A Nero Wolfe Mystery (a.k.a. Nero Wolfe, The Nero Wolfe Mysteries) is a television series that aired for two seasons (2001-2002) on the A&E Network. Distinguished character actor Maury Chaykin is the brilliant, eccentric detective Nero Wolfe, a man with little patience for people who come between him and his insatiable passions for food, books and orchids. Timothy Hutton is Wolfe's hardworking and bemused assistant Archie Goodwin, whose voice narrates the stories. A stylized period drama set in New York City in the early 1950s, the series was shot in Toronto, with select Manhattan exteriors seen in the series premiere, The Doorbell Rang, directed by Timothy Hutton. Biography is one of A&Es longest-running and most popular programs. ... Maury Chaykin (born July 27, 1949 in Brooklyn, New York) is a Canadian actor. ... Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective created by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. ... Image:Timhut. ...

Based as faithfully as possible on Rex Stout's classic series of detective novels and short stories, A Nero Wolfe Mystery creates the world of the brownstone on Manhattan's West 35th Street through high production values and an inspired score by Michael Small. Above all, the language and spirit of the Stout originals are preserved in the teleplays, written by consulting producer Sharon Elizabeth Doyle, executive producer Michael Jaffe, and Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin (whose Prisoner's Base was nominated for an Edgar Award). Rex Stout, full name Rex Todhunter Stout, (December 1, 1886 - October 27, 1975) was an American writer best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe. ... Michael Small (May 30, 1939 – November 24, 2003) was an American film score composer best known for his scores to thriller movies such as The Parallax View, Marathon Man, and The Star Chamber. ... Lee Goldberg is a novelist and television writer, most known for his work on the television shows Diagnosis Murder and Nero Wolfe. ... The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. ...

The series was preceded by the original film The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery, a Jaffe/Braunstein Films production that aired on A&E TV in March 2000. Veteran screenwriter Paul Monash adapted Rex Stout's 1953 novel, and Bill Duke directed. After the high ratings (3.2 million households) garnered by The Golden Spiders, A&E considered a series of films before ordering a weekly one-hour drama series into production. Bill Duke (born February 26, 1943) is an American actor and film director. ...

Other members of the principal cast are Colin Fox as Fritz Brenner, Wolfe's master chef; Conrad Dunn (Saul Panzer), Fulvio Cecere (Fred Durkin) and Trent McMullen (Orrie Cather) as the 'Teers, three freelance detectives who frequently assist Wolfe; Bill Smitrovich as Inspector Cramer, head of Manhattan's Homicide Bureau; and R.D. Reid as Sergeant Purley Stebbins. Saul Rubinek, who portrayed Saul Panzer in The Golden Spiders, took the role of reporter Lon Cohen in the series. Conrad Dunn (born Los Angeles) is an American actor. ... Fulvio Cecere (1960 - ) is a Canadian actor. ... Bill Smitrovich, right, with Steve Ryan, left, and Dennis Farina, center Bill Smitrovich (b. ... Saul Rubinek (born July 2, 1948) is a German-born Canadian film actor, often cast as a shady professional. ...

A distinguishing feature of the series is its use of a repertory cast -- Nicky Guadagni, Kari Matchett, Debra Monk, George Plimpton, Ron Rifkin, Francie Swift, James Tolkan and many other accomplished Canadian and American actors -- to play non-recurring roles. Nicky Guadagni is a Canadian actress. ... Kari Matchett. ... Debra Monk (born February 27, 1949) is an actress and author. ... George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. ... Ron Rifkin, born October 31, 1939, in New York City, New York, USA, is a film, stage, and television actor and director. ... James Tolkan (born June 20, 1931 in Calumet, Michigan) is an American character actor. ...

In addition to Timothy Hutton, who directed four telefilms, Nero Wolfe directors include John L'Ecuyer, George Bloomfield, Holly Dale, Neill Fearnley and James Tolkan.

One of the Top 10 Basic Cable Dramas for 2002 (Multichannel News, February 24, 2003), Nero Wolfe is finding a still wider audience through its release on DVD. A&E Home Video has issued three boxed sets of the series -- Season One, Season Two, and an eight-disc megaset containing both seasons. Although they are impeccable transfers, these Region 1 DVDs contain A&E's own shorter, cut-for-commercials episodes and do not include approximately 3.5 hours of A Nero Wolfe Mystery seen in international broadcasts. All of the Nero Wolfe episodes were also filmed in widescreen and air abroad in letterbox format, but A&E Home Video reproduces the shorter, full-screen versions on DVD. The only episode that has been reproduced in 16:9 is The Silent Speaker, written and directed by Michael Jaffe, as a "bonus program."

Episodes

External links

• A Nero Wolfe Mystery at the Internet Movie Database
• A Nero Wolfe Mystery at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Fan Club