Nero Wolfe (2001 TV series)
Nero Wolfe is a television series adapted from Rex Stout's series of detective stories that aired for two seasons (2001–2002) on A&E. Set in New York City sometime in the 1940s–1950s, the stylized period drama stars Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin. A distinguishing feature of the series is its use of a repertory cast to play non-recurring roles. Nero Wolfe was one of the Top 10 Basic Cable Dramas for 2002.
Nero Wolfe
A Nero Wolfe Mystery
The Nero Wolfe Mysteries
- Sharon Elizabeth Doyle
- Lee Goldberg
- William Rabkin
- Michael Jaffe
- Stuart Kaminsky
- Janet Roach
- Jennifer Salt
- Mark Stein
- John L'Ecuyer
- Timothy Hutton
- George Bloomfield
- Holly Dale
- John R. Pepper
- James Tolkan
- Neill Fearnley
- Michael Jaffe
- Timothy Hutton
- Maury Chaykin
- Bill Smitrovich
- Colin Fox
- Conrad Dunn
- Fulvio Cecere
- Trent McMullen
- R. D. Reid
- Saul Rubinek
- Kari Matchett
- Debra Monk
- Nicky Guadagni
United States
English
2
20 (list of episodes)
- Michael Jaffe
- Timothy Hutton
- Howard Braunstein
- Susan Murdoch
- Randi Richmond
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Derek Rogers
- John Berrie
- Paul Winestock
- Stephen Lawrence
- James Bredin
- Susan Shipton
Jaffe/Braunstein
Films Ltd. and
A&E Networks
in association with Pearson Television International
April 22, 2001 –
August 18, 2002
The series won praise for its high production values and jazzy score by Michael Small, and for preserving the language and spirit of the original stories. Most of the teleplays were written by consulting producer Sharon Elizabeth Doyle and the team of William Rabkin and Lee Goldberg, whose "Prisoner's Base" was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.
A total of 20 episodes were produced over the two-season run. Eight of Stout's novels were adapted into two-hour broadcasts, while 12 of his short stories were filmed as one-hour episodes.
Nero Wolfe was produced for A&E by Jaffe/Braunstein Films, one of the first production companies to use high-definition video for television. Although the second season was shot in HD, none of the several home video releases of the series has been issued in HD, and only one of the 20 episodes ("The Silent Speaker") has been issued in 16:9 widescreen format.
Plot[edit]
Archie Goodwin introduces Nero Wolfe as "a man who thinks he's the world's greatest detective. Truth being, he is." Grandly obese and famously eccentric, Wolfe is a genius who lives in—and rarely leaves—a large and comfortably furnished brownstone he owns on West 35th Street in Manhattan. Wolfe maintains an inflexible schedule of reading, tending his 10,000 orchids in the rooftop plant rooms, and dining on the fine cuisine of his master chef, Fritz Brenner. To support his opulent lifestyle and meet the payroll of his live-in staff, Wolfe charges high fees for solving crimes that are beyond the abilities of the police, most often the cigar-chewing Inspector Cramer of Manhattan Homicide. Wolfe sometimes calls upon freelance detectives Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin and Orrie Cather; but he depends upon his assistant Archie Goodwin, the street-smart legman whose wisecracking, irreverent voice narrates the stories.
The wardrobe, cars, furnishings and music place Nero Wolfe primarily in the 1940s–1950s.[a][1]: 37 It is technically a whodunit series, but like the original Rex Stout stories Nero Wolfe is less concerned with plot than with the interplay between its characters.
"I think that's something that's appreciated by Nero Wolfe fans," said Maury Chaykin, who stars as Nero Wolfe. "If you become focused on the crime, I think you're kind of in the wrong place. It's more the enjoyment of the characters and their eccentricities, and the reality of those characters."[2]
Broadcast[edit]
United States and Canada[edit]
Distributed by the A&E Television Networks in the United States and Canada, Nero Wolfe first aired on the A&E Network April 22, 2001. The second season premiered April 14, 2002. The series ran Sundays at 8 p.m. ET and was rebroadcast at midnight. The last original broadcast was Sunday, August 18, 2002. Nero Wolfe continued to air regularly in repeat through 2002 and sporadically in early 2003 before leaving the A&E schedule altogether.[h][66]
From March 2004 to May 2006, Nero Wolfe appeared Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET on another of the A&E Networks, The Biography Channel.[67]
International[edit]
FremantleMedia, Ltd., distributes the show outside the U.S. and Canada. The series has been broadcast on public and commercial networks, cable television and satellite systems throughout the world, and was presented throughout Europe and Africa on the Hallmark Channel.[i]
Media information[edit]
United States and Canada[edit]
"Nero Wolfe is a beautifully shot series, and its release on DVD is frequently stunning," wrote DVD Talk's Adam Tyner in his comprehensive review of A&E Home Video's "Nero Wolfe: The Complete Classic Whodunit Series":