Nero Wolfe was an amateur detective character created by novelist Rex Stout in the 1930s and Stout continued to write novels, novellas and short stories featuring that character through 1975, four decades of stories.
Originally, the producers of this program wanted Orson Welles to be its star. That made sense because Welles fit the character like a glove. But Mr. Welles was too much of a Diva to be cast in the part and the demands he was going to put on the production would have skyrocketed their costs. So they went looking for another actor and came upon William Conrad.
There are two programs that TV historians would remember William Conrad for. The first is "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle," a low budget cartoon series that featured a flying squirrel that made jet engine noises and sonic booms while in the air and a moose who walked on hind legs, was often mentally challenged and who constantly needed Rocky's support. The narrator of that show was Conrad's distinctive voice.
The second would likely be "Cannon" (A Quinn Martin Production) where Conrad spent the better part of the 1970s playing the titular character, a private detective based in Los Angeles, a former cop out to solve cases before the LAPD could. It's interesting to note that during that series, Conrad packed on an additional 30 pounds from the start of the program to its conclusion.
Conrad, much like Welles, was a good fit. He had the body type, as Wolfe was, shall we say, a Stout man? Wolfe was a wealthy gent who lived in a brownstone on West 35th Street, according to the printed material, and he absolutely wanted to stay at home, tending to his orchids and being served fanciful dishes prepared by his chef, Fritz (George Voskovec).
Since Wolfe generally eschewed doing the legwork needed to solve the crime, his assistant Archie (Lee Horsley) handled the bulk of that. Between Archie and Nero, you had one nearly perfect P. I.
Oddly, though, most of the scripts for this adaptation were not taken from the Rex Stout stories (occasionally a title was used, but then the plot didn't fit or varied greatly from the original story), and many fans of the book series were disappointed in how that was being handled.
Another issue was that this Nero Wolfe was set in the contemporary 1980s, rather than any time between the Stout writings of 1934 to 1975. Fans were split on the concept of having Wolfe be a current detective. Some thought it helped modernize the character and make him more accessible. Others thought it was untrue to the spirit of the original plots and weren't happy with it.
New York played a part because it's a city filled with crimes that the New York Police Department just couldn't solve on their own. Inspector Cramer (Allan Miller) continually brought cases to Wolfe's doorstep, sometimes begging the detective for help solving the crime.
This version is lower ranked than the second because of the lack of reverence to the original novels, the style of the program was a little too similar to every other detective show of the era - it could have been "Cannon" only with a nicer wardrobe and setting - and the writers didn't showcase Wolfe's superior mind... he was supposed to have been the American Sherlock Holmes, whereas Conrad's portrayal was very run-of-the-mill.
The focus on the likeability of the character and the wide variance from the original writings helped to bring this show down, but also was NBC's choice to program the series opposite one of the hottest shows of the day, the CBS action adventure, "The Dukes of Hazzard."
Originally, the producers of this program wanted Orson Welles to be its star. That made sense because Welles fit the character like a glove. But Mr. Welles was too much of a Diva to be cast in the part and the demands he was going to put on the production would have skyrocketed their costs. So they went looking for another actor and came upon William Conrad.
There are two programs that TV historians would remember William Conrad for. The first is "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle," a low budget cartoon series that featured a flying squirrel that made jet engine noises and sonic booms while in the air and a moose who walked on hind legs, was often mentally challenged and who constantly needed Rocky's support. The narrator of that show was Conrad's distinctive voice.
The second would likely be "Cannon" (A Quinn Martin Production) where Conrad spent the better part of the 1970s playing the titular character, a private detective based in Los Angeles, a former cop out to solve cases before the LAPD could. It's interesting to note that during that series, Conrad packed on an additional 30 pounds from the start of the program to its conclusion.
Conrad, much like Welles, was a good fit. He had the body type, as Wolfe was, shall we say, a Stout man? Wolfe was a wealthy gent who lived in a brownstone on West 35th Street, according to the printed material, and he absolutely wanted to stay at home, tending to his orchids and being served fanciful dishes prepared by his chef, Fritz (George Voskovec).
Since Wolfe generally eschewed doing the legwork needed to solve the crime, his assistant Archie (Lee Horsley) handled the bulk of that. Between Archie and Nero, you had one nearly perfect P. I.
Oddly, though, most of the scripts for this adaptation were not taken from the Rex Stout stories (occasionally a title was used, but then the plot didn't fit or varied greatly from the original story), and many fans of the book series were disappointed in how that was being handled.
Another issue was that this Nero Wolfe was set in the contemporary 1980s, rather than any time between the Stout writings of 1934 to 1975. Fans were split on the concept of having Wolfe be a current detective. Some thought it helped modernize the character and make him more accessible. Others thought it was untrue to the spirit of the original plots and weren't happy with it.
New York played a part because it's a city filled with crimes that the New York Police Department just couldn't solve on their own. Inspector Cramer (Allan Miller) continually brought cases to Wolfe's doorstep, sometimes begging the detective for help solving the crime.
This version is lower ranked than the second because of the lack of reverence to the original novels, the style of the program was a little too similar to every other detective show of the era - it could have been "Cannon" only with a nicer wardrobe and setting - and the writers didn't showcase Wolfe's superior mind... he was supposed to have been the American Sherlock Holmes, whereas Conrad's portrayal was very run-of-the-mill.
The focus on the likeability of the character and the wide variance from the original writings helped to bring this show down, but also was NBC's choice to program the series opposite one of the hottest shows of the day, the CBS action adventure, "The Dukes of Hazzard."