Sun 4 Dec 2011
NERO WOLFE on CBS-TV in 1959? ALMOST! — A Note from Tina Silber.
Posted by Steve under Characters , TV mysteries[24] Comments
Hi Steve,
Some friends and I just got wind of this virtually unknown CBS-TV series a couple of months ago accidentally, via an odd old Google News result from Billboard magazine about notable composer Alex North’s jazz theme.
There’s no mention of the 1959 series in John McAleer’s humongous Stout biography, although a pilot plus a few episodes were actually filmed and it came within an eyelash of being Nero Wolfe’s TV debut — contradicts the conventional wisdom that Stout had vetoed any further screen adaptations during his lifetime due to his disappointment with the 1930s movies.
Here it is, complete with the lone screenshot evidence we found — Shatner’s Archie with Kurt Kasnar’s Wolfe — on Wikipedia’s entries for Nero Wolfe and Shatner:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_Wolfe#Nero_Wolfe_.28CBS.29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shatner#Early_stage.2C_film.2C_and_television_work
Alerting you because I remember Mystery*File and its followers expressing interest in early “NW” adaptations that were or might have been, and this one’s quite a revelation.
Tina
December 4th, 2011 at 2:23 pm
As soon as I read Tina’s email I was thinking that of the two, Kaszner would have been the better casting choice. But once I saw the photo, it was Shatner who caught my eye.
The more I think about it, if given the chance, the more like Archie he may have become. Not only visually, but voice and body mannerisms, too.
We may have lost a small gem when CBS decided to not give the series a go.
December 4th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Tina adds in a followup email:
“It would be lovely if somebody who knows more than we could dig up with our limited research tools comes forth. Incredible that this was buried so deep; there were a gazillion major media stories about the series at the time, we could only scratch the surface, mostly just what’s online and leads from online sources. Unfortunately, Shatner is the only one of the key 1959 series people still alive, and we couldn’t find a single mention of it by Shatner himself.”
December 4th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Shatner looks as I always pictured Archie to look; and Kaszner had a “mittel-European” look perfect for the Montenegrian Wolfe: look how Yugoslavian KK looks in the still!
But hour-long episodes with them would have been far better plot-wise than half-hour ones, I think.
December 4th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Anybody want to ask Shatner on his twitter account?
Anybody have the original McFarland &Co. edition of UNSOLD TELEVISION PILOTS 1955-1989 by Lee Goldberg? I have the edited updated version UNSOLD TV PILOTS (Citadel Press, print and e-book), and it is not listed there.
I wonder if the TV series had a sponsor. Fadiman Associates could have produced it without one, but the networks were popular then and filled their slots with sponsors fast. HENNESEY was sponsored by General Foods.
It did not surprise me there was so little information known about this show. Independent TV producers were common and not news until the show actually aired,
The fact they stopped at a few episodes says the money ran out and no sponsor could be found. Wonder if any of the shows still exist (with one pilot and three or four shows it was not done live but on TV-Film)?
December 4th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
William Shatner as Archie Goodwin? In a word: fascinating.
December 4th, 2011 at 11:27 pm
I asked Mr. Shatner to comment on his Facebook page. I hope he does, and can give us some info!
December 5th, 2011 at 12:27 am
Thanks, Susan!
December 5th, 2011 at 5:34 pm
I checked my copy of UNSOLD TELEVISION PILOTS 1955-1989, but no go. Kasznar is mentioned only once,Shatner appears numerous times, but no mention of Nero Wolfe. I wish Alexander the Great, in which Shatner played the title role and Adam West that of his associate, General Cleander, would have made it — the mind boggles. Kasznar and Shatner would have been dandy as Wolfe and Archie, though.
December 5th, 2011 at 6:51 pm
Jim, Any idea if that ALEXANDER THE GREAT series was supposed to be a comedy?
December 5th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
A March 14, 1958, article in the New York Times reported that “William Shatner has been signed to star with Kurt Kasznar in a pilot film that may be the basis for a “Nero Wolfe” television series.”
Here’s a link to the full article:
http://louderthannecessary.blogspot.com/2011/12/two-stage-actors-signed-by-cbs-tv-march.html
December 5th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Thanks, Tony!
December 6th, 2011 at 4:28 am
Steve, the Alexander the Great pilot is available online & on amazon I think. It is pretty hilarious, but unintentionally so. Shatner was great as Alexander though.
December 6th, 2011 at 10:12 am
MK
Thanks for the tip. I found a copy for sale on Amazon for $3 and decided to take the plunge. The price was right. I’ll report back later on the movie.
— Steve
December 6th, 2011 at 10:32 am
I had no idea until today this version even existed. It would be great to see what these were like – I grew up watching the Italian version from the late 60s / early 70s which was pretty good and I loved the eccentric Chaykin/Hutton version for A&E. Michael Weatherly might make a good Archie today …
December 6th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Tidbit about the casting of Kasznar, not included in Wiki entries:
The first question was, who would play Wolfe?Good fat actors are hard to find, but the planners finally thought of Kurt Kasznar, a well-trained Viennese-American, who is adept in both comedy and serious drama, and who looks remarkably like the detectice described in several score novels by Mr. Stout….
“‘What they didn’t know,” said Mr. Kasznar, between takes in the New York studio where the pilot was being made, “was that I had taken off 80 pounds in order to qualify for my role in Noel Coward’s stage comedy, ‘Look after Lulu.’
After Mr. Duff [producer] recovered from the shock of beholding Mr. Kasznar as a trim, tall, romantic-looking type, he decided to hire him anyway. Â The missing 80 pounds plus was restored by means of a false front, such as slender Shakespearean stars use when they play Falstaff.
