After six seasons, 100 episodes, galleries full of fan art and thousands of pages of
fan fiction – it’s hard to imagine a world without Teen Wolf – but the show was far
from a sure thing when Jeff Davis started working on the concept back in 2008.
The writer and executive producer tells me he wasn’t expecting much when he first met
with MTV executives.
“I call them water bottle meetings because you always leave with a bottle of water and
very little else.
The promise of ‘doing something together’ but with typically no real commitment and
or actual intention to do so.”
Davis was already well versed in this type of “general meeting.”
He’d spent the previous five years developing, launching and producing the hit crime procedural
show Criminal Minds on CBS.
But this meeting would be different for a couple of reasons.
MTV executives were eager to catch the wave of peak television with a move into
high-quality scripted programming.
The VIACOM network had just hired Justin Levy, one of the executives behind the critically
acclaimed series “Friday Night Lights”.
His job was to help move MTV away from reality shows and in to scripted programming.
At the same time, the perpetually bankrupt MGM studios began sifting through their vaults
looking for some way to re-energize and transform their old intellectual properties into quick
cash.
This confluence of events led to Jeff Davis, Justin Levy and MTV’s President Tony Disanto
sipping bottled water and talking about Teen Wolf, a 1985 movie about a teenage werewolf
that plays basketball really, really well.
Announcer: He's always wanted to be something special, but he never expected this.
Stiles: Woohoo!
Announcer: Teen Wolf.
He's got style.
Pamela: There's something different about you.
Crowd: Wolf.
Wolf.
Pamela: Did you change your hair?
Announcer: He's got class.
Crowd: Wolf. Wolf. Wolf.
Drama Teacher: Wolf person.
Lit Teacher: Wolfe!
Announcer: He's got hair all over his body.
Pamela: Wolves aren't supposed to be shy.
Announcer: He's a wolf in teen's clothing.
And tonight is his night to howl.
Teen Wolf, a new comedy with Michael J. Fox, star of Back to the Future.
“While I remember the movie pretty fondly, I also remember it didn’t quite hold up
that well.
Remember the Wolf Dance?
It would need a lot of reinvention.”
MTV already had producers Marty Adelstein and Michael Thorn attached to the project
and Davis was already working with them on another pilot for the SyFy channel.
When the trio turned their attention to Teen Wolf, they drew on another 80s movie for inspiration.
[haunting music] ♩ ♬ Cry little sister. ♩ ♬
♩ ♬ Come to your brother ♩ ♬
“Thorn and I talked about doing Teen Wolf in the vein of The Lost Boys.
What attracted me most to the project was being able to approach the show with a sense
of humor.”
Sam: What's that smell?
It smells like someone died.
Michael: Hey grandpa, is it true that Santa Carla is the murder capital of the world?
Grandpa: There's some bad elements around here.
Edgar: We've been aware there's some very serious vampire activity in this town for a long time.
Alan: Santa Carla's become a haven for the undead.
“I had loved that about The Lost Boys.
That it was funny, scary, romantic and that it had a great mystery underneath with a pretty
brilliant third act reveal.
I thought that could easily be the paradigm for the show.”
Adelstein and Thorn teamed Davis with veteran writer and producer René Echevarria.
He did a lot of Star Trek and cult classics like The 4400 and Dark Angel.
“They set up a meeting for us to get together and René and I totally hit it off.
We essentially developed the pilot story together.
While I did the outlining, René was there as a producer, mentor, and great sounding
board.
I would pitch him ideas and he would give me his thoughts.”
When they were done, Davis believed they had just the right mix of suspense, drama, romance
and humor and turned the finished script over to the network suits.
After months of revisions and network notes and changes to the script
MTV executives eventually decided to move forward with Teen Wolf ...
... but only with a baby step.
Apparently, the powers that be at the network still weren’t ready to fully commit to a
full-length pilot episode.
Instead, they ordered what is known as a “presentation pilot”
a shortened version of a first script.
It’s cheaper to produce and can give nervous executives some idea if the show will actually
work on screen.
Davis and Echevarria went to work again compressing 42 minutes of action into about
15 minutes of screen time.
The new time limit meant they cut out most of the last two acts.
While that process was underway, they started interviewing directors.
“Russell Mulcahy was one of our first meetings.
He came in with fantastic storyboards and great visuals to complement the script.
He had storyboarded the whole shower sequence where Scott first transforms.”
Mulcahy began making short films in his native Australia, he won several local awards before
he landed a gig adding video clips to songs for a TV show.
Mulcahy was at the forefront of the music video artform and it would be one of his productions
that would be the very first thing MTV ever broadcast.
From music videos, he moved into feature films and landed a huge hit with Highlander, a movie
about immortals doing battle through the ages.
“It was his style and approach that would really make the show special and something
that looked as good as what the broadcast networks were producing.”
With an established film director now in place, the next step in the process could begin.
Davis begins collecting a group of familiar
faces and undiscovered talent to populate Beacon Hills.
The casting process would last right up until shooting on the pilot presentation began in
February 2010.
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