Customer Reviews

Remington Steele: Season One

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As one of my top three all time favorite shows, Remington Steele has it all: mystery, romance and humor. While the mysteries were strongest in Season 1--"In the Steele of the Night" won an Edgar Award--the series stayed pretty strong until near the end of the last full season. We won't even mention the follow-up "movies" that comprised the final season. It's fun to watch this first season and see familiar faces from film and TV before they became stars, such as Annie Potts, Delta Burke, Sharon Stone, and Pierce Brosnan himself. Don't miss nepotism at its best with guest appearances by Stephanie Zimbalist's father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr, and Brosnan's first wife, Cassandra Harris. Also, don't look for Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond) yet; she didn't join the cast until the second season after James Read and Janet Demay left.

A list of season one episodes follows.

1. Licence to Steele
2. Tempered Steele
3. Steele Waters Run Deep
4. Signed, Steeled and Delivered
5. Thou Shalt Not Steele
6. Steele Belted
7. Etched in Steele
8. Your Steele the One for Me
9. In the Steele of the Night (Edgar Winner)
10. Steele Trap
11. Steeling the Show
12. Steele Flying High
13. A Good Night's Steele
14. Hearts of Steele
15. To Stop a Steele
16. Steele Crazy After All These Years
17. Steele Among the Living
18. Steele in the News
19. Vintage Steele (top fan favorite)
20. Steele's Gold
21. Sting of Steele
22. Steele in Circulation

This was a truly stylish television show that tapped into the kind of Stanley Donen light mystery romance that is missing from the movies today. Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist were perfectly cast and the show only got better with each episode. The Henry Mancini theme music captured the feel of this light and sophisticated show tinged with humor perfectly. It was as evocative and as much a part of the show as his "Peter Gunn" theme had been decades before.

Laura Holt (Zimbalist) couldn't get her private detective agency off the ground in spite of her skills until she invented the phantom agency head, Remington Steele. Business was booming and everything was going swell until Pierce Brosnan shows up and assumes the roll of the nonexistent Steele, both around town and with clients. An uneasy alliance was formed that to the delight of fans moved more and more towards the romantic as time went by.

Brosnan's Steele was debonair and stylish, his past a shady mystery ala' "To Catch a Thief." Each season Laura discovered new things about his past in Ireland and his exploits in other countries. Steele was also a film buff and would make constant references to films of the 1930's and 1940's he would recall pertaining to the case. It made all us film buffs who knew just what he was talking about feel like we were insiders, and was one of the many charms of this wonderful show.

Brosnan and Zimbalist were a terrific screen couple in the tradition of all those ones we remember fondly. One could say they were our generations Nick and Nora Charles. There was a fun anticipation for viewers as week after week we watched the two become involved in a mystery while they danced around their growing affection for each other. And it was always fun as little tidbits of Steele's past were discovered by Laura.

This series was fun and sophisticated and always left you feeling good. This kind of entertaining film is missing from today's teen driven box office. It is also missing from the "reality" driven television we see so much of today. Remington Steele filled a void left for those seeking the kind of fun escapism which all but disappeared when the Hollywood studio system began to collapse.

Remington Steele was something really special in television. Every one of the episodes was enjoyable and finally, after years of waiting, the first season of this truly fantastic show is being released. Every lover of classic films was in love with this show. It was a refreshing reminder of what television could, and should be. I have this on my wish list to pick up and you'll want it on yours as well.

