A&E TV Series

A Nero Wolfe Mystery was a television series adapted from Rex Stout’s classic series of detective stories that aired for two seasons (2001–2002) on A&E network. Set in New York City in the early 1950s, the stylized period drama starred Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin. A distinguishing feature of the series was its use of a repertory or ensemble cast to play non-recurring roles.

In In the Best Families, when Mr. Wolfe left the brownstone he left the door open to show everyone that he had left and the brownstone was empty. We are leaving the door open to express our empty feeling at the A&E Network’s cancellation of A Nero Wolfe Mystery series after only two seasons.

Click the open door to start exploring this section’s pages about the series, starting with the episodes list and continuing with the pages about Cast, Music, some drafts of scripts, and Season One and Two pages. The latter are loaded with shots from your favorite scenes. You’ll also find reviews, episode guide, DVD information, plus photos and journals from the Wolfe Pack’s trip to the set in 2002 in Toronto.

See the MISSING MINUTES page for the sad, but true, tale of missing scenes and chopped off edges (missing cylinders)!

Additional information and resources regarding the Missing Minutes:

Archie records Wolfe’s television habits

  • Wolfe was in his office looking at television, which gives him a lot of pleasure. I have seen him turn it on as many as eight times in one evening, glare at it from one to three minutes, turn it off, and go back to his book. The Golden Spiders (1953), p. 93
  • The television was still on, and Fritz was sitting watching it, yawning. Wolfe was leaning back with his eyes shut … The Doorbell Rang (1965), p. 73.
  • Wolfe was drinking beer and scowling at three United States senators on television. Three Men Out, “The Zero Clue” Ch. 2
  •  “I see you have television,” Nasir ibn Bekr said. “Perhaps you saw a program on CAN in May, May seventh, ‘Oil and Mecca.’ ” Wolfe shook his head. “I turn on the television rarely, only to confirm my opinion of it.” Please Pass the Guilt, Ch. 14
  • I gave Wolfe the scuttlebutt, but apparently he wasn’t listening. It was Sunday evening, when he especially enjoys turning the television off. Of course he has to turn it on first, intermittently throughout the evening, and that takes a lot of exertion, but he has provided for it by installing a remote control panel at his desk. That way he can turn off as many as twenty programs in an evening without overdoing. Before Midnight, Chapter 14
  • I admit I didn’t loiter walking to Lexington Avenue and back, but even so I was gone thirty-six minutes. The television was on and he was standing in the middle of the room glaring at it. Presumably he had been so riled that he had picked on the one thing there that would rile him more. As I put the bankbook in the safe he turned the television off and went to his desk, and as I went to mine he demanded, “What the devil has someone done?” The Father Hunt, Chapter 5
  • … so I waited until after we had finished with the poached and truffled broilers and broccoli and stuffed potatoes and herbs, and salad and cheese, and Fritz had brought coffee to us in the office, to open the bag. Wolfe was reaching for the remote-control television gadget, to turn it on so as to have the pleasure of turning it off again, when I said, “Hold a minute….” “Fourth of July Picnic,” Chapter 3
  • … I had had a long walk, Wolfe had had the Times and a book, and probably, while I was out, his weekly battle with television. That may occur almost any evening, when he has got disgusted with a book, but usually it’s a Sunday afternoon, because that’s when TV is supposed to be dressed for company. He turns on one channel after another, getting grimmer and grimmer, until he is completely assured that it’s getting worse instead of better, and quits. Death of a Doxy, Chapter 14

Links to General Information about the Series

  • An Interview with Timothy Hutton, 12/2008, by Tom Lewis