A Nero Wolfe Mystery

A Nero Wolfe Mystery
Title illustration and design by Aurore Giscard d'Estaing
Also known as	'Nero Wolfe The Nero Wolfe Mysteries'
Genre	Period drama
Written by	Sharon Elizabeth Doyle Lee Goldberg William Rabkin Michael Jaffe Stuart Kaminsky Janet Roach Jennifer Salt Mark Stein
Directed by	John L'Ecuyer Timothy Hutton George Bloomfield Holly Dale John R. Pepper James Tolkan Neill Fearnley Michael Jaffe
Starring	Timothy Hutton Maury Chaykin Bill Smitrovich Colin Fox Conrad Dunn Fulvio Cecere Trent McMullen R.D. Reid Saul Rubinek Kari Matchett Debra Monk Nicky Guadagni
Composer(s)	Michael Small
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Michael Jaffe Timothy Hutton Howard Braunstein
Producer(s)	Susan Murdoch Randi Richmond
Location(s)	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cinematography	Derek Rogers John Berrie
Editor(s)	Paul Winestock Stephen Lawrence James Bredin Susan Shipton
Camera setup	Single-camera
Production company(s)	Jaffe/Braunstein Films Ltd. and A&E Networks in association with Pearson Television International
Distributor	A&E Networks FremantleMedia
Release
Original network	A&E
Original release	April 22, 2001 – August 18, 2002
Chronology
Preceded by	The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000)
External links
Website

A Nero Wolfe Mystery is a television series adapted from Rex Stout's classic series of detective stories that aired for two seasons (2001–2002) on A&E. Set in New York City sometime in the 1940s–1950s, the stylized period drama stars Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin. A distinguishing feature of the series is its use of a repertory cast to play non-recurring roles. A Nero Wolfe Mystery was one of the Top 10 Basic Cable Dramas for 2002.

The series won praise for its high production values and jazzy score by Michael Small, and for preserving the language and spirit of the original stories. Most of the teleplays were written by consulting producer Sharon Elizabeth Doyle and the team of William Rabkin and Lee Goldberg, whose "Prisoner's Base" was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.

A total of 20 episodes were produced over the two-season run. Eight of Stout's novels were adapted into two-hour broadcasts, while 12 of his short stories were filmed as one-hour episodes.

Nero Wolfe was produced for A&E by Jaffe/Braunstein Films, one of the first production companies to use high-definition video for television. Although the second season was shot in HD, none of the several home video releases of the series has been issued in HD, and only one of the 20 episodes ("The Silent Speaker") has been issued in 16:9 widescreen format.