Editing Nero Wolfe (section)

====''Nero Wolfe'' (A&E Network)====
{{Main|Nero Wolfe (2001 TV series)}}
Independent producer [[Michael Jaffe]]'s efforts to secure the rights to the Nero Wolfe stories date back to his earliest days in the business. In the mid-1970s he was working with his father, Henry Jaffe, a successful attorney turned producer, when the Nero Wolfe rights came on the market. Warner Bros. wanted to adapt the [[Nero Wolfe supporting characters#Arnold Zeck|Zeck trilogy]] for a feature film and approached Henry Jaffe, who traveled to New York to negotiate with the agent for Rex Stout's estate but lost out to Paramount Television.

"We finally got this opportunity", said Michael Jaffe. "I had chased the rights numerous times. One of the reasons that I never actually tried to make it as a series was that I didn't believe a network would ever let us make it the right way. Then A&E came along, and Allen Sabinson. I've known him for years and years. He swore he'd let me make it the right way.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jaffe |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Jaffe |date=December 2001 |chapter=A Labor of Love: The Nero Wolfe Television Series |editor-last=Kaye |editor-first=Marvin |title=The Nero Wolfe Files |location=Maryland |publisher=[[Wildside Press]] |publication-date=2005 |pages=86–91 |isbn=0-8095-4494-6 }}</ref>{{Rp|88}}{{efn|Allen Sabinson became a programming consultant for A&E in 1999, and was named the network's senior vice president for programming in spring 2001.}}{{efn|Jaffe/Braunstein Films, Ltd., secured the rights to the Nero Wolfe stories in 1998. (U.S. Copyright Office Document Number V3412D882, recorded March 13, 1998.)}}

In March 2000, [[Maury Chaykin]] (as Nero Wolfe) and [[Timothy Hutton]] (as Archie Goodwin) starred in ''[[The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery]]'', a Jaffe/Braunstein Films co-production with the [[A&E Network]]. High ratings led to the original series, ''A Nero Wolfe Mystery'' (2001–2002), most often called ''[[Nero Wolfe (2001 TV series)|Nero Wolfe]]''.

Hutton served as an executive producer and directed four telefilms. ''Nero Wolfe'' adapted the plots and dialogue of the Stout originals closely; unlike previous Wolfe adaptations, the series retained Archie Goodwin's first-person narration and did not update the stories to contemporary times. The episodes were colorful period pieces, set primarily in the 1940s–1950s.<ref name="Scarlet Street">{{cite journal |last=Vitaris |first=Paula |date=2002 |title=Miracle on 35th Street: Nero Wolfe on Television |journal=[[Scarlet Street (magazine)|Scarlet Street]] |issue=45 |pages=28–30, 34, 36–37, 76–77 }}</ref>{{Rp|37}}{{efn|The exception is the second-season premiere directed by Timothy Hutton. "For ''[[Death of a Doxy#A Nero Wolfe Mystery (A&E Network)|Death of a Doxy]]'', Tim decided to play it in the early sixties", producer [[Michael Jaffe]] said. "If you look at that episode, it's really fun, because everything—the wardrobe, the art direction—is different, since it's a different generation. It breaks our mold."<ref name="Scarlet Street"/>{{Rp|37}}}} The production values were exceptional and critics responded favorably.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nerowolfe.org/htm/AE_tv_series/reviews.htm |title=Wolfe Pack – Official Site of the Nero Wolfe Society |publisher=Nerowolfe.org |access-date=2012-01-04}}</ref>

Other members of the principal cast were [[Colin Fox (actor)|Colin Fox]] (Fritz Brenner), [[Conrad Dunn]] (Saul Panzer), [[Fulvio Cecere]] (Fred Durkin), Trent McMullen (Orrie Cather), [[Saul Rubinek]] (Lon Cohen), [[Bill Smitrovich]] (Inspector Cramer) and [[R.D. Reid]] (Sergeant Purley Stebbins). In a practice reminiscent of the mystery movie series of the 1930s and 1940s, the show rarely used guest stars in the roles of victims, killers and suspects, but instead used the same ensemble of supporting actors each week. An actor who had been "killed off" in one show might portray the murderer in the next. Actress [[Kari Matchett]] was a member of this repertory group while also having a recurring role in the series as Archie Goodwin's girlfriend Lily Rowan; other frequent members of the troupe included [[Nicky Guadagni]], [[Debra Monk]], [[George Plimpton]], [[Ron Rifkin]], [[Francie Swift]], and [[James Tolkan]].

Production of ''Nero Wolfe'' coincided with Rex Stout's becoming a top-selling author some 30 years after his death. A&E released the series on Region 1 DVD as two sets (''The Golden Spiders'' bundled with the second season), and as a single eight-disc thinpack set.