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A Nero Wolfe Mystery (a.k.a. Nero Wolfe, The Nero Wolfe Mysteries) is a television series based on Rex Stout's classic series of detective stories that aired for two seasons (2001-2002) on the A&E Network. 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," and in the episode "Prisoner's Base." A Nero Wolfe Mystery was one of the Top 10 Basic Cable Dramas for 2002 (Multichannel News, February 24, 2003).

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. In addition to starring in the series, Hutton directed four episodes and served as an executive producer (with Michael Jaffe and Howard Braunstein).

A Nero Wolfe Mystery creates the world of the brownstone on Manhattan's West 35th Street through high production values and a jazzy score by Michael Small. The language and spirit of the Stout originals are preserved in the teleplays, most of them written by consulting producer Sharon Elizabeth Doyle and the team of Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin (whose "Prisoner's Base" was nominated for an Edgar Award).

Contents 1 Pilot 2 Cast 3 Episodes 4 Relationship to literary source 5 External links

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.

In addition to Hutton and Chaykin, 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 and who are referred to as "the family"; 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.

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. The same actor who played the murder victim in one episode might play the murderer in another. Kari Matchett has the distinction of playing a recurring role (Archie Goodwin's sometime girlfriend Lily Rowan) and a non-recurring role (nightclub singer Julie Jaquette) in the same episode, "Death of a Doxy." Nicky Guadagni has the distinction of playing two non-recurring characters (a secretary and Mrs. Cramer) in the same episode, "The Silent Speaker." Its accomplished ensemble cast gives A Nero Wolfe Mystery the effect of a series of plays put on by a repertory theatre company.

Title	Season	Director	Teleplay	First Airdate
The Golden Spiders	Pilot	Bill Duke	Paul Monash	March 5, 2000
The Doorbell Rang	1.1	Timothy Hutton	Michael Jaffe	April 22, 2001
Champagne for One	1.2	Timothy Hutton	Lee Goldberg + William Rabkin	April 29 + May 6, 2001
Prisoner's Base	1.3	Neill Fearnley	Lee Goldberg + William Rabkin	May 13 + 20, 2001
Eeny Meeny Murder Moe	1.4	John L’Ecuyer	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle	June 3, 2001
Disguise for Murder	1.5	John L’Ecuyer	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle	June 17, 2001
Door to Death	1.6	Holly Dale	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle	June 24, 2001
Christmas Party	1.7	Holly Dale	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle	July 1, 2001
Over My Dead Body	1.8	Timothy Hutton	S.E. Doyle + Janet Roach	July 8 + 15, 2001
Death of a Doxy	2.1	Timothy Hutton	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle	April 14, 2002
The Next Witness	2.2	James Tolkan	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle	April 21, 2002
Die Like a Dog	2.3	James Tolkan	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle	April 28, 2002
Murder is Corny	2.4	George Bloomfield	Lee Goldberg + William Rabkin	May 5, 2002
Motherhunt	2.5	none credited	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle	May 12 +19, 2002
Poison a la Carte	2.6	George Bloomfield	Lee Goldberg + William Rabkin	May 26, 2002
Too Many Clients	2.7	John L’Ecuyer	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle	June 2 + 9, 2002
Before I Die	2.8	John L’Ecuyer	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle	June 16, 2002
Help Wanted, Male	2.9	John L’Ecuyer	Mark Stein	June 23, 2002
The Silent Speaker	2.10	Michael Jaffe	Michael Jaffe	July 14 + 21, 2002
Cop Killer	2.11	John R. Pepper	Jennifer Salt	August 11, 2002
Immune to Murder	2.12	John R. Pepper	Stuart Kaminsky	August 18, 2002

In the preface to the second edition of his book At Wolfe's Door: The Nero Wolfe Novels of Rex Stout (James A. Rock & Company 2003), J. Kenneth Van Dover assessed the fidelity of A Nero Wolfe Mystery to its literary source:

A quarter century after his death, the Nero Wolfe books remain in print (on, it is reported, "a rotating basis") and, as a result of a very popular A&E television series which premiered in 2000, their continuing presence seems assured. ... The success of the series is significant especially because the scripts remained remarkably faithful to the novels. The programs are set in the period, and much of the dialogue is lifted directly from the novel. Effective novelistic dialogue is not usually effective screen dialogue, as Raymond Chandler discovered when he worked on the script for the 1944 film of James M. Cain's Double Indemnity. The A&E series was able to adopt verbatim both the sharp exchanges between Wolfe and Archie, and as well Archie's narration in voiceover. Credit certainly goes to the skills of the repertory actors who played the roles, and especially to Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton; but it was Stout who supplied the language and the characters who speak it. And it was Stout who created in words the real pleasures of the novels: the voices and ideas, the rooms and the routines. Producer Michael Jaffe realized this, and with great care recreated those pleasures on film.

• National Review, Wolfe a la Tube: An A&E series loyal to its source (S.T. Karnick)
• National Review, A Nero as Hero: 'Nero Wolfe' television program review (Terry Teachout)
• 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
• Small-screen version of the great man, consultant Winnifred Louis' reflections on a visit to the set of The Golden Spiders ( March 2000)
• Doorbells Ringing, consultant Winnifred Louis' notes on the A&E TV series and "The Doorbell Rang" (September 2000)