Big Wolf on Campus

Big Wolf on Campus
Format	Horror Supernatural drama Teen dramedy Romance Action
Created by	Chris Briggs Peter A. Knight
Starring	Brandon Quinn Danny Smith Rachelle Lefevre Aimée Castle
Country of origin	Canada
No. of episodes	65 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Abbie Charette Peter Knight
Running time	22 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	YTV (Canada), Fox Family Channel (USA)
Original run	April 2, 1999 (1999-04-02) – April 27, 2002 (2002-04-27)

Big Wolf on Campus is a Canadian television series created by Peter A. Knight and Christopher Briggs that ran from 1999 to 2002. In the lighthearted horror/teen drama tradition of Sabrina, The Teenage Witch,^{[citation needed]} it is about a teenage boy named Thomas "Tommy" P. Dawkins, who was bitten by a werewolf during a camping trip in the woods a week before his senior year. After becoming a werewolf, he fights against vampires, cat women, ghosts, zombies, and other supernatural entities to keep his hometown of Pleasantville safe, even though almost everyone in Pleasantville believes that their protector, "The Pleasantville Werewolf", is dangerous.

Overview

Thomas "Tommy" P. Dawkins is a teen werewolf with two friends who know his secret: Merton J. Dingle, a goth with an encyclopedic knowledge of just about every supernatural creature Tommy needs to know about, and Lori Baxter, a kickboxer who first appeared in season two after Stacy Hanson, Tommy's love interest, left to pursue college at the end of season one.

Many episodes satirize popular films and TV shows, and Merton usually makes the connection, but when asked "what happened" Merton begins to talk about the creator, actors and popularity of the movie, rather than what happened in the movie itself. Tommy finds this habit so annoying that he usually reacts by smacking Merton on the head and asking "In the movie...what happened in the movie?" In fact, Tommy found this so frustrating that when he had been hypnotized into a mindless drone, he still did this (ironically, Tommy does exactly the same thing in Dancing Without Wolves, when he moves to a parallel world, attempts to tell the Merton in that world about his travel, and uses the Nicolas Cage movie The Family Man as an example). "Big Wolf On Campus" has numerous pop culture references which are obviously intended for an audience older than the typical kid show. This is shown when Corey Haim guest stars as himself in the episode "Blame It on the Haim" and Corey Feldman in "What's the Story Mourning Corey?".

Cast and characters

• Brandon Quinn as Thomas "Tommy" P. Dawkins, aka "The Pleasantville Werewolf." Tommy is a senior in high school and the main character of "Big Wolf on Campus". He was one of the most popular kids in the school, and is the captain of the football team. His mother is the head reporter of Pleasantville news while his father is the Mayor of Pleasantville and he also has his couch potato brother, Dean Dawkins. He has two love interests, Stacy Hanson in the first season and then Lori Baxter in the second. During a camping trip on the night before senior year, he is bitten by a werewolf known as Mr. Dunleavy, whom he meets in "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow". He befriends social outcast Merton Dingle after Merton offers to help him with his lycanthropy. In the first season, his "wolfing out" made his relationship with Stacy Hanson difficult because he always had to leave to fight bad guys. In the second season, Stacy left for college early, and his new love interest was Lori Baxter, who finds out about his secret after he has to save her from the Werewolf Syndicate. A recurring theme in the series is how he wants to get rid of his lycanthropy.

• Danny Smith as Merton J. Dingle. Merton is Tommy's best friend who helps him with his werewolf problem. He is a social outcast and a goth who is often the subject of bullying, especially by Tim and Travis. Tommy Dawkins and Lori Baxter are his only friends. He has converted his basement into what he calls his "lair", in which he, Tommy and later on, Lori use as their meeting place. He has a younger sister, Becky, with whom he has a rivalry with and who often calls him "a freaker", and tries to act like he doesn't exist. He is very protective of her, however, but this often annoys his sister. At the same time, she showed appreciation of Merton when he cheered her up after a potential date stood her up without explanation. He is often the comic relief of the show with his quirky personality and his often cowardly behaviour, but sometimes he has been shown to have courage by risking himself to save Tommy, such as when he leaped in front of Tommy and was turned to stone by Medusa instead of Tommy. He wishes that he were a werewolf too, often asking Tommy to pass on his lycanthropy to him, and even becoming a werewolf temporarily when he accidentally pricked his finger on one of Tommy's fangs during a dental exam. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things to do with mythology and movies, often giving movie references to everything. He is a budding screen writer and often tries to write screenplays, and even got one sent to Corey Feldman, who came to Pleasantville once himself. Merton has had many love interests throughout the series, with the main one being Lori Baxter in the second and third seasons, sometimes fighting with Tommy over her. He is very loyal to Tommy, but there was a recurring joke in the series in that he would attempt to make deals with enemies, though Tommy ends up defeating them afterward.

