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Imagine yourself embroiled in a world of murder, illicit women, lecherous criminals and blackmail. Timothy Hutton doesn't have to. Serving as executive producer, sometimes dorector and actor on the acclaimed A&E detective series Nero Wolfe, he's up to his ears in mayhem--but carefully controlled mayhem. "I wanted to be involved in the total look ofthe show," says Hutton. "I think with a show like this you need to move away from the committee of filmmaking," he continues. "Not everyone will agree with one point of view, but at least there is one."
Hutton's vision has paid off. Based on the successful cult classics by Rex Stout, Maur Chaykin plays the eccentric Nero Wolfe. Huttin is his sleek apprentice Archie Goodwin, and Colin Fox (Psi Factor) is culinary prodigy Fritz Brenner. And while the show's dentral cast remains the sme, its peripheral members turn up playing different characters each week, something Hutton thought would be fun. "It's fiction and there are no continuous plot lines, so I thought why nt have a group of people that change their looks each week."
One of those returning faces is Kari Matchett, who loves playing several roles. ["The opportunity is] a real gift," says Matchett, virtually unrecognizable in an auburn wig, hairnet and matching blue hat and skirt, all circa 1940. "Before [this], some friends and I were sitting around talking about the idea situation for an actor," she says, "and we decided that it would be to play different characters. You never get stereotyped, bored or predictable. It happened!"
Matchett isn't the only one elated with Nero's adaptation to the small screen. Writer-producer Sharon Doyle explains that a Wolfe fan club recently made a visit to the Toronto set and left impressed. "It's incredible to have a fan truly appreciate that you've gone to great lengths to get it right," says Doyle, adding it was never their intention to reinvent the novels for TV. "That's not why you're watching," she explians. "You're watching for enrichment of what you've read--it's important to hld onto words like "flummery" that are lost to the Bruce Willis generation."
Chaykin, who plays the insatiable Wolfe, identifies with Stout's rich charactesr. "I'm from New York", he says, "and I grew up being aware of a lot of the characters he writes about. They're all New York characters and people I recognize, even from my childhood."
Chaykin says Stout's own daughter alluded to some recognition when she visited the set. "She was convinced that Archie and Nero were the two different sides of her father."
Fox takes the familial theory further, suggestion that what draws people to Nero Wolfe is Stout's traditional characterizations. "Wolfe is like the rather forbidding uncle you wouldn't mind having," he says. "I think that's why people are so attracted to mysteries, because when you enter the world of the mystery novel or series you're entering a closed world.
"You know a crime has been committed," he continues. "Somehow that crime is going to be solved." Never fear, with Nero Wolfe and the capable Archie on the case, things are sure to be wrapped up just in time for another meal.