Nero Wolfe

In this unsold pilot for a TV series, Kurt Kaszner plays the portly agoraphobic detective and legman Archie Goodwin is William Shatner.

Wolfe has a cold in this one so he's more demanding than usual. Without almost leaving his bed he solves the murder of a NASA scientist. Quite a clever killing it was too.

I'm a firm believer that mysteries should run at least an hour to develop characters and suspecs and this is noi exception. Still the casting was nice.

It is fun to see a 28 year old William Shatner in the role of Archie Goodwin almost a decade before he became a major icon as Kirk on Star Trek. He seems well suited for the role of the heavyweight detective's assistant and foil. A pristine copy of the pilot episode is available on YouTube.

The story is NOT from a Rex Stout book and the manner is more comical than dramatic but it is a fun quick moving half hour. I am surprised the pilot went unsold. Kurt Kasznar as Nero Wolfe does well as the Nero Wolfe title character. Fritz, Saul Panzer and other regular Stout book characters are not in the pilot. There is a scene with an orchid it but no orchid room or elevator. I expect the surrounding settings would have been improved had the pilot sold as a regular series.