L'homme à l'orchidée

I read a Nero Wolfe story as a kid and found this series intriguing. It starred William Conrad who was better known from his previous TV role as the portly detective Frank Cannon.

This is another QM production made in the early 1980s but the series was short lived. Nero Wolfe is a clever detective but would rather eat and tend to his orchids than hit the streets doing detective work.

For that he has his assistants to do the legwork such as Lee Horsley who played Archie Goodwin who also provides the muscle to go with Nero's brains. The episodes were enjoyable and its a shame we did not see more. Maybe US viewers were still pining for Frank Cannon.

This was my introduction to Nero Wolfe, starting a happy 3+ decade relationship with Rex Stout's detective fiction. While this series didn't use the period settings that the later A&E series did, it has my affection for a number of reasons.

First, William Conrad. He is certainly a less gifted actor than Maury Chaikin, but his voice is marvelous, and he uses the declarative, falling cadence that Stout's punctuation indicates. "Archie. I read it because it is a book. And I read books." Chaikin too often uses a rising cadence, which took getting used to, for me.

Second, most, if not all (I am going from memory here) the episodes were, as with the A&E series, adaptations of actual Stout stories and novels, which was also welcome for me as a new reader.

Sure, one could say I like the series because it set the tone of the characters for me, and that likely has a good bit of truth. But I've noticed that, among my acquaintance, the greatest fans of the books are the least enthusiastic about the A&E series, and more tolerant of this series. My husband won't watch the old series when we find it on TV, and doesn't like the books. He loves the A&E series. I also am fond of the A&E series, mostly for the affection with which it was so obviously made, for the period sets, and for the wonderful repertory-ensemble cast, with best acting honors to Kari Marchett, who makes every episode she is in sing.

But see this series for a different and valid take, and the best-voiced Nero Wolfe I know of.

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.

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.

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.