[Since “Lulu” closed]….Mr. Kasznar is now free to imbibe beer to his heart’s content, as the role demands.
Excerpt from Donald Kirkley in the Baltimore Sun, 1/26/1959.
December 6th, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Steve: As mk says, Alexander the Great was supposed to be an adventure show. Unsold Television Pilots quotes Adam West as saying: “The audience and Madison Avenue just weren’t ready for orgies with Shatner and West lying there on their backs eating grapes with belly dancers beside them.” Shatner says it helped him prepare to become Captain Kirk. I’ve got to check the pilot out!
December 6th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
A friend is convinced that the 1959 “Nero Wolfe” series presaged “Star Trek” for Shatner because the plot of the first program was about the mysterious death of a guided missile scientist at a Cape Canaveral launching. I’d say that’s a stretch, but maybe not quite as big a stretch as Alexander & Captain Kirk. 🙂
December 12th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Michael,
The NERO WOLFE pilot and test episodes with Shatner were news to me until Tina clued me in…so no, they aren’t in my book.
Lee
December 16th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Looking forward to reading your review of the Alexander the Great pilot, Steve! I was tempted to watch it after reading the Agony Booth recap – http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Alexander_the_Great_1964.aspx
August 13th, 2018 at 6:13 pm
On this date, the 13th of August, 2018:
I’m looking at Amazon for anything new, and today I see on offer a two-volume set called Television’s Lost Classics, collections of spent pilot films which will become available on September 11th.
If I read the entry correctly, Volume 2 includes the 1959 Nero Wolfe pilot, with Kurt Kasznar and The Shat.
I put it in my cart instanter.
And now I gotta wait a whole Goddamn month …
Cry World …
In case you’re interested, check out Amazon.
August 13th, 2018 at 7:38 pm
A must have, Mike. Thanks!
August 13th, 2018 at 7:50 pm
Volume One
John Cassavetes stars in this pair of primetime specials from the early days of television. First, Sidney Lumet directs “Crime in the Streets,” a 1955 episode of “The Elgin Hour” about a violent teenaged gang leader (Cassavetes) and the social worker (Robert Preston) desperately trying to keep him from committing murder. And, the 1956 “Climax!” episode “No Right to Kill” re-imagines Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” with Cassavetes as a young writer who kills a pawnbroker. Robert H. Harris co-stars. Includes original commercials. 120 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital stereo; bloopers.
Volume Two
Volume Two contains 4-rare ‘Pilot’ episodes. The first Pilot titled “Case of the Sure Thing,” introduced the series Racket Squad, which lasted for 3 seasons and was nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. An interesting side-note, reportedly, this program may have inspired parts of the 1973 hit movie, “The Sting”. It was first broadcast on CBS on Thursday, June 7, 1951 and starred Reed Hadley as Captain Braddock and was written by Arthur Orloff. The second Pilot titled “Cool and Lam,” a light-hearted, detective yarn featuring characters first created by Erle Stanley Gardner. Bertha Cool runs a detective agency and Donald Lam is her junior partner, hence “Cool and Lam”. Directed by Jacques Tourneur! The third Pilot is a really rare treat, “The Life of Riley,” which starred Lon Chaney, Jr. as Chester Riley! This stand-alone episode was produced in 1948 but by the time the first season went into full production in 1949, Chaney had been replaced by no less than Jackie Gleason! The fourth Pilot, “Nero Wolfe,” based on characters created by Rex Stout, is another one-off production. Kurt Kasznar is Nero Wolfe, with future mega-star, William Shatner, co-starring. The story deals with the mysterious death (coincidently) of a rocket scientist. Included on the disc is a bonus CBS Blooper Reel for the long-running “Gunsmoke” series, hosted by James Arness.
October 4th, 2018 at 2:13 pm
Update on #20 onward:
Yesterday (the 3rd of October), I took delivery of Vol. 2 of Lost Classics as described above.
So far, I’ve only skimmed the included shows (Caveat: I already had Cool & Lam and the CBS blooper reel on other c2c DVDs), but I wiil state that the restorations by VCI are head-and-shoulders above anything else I’ve seen.
What little I can tell you about the CBS Wolfe pilot:
– The only familiar characters that appear are Nero and Archie; Fritz is mentioned in passing, but everybody else is in absentia.
– It’s only a half-hour, with no basis in any Stout story (strikes one and two); as we all know, that’s not enough time to do a proper classic mystery.
– One of the suspects is played by George Voskovec, who years later played Fritz in the 1981 Bill Conrad Wolfe series (probably pure coincidence).
– The creator credit for Rex Stout is thrown away among the closing credits; what (if anything) this may have had to do with Stout’s spiking the series at its outset is unknown.
As I stated above, I haven’t watched the whole thing all the way through; I’m saving it for a rainy day (so to speak).
As to the other stuff here, that CBS blooper reel (it was made for an affiliates meeting in 1963) includes a clip that hasn’t been included in earlier c2c DVDs – with Red Skelton, Jack Albertson, and an unrehearsed cow.
Also, be sure to read the foreword to the Life Of Riley pilot, written by producer-creator Irving Brecher – a real piece of history (from 1948!).
What I’m saying is – Get This!
November 1st, 2018 at 12:37 am
THIS JUST IN:
The Good Folks at The Wolfe Pack have unearthed the correspondence (much of it, anyway) between Rex Stout and Edwin Fadiman in re the CBS/Nero Wolfe pilot, now in DVD release.
The Pack has mounted the letters between Stout and Wolfe (along with Stout’s attorney) in a PDF, which they are in the process of cleaning up for a better reproduction.
But the raw material is up there, if you can’t wait.
Just go to The Wolfe Pack and hit the prescribed link.