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Full moon and empty heads...
The Werewolf, also known as Harry Albert, was an antagonist on the 1975 Filmation live action kids comedy, The Ghost Busters.
He and his partner, a Gypsy sorceress named Sophia, were, like most of the antagonists on the short-lived show, ghosts returned from the afterlife on a quest. In their case, they sought an amulet named Baldus Lupus in order to cure Harry of the affliction that persisted even after the grave. No indication of their relationship while they were alive is given, nor is why or when Sophia became interested in helping Harry obtain a cure. They were featured in the show's fourth episode, 'Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?'.
When they emerge in the cemetery of the unnamed town the titular Ghost Busters work out of, it quickly becomes apparent that the curse has taken its toll on Harry's sanity and humanity. Being a kids' show, the effect is the opposite of many modern werewolf tales. Harry, even when not transformed, has begun to behave like a large, friendly dog, apt to chase sticks, dig up bones, and be distracted by biscuits. Sophia (speaking in a sitcom Gypsy-by-way-of-Catskills accent), vows to make him a man once again, just in time for the clouds covering the full moon to part, completing Harry's transformation. He seems no more or no less under control when transformed, except that he is unable to speak, only growl and howl. Any time the clouds pass over the moon, he reverts to Human form.
Meanwhile, Ghost Buster Eddie Spencer, showing his usual luck, has found the very amulet the pair are looking for, not to mention a giant bone, the kind which a large dog might like. After Spencer and Tracy The Gorilla engage in some tomfoolery, Jake Kong chases them out to get their next assignment from unseen employer Zero. After Tracy (who does all the driving, for some odd reason) almost gets them killed while parking, the gorilla enters the store containing their recorded instructions, only to panic and drop them when he learns they would be facing a werewolf's ghost. As a result, they cannot learn who the werewolf's partner is. Attempts to use their decrepit, non-functional filing system back at the office also thwart this.
Sophia's crystal ball leads the duo to the Ghost Busters office, where, for obvious reasons, they become wary of the residents. Professing to help the heroes find what they're looking for, Sophia pretends to gaze into in her crystal ball, Harry searches for the amulet, which none of the heroes realize even has any value. As the moon appears and disappears behind the clouds, Harry changes form several times, which Tracy (who cannot speak Human) sees but is unable to relate to his fellow Ghost Busters what's happening. Giving up, Tracy watches as the werewolf now struggles with the filing system like Eddie did. When his search turns up the amulet, Sophia and Harry disappear, finally cluing the heroes in and putting them on the chase. Sadly for Sophia and Harry, however, the increasingly dog-like Harry grabbed the giant bone, while Tracy palmed the amulet.
Going to the castle, the heroes are chased (though arguably not really ever menaced) by Harry, briefly losing the amulet before separating the two and managing to banish Sophia. Harry, happy with a big dog biscuit, is also finally dispatched by the ghost De-Materializer. Back at the office, Jake and Tracy suffer a brief comedic scare when Eddie howls over the picture of his unseen girlfriend—whom it is implied is not all that good looking.
Trivia[]
- The Filmation Ghostbusters Wiki points out that there need have been no conflict in this episode. The antagonists, while deceitful and theft-prone, were not evil, curing Harry would not have posed a threat to anyone, and the Ghost Busters, had they known what the amulet did, would have likely just given it to them.
- Harry Albert was played by Lennie Weinrib, most noted as a voice actor, doing several voices on the original Voltron dub, including Lion Pilot Hunk and sadistic heir Prince Lotor. Sophia was played by Dodo Denney, an actress best known, according to Wikipedia and IMDB, for playing the mother of couch potato Mike Teevee in the 1971 version of Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.
- The show's theme is sung by the series two leads, Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch. Tucker was known to belt out 'Dear Old Donegal' on F-Troop. Storch, besides his voice acting work, had a rather impressive associate he may have picked up a few tricks from - he was an opening act in Las Vegas for Frank Sinatra.
- The name Sophia means 'wisdom' , something her character was sorely lacking in. The name Harry Albert seems to be a sound-alike for Larry Talbot, the human form of Universal's Wolf Man. His clothes also resemble those worn by Talbot's character.
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