The Nero Wolfe Mysteries
Help Support This Site
(all types of Amazon purchases qualify)
United States:

Canada:


Wolfe Items
at Cafe Press:
Support This Site
If you are unable to
view search boxes or buttons above, your browser's Ad Blocker
may be preventing
the display.
Wolfe with TV

Missing Minutes

CYLINDERS FOUND:
Scenes from the Scenes You've Never Seen!

See the handout for
Prisoner's Base
Missing Minutes

from the NYC Premier
of the overseas version of "PB"
at the 2009 Black Orchid Weekend.

Thank you:
Juelie, Debby, & Tina!

We've got screen captures of Fritz and Priscilla as you've never seen them -- oh, and Archie, too -- unless you're lucky enough to have seen a foreign telecast of the series. The same shows produced for audiences abroad were several minutes longer than the ones packaged by A&E for viewers in North America. This "Pearson/Freemantle" production version was created because that market usually prefers a full 1 hour of content and in letterbox format.  The episodes in these versions contain additional footage (the MISSING MINUTES) never shown or released in the US and are in "Letterbox" format. Scroll down to view some additional screen captures and click here to view some shots from Christmas Party.

The Pearson/Freemantle international version (letterbox + missing minutes) was broadcast only overseas, not the US.

AS OF 2013 the International Version has been released in DVD format. Click here to reach the Amazon.co.uk page. The DVDs are in Region 2, PAL format only, with Dutch subtitles.

The Dutch version, although excellent playing quality, has a few errors in labeling:

  • three sets, called "Series" have been released, comprising about 1.75 of the original episodes that were Season 1 & 2.
  • "Series 3" is erroneously labeled "Complete Series"
  • the synopses for two episodes are mixed up in one of the sets
  • one of the package covers features Cramer, probably erroneously thought to be Wolfe.

The Dutch version also has these features:

  • not all are in wide screen
  • not included: The Next Witness, Poison A La Carte, Before I Die, & Immune to Murder
  • The Golden Spiders, The Doorbell Rang & Champagne for One were never produced with longer versions, therefore have no resulting Missing Minutes in US broadcast and DVD release

Pfui's Photostream on Flickr has a variety of missing edges (wide screen version of scenes) and missing minutes, as well as screen captures from the Dutch subtitled version. Click here to see the Flickr site.

Only The Silent Speaker was released in the US version in letterbox format – as an "extra" on the Season 2, Vol. 5 disc of the "Complete Series."

The producers used two methods for extending the stories:
  1. The original production approach was to use footage to connect two Novella stories. The footage consisted of scenes at the beginning, between stories, and at the end. This expanded the length to meet overseas criteria. U.S. DVDs do not include the connecting introduction and intermezzo footage that was added. However, only two such sets were ever part of the overseas distribution, Wolfe Steps Out and Wolfe Stays In, because the foreign distributor changed its mind for Season Two.

  2. For Season Two the novella-combination approach was dropped. Instead, four Novellas had enough footage added to meet the required length for overseas. The additional footage for two of them consists primarily of interview-like sequences. The interviews are with various characters in the plot and are almost ad lib in nature. These four are:

    Immune to Murder (interview with each character)
    The Next Witness (expanded scene in Saul's apartment)
    Before I Die (expanded scene with Beulah Page in Plant Rooms)
    Poison a la Carte
    (interviews of "waitresses" with Lewis Hewitt as the judge)

  3. Four Novella stories that may have been produced in a version that met overseas requirements but were never telecast overseas are:

    Murder Is Corny
    Die Like a Dog
    Help Wanted, Male
    The Cop  Killer

Overseas friends have shared with us many cylinders from their home video library.  Below is a listing of the packaging for the telecasts.

See the LINKS PAGE for links to sites with more information and scenes from the Missing Minutes and "Letter Box Edges."

Thanks to Debby Montague, The Silber Family (Tina, Peter, & Daniel), David James, Mark Hood, Walter Finch, and all those overseas fans who contributed to the information pool on this topic.

