Editing Nero Wolfe (section)

====''Nero Wolfe'' (Paramount Television)====
In an interview May 27, 1967,<ref name="McAleer"/>{{Rp|479–480}} Rex Stout told author Dick Lochte that [[Orson Welles]] had once wanted to make a series of Nero Wolfe movies, and Stout had turned him down.<ref name="Lochte">{{cite news |last=Lochte |first=Dick |date=January 30, 1977 |title=TV finally tunes in Nero Wolfe |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] }}</ref>{{efn|Dick Lochte discussed the Stout interview in an online post March 8, 2000.<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/archives/200003/0149.html |title=Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe movies|last1=Lochte |first1=Dick |date=March 8, 2000 |website=Rara-Avis |access-date=2015-11-01 }}</ref>}} Disappointed with the Nero Wolfe movies of the 1930s, Stout was leery of Nero Wolfe film and TV projects in America during his lifetime: "That's something my heirs can fool around with, if they've a mind to", he said.<ref name="McAleer"/>{{Rp|487–488}} In 1976, a year after Stout's death, [[Paramount Television]] purchased the rights for the entire set of Nero Wolfe stories for Orson Welles.<ref name="Lochte"/><ref name="Kleiner">{{cite news |last1=Kleiner |first1=Dick |last2=Crosby |first2=Joan |date=December 30, 1976 |title=TV Scout: Some New Series in the Bullpen |newspaper=[[Oakland Tribune]]  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Liz |author-link=Liz Smith (journalist) |date=March 7, 1977 |title=Brando, Streisand, Peters Finagling? |newspaper=[[The Gazette (Colorado Springs)|Colorado Springs Gazette]] |quote=Paramount bought the entire set of Nero Wolfe stories for Orson Welles, who is enjoying a renaissance of popularity in Hollywood and the world.}}</ref>{{efn|Pre-production materials for Welles's unrealized ''Nero Wolfe'' (1976) are contained in the Orson Welles – Oja Kodar Papers 1910–1998 (Box 17) at the [[University of Michigan]] Special Collections Library.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umich-scl-welleskodar?byte=7322760;focusrgn=C01;subview=standard;view=reslist |title=Television |website=Orson Welles – Oja Kodar Papers 1910–1998 |publisher=[[University of Michigan]] Special Collections Library |access-date=2015-11-03}}</ref>}} Paramount paid $200,000 for the TV rights to eight hours of Nero Wolfe.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rosenfield |first=Paul |date=March 4, 1979 |title=Have You Seen Any Good Novels Lately? |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] }}</ref> The producers planned to begin with an [[Nero Wolfe (film)|ABC-TV movie]] and hoped to persuade Welles to continue the role in a mini-series.<ref name="Kleiner"/> [[Frank D. Gilroy]] was signed to write the television script ("The Doorbell Rang") and direct the TV movie on the assurance that Welles would star, but by April 1977 Welles had bowed out. [[Thayer David]] was cast as Wolfe in the [[Nero Wolfe (film)|1977 TV movie]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Gilroy |first=Frank D. |author-link=Frank Gilroy |date=1993 |title=I Wake Up Screening |url=https://archive.org/details/iwakeupscreening0000gilr/page/ |location=Carbondale, Illinois |publisher=[[Southern Illinois University Press]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/iwakeupscreening0000gilr/page/ ii, 147] |isbn=0-8093-1856-3 }}</ref>

In March 1980, Paramount was planning a weekly [[Nero Wolfe (1981 TV series)|NBC-TV series]] as a starring vehicle for Welles; Leon Tokatyan (''[[Lou Grant (TV series)|Lou Grant]]'') was to write the pilot.<ref>{{cite news |last=Deeb |first=Gary |date=March 26, 1980 |title=Tempo TV |newspaper=Chicago Tribune}}</ref> Welles again declined because he wanted to do a series of 90-minute specials, perhaps two or three a year, instead of a weekly series. [[William Conrad]] was cast as Wolfe in the [[Nero Wolfe (1981 TV series)|1981 TV series]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Winfrey |first=Lee |date=January 21, 1981 |title=Conrad gets 'his' part |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yDxUAAAAIBAJ&pg=2108,3980261&dq=nero-wolfe+welles&hl=en |newspaper=[[Boca Raton News]]  |access-date=2015-11-03 }}</ref>

=====''Nero Wolfe'' (1977)=====
{{Main|Nero Wolfe (film)}}
In 1977, [[Paramount Television]] filmed ''[[Nero Wolfe (film)|Nero Wolfe]]'', an adaptation of Stout's novel ''[[The Doorbell Rang]]''. [[Thayer David]] and [[Tom Mason (actor, born 1949)|Tom Mason]] starred as Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin; [[Anne Baxter]] costarred as Mrs. Rachel Bruner. Written and directed by [[Frank D. Gilroy]], the made-for-TV movie was produced as a pilot for a possible upcoming series<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bawden |first=J. E. A. |date=October 1977 |title=Anne Baxter|journal=Films in Review |publisher=[[National Board of Review]] |volume=28 |issue=8 |page=462 }}</ref>—but the film had not yet aired at the time of Thayer David's death in July 1978. ''Nero Wolfe'' was finally broadcast December 18, 1979, as an [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC-TV]] late show.<ref>{{cite book |last=Terrace |first=Vincent |date=1981 |title=Television 1970–1980 |location=San Diego, California |publisher=A.S. Barnes & Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/television1970190000terr/page/266 266] |isbn=0-498-02539-X |url=https://archive.org/details/television1970190000terr/page/266 }}</ref>

=====''Nero Wolfe'' (1981)=====
{{Main|Nero Wolfe (1981 TV series)}}
Paramount Television remounted ''[[Nero Wolfe (1981 TV series)|Nero Wolfe]]'' as a weekly one-hour series that ran on [[NBC]] TV from January through August 1981. The project was recast with [[William Conrad]] stepping into the role of Nero Wolfe and [[Lee Horsley]] portraying Archie Goodwin. Although it was titled "Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe", the production departed considerably from the originals. All 14 episodes were set in contemporary New York City.