‘Teenage Faust’ Horns In on an Old Tale

The Faust legend, about a man who sells his soul to the devil for riches and fame, has tempted audiences over the centuries in various incarnations, including Christopher Marlowe’s 16th century play “Dr. Faustus,” the Broadway musical “Damn Yankees” and even the Disney comedy “The Devil and Max Devlin.” The latest twist on the oft-told tale is the Showtime family comedy “I Was a Teenage Faust,” premiering Sunday on the cable network.

In this version, a nerdy Indiana teenager named Brendan (Josh Zuckerman) is at the end of his rope, having just lost a student council election to a dog. To add insult to injury, he has fallen in love with Twyla Day (Caroline Elliott), a teen model who is about to leave town to become a star in New York. Before she departs, though, she’s going to throw a party at the country club.

Brendan knows he doesn’t have a chance in you-know-where of being invited. That is until the fast-talking Mr. Five (Robert Townsend), a tempter from below, arrives in town looking to sign up a few souls for his boss, Mephisto (Stuart Margolin).

Writer-director Thom Eberhardt (“Without a Clue”) has always been intrigued by the Faust story. “I was a big ‘Twilight Zone’ guy when I was a kid. There were a lot of those type stories on ‘Twilight Zone’ and ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents.’ I also just like the idea of the word ‘Faust.’ ”

Showtime was also eager for him to do another kids’ film. Two years ago, Eberhardt wrote and directed the film “Ratz,” about two boys who were turned into rodents. Eberhardt won an Emmy for his screenplay and turned the story into a bestselling book.

Eberhardt says that both “Ratz” and “Faust” are “lunatic” stories. “They have their tongue in their cheeks, but not so far as to interfere with kids enjoying the story. We had so much fun when we did ‘Ratz,’ I wanted to do another [kids’ comedy] and get even funkier with it. I started thinking about a deal-with-the-devil story, and Faust was such a funny word....”

The Faust legend, he says, is timeless because it “asks a moral, challenging question, which is how far would you go to get what you want. You can’t do much worse than sell your soul to the devil. That is the challenge. Do you want something so bad that you make that kind of a deal? It’s just a fundamental moral question.”

Townsend, who has directed several movies for Showtime, including “10,000 Black Men Named George,” jumped at the chance to play the bumbling tempter, Mr. Five. “It’s a really cute story,” he says. “Thom Eberhardt writes in a unique voice, and he understands kids.”

Townsend says Eberhardt took the story of a kid who is not well liked in school -- “and that’s every kid in America who is not the football star or homecoming queen -- and twisted it. He follows the classic storytelling but adds another layer to it.”

Eberhardt knows about intricacies of the teen world because he is the father of two daughters.

“I have had teenage girls in the house for the last 10 years, so I am sort of immersed in it,” he says. “Plus, I seem to do my best writing in a kind of slightly surreal, if not lunatic, sort of environment. That’s the kind of environment young teenagers live in. It is completely surreal. Things don’t make sense to them. And things that seem obvious to them don’t make sense to anybody else.”

“I Was a Teenage Faust” can be seen at 8 p.m. Sunday on Showtime. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).

Cover photograph by Carole Segal.