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

See the handout for
Prisoner's Base Missing Minutes
from the NYC Premiers
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 version contain additional footage (the MISSING MINUTES) never shown or released in the US and are in "Letterbox" format.

The Pearson/Freemantle version (letterbox + missing minutes) was:

broadcast only overseas, not the US.
has not been not released, as of 2009, in DVD or VCR format.

Not only is this version unavailable on DVD, but when recorded from overseas television airings the episodes are usually recorded in Region 2/PAL format, so will not play on Region 1 (NTSF) DVD players sold in the U.S. (see DVD Region Code chart).

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

The producers used two methods for extending the stories:

The original production approach was 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 distribtuion, Wolfe Steps Out and Wolfe Stays In, because the foreign distributor changed its mind for Season Two.
For Season Two the novella-combination approach was dropped. Instead, four Novellas had enough footage added to make them as they were produce to create episodes to meet the required length for overseas. The addtional footage consists primarily of interview-like sequences spliced between the ongoing storyline. The interviews are with various characters in the plot and are almost ad lib in nature. These four are:

           Immune to Murder
           The Next Witness
           Before I Die
           Poison a la Carte
The four Novella stories that were no longer paired with the above were never telecast overseas -- Murder Is Corny, Die Like a Dog, Help Wanted, Male , Cop Killer

Overseas friends have shared with some of us here in the U.S. 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.

Overseas Packaging for Telecast (never released in DVD)

The First Season

The Doorbell Rang

Champagne for One

Prisoners Base

Wolfe Stays In
["Disguise For Murder" & "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo" 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"]

Over My Dead Body

The Second Season

Death of a Doxy

The Next Witness

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
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.

"Prisoners 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."

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Last updated
November 30, 2011