The "Nero Wolfe" TV series (2001-2002) was brilliant, and if you missed it on TV or, like its myriad fans, want to see it again and again, "Nero Wolfe" is available on DVD. Producers Michael Jaffe, Timothy Hutton, and Howard Braunstein did everything right - the cast, the dialogue, the sets, the wardrobe, and the music. Everything that Rex Stout put into his stories can be seen on these DVDs. ("Nero Wolfe-The Complete Season One" and "Nero Wolfe-The Complete Season Two") And the quality of the DVDs, both the audio and the video, is superb.
The Doorbell Rang (the first episode on the Season One DVD set), starring Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin, and Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe, is an exceptional adaptation of Rex Stout's 1965 novel. Nero Wolfe, with the assistance of Archie Goodwin, his intrepid legman, takes on "the big fish," J. Edgar Hoover.
The Season Two DVDs are every bit as fine as the Season One set in audio and video quality. Season Two has the added fillip of bonus material which was sadly lacking in the Season One set. The Season Two set includes "The Golden Spiders," the 2000 TV movie which led to the series, and "The Making of Nero Wolfe," a short documentary which offers interviews with Timothy Hutton, Maury Chaykin, and others involved in the production of this marvelous series. Also included as a "bonus" is a widescreen version of "The Silent Speaker." (It is unfortunate that A&E did not see fit to offer all of the episodes in widescreen.) After enjoying Nero Wolfe Season One and Two you'll want more adaptations of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe done by Jaffe, Hutton et al. You'll also wonder what fit of nincompoopery came over A&E and made them cancel this exemplary series.
