time (right after 9/11). The promotion machine wasn't put into high gear for the program because it came at the time when everyone in the country was glued to the news, and I don't think the network had that much faith in it anyway.

WL was not a compelling piece of TV such as "The X-Files" its first few seasons, but it was enjoyable nevertheless, and I would have watched it regularly. I also don't think that CBS had the right demographic for the show. I don't see fans of "Everybody Loves Raymond" or "Judging Amy" getting all rabid (excuse the pun) over a show about sexy werewolves. Kind of the same problem that ABC's "Prey" had in the late 1990's. Perhaps Sci-Fi Channel will pick up, or at least the rest of the episodes to run on their "Inhuman Land" day.