Nero Wolfe

I have very warm memories of this short lived Nero Wolfe TV series starring William Conrad and Lee Horsley. I was a kid when this TV program aired and it really made an impact on my youthful imagination. I was hooked from the moment I first saw it. William Conrad and Lee Horsley were both highly enjoyable and made a great team. I never missed an episode and enjoyed all of them. Nero Wolfe was fun and exciting stuff! Because of the TV series I began reading the excellent Nero Wolfe stories of the great Rex Stout. I'd love to see this TV series again. Just thinking about it makes me smile! It's too bad it isn't available on DVD.

Lee Horsley stands out (without his "Matt Houston" mustache) as just about the only on-target bit of casting. Conrad, as Wolfe, was large but neither tall nor imposing enough to play the part - to say nothing of the fact that in only one adventure of his 41-year literary career did he ever cultivate a beard, which he shed as soon as the case was over. Nor was Wolfe openly sentimental. Only Archie, with his keen observational acumen and intimate knowledge of his employer's habits, moods and faults, could see its expression. Wolfe himself, in a comment reported to Ken Darby, author of "The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe", may have been willing to accept Raymond Burr or Orson Welles to play him, but not without reservations. George Wyner as Saul Panzer was even worse. Having played too many comic - make that doofus - roles, he came far short of portraying Panzer's suave acumen, street smarts and hard edge. He also looks too wimpy. Furthermore, three whole novels, "In the Best Families" (1950), "Before Midnight" (1955) and "If Death Ever Slept" (1957) became a single, mistitled, one-hour episide, "In the Best of Families" (ep. #1.7). It was in "If Death Ever Slept" that Wolfe breifly let his face sprout and starved himself to a normal weight.

The only excuse I could ever give myself to watch this show was that any Wolfe on TV was better than no Wolfe.

I had never read any of the Nero Wolfe books before this series aired. I was drawn to it because I like William Conrad. How fortunate that I saw this and thus found the books!

After reading a number of the novels, I was struck by a couple of things:

First, the old brownstone was perfectly reproduced. Author Rex Stout made you feel you were really in that building when he wrote the novels, and the set designer followed suit.

Second, the casting was a mixed bag. Conrad was an acceptable, though obviously softened, Wolfe. The characterizations of Fritz and Horstman were very well done, if mostly background. But Lee Horsley was badly out of place as Archie, as were the choices for Saul Panzer and Inspector Cramer.

Several years later I saw the movie version with Thayer David and was very pleased. He would have been a letter perfect Wolfe.

William Conrad starred as Frank Cannon in the above-average QM TV series Cannon, but he was a lousy Nero Wolfe. As a matter of fact, I challenge any viewer to name anything different in his portrayal of those two detectives. Conrad was a limited actor who only ever portrayed one character: William Conrad. (A great radio actor, though; he was Marshall Dillon on Gunsmoke on the radio, among other things. What a voice!) Lee Horsley was a good Archie Goodwin, but Alan Miller as Cramer was a hopeless piece of miscasting. The series thankfully was cancelled very quickly, and the Wolfe legend lives on through the novels. (BTW, the A&E series with Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton is quite good and worth watching for cast member Kari Matchett alone.)

I enjoy this series over the latter series with timothy Hutton. I found this series to have more texture than the latter series. It was and is fun to see all the actors interacting with each other. There was also a fun sense of humor to this series. Watching inspector Cramer getting out of a chair without using his hands and Wolfe's reaction each time to it. Also all of the actors in this version seem to enjoy their roles. I do like the latter series also but I prefer the first series most. I wish the series would have lasted longer. It seems that series such BONES, NCIS, CSI can go on and on add nauseuem. I prefer detective series were you have to think to find the guilty without major shoot outs, car chases etc. . I find that well written series do not last long at all on TV: Nero Wolfe,(both series), Ellery queen, Probe, Spenser: for hire to name the major ones. It was a good series. Luckily I can watch both versions whenever I want to at my leisure.