More Than Ripples in ‘Wolf Lake’

CBS’ “Wolf Lake,” one of the first new prime-time series to premiere this fall season, could be called a wolf in wolf’s clothing. Since the network decided to pick up the show in May, it has undergone a metamorphosis--the creator has left the show, characters and motivations have been changed, stylistic touches have been altered to attract a younger audience, and cast members have come and gone.

Even before the changes, the drama, which revolves around the mysterious and supernatural happenings in a remote mountainous region of the Pacific Northwest, had generated positive buzz with its high production values, ethnically diverse cast and unique premise in which wolves can transform into humans.

Pilots are regularly regarded as rough drafts, and creative tinkering with shows before--and even after--they get on the air is a common practice in television. But rarely are there dramatic shifts in direction as exist between the two versions of “Wolf Lake,” and even rarer are situations in which a series creator leaves his or her project before they get a chance to develop it beyond the first episode.

None of the scenes from the original “Wolf Lake” pilot are in the premiere episode airing tonight. The similarities between the two installments are few, as if the network approved the idea and then decided to go into a distinctly different direction.

Lou Diamond Phillips, who stars in the show as Seattle police officer John Kanin, says the series he is filming is not the show he agreed to do. Since the original pilot, his character’s name, occupation, focus and motivation have all been changed.

“It’s the difference between night and day,” said Phillips, who is probably best known for his portrayal of singer Richie Valens in the film “La Bamba,” though he’s had several other film roles and also starred on Broadway in “The King & I.” “It’s just a different show altogether.”

But he’s not complaining. In fact, he feels even more confident about the new direction of “Wolf Lake”: “I’m extremely happy with what’s being done. I like it a lot. I don’t know what I would have done if I had hated it. But they’ve tailored my character to meet a lot of my strengths and some of the baggage I bring from film.”

Indeed, Phillips was initially skeptical about taking time from his movie career to focus on a weekly TV series. The experience and “Wolf Lake’s” transformation, he says, have given him a quick and somewhat overwhelming insight into the world of television as a business.

“It’s so corporate,” Phillips said, “the way these decisions are made based on testing, based on what the network wants, what the producers want. It’s just a bizarre world.”

In the original pilot for “Wolf Lake,” menacing wolves were prominently featured. In the new pilot, only one wolf is seen, while the other creatures are mostly just heard. In the early version, Phillips played a Bureau of Land Management official tracking the movements of wolves in the region. Now he plays a tortured police detective who journeys to Wolf Lake to find his girlfriend, who has mysteriously disappeared from Seattle.

Much of the music in the original pilot was a percussion-driven score with hints of ghostly chants and Native American elements. The new “Wolf Lake” incorporates rock music and uses music-video-style montages in some scenes.

Stacy Edwards, who played an attorney in the first pilot who would eventually become romantically involved with Phillips’ character, was ousted, along with co-star Jeff Fahey. Sharon Lawrence (“NYPD Blue”) was added to the cast of the current show as the wife of the town’s wealthiest resident, played by Bruce McGill. Graham Greene, Tim Matheson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and McGill are other holdovers from the original pilot.

John Leekley, the creator of “Wolf Lake,” says he left the show voluntarily and bears no ill will toward the new producers or CBS. Leekley also says he has no problem with the overhaul of his vision. He is still credited as the show’s creator and continues to work on the series as a consultant.

“Yes, I was surprised,” said Leekley, when asked his opinion of the changes and the new “Wolf Lake.” “But I’m not upset. They have clearly decided to make a different show. That is a network decision. No one ever knows what works. I guess they wanted to be in the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ business. They know what’s best for CBS.”

For Alex Gansa, who took over as the drama’s executive producer, it was the future, rather than the pilot, that bothered him. “The main reason some changes were made was that it was difficult for me to understand where the series was going after seeing the first show,” Gansa said, “or where it would be going in five years.

