-wolf howls-
Scott Howard: Not again.
Teen Wolf cannot escape the 80s, most specifically 1985.
While based on a 1985 film, the makers
of the MTV TV series did everything they could to avoid overt comparisons to the original,
but they couldn't help but dip back into the 80s again and again. The scene we just looked
at from Lydia's birthday in season 2 is lifted directly from the Anthony Michael Hall/Kelly
LeBrock film Weird Science that was released in 1985.
Phoenix: We're here for the party.
Crowd shouting: Hi!
Beacon Hills was also next door to a town called Hill Valley.
Melissa: Hill Valley is under a flood watch.
Doctor: I live in Hill Valley.
Hill Valley is the town from all three Back to the Future movies that all started in 1985.
Voice: The future is in your hands.
And we saw Derek impart this false bit of lore to Scott back in season one.
Scott: I need you to tell me the truth.
Is there a cure.
Derek: You have to kill the one that bit you.
Yeah, that whole "the cure is to kill the
one that bit you" piece of fiction is directly from
1987's The Lost Boys.
Sam: Look, it says here that if you kill the head vampire, all half vampires will return
to normal.
Teen Wolf never hid its love of gay culture.
And specifically drag queens.
We saw these Atlanta performers at the Jungle nightclub in season two and more drag performers
from Los Angeles were cast to appear in season five.
But do you remember the RuPaul's drag race contestant that appeared on Teen Wolf?
In 2012 as Teen Wolf was ramping up filming of its second season in Atlanta, Georgia,
RuPaul's Drag Race was entering its fourth season and firmly establishing itself as a
cultural touchstone.
So it was just a matter of time before Drag Race and Teen Wolf would collide.
Atlanta based actor and drag performer.
Brian Trapp competed on the 2011 season of Drag Race as Phoenix.
And the very next year landed a small, but very memorable role in the Teen Wolf episode
Party Guessed.
Lydia: And you are?
Phoenix: We're here for the party.
In universe, this all came about because Stiles apparently had Phoenix on speed dial and figured
if anyone could save Lydia's birthday party from a dull doom, it was Phoenix and her friends.
Lydia: Well, come on in.
Don’t touch anything.
The very iconic Beacon Hills hospital was sold and then torn down.
The iconic Medical Center where Melissa McCall worked and where so much criminal
medical malpractice seemed to happen every week.
Doctor: Someone want to explain this to me.
It was actually filmed right outside Teen Wolf studios in the
8000 block of Balboa Boulevard in the Northridge neighborhood.
All they had to do was add signs and CGI several new floors to the top.
It was a perfect hospital and so many things went down in front of
this building from season three until season six.
They used this strip of land between the offices and the warehouse studio
for part of Beacon Hills High School.
They also used the back of this building for the entrance to the vet clinic.
Cora: But how do we know who's in there? Is it Derek or Ennis or both?
All of that ended a few weeks into filming season six when the production's lease was
up and they had to move to a new studio in a different neighborhood.
The Balboa Studio was sold and torn down in 2016. If you stop by today you can grab some
burgers or a little Chipotle but there is no sign of Beacon Hills Hospital anymore.
Beacon Hills, California is one of the best known fictional towns in the United States,
but how did it get its name? We learned in season three, that Beacon Hills is home to a
very powerful supernatural object known as the Nemeton. It's a druid ceremonial site that is,
according to Dr. Deaton, at the root of much of the creature activity in the town.
Deaton: It will draw them here like a beacon.
Oh, I see what you did there. Beacon Hills is a beacon for the supernatural.
Very clever Jeff Davis. So you thought of that when you were first working on the pilot?
I did not. Yeah. That sort of developed, I picked the name Beacon Hills because the
original name of the town in the original Teen Wolf movie, the Michael J. Fox movie, was Beacon
Town and it didn't sort of roll off the tongue as nicely as I liked it. So I added Hills. Yeah.
Also of note Beacon Town is in Nebraska and does not,
as far as I know, have a magical magnetic tree stump.