Janu-Fahey Couch Potato Month: Wolf Lake (Unaired Pilot)

Ending this month right on time (and it is hard since my home internet suddenly went on vacation, curse you 2018) and I’m looking at an unaired pilot to a short-lived series where Jeff Fahey plays a character who’s never seen in any other episode. It’s kinda strange but there must be a reason why he’s omitted from the final product. Maybe he has no relevance to the actual story or maybe he doesn’t wanna be in the show but whatever the answer is, it is a complete mystery.

The show is of course Wolf Lake and it’s basically about werewolves taking over a small town with Lou Diamond Phillips as a protagonist with Tim Matheson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Grapham Green and Bruce McGill involved. Now this show is from the mindchild of John Leekley who gave us a 1995 pilot for The Omen (which everybody forgets this existed more than The Omen IV: The Awakening), a 1994 pilot for Knight Rider 2010 (which I’m sure David Hasselhoff forgets to say yes to this idea) and Kindred: The Embraced. Well, at least he is an executive producer on another show instead of making a pilot that goes nowhere.

So what’s the plot about? Well, it’s almost basically the plot to the first episode of Twin Peaks. Okay, there are major differences there but it focused on the murder of Davi Sokolov (Adrienne Carter) who’s a werewolf with Noah Cassidy (Lou Diamond Philips) coming into town pretending to be a wildlife management agent but is checking what is going on in Wolf Lake so he’s basically Agent Cooper there. I don’t know else to say really but it does felt like I’m watching a mix of Twin Peaks and any Werewolf story. Heck, the scene where Lily Kelly (Jodelle Ferland) encounters a werewolf reminds me a bit of Twilight (especially the “imprinted one from Jacob” in Breaking Dawn which is pretty creepy) and that’s all before her mom Alexandra (Stacy Edwards) and father Russell (Jeff Fahey) stops it with Alexandra later revealed to be possibly a werewolf or something.

There are strange changes to the unaired pilot and aired series that I wish I could cover more. I did explain that Jeff Fahey’s character has been omitted but also Xander Berkeley also make an appearance as one of the characters responsible for the girl’s death but he is not seen in the show itself. Despite that and other changes, I hate to say it but this pilot is not much to talk about. I do like some acting from Mary going from wallflower girl to well, herself really along with Xander acting sinister towards Noah. And Jeff, he is definitely hardly in this. I think I can see why he’s not in the actual show because he only has two scenes where he speaks and one where he holds Dr Sokolov (Bruce McGill) after Davi’s body is found. Had the show extend it to maybe feature-length, there might be something but I don’t think I’ll look into the show itself especially when the pilot end on a cliffhanger with Noah hiding from a pack of werewolves.

Well, this month end a bit anticlimactic but after next month, we got a bit more of Jeff Fahey stuff so hopefully it’s not him as a glorified cameo. But seeing as it’s Christmas, I do need to look into a couple of superhero films and a Steve Guttenberg christmas joint so until then.