name. This led to Robert Goldsborough giving him the full name of "Lionel T. Cramer" in Goldsborough's version of Nero Wolfe novels. "To me he is just Inspector Cramer," Stout said. Cramer is the protagonist of one Stout novel, Red Threads (1939). This novel does not feature Wolfe or any of his employees, but does have appearances from some tertiary series characters like Police Commissioner Humbert and District Attorney Skinner. Inspector Cramer was portrayed by Biff McGuire in the 1977 TV movie Nero Wolfe, by Allan Miller in NBC TV's 1981 series, and by Sergey Parshin in Russian TV-series Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin (2001–2002). In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002), the role of Inspector Cramer is played by Bill Smitrovich. Archie hears him called Fergus in the episode "The Silent Speaker", when he makes the brief acquaintance of Mrs. Cramer. Sergeant Purley Stebbins Sergeant Purley Stebbins is Inspector Cramer's assistant. Stebbins is in many ways the archetypal good cop: tough, brave, and dedicated, but also gruff and unpolished. Stebbins is ambivalent about Archie, and Archie makes frequent references to the few times Stebbins has let his guard down and called him by his first name. Archie believes that Stebbins harbors some resentment toward him due to the great discrepancy in their salaries, but Stebbins recognizes Archie as an expert and talented detective. In Champagne for One, Stebbins' keen observation of the behavior of a group of murder suspects earns a comment of admiration from Wolfe. He also appears in the Alphabet Hicks short story "By His Own Hand (Curtain Line)" published in April 1955. In the A&E TV series, the role of Purley Stebbins is played by R.D. Reid. Lieutenant Rowcliff Lieutenant George Rowcliff is a police lieutenant for whom Wolfe harbors special animus, partly due to an incident in which Rowcliff took Wolfe into custody. As Wolfe once put it, "This whole performance is based on an idiotic assumption, which was natural and indeed inevitable, since Mr. Rowcliff is your champion ass – the assumption that Mr. Goodwin and I are both cretins." As noted above, Rowcliff starts to stutter when he is sufficiently angry or frustrated; Archie sometimes makes a private game of seeing how quickly he can bring Rowcliff to this point, and occasionally affects the stutter to goad him into it. As with Cramer, Stout made a continuity error in Rowcliff's