Post by Zone Fighter on Aug 14, 2004 15:51:49 GMT -8
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe, assisted by Archie Goodwin and several private detectives hired on a per case bases, have solved murders in 73 novels, several short stories, a radio series, movies and two television series.
Nero Wolfe was created by author Rex Stout. Rex Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana, on December 1, 1886, and died October 27, 1975. He wrote 73 Nero Wolfe novels ("Fer-de-Lance" published 1934 through "Death Times Three" discovered and published 1985).
Nero Wolfe is so large he had a special chair custom made for his office. He rarely leaves his home. Rooms at the top of Wolfe's brownstone contain 10,000 orchids which are tended by the highly paid Theodore Horstmann. Also paid well, but not as well as Horstmann, are Wolfe's right hand man Archie Goodwin, and gourmet chef Fritz Brenner. Wolfe enjoies gourmet food, but his favorite beverage is beer. For the rare occasions that he does leave his home Wolfe keeps a car, which he frequently replaces. He believes cars have minds of their own and purposely begin to break down or have accidents if you keep them too long. Wolfe is uncomfortable around women. He fears they may burst into tears at any time. If such a thing actually happens he can flee the scene surprisingly fast. He will accept women as clients but he doesn't like having them in his office for long.
Archie Goodwin is Wolfe's hands and feet, he does most of the actual investigating, Wolfe then deduces the idenity of the murder based on the facts Archie and others bring to him. Archie has "quit" or been "fired" many times. He's a good investigator but he admits not as good as Saul Panzer or as brillianet a thinker as Nero Wolfe. On those rare occasions when Wolfe leaves his home Archie does the driving. Archie can handle himself in a fist fight and when neccessary is armed with 38. Archie has an eye for the ladies and unlike his employeer appreciates their company. Archie drinks milk.
Other regular characters are:
Inspector Cramer who respects Wolfe's abilities but does not appreciate his interfering in murderer investigations. Wolfe always calls Cramer in at the end of a case to hand the killer over to him. Cramer always has a cigar in his mouth. He doesn't smoke them, he just chews them.
Seargent Purley Stebbins, Inspector Cramer's right hand man. He would dearly love to catch Archie Goodwin in a crime for which he could send him to prison. Not fond of Wolfe either.
Saul Panser, the best private investigator Archie's ever known. Wolfe hires him when he has two tasks to be performed at the same time since Archie can not be at two places at once.
Fred Durkin, another private investigator Wolfe hires when Saul is not available or if he needs another detecrive in addition to Archie and Saul.
'Orrie' Cather, yet another private investigator occasionally hired by Wolfe.
Lon Cohen, newspaper man willing to find information for Wolfe in exchange for being the first member of the press to know when Wolfe catches a murderer.
Rex Stout borrowed the idea of a brilliant detective who solves cases without leaving his comfortable surroundings from Sherlock Holmes older and more brilliant brother Mycroft, who rarely goes anyplace but his home, his office or his club but never the less helped to put Sherlock on the right track several times.
The short lived 1981 television series started William Conrad (radio Gunsmoke's Matt Dillon, tv's "Cannon" and the Fatman of "Jake and the Fatman") as Wolfe and Lee Horsley ("Matt Houston") as Goodwin.
The latest series was A&E's "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (2001). I don't have cable so when I saw season 1 at Netflix I added it to my queue and moved it to near the top. I'm a fan of the books although I have read only only a handful of the 73 novels.
A Nero Wolfe Mystery
Executive producer & director of some episodes Timothy Hutton
stars
Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin
Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe
Bill Smitrovich as Inspector Cramer
Saul Rubinek as Lon Cohen
Colin Fox as Fritz Brenner
Conrad Dunn as Saul Panzer
Fulvio Cecere as Fred Durkin
Trent McMullen as Orville 'Orrie' Cather
R.D. Reid as Seargent Purley Stebbins
The pilot episode, "The Doorbell Rang" is 93 minutes, 46 seconds, each episode after that is approximately 46 minutes. Some stories take 2 episodes. The first two stories "The Doorbell Rang" and "Champagne For One" (a two parter) are based on novels I've read. Theodore Horstmann does not appear in the first three episodes. Seargent Purley Stebbins appears only in the third.
Before the series there was a tv movie "The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (2000), with the same main cast.
I enjoyed the first 3 episodes, the only things I could complain about are lack of Theodore Horstmann, who should have been in the orchid room and the small size of the orchid room. Wolfe has over 10,000 orchids,. Such a number would never fit in the small area shown in the third episode.
This new series was canceled after only two seasons, it wasn't rated high enough for A&E executives.
The first season (11 episodes) is available in a 3 disk DVD set. A&E is taking preorders on the second season 5 disk set. However, both sets are alreaady available at deepdiscountdvd.com for much less. Isn't the first time deepdiscountdvd was ahead of A&E. The first season can also be rented at Netflix.
