Eric Cord is a college student whose average life comes to an end on the night that his roommate, Ted, hands him a gun loaded with silver bullets.

Now on the run for his friend's murder, Eric spends the remainder of the series on a quest to find and kill the originator of his bloodline, the mysterious Janos Skorzeny, which will break the curse.

The series was similar in tone and formula to shows like The Fugitive and The Incredible Hulk but achieved a contemporary feel by mixing a decidedly rock soundtrack with suspense-themed music.

Though Eric appeared to have no control over his actions while in werewolf form and typically retained no memory of them afterward, he seemed to prey almost exclusively on villainous characters, never attacking or killing an innocent person.

Near the end of the series' run, it was revealed that the originator of Eric's bloodline was not, in fact, the evil Janos Skorzeny but rather an even more powerful and malevolent werewolf named Nicholas Remy (played by Brian Thompson).

The special effects techniques used in production were considered first-rate and impressive for the time, specifically the transformation sequences, in which, for example, the pentagram-shaped scar on Eric's right hand would rise, thicken and grow three-dimensionally, and begin to bleed.

According to script editor Allan Cole, after the series had started production, Chuck Connors wanted to renegotiate his contract for more money.

Although Skorzeny was apparently a young man, as shown in a flashback scene when he was bitten by Nicolas Remy in the 19th century, he appeared to be in his mid-sixties in 1987.

In another episode titled "Nightmare at the Braine Hotel", Eric meets a werewolf named Servan, who tells him a story in which he had been executed by hanging in his human form.

All the werewolves transformed by sprouting fangs, claws and fur, except for Skorzeny, who peeled back the skin of his face to reveal the werewolf form within.

Older werewolves like Skorzeny and Remy had the ability to induce the metamorphosis without the appearance of the pentagram, unlike Eric, who seemed to be at the mercy of the curse's cycle.

Remy also seemed to have a form of psychic control over those of his bloodline: In "To Dream of Wolves", he toys with Eric by telepathically forcing him to press a silver dagger to his own throat, drawing blood.

While the bite of a werewolf was the standard way to pass the curse to another person, blood transfusion appeared to be effective in the episode titled "Big Daddy."