It didn’t take long after the short stories began appearing in the pages of The Strand Magazine in July 1891 for Sherlock Holmes to be not only a hit, but something of a phenomenon. Robert Barr’s parody, “Detective Stories Gone Wrong: The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs’’ appeared in The Idler in May 1892. In November, 1893, Holmes first trod the boards in the musical satire “Under the Clock” at London’s Royal Court Theatre, just before “The Final Problem” hit the newsstands.
After his supposed death at the hands of Moriarty at the Reichenbach, other authors tried to fill the void with their own more-or-less brilliant detectives—with or without more-or-less dullard sidekicks assisting them. Holmes appeared on the silver screen before he returned to the pages of the Strand to battle a demon hound in Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900). He is the most filmed fictional character in history. His appearances in fiction, radio, stage, screen and advertising are legion. While his presence in the popular culture has waxed and waned, he is a perennial; always present to help those in need.
Holmes-inspired investigators that sprang up on American TV like problem-solving weeds in the first decade of the 21st century culminated in his return to the movies in the hugely successful Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law franchise and the small screen with BBC Sherlock and now Elementary.