• Rachelle Lefevre (1999) as Stacey Hanson was Tommy's love interest in Season one. She is the captain of cheerleading and the most popular girl in school, said to have dated seniors since the sixth grade. She has given Tommy many second chances, but most of their dates are often ruined by Tommy "wolfing out", which she takes for him just ditching her. She left for college at the end of the first season, because Rachelle Lefèvre (who played Stacey) was doing the same thing.

• Aimée Castle (2000–2002) as Lauren 'Lori' Baxter is Tommy's friend and sometime sweetheart who debuts in season two. She transferred from Pleasantville Catholic for vandalizing a tribute to the school's football star which was wrecked during a one on one scrimmage between Tommy and the ghost of that star. She is a kickboxer and often uses her fighting skills to help Tommy beat the bad guys. Both Tommy and Merton like her, but she often picks Tommy over Merton. She is the only other person apart from Merton who knows that Tommy is a werewolf. She becomes a werewolf herself temporarily when she is bitten by Tommy, who was under the spell of the Syndicate, but was turned back into a human by Merton.

Minor characters

• Domenic Di Rosa and Rob deLeeuw as Tim and Travis Eckert, aka "T'N'T". They are two six-year juniors at Tommy's school who are large and unintelligent. They often try to capture "The Pleasentville Werewolf", not knowing that they're actually chasing Tommy.
• Jack Mosshammer as Dean Dawkins. Dean is Tommy's brother. He is two years out of college, unemployed, and still lives with his parents. Dean is almost always found at home, sitting in a recliner and watching television.
• Nathalie Vansier as Becky Dingle is Merton's younger sister. She often refers to him as "freaker".
• Jane Wheeler as Sally Dawkins is Tommy's mother. She's a local reporter in Pleasantville.
• Richard Jutras as Hugo Bostwick (1999), is the eccentric security guard at Pleasantville High School.
• Alan Fawcett as Mayor Bob Dawkins is Tommy's father. He is the wealthy and influential mayor of Pleasantville.

Recurring Gags

• When he's left alone with a bad guy, Merton often asks the villain what it's like to be what they are, e.g. "So, you're a soul stealing agent of the dark dominion, what's that like?" or "So, you're a cybernetic creation who turned on his creator, what's that like?" To which they will often reply with an answer like "it puts food on the table".
• Merton making a movie reference, then instead of talking about the movie itself, he would talk about either how the film was received or what he felt when he watched it. Tommy usually hits him and says "In the movie!" e.g. "This is like the Purple Rose of Cairo, Woody Allen's Oscar-nominated tale of longing and betrayal." "Yeah? What happened?" "The academy snubbed him, it's all so political." "What happened in the movie!?" This was the most recognizable gag in the show. Even when Tommy was under a trance, he still hit Merton, and when they're in a parallel dimension, it is Tommy who makes the movie reference.
• Tommy's hero worship of John Elway, having an annual speech on him and also having an autographed rookie card of him.
• Merton trying to make a deal with his enemies when it looks like Tommy has lost.
• Merton saying someone has a rash in order to humiliate them, usually Tommy or Becky.

Production

• Originally, Brandon Quinn had more extreme werewolf make-up. He had an allergic reaction to the glue and the look had to be altered.^[1]

• Danny Smith, who played Merton J. Dingle added a lot of his own catch phrases into the role.^{[citation needed]} He also wrote, produced, and sang the show's theme song.^[1] During the show, Merton tries writing a song, and actually writes the show's theme (albeit with one or two words changed).

See also

• I Was a Teenage Werewolf
• Teen Wolf
• Teen Wolf the cartoon television series
• Teen Wolf (2011 TV series)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} http://www.bigwolfoncampus.org/faq/

External links

• Big Wolf on Campus at TV.com
• Big Wolf on Campus at the Internet Movie Database
• Fansite at BigWolfonCampus.org