A Dave at the Races is an episode of Beyond Belief.
It is the 12th episode of Beyond Belief and the 54th Thrilling Adventure Hour
Characters
- Frank Doyle (Paul F. Tompkins)
- Sadie Doyle (Paget Brewster)
- Dave Henderson (Hal Lublin)
- Charlie (James Urbaniak)
- Pete (Samm Levine)
Plot
The story begins, as all murder cases in New York do, with some blue collar fellows coversering a few moments before discovering a dead body. Pete and Charlie, two stable-hands, are interrupted in their discussion of The Catcher in the Rye when they catch sight of a jockey dead in the stable, then promptly call 911. Detective Dave Henderson responds, and notes that the body is gashed by unnaturally sharp claws, making this no ordinary jockey murder, but a supernatural one.
Frank and Sadie, meanwhile, are hunting for some lost vermouth when Sadie picks up a call from Dave. After listening to him explain, she declares that she and Frank will go meet him and hangs up. Frank insists that he has forgotten who Dave is, so Sadie reminds her husband of their friend's more notable features, such as his lycanthropy and penny-finding tenancies. Memory refreshed, the two dash off to the racetrack.
Once there, the three of them attempt to question Pete and Charlie--after a completely superfluous resolution of the stablehands's earlier conversation. Pete claims he has seen a werewolf around the premises, and also that he sees one at the moment, as the third night of the full moon has just fallen and Dave has transformed. After a quick picture for proof, Pete rushes off and Dave and the Doyles decide to do into the stables to further investigate.
With his senses wolfmanishly enhanced, Dave detects the presence of horses in the horse stable. Sadie and Frank do as well, using their eyes. They also notice very quickly that one of the horses appears to be half-wolf, and deduce that it killed the jockey the night previously. The trio determine to dispatch the horse-wolf, but Dave informs Frank and Sadie that killing a werewolf is a complicated business. It involves all of the methods used to destroy other undead monsters, as well as a shot through the heart with silver, gold, platinum and diamond bullets. Fortunately, Dave knows of an all-night precious metal bullet store and the three leave and return.
Once back, they realize they have forgotten to bring a gun to shoot the bullets from, share a hearty laugh, then leave and return again. By the time all that business is taken care of, the sun is up and both Dave and the horsewolf are returned to normal. Sadie refuses to kill the horse in its innocent natural state, so they agree to meet back at the stable next month to kill it in its monstrous form--provided they do not forget, which, let's be honest, they almost certainly will.
Production
"The character of Dave Henderson, the werewolf detective comes from our notion of THE WORST PITCH EVER. If we ever got into a pitch meeting where nothing went right and we needed to abort, we had a pitch all worked out for the most terrible show imaginable: Werewolf Cops. It was our pitching safeword. We knew the show contained one cop cradling another while the ambulance came to treat the officer down’s gaping bite-wounds. (sidenote: has there been a cop named Officer Downs in something?) We also knew the non-werewolf cop would tell the chief off with “He may be a werewolf, but he’s still MY PARTNER!” We have never had to pitch it. [I regret every meeting where we don't get to pitch Werewolf Cops. --BB]
"When we first wrote Henderson into the show, I was on a Damon Runyon kick. I was reading and loving his short stories and wanted to write like him. Since Frank and Sadie are borrowed from Hammett, the notion of some Hammett-y characters talking to a Runyon-y guy appealed to my mash-up loving brains. So no contractions and only present tense for Detective Dave. Except for sometimes, when we messed up."
-- Ben Blacker in the episode commentary post on the Workjuice blog and Nerdist.com