Nero Wolfe

It is beyond understanding why this show was canceled so quickly. The appearance and attitude William Conrad gave his Wolfe was just about perfect. He was the "seventh-of-a-ton" detective thousands of readers of the novels probably imagined. But not only Conrad was superb, the rest of the cast was as well, from George Voskovec's Fritz to Allan Miller's Inspector Cramer, with whose fits anyone could feel along.

Some edges of the characters were taken out, which is especially true for Archie Goodwin, and was most probably done to assure mass compatibility. Both Goodwin and Wolfe are described as chauvinists par excellence in the books. But besides that, there wasn't much more an avid fan of the novels could have asked for.

Very noteworthy is the great care about every little detail of the "old brownstone." That was marvelous work and the production crew should be applauded for that. Probably they had a number of Wolfe fans among them.

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.

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 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.

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.