Major Goodwin?
I haven't read the books yet, so the explanation might be in there, but when did Archie join the Army? After watching Help Wanted, Male I was confused and thought I might have missed an episode that explained it all.
shareAh, we all missed an episode, lots of episodes. If only the nincompoops at A&E had renewed "Nero Wolfe" for a third season we might have seen "Not Quite Dead Enough" the first report in which Archie talks about his service with G2. But alas, we'll never get to see on the screen Maury Chaykin's Wolfe "in training" or Timothy Hutton's Major Goodwin carrying out his military assignment.
"Not Quite Dead Enough" is the first story in which Archie appears in the military. The story takes place, according to one Wolfe scholar, from Monday, March 9 to Wednesday, March 11, 1942. Archie's been a major for three days when the story opens.
"Not Quite Dead Enough" along with "Booby Trap" make up the double mystery, "Not Quite Dead Enough" published by Farrar & Rinehart in 1944. In "Booby Trap" Archie reports on another military assignment, one which involves a pink grenade. "Help Wanted, Male" is the only other Nero Wolfe story in which we see Archie in uniform, but he does mention his Army service in "Instead of Evidence" a novella included in "Trouble In Triplicate" (as is "Help Wanted, Male") published by Viking in 1949.
In actuality, it's not even just a case of missing an episode, it's also the fact that the episodes are not done in chronological order to begin with anyway. Because of that fact, it's likely that several episodes, especially "Not Quite Dead Enough" and "Booby Trap" would never have been made into episodes, since both would have either 1) established an impossible timeline to reconcile with the rest of the series (since obviously by this time, "Before I Die" had already be aired, and while it may be possible to re-write "Booby Trap" to work after "Before I Die," the same could not be done for "Not Quite Dead Enough") or 2) have to have been majorly rewritten so as not to involve WW2, and indeed, that would have required changes so drastic that it probably would have been deemed not worth trying. Of course, that being said I have no idea why they did "Before I Die," but maybe they cared a lot less about authenticity and timelines than I thought they did.
shareI'm just catching up in the box set and it would have been great to see the rest of these books put on film....I've never read the books so it's good to see the titles you mention where Archie's a major...I guess they never show him going through basic training?
sharePlease, read the books! The A&E series was great, but left out a lot of the flavor of the greatone and his minion, Archie. As too Major Goodwin; it was established as mentioned above that Wolfe was asked to help with some investigations for G2 in New York. Since he rarely leaves the brownstone, Archie would be his legman. BUT, the Army in it's infinite wisdom would never allow an non-officer into the G2 headquarters and hobnob with the colonels and generals, so; make Archie a Major (temporary). Saw this a lot in my 32 years in the navy. Civilians brought in just for a job. They weren't commissioned, yet we had to act like they were. The A&E series was great, as i said (I'm watching them with my 83 year old mother as we speak (one episode per night) and we enjoy them immensly.
Again, read the books and get the whole story. The ending will be a shocker!
This was not stated as the reason Archie was made a major, I don't know if you are making assumptions or mis-remembering something but never was it stated or even hinted that this was the case. In fact, it is strongly hinted that Archie earned his rank quite legitimately, as he was commended for his actions in Georgia by the head of Army Intelligence in "Not Quite Dead Enough" and it is also mentioned that he found a stash of grenades that seemingly was an important deed in "Booby Trap" - at least, important enough to where a General of Army Intelligence is aware of the incident.
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