Nero Wolfe, assisted by Archie Goodwin and several private detectives hired on a per case bases, have solved murders in 73 novels, several short stories, a radio series, movies and two television series.
Nero Wolfe was created by author Rex Stout. Rex Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana, on December 1, 1886, and died October 27, 1975. He wrote 73 Nero Wolfe novels ("Fer-de-Lance" published 1934 through "Death Times Three" discovered and published 1985).
Nero Wolfe is so large he had a special chair custom made for his office. He rarely leaves his home. Rooms at the top of Wolfe's brownstone contain 10,000 orchids which are tended by the highly paid Theodore Horstmann. Also paid well, but not as well as Horstmann, are Wolfe's right hand man Archie Goodwin, and gourmet chef Fritz Brenner. Wolfe enjoies gourmet food, but his favorite beverage is beer. For the rare occasions that he does leave his home Wolfe keeps a car, which he frequently replaces. He believes cars have minds of their own and purposely begin to break down or have accidents if you keep them too long. Wolfe is uncomfortable around women. He fears they may burst into tears at any time. If such a thing actually happens he can flee the scene surprisingly fast. He will accept women as clients but he doesn't like having them in his office for long.
Archie Goodwin is Wolfe's hands and feet, he does most of the actual investigating, Wolfe then deduces the idenity of the murder based on the facts Archie and others bring to him. Archie has "quit" or been "fired" many times. He's a good investigator but he admits not as good as Saul Panzer or as brillianet a thinker as Nero Wolfe. On those rare occasions when Wolfe leaves his home Archie does the driving. Archie can handle himself in a fist fight and when neccessary is armed with 38. Archie has an eye for the ladies and unlike his employeer appreciates their company. Archie drinks milk.
Other regular characters are:
Inspector Cramer who respects Wolfe's abilities but does not appreciate his interfering in murderer investigations. Wolfe always calls Cramer in at the end of a case to hand the killer over to him. Cramer always has a cigar in his mouth. He doesn't smoke them, he just chews them.
Seargent Purley Stebbins, Inspector Cramer's right hand man. He would dearly love to catch Archie Goodwin in a crime for which he could send him to prison. Not fond of Wolfe either.
Saul Panser, the best private investigator Archie's ever known. Wolfe hires him when he has two tasks to be performed at the same time since Archie can not be at two places at once.
Fred Durkin, another private investigator Wolfe hires when Saul is not available or if he needs another detecrive in addition to Archie and Saul.
'Orrie' Cather, yet another private investigator occasionally hired by Wolfe.
Lon Cohen, newspaper man willing to find information for Wolfe in exchange for being the first member of the press to know when Wolfe catches a murderer.
Rex Stout borrowed the idea of a brilliant detective who solves cases without leaving his comfortable surroundings from Sherlock Holmes older and more brilliant brother Mycroft, who rarely goes anyplace but his home, his office or his club but never the less helped to put Sherlock on the right track several times.
The short lived 1981 television series started William Conrad (radio Gunsmoke's Matt Dillon, tv's "Cannon" and the Fatman of "Jake and the Fatman") as Wolfe and Lee Horsley ("Matt Houston") as Goodwin.
The latest series was A&E's "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (2001). I don't have cable so when I saw season 1 at Netflix I added it to my queue and moved it to near the top. I'm a fan of the books although I have read only only a handful of the 73 novels.
A Nero Wolfe Mystery
Executive producer & director of some episodes Timothy Hutton
stars
Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin
Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe
Bill Smitrovich as Inspector Cramer
Saul Rubinek as Lon Cohen
Colin Fox as Fritz Brenner
Conrad Dunn as Saul Panzer
Fulvio Cecere as Fred Durkin
Trent McMullen as Orville 'Orrie' Cather
R.D. Reid as Seargent Purley Stebbins
The pilot episode, "The Doorbell Rang" is 93 minutes, 46 seconds, each episode after that is approximately 46 minutes. Some stories take 2 episodes. The first two stories "The Doorbell Rang" and "Champagne For One" (a two parter) are based on novels I've read. Theodore Horstmann does not appear in the first three episodes. Seargent Purley Stebbins appears only in the third.
Before the series there was a tv movie "The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (2000), with the same main cast.
I enjoyed the first 3 episodes, the only things I could complain about are lack of Theodore Horstmann, who should have been in the orchid room and the small size of the orchid room. Wolfe has over 10,000 orchids,. Such a number would never fit in the small area shown in the third episode.
This new series was canceled after only two seasons, it wasn't rated high enough for A&E executives.
The first season (11 episodes) is available in a 3 disk DVD set. A&E is taking preorders on the second season 5 disk set. However, both sets are alreaady available at deepdiscountdvd.com for much less. Isn't the first time deepdiscountdvd was ahead of A&E. The first season can also be rented at Netflix.