The Big Bad Wolfe

 

In 2000, A & E Television produced a one off film The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery, which starred Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin as, respectively, Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe.  

The Nero Wolfe series of novels, written by Rex Stout had been created in the 30's and were published, both as short stories in magazines (later to be collected 3 or 4 at a time in book form) and novels until the author's death in 1975.  

(Side note:  The mantle of Nero Wolfe has, in recent years, been taken up by one Robert Goldsborough, who does an admirable job of it.)

The background of Nero Wolfe over the years has been spotty, to say the least.  There were at least 4 separate radio series, (3 of which aired during the heyday of radio entertainment,  radio being the prominent format for home entertainment, pre- television), and, as near as I can tell, at least 2 attempts to try to move Nero Wolfe into the television era of entertainment (prior to the series discussed today.)

One of those, which I remembered fondly and have been lucky enough to have found on DVD featured William Conrad as Wolfe and Lee Horsley. 

Conrad, of course, will be familiar to most of you.  Not only was he the voice of Matt Dillon when Gunsmoke was a radio show (obviously if you've seen him you know why he didn't transition to that role on TV), and he played lead roles in two TV series, Cannon and Jake and the Fatman.  Lee Horsely, on the other hand, may not be all that familiar, depending on your perspective.  He did have the lead role in a Magnum, P.I. knockoff (my perspective of it anyway), Matt Houston. But other than that, he has a very slim file of appearances.

There were also a couple of attempts to bring the character to the big screen, both of which took such liberties with the character that Stout himself refused to authorize another adaptation.  (Seems like Stout had much the same opinion of these attempts as Stephen King has been known to have for film adaptations of his works.)

So back to the original premise of this post.  A very good adaptation of Stout's The Golden Spiders was produced for A & E.  Not only did they stick with the story as much as possible (which includes...spoiler alert!....the death of the kid who comes to Wolfe's door early in the story).  And, BTW, not the same with an earlier adaptation. In the 1977 TV movie that preceded the Conrad/Horsely series, the boy survives... so much for PC TV. 

Anyway, the reception to the A & E movie was such that the studio greenlighted a series.   And each one was to remain true to the original Stout vision.  The sad part is only 20 episodes were made,  But each one of those was adaptations of already published Rex Stout stories.  Unlike the multiple radio series and the 1981 TV series, the producers didn't attempt to create their own intricate mysteries for the detective.

And there was a new twist (one that I hadn't seen at any rate) on this new series.  Th episode featured a repertory (multiple actors who came back each episode playing different characters each time. There were a few recurring characters in the series, including the familiar ones such as Fritz Brenner, Wolfe's major domo and chef (always played by Colin Fox) and the irascible Inspector Cramer (always played by Bill Smitrovich). Plus frequent secondary help from independent P.I.s Saul Panzer (Conrad Dunn, Fred Durkin (Fulvio Cecere) and Orrie Cather (Trent McMullen).

Colin Fox

Bill Smitrovich

Conrad Dunn

(And, BTW, does Dunn look familiar?  He was the character "Psycho" in the Bill Murray movie "Stripes"...)

But in addition, there were multiple members of the cast who were part of the repertory who would come on in various roles as needed.  Among these were a couple of familiar people.  James Tolkan (who, if not familiar by name, is definitely familiar by face... he was Principal Strickland in the Back to the Future series of films). Tolkan is recognizable, most of the time.  It took me by surprise that it was him in one episode, however, since the character sports a shaggy toupee(?) and a big bushy mustache, but you hear his voice and think, "oh, yeah, it's him...")

 George Plimpton (probably better known as an author than as an actor, but he did have some acting credits), is also among the familiar names.

The rest of the recurring repertory were names I had never heard of prior to watching the series, and none of them appeared in ALL the episodes.  It usually depended on what characters were present in the stories. And since they were instrumental members specific to the plot of each individual episode, they were, of course, not reprising a previous role from a preceding episode.

One of the highlights when watching the opening credits, for me, was seeing that Kari Matchett was included in the cast. 

Twice she only briefly appeared, as Lily Rowan, Archie Goodwin's now and again enamorata, and was thus only briefly involved in the story.  At other times she was a significant player in the ongoing plot of the episode., and so I got to see more of her.

A complete list of the actors and actresses who appeared over the course of the series can be found here:

Nero Wolfe Characters (2001-2002)

The series was well-scripted with much attention to keeping it in line with the original stories.  The list of teleplay authors is pretty good, too. Sharon Elizabeth Doyle wrote a majority of them, and her resume is not real extensive, but she did a good job with the adaptations.  

But also included in the cast of writers was Stuart Kaminsky, whom some will remember has the writer of at least two fairly well known detective fiction series, one of which ranks among my favorites, that of Toby Peters. Peters was to put it in my own terms "detective to the stars".  Each book involved the detective working with stars of the 30's and 40's Hollywood.

And then, the final set of writers I want to highlight are Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin, both of whom later wrote scrips for one of my favorite TV series, Monk. And Goldberg has even a few of the Monk novels under his name. (not to mention a few others, he is prolific...)

The A & E was far too short, however.  What could have gone on for several years only lasted two.  With a combined total of 74 stories and novels by Stout alone, that could have expanded the show at least  for another 3 or 4 years.  The biggest disappointment, for me, though was that the series did not adapt my favorite Stout book "Too Many Cooks".  (Of course, adapting that one would have necessitated that most of the female members of the repertory be sidelined, since that one consists of almost all male characters).

At any rate, having been cooped up this week, I finally got a chance to more or less binge the entire series.  It gave me a serious jonesing to see more of Timothy Hutton, whom I had forgotten was such a great actor.  I remember my first experience was seeing him in Taps  and Turk 182 in the early 80's. The last thing I remember seeing him in was as the main character in the adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Half. 

Primarily I remember Turk 182 as it was a big influence on me in my youth.  I still remember it some 40 years later, even though I only saw it that one time in the theater.  Currently trying to track down a copy for a review, but might have to break down and buy it retail, since I can't find it in the used stacks and it's not streaming currently.

Maybe one day (I doubt it, but one can hope), another well produced Nero Wolfe series may appear on the scene.  Not sure who among the current available actors could pull off a believable Nero Wolfe, however.  Unfortunately Chaykin passed away a few years ago, so it would have to be somebody else, and the role is limited in it's potential prospects, given the size of Wolfe himself.  (God forbid they get somebody like an Arnold or Sylvester and put a fat suit on them... and if you needed last names there, boy are you a newcomer...)

Well, folks, if you happen upon this great adaptation, it's worth a look. And if you only get to one or two, might I suggest you start with The Doorbell Rang as your first?  You really get to see Archie (Hutton) at his best and Nero (Chaykin) holds his own especially in moments of exasperation with others.

Drive safely folks.

Quiggy