“But we loved the ingredients and the mood and the town’s secrets and the wolves and the atmosphere that John had come up with. It was evocative and rich. What we wanted to bring was a recipe. We wanted to add story elements and make it more of a gothic soap opera.”

CBS executives have downplayed the changes in “Wolf Lake.” As Nina Tassler, CBS’ senior vice president of drama development, explains it: “We always liked what we had with ‘Wolf Lake.’ The script was a work in progress. The first pilot was a work in progress.”

Added David Stapf, senior vice president of current programming at the network, “By redoing the pilot, we have retained what was unique about the concept while opening up new story avenues.”

While rare, the shift in “Wolf Lake” is not unprecedented. The original vision of CBS’ “Touched by an Angel” by writer-producer John Masius treated the concept of angels as more fantasy than reality. Martha Williamson was brought in to make the series more realistic and spiritual.

Masius left and Williamson took over the show, though Masius remains listed as creator of the series.

“The angels had wings, the Della Reese character smoked and used four-letter words,” said Williamson. “It was making fun of the very people it should have been uplifting. John had the foresight of finding that unbelievable chemistry between Roma [Downey] and Della Reese, but he came up with a formula that was the opposite of what the series needed.”

In the case of “Wolf Lake,” Leekley said he was first approached by CBS to develop a drama with supernatural elements. He had been an executive producer on the animated HBO series “Spawn” and had also created the vampire-influence “Kindred ... the Embraced” for Fox in 1996.

“CBS wanted a werewolf project,” Leekley said. “To me, being a werewolf was always about transformation. The genre had been badly served with people with hairy faces. I wanted to show real transformation--the spirit and soul.”

Although CBS was pleased with his result, the network not only wanted to make creative changes, but also bring in an experienced show runner. They recruited Gansa, a veteran of “The X-Files” and the short-lived quirky drama “Maximum Bob.”

It soon became clear that the two writers had very different ideas about the direction of the series, Gansa said.

“[Our visions of the show] were quite divergent,” he explained. “So we both had to make a decision, and CBS had to make a decision. All shows need one strong voice, and it was going to be John or me.”

Gansa added, “Where we may differ is that there was no sense of levity in John’s show. When you do a scary movie, the more fun you can have with the silliness of what’s going on, the scarier it can be. I mean, these people are shape-shifting into wolves!”

Leekley said that while CBS was pressuring him to make changes, other opportunities were opening up for him--so many that he finally decided to leave the show to Gansa.

“I just felt so much passion about these other projects that I just decided to let them have their creative space,” Leekley said. Among his other opportunities is serving as writer and executive producer on the upcoming TNT series “Purgatory,” and writing and producing a feature film, “The White Rose,” for director Joel Schumacher.

He’s also still working for CBS, co-writing a film about the Mafia called “Family Doctor.”

“It was all handled in a very amicable way,” said Gansa. “I told John, ‘Hey, next year, you’ll be replacing me on a series I created.’ ”

The change in direction threw Phillips at first.

“Alex started talking to me about how he saw ‘Wolf Lake,’ and I’m sitting there listening and realizing, ‘This is a different show and different character.’ But I liked it a lot. I wrote John [Leekley] a nice letter--after all, he’s the guy who got me into this. I don’t know how the decision was made for him to leave, but I hope he was taken care of.”

The transition so far has been smooth, says Phillips and other cast members.

Said Sharon Lawrence: “I knew they had shot another pilot and were retooling the show. But that didn’t matter to me. Aspects of this show differed from the typical series. I was impressed by the humor and the interesting take on relationships.”

Though pleased with the direction, Phillips is still keeping his fingers crossed.

“I’m thrilled with the pilot, and I think it bodes well for where we’re going with the show,” he said. “But I don’t know how well we’ll be received. The baby ain’t been born yet. But I feel really good about it.”

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TV Programming

Because of unfolding national events, network, cable and local television programming schedules were in flux at press time.