Highly derivative of Scooby-Doo (which was also created by Ruby and Spears), Fangface features four teenagers — Kim, Biff, Puggsy and Sherman "Fangs" Fangsworth (Puggsy and Fangs imitating Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall of The Bowery Boys fame) who transforms into a werewolf named Fangface whenever he sees the moon, a picture of the moon, or anything resembling the moon. Fangface has brown fur with tan paws, muzzle, and tail tip. He has one large fang in the middle of his upper jaw, which protrudes over his lower lip. They drive around in their convertible called the Wolf-Buggy and catch crooks and solve crimes involving monsters and evil masterminds. Fangs sits in the backseat next to Puggsy, while Fangface rides on Puggsy's shoulders.
Despite the temporary difficulty of Fangface attacking Puggsy, the gang never hesitates to initiate the transformation to take advantage of the werewolf's power to cope with any danger. Indeed, they often refer to Fangface as their "secret weapon", even though very few people are afraid of him. Fangface and Fangs are unaware of each other, but Fangface lives in the moment, so he never seems to question why he's suddenly in a new place, whereas Fangs is always bewildered upon reversion.
Although it is consistently odd, if Fangface ever sees food, or hears a food word like "turkey", he eats Puggsy. Although, he doesn't swallow him whole; he just leaves him trapped in his jaw. The only way to get Puggsy out of Fangface's jaw is for either Biff or Kim to rub Fangface's foot, thereby calming him down and releasing Puggsy.
Another odd coincidence is that whenever Fangface sees his reflection in a mirror, he goes completely wild and only relies on instinct; sometimes with an addition of an order given to him, as demonstrated near the ending of A Heap of Trouble, as well as Dr. Lupiter and the Thing from Jupiter, A Creep from the Deep, and Westward Ho to the UFO.
Even though Fangs and Fangface are completely different in their personalities, they have similarities to one another. Fangs and Fangface both wear an orange hat, although the rest of Fangs' clothes disappear, and are friends of Kim, Biff, and Puggsy. Fangs and Fangface also say the phrase "Ooh! Ooh!" (the trademark exclamation of Joe E. Ross) before expressing an idea, as heard in the episode The Evil Design Of Vulture-Man's Mind.
Fangs is basically comic relief of the show having no real use as Fangs and getting changed into Fangface when he's needed. Though Fangs does show a spark of use when he's super scared. When he's super scared, he comes up with a super good idea to save his super scared neck.
Another interesting occurrence are the barrage of invented words that the character Puggsy says, such as 'scramify' and 'rescuefy' in the episode The Ill-Will Of Dr. Chill, which can be heard throughout the entire series.
In the episode Don't Abra When You Cadabra, it is revealed that Fangs has an uncle named Arnie (rumored to be possibly Baby Fang's father) and that he runs a video arcade in New York City called Arnie's Arcade.
During Season 1, Fangface would see the sun, or a representation, and transform back to Fangs at inconvenient times, as shown in the episode Space Monster Mishap, long before the gangs' case would be over. As a result, the gang would have to transform him back into Fangface in order to complete their case.
The opening title narration, voiced by John Stephenson, for each episode consists of the following:
- Every 400 years, a baby werewolf is born into the Fangsworth family, and so when the moon shined on little Sherman Fangsworth, he changed into Fangface, a werewolf! Only the sun can change him back to normal. And so little Fangs grew up and teamed up with three daring teenagers: Kim, Biff and Puggsy, and together they find danger, excitement and adventure! Who can save the day? Who can wrong the rights and right the wrongs? None other than Fangface!
Sixteen 30-minute episodes of Fangface were produced for the 1978 season from 8:30–9:00 a.m.
When the series first aired, there was no TV Parental Guidelines rating system, but with repeats the show has been rated as TV-G.
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