Christmas Party Missing Minutes Dutch subtitles
(click to see an enlargement)

Overseas Packaging for Telecast

The First Season
PILOT: The Golden Spiders (no extra footage was shot for international release)
The Doorbell Rang (no extra footage was shot for international release)
Champagne for One (no extra footage was shot for international release)
Prisoner's Base
(Click here to see the transcript of some of the Missing Minutes on IMDB)
Wolfe Stays In
["Disguise For Murder" & "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo" are connected with a card game at Wolfe's with the three ‘Teers]
Wolfe Goes Out
["Door to Death" & "Christmas Party" connected with "dancing at the Flamingo"].
View the flyer from the Wolfe Pack's 2011 Book Discussion of Christmas Party
.
Over My Dead Body
Missing Minutes Next Witness Dutch Subtitles The Second Season
Death of a Doxy
The Next Witness
(Click here to see the transcript of some of the Missing Minutes on IMDB)
Poison A La Carte
The Mother Hunt
Too Many Clients
Before I Die
The Silent Speaker
Immune to Murder
NOT AIRED OVERSEAS:

Murder Is Corny
Die Like a Dog
Help Wanted, Male
The Cop  Killer

"Eeny Meeny Murder Mo"
[Linked abroad with "Disguise for Murder"
in a single full-length episode entitled "Wolfe Stays In."]
I was standing there in the office glaring down at the necktie on Nero Wolfe's desk, when the doorbell rang. It annoyed me. It annoyed Fritz too when, shortly after four, he came to say he was going shopping and would be gone two hours. His eye caught the tie and fastened on it. His brows went up. "Schlampick," I said. He nodded. "You know my respect and esteem for him. He has great spirit and character, and of course he is a great detective, but there is a limit to the duties of a chef and housekeeper. One must draw the line somewhere."
Fritz was humped over with his forehead on the edge of the table. "You're pie-eyed," I said. His head came up. "No, Archie. I have tried, but no." I crossed to the stoop and sang out, "Who are you over there? Gillian? Murphy? Come here a minute!" A figure emerged from the shadows across the street. As he crossed the pavement I peered, and as he reached the curb on our side I spoke. "Oh, Wylie. Come on up."

He stood at the foot of the seven steps. "For what?" he demanded.

"Prisoner's Base"

"I wonder - do you know what I think I need right now? A Coke and rum with some lime and lots of ice. I don't suppose you've got Meyer's?" It seemed to me she was crowding a little, but I said sure, we had everything, and got up to step to Wolfe's desk and ring for Fritz. After Fritz had brought it and she had taken a couple of sips, she murmured something about its being warm and removed the jacket and dropped it on the seat of the red leather chair. Then, with her glass in her hand, and sipping intermittently, she moved to my desk for a glance at the germination cards, crossed to the big globe and gave it a gentle spin, and went to the shelves and looked at titles of books.

She was moving around. I went to the threshold. The suitcase, open on the rack, was three-fourths packed. That girl would have been a very satisfactory traveling companion. Without a glance at me, she finished the suitcase, swift and efficient, and started on the hatbox. "Watch your money," I said. "You have plenty. Don't give it to a stranger to hold."

"Sending little sister off to camp?" she asked, without giving me the eyes. It may have been banter, but it wasn't any too light.

"Archie." He was gruff. "No man can hold himself accountable for the results of his psychological defects, especially those he shares with all his fellow men, such as lack of omniscience. It is a vulgar fallacy that what you don't know can't hurt you; but it is true that what you don't know can't convict you."
 

"It's still my personal problem. I can get along without omniscience,
but I can't get along with a goddam strangler going around being
grateful to me for sending his victim to him, and I don't intend to try."

 

Cover Art from DVDs of the Dutch Subtitled International Version
Pearson Int'l DVD Pearson Int'l DVD Pearson Int'l DVD Pearson Int'l DVD
orchidComments, Questions, Corrections:
Webmaster
Thanks to Steve Grande for donating
to The Wolfe Pack the domain
www.nerowolfe.com
top of page
©The Wolfe Pack 2000-2013
Last updated
February 9, 2013