loza-1 I had never come across the character Nero Wolfe before, and I had never read any of Rex Stout's books. Then I saw this.I had seen William Conrad before in Canon. Here he is playing a different role. He is more selfish and testy than Canon, and barks out orders to the three people who work for him, and is rude to everybody else. Yet he still has a streak of affability that makes him likable.To me, this seemed strange. A man who is a private detective, but is obese to the point of invalidity, so he never leaves the house, and travels about the brownstone in an elevator. He hires a younger, fitter man to do all the legwork for him. He has a greenhouse on top of his brownstone, where, with the help of an ex-employee of a British botanical garden, he keeps and cultivates rare orchids. He also employs a chef to cook rich food for him. I must have seen all manner of TV detectives, but I had never seen anything like this before.I thought William Conrad was brilliant. He was genuinely funny. As well as a case that had to be solved, there were also the interchanges between Wolfe and the wisecracking Archie. The arguments between Wolfe and Theodore in the greenhouse; and between Wolfe and Fritz in the kitchen are hilarious. The row between Wolfe and Fritz about which portions of garlic and saffron to put into the marinade for the shish kebab is classic. In one episode Wolfe pours a bottle of Dutch beer into a pint mug, then drinks the lot down in one draught. In another episode, Archie tells the police that Wolfe takes his exercise by throwing darts from his bedside, then walks round the bed to collect the darts from the dartboard.Sadly they only made one series of this, so maybe the show didn't catch on, or maybe they stopped it because George Voskovec, who played Fritz, sadly died.Watch this series. It will change your life!

oxie_h I thought Lee Horsley was the definitive Archie Goodwin, and I'd like to know if this series will ever be released on DVD. Although I like Timothy Hutton (in the AE version), he's a little too polished for the role of AG and Maury Chaykin a little too vehement for Nero Wolfe. I had not seen the AE version of Nero Wolfe until recently when I checked the DVDs out of our local library. I enjoyed them, but I'm a real fan of the Nero Wolfe books; and the characterizations of Wolfe and Goodwin were just a little "off." I remember the 1981 series set me to reading the books, and I had no difficulty visualizing Lee Horsley as the wise-cracking Archie. I would love to see this older series again.

McVouty William Conrad starred as Frank Cannon in the above-average QM TV series Cannon, but he was a lousy Nero Wolfe. As a matter of fact, I challenge any viewer to name anything different in his portrayal of those two detectives. Conrad was a limited actor who only ever portrayed one character: William Conrad. (A great radio actor, though; he was Marshall Dillon on Gunsmoke on the radio, among other things. What a voice!) Lee Horsley was a good Archie Goodwin, but Alan Miller as Cramer was a hopeless piece of miscasting. The series thankfully was cancelled very quickly, and the Wolfe legend lives on through the novels. (BTW, the A&E series with Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton is quite good and worth watching for cast member Kari Matchett alone.)

runar-4 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.