Akers is a free-lance writer whose work has appeared in college journals and educational publications. In the following essay, Akers discusses the influence of P. G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster" stories on the film and television of the late twentieth century.

In 1917, P. G. Wodehouse first introduced the characters of Bertie Wooster, the young, rich, and endearing English nitwit, and Jeeves, his cool and ingenious butler. More than 70 years later, the critical and popular success of the early 1990s British television series, Jeeves and Wooster, clearly demonstrates the enduring influence of Wodehouse's fiction on popular culture. Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster" stories have been adapted many times for the stage and screen through the years, perhaps most regrettably for a pair of "Jeeves" movies starring Arthur Treacher in the 1930s. (These films had no trace of Wodehouse's actual stories; Jeeves is portrayed as an idiot and, unbelievably, there...