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Teen Wolf

1985 film directed by Rod Daniel

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ1067125
Source-derived summary

Teen Wolf is a 1985 American coming-of-age comedy film directed by Rod Daniel and written by Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman. Michael J. Fox stars as the title character, a high school student whose ordinary life is changed when he discovers that he is a werewolf. James Hampton, Scott Paulin, Susan Ursitti, Jerry Levine, Matt Adler, and Jay Tarses appear in supporting roles. Filming took place from November to December 1984.

Teen Wolf was released on August 23, 1985, by Atlantic Releasing Corporation, and received mixed reviews from film critics. It was a commercial success, grossing over $33 million domestically on a $4 million budget, with the worldwide gross being over $80 million. The film's success spawned a titular franchise, including an animated series adaptation in 1986, a sequel film in 1987, the supernatural live action drama series that aired on MTV from 2011 to 2017, and its continuation film in 2023.

Plot

Scott Howard, a 17-year-old high school student, lives in Beacontown, Nebraska. His only claim to popularity is playing for the Beavers, his school's unsuccessful basketball team. Scott fawns after Pamela Wells even though she is dating his rival Mick, who plays for the Dragons, a dominant opposing team that bullies him on the court.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Teen Wolf” as 1985 film directed by Rod Daniel. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Teen, Wolf and film.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1985, 1984, 1986, 1987—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1985-08-23, 1985-12-19—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Teen, Wolf and film providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Teen Wolf”, the useful work is to connect “1985 film directed by Rod Daniel” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1067125. VIAF identifies the subject as 177630846. The Library of Congress control number is no98051532. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1985, 1984, 1986 and 1987.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Teen Wolf”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Teen Wolf primary sources, Teen Wolf archive and Teen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Teen Wolf”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Teen Wolf” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.