Emblazoned across the cover for the Fox season one release of the popular 1980s show "Remington Steele" is a tagline that reads "Before he was James Bond he was ... Remington Steele" with a shot of reigning big-screen James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan in the title role. In fact, the actress who originally had top billing on the show, Stephanie Zimbalist, is nowhere in sight on any of the promotional materialS or final cover art.
Such is the power of Hollywood marketing, for it was Brosnan, not Zimbalist, who became the break-out star for the show, with Brosnan receiving more fan mail than the studio had ever received before for a single actor.
The plot for the fall 1982 show centered around Zimbalist's character Laura Holt who, as a female detective, found it impossible to be taken seriously (this was, after all, the early 1980s). In order to resolve this troubling set of circumstances, Holt invents a (as she puts it) "decidedly masculine superior."
All seems to be going well until (in a quite obvious tip of the hat to 1959s "North by Northwest") the character appears in the shape of Pierce Brosnan, who answers a page for the fictitious Steele so that he can escape from two thugs.
Assuming the role of Remington Steele on a permanent basis, Laura and he embark on a series of adventures that for this set are in the shape of 22 full-frame episodes that echo the plots of well-known classic mysteries-from "Murder on the Orient Express" to "The Maltese Falcon" to "And Then There Were None," a personal favorite of mine.
It was these intriguing mysteries and the one-upmanship banter between the two leads that makes the show such a joy to watch.

Commentaries
As is most often the case with DVDs, the main special features are usually the commentaries; but truth be told, the first two commentaries in this set (on the first two episodes) are rather light on facts and heavy on silence.
Contrary to what pre-release publicity might have you believe, Brosnan does not contribute to either of the commentaries. Here we have series creators Michael Gleason and Robert Butler. Unfortunately, the two appear to get caught up in the show and forget to leave comments for the audience.
So what do we learn from the commentaries? Well, we learn that the image of Zimbalist wearing a fedora was a major selling point for the series. We also learn that the original pilot for the show was not the one that aired Oct. 1, 1982, named "License to Steele."
Originally, "Steele" was to have started with what became the second episode, as execs just wanted to jump straight into the show. But then NBC changed its mind and decided it wanted to see the first meeting of Laura and Steele, so Gleason and Butler went back and wrote what was to become the pilot.
In their commentary for the original pilot, called "Tempered Steele," Butler is initially confused as he says they are watching the original pilot (before reshoots). Then he recognizes that they are watching the reshot version.
More compelling is the third commentary between Gleason and writer Susan Baskin, which is hidden on the A-side of the fourth disc. Accompanying the episode "Vintage Steele," Gleason and Baskin discuss character and story development, specifically the effort to flesh out the Holt character to counterbalance the mystery that was Remington Steele and Baskins attempts to inject more subtle comedic touches into the show.

Featurettes
Included as background information to the series are three short featurettes that vary in length. Two of the featurettes are rather light in nature, with one tracking the development of main characters Remington, Laura, Bernice and Murphy. It is here that Brosnan refutes the long-held belief that he and Zimbalist had a mutual animosity toward one another, saying, "People said we didn't get along, but we did get along quite well."
The shortest documentary on the set-clocking in at just under eight minutes-features writers Baskin and Andrew Lazkos discussing the use of comic timing in the series and their efforts to emulate the 1940s movies of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn when writing the series.
The main featurette (at 12-minutes) on the flip side of the first of the four discs includes a discussion with Gleason and Butler as well as an on-camera interview with Brosnan on the genesis of the show. Indeed the documentary may prove to surprise today's audience. Not yet a star-it would be 13 years until Brosnan would don the tuxedo as James Bond on the big screen-NBC loved Zimbalist but disliked the way Brosnan played the title character.
As Brosnan recounts in his interview, that evening he went over the lines with his late wife Cassie and she asked, "That's the way you are going to play it?"
So Brosnan followed her subsequent advice and just played himself. NBC still was not happy, but producers Gleason and Butler stuck to their guns and NBC finally relented and gave the series the green light with an unknown British actor in the title role.
Another surprise comes in the revelation that the original solo pitch for the series did not even feature the character of Remington Steele. It was a show about a female detective who invented Steele so she could get cases. It was Gleason who came up with the notion "What if he turns up and drives her crazy?"
It was only then that it became a duet.

This is the DVD set I have been wishing for ever since they started putting TV shows on DVD--well, this and the second, third, and fourth season sets that I hope will follow it. This show has it all: witty banter, light-hearted mystery, trips to exotic locales, recurring characters (a reward for faithful viewers), and charming and attractive leads.

Laura Holt and Remington Steele are the quintessential romantic/comic detective duo. I even rank them above Nick and Nora Charles and David Addison and Maddie Hayes, much as I love and admire The Thin Man and Moonlighting. If you are a fan of either, you'd like Remington Steele. In fact, if you are a fan of classic movies in general you will probably like Remington Steele because the character is also a fan and finds parallels to movies in many of their cases.

I was sorry to see that one fan of the show gives it only one star and threatens not to purchase it based solely on the cover art. True, Stephanie Zimbalist was originally the main star and I would have preferred to see the two stars pictured together. But we fans should be happy just to have the show on DVD and do everything we can to make it a success so that the remaining seasons will also be released. The fact is that Brosnan was the breakout star of the show and his success led to his being cast as James Bond (then losing the part to Timothy Dalton because of RS obligations, only to be given the part again later). So if the James Bond tie-in helps sell more DVDs and gets more people hooked on the show we should be glad. And we can hope for better things from the cover art of future seasons.

I watched the pilot episode on NBC the first night it aired. I had never heard of Pierce Brosnan, but I had been so impressed with Stephanie Zimbalist in the mini series Centennial that I had to check it out. She is a great actress and I am sorry to see that she did not get any credit on the cover of the release. From the first season, I always felt that Brosnan was meant to play James Bond some day.

The chemistry between the two stars is wonderful. I loved James Read in the first season as well and was sorry to see him depart the show. Performances such as Beverly Garland as Laura's mother, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Remington Steele's mentor and the late Cassandra Harris (Brosnan's first wife) are all first rate. Every episode from the first season is a delight!

If you are not familiar with the show, but enjoy current shows such as JAG for the romantic chemistry between the stars, you should check out Remington Steele.

The best is yet to come, I look forward to the release of Season Two and my all time favorite episode, Red Holt Steele.

Yes, I was a kid growing up in the '80s and one of my favorite shows was the charming Remington Steele, which I actually preferred to Moonlighting. Pierce Brosnan was so cool and debonair and so dang British that I wanted to be like him. The fact that he was a con-man and had a mysterious past added to the mystique. And Lord, I had such a crush on Laura Holt, who was beautiful, clever, earnest, athletic and kinda prudish (turns out, our little Miss Prim & Proper had a few urges she firmly kept in check). Anyways, I'm a sucker for freckles. One of the best things about Season One was the ultra-cool theme song by the great Henry Mancini. The music exuded sheer class and sexiness and seemed to promise champagne and skullduggery. Another cool thing was the intro voice-over of Stephanie Zimbalist: "Try this for a deep, dark secret. The great detective Remington Steele? He doesn't exist. I invented him. Follow..." And so, we do.

Skip this paragraph if you know the show's premise. Laura Holt is a very capable sleuth whose private investigative agency isn't drawing in the clients, mostly because she's a woman. So she invents a front man - a decidedly masculine superior - named Remington Steele (according to Laura, "Remington" is derived from a brand of typewriter, while "Steele" is from the Pittsburg Steelers). Soon, sure enough, clients are coming in droves. And then, one day, HE walked in. Episode one, License to Steele, tells of the chance encounter between Laura Holt and a charming, urbane thief who steals her heart and, while he's at it, the name and identity of her agency.

The show Remington Steele ushered in a short era of sophistication and sly humor that recalled the best of vintage Hollywood. Brosnan and Zimbalist may not have gotten along well in real life, but as Steele and Holt, they were a match made in heaven. The show was ably supported by the yearning Murphy (James Read), who never did get over his suspicions (not totally unfounded) about Steele, and the gum-chewing Bernice Fox (Janet DeMay), whose name Remington chose to not clearly remember, much to her annoyance. Too bad the powers-that-be decided Murphy and Bernice were in the way of Remington and Laura's blossoming romance; they were written out by season two.

The mysteries themselves weren't all that original, more than a few being patterned after the plots of famous movies, which ties in nicely with Remington's penchant for quoting from Hollywood's golden age. But viewers didn't tune in for the quality of the mystery elements (don't get me wrong, they didn't suck), but rather - much like the classic Thin Man films - for the nova-intense chemistry between the two leads and their up-and-down romantic relationship. It would take a few seasons before their always-on-the-verge-but-never-quite-consumated flirtation became frustrating for the audience.

This season is the first and by far the best. Highlight episodes of Season One are:

License to Steele (episode 1) - Private eye Laura Holt is hired to protect some valuable, high profile jewelry, but an enigmatic (but very suave) British scam artist keeps popping up. Serious eye contact and innuendos are exchanged between the two, which later results in the con-man (who has his own problems) taking up the identity of the fictitious Remington Steele. Needless to say, a must see episode.

Thou Shalt Not Steele (episode 5) - A woman (Cassandra Harris, Brosnan's real wife at the time) from Steele's mysterious past convinces Steele to steal a painting rumored to be cursed from a Los Angeles museum exhibit. Problem is, Laura had already contracted to protect the valuable painting. Fun episode with Remington and Laura dabbling in professional thieving. This is the debut of Felicia, Remington's ex-flame, who shows up again in season 4.

In the Steele of the Night (episode 9) - Laura and Murphy attend a reunion party consisting of sleuths who used to work for the Havenhurst agency. One of the detectives is killed and Remington (who crashes the get-together) is elected to solve the murder. Very amusing, as Laura handfeeds clues to Remington, who attempts to look knowledgeable in front of his "peers."

Steele Trap (episode 10) - This one channels Agatha Christie's classic And Then There Were None. Remington and Laura show up at a weekend bash on the private island of a smut magazine publisher. And then people start getting killed off one by one.

Vintage Steele (episode 19) - Shenanigans in a winery and a recurring corpse. Laura stripteases and the two finally kiss. This is a cool episode and one of the most romantic. We finally find out stuff about Laura's past, specifically the reason why Laura doesn't like to mix business with pleasure.

Steele's Gold (episode 20) - Remington, Laura, and Murphy follow a prospector's journal, hoping to unearth gold. Hijinks in a ghost town and a wild treasure hunt in the desert. Fun episode.

Sting of Steele (episode 21) - The first sighting of Daniel Chalmers (Efrem Zimbalist Jr. - Stephanie's dad), Remington's mentor and surrogate dad, who shows up needing Steele's assistance in putting on an intricate sting to shake some villains off his back. Another vintage episode.

This box set contains four discs with all 22 episodes. Special features contain three episode commentaries (License to Steele, Tempered Steele, and Vintage Steele), as well as several making-of featurettes and character bios. Give this show a chance and see why it launched Pierce Brosnan to Hollywood's stratosphere.

Pierce Brosnan may be the reason this show is released on DVD, but die-hard "Remington Steele" fans know Stephanie Zimbalist was equally responsible for the show's quality. It was Ms. Zimbalist's acting as a smart, single, business woman that was intriguing to me as a teenaged girl. I'm sure I'm not alone in viewing her Laura Holt character as a role model.

When "Remington Steele" premiered in 1982, it was a breath of fresh air with super smart scripts (many writers from the show have gone on to other successes including Glenn Gordon Caron who created "Moonlighting"), tight direction, and the palpable chemistry and talent of the leads--Mr. Brosnan and Ms. Zimbalist.

The first season--in my mind--is the best. The series writers and scripts were at their highest level. There was a sophisicated edge to the locales, the storylines, and acting. Even the guest stars--Paul Reiser, Annie Potts, Sharon Stone, Roxanne Hart, Peter Scolari come to mind--made the show special. The series walked a fine line between that sophistication and gumshoe grit--something that I think is hard to pull off.

The show's quality did slightly slip in season 2 once it was paired with "The A-Team". It's been said that for season 2, NBC purposely made the show less cerebral to gain a wider audience. It did find it's highest ratings after season 1 with the stronger "A-Team" lead-in. No matter, "Remington Steele" was still a smart, delightful series throughout its run and I'm looking forward to revisiting it.

I have been waiting not so patiently for this to arrive in dvd but was also worried that it could not possibly be as good as I remembered. It was better! If you were a fan of this show buy this dvd (and the rest as they become available), if you are new to the series get this and you soon will be.

The basic premise of the show is that talented, ambitious detective Laura Holt discovered that the idea of a female private detective was too much for the times. To overcome this sexist attitude she invented the very masculine Remington Steele as a cover while she did all the work. Success soon followed and aided by co-conspiritors Murphy Michaels and Bernice Fox, Laura took the agency to the top. As the series begins the agency has a very swank suite of offices, a seemingly unlimited cash flow and a very high profile case. Then 'he walks in' a conman who realises that there is no Remington Steele and sees the opportunity to turn this to his own ends.

The series is very reminiscent of the screwball comedies of the '30's and '40's. Laura and Remington are very much like Nick and Nora Charles of the 'Thin Man' series with a touch of Tracy and Hepburn style. The stories are well writen, cleverly plotted and keep the viewer guessing to the end. There are various movies references scattered through either as plot devices, lines of dialogue or references that challenge the viewer to identify on subsequent viewings, and yes it is worth watching multiple times.

The ensemble cast of the first season is delightful, Murphy and Bernice are sadly only in the first season and add so much to the story. The 'families' are also introduced here, Laura's ex, her overbearing mother both appear and even her oh-so-perfect sister is alluded to, Remington's ex (Brosnan's wife Cassandra Harris)and his mentor (Zimbalist's father Efrem) both appear and shed a little light on his past.

The extras in the dvd set are wonderful, the commentaries on the are definitely worth watching and give more insight into the series a treat for fans of the series.

Now for the complaints. First even though Doris Roberts did not join the cast until the second season the unwary would never know it looking at the packaging. Her picture appears mutiple times on while James Read's (Murphy Michaels) and Janet DeMay's (Bernice Fox) do not. Most irritating of all though is that Stephanie Zimbalist, the 'big name star' when the series came out does not give a commentary to any of the episodes, is mentioned only in passing (mostly as looking good in hats) and is listed on the dvd cover as 'also starring'. Apparently the sexist attitudes that Laura encountered in the '80's are still around.

I absolutely loved this show back in the 80's and I am so glad they *finally* put Season 1 on DVD. The 4-disc is worth every penny, with the extra commentaries, etc. Too bad they didn't put Stephanie Z on the cover, though! Geesh, I guess it follows with the plot, where poor Laura is overshadowed by her dazzling boss. The show's writing was TOP NOTCH with only a few exceptions. The office decor with its red doors acted like a bloodred cape to the "matador/bull" matchup between Laura and Remington. No bull about this show's long-lasting appeal! I am an old movie buff myself, and all the refernces made me feel like I was right there in the office as an invisible clerk, helping out! And despite the cheesy plot of the episode with Dorothy LaMour and other early film stars, I really enjoyed seeing them. I hope we don't have to wait forever before the following seasons are released on DVD!! I can't wait till Doris Roberts joins the cast -- she took over admirably when "Miss Fox" and "Murphy" left, and her Mildred Krebs character (former IRS inspector but softie at heart) was a preclude of her depth as an actress. Her later work on Everybody Loves Raymond proved her star power. We all know how Pierce Brosnan jumped into Bond-ism fame and glory, but I truly expected to see Stephanie Zimbalist in far more than one made-for-TV movie after RS's demise. The movie was decent due to her presence, but not that memorable since I can't recall the title. I shall have to dig and find out what she's done since then. Hopefully she is aware of the die-hard fan loyalty to her! As for the Remington Steele series, I've even hooked my 18 year old daughter and her friends on the show. VIVA la STEELE!

Yeah, yeah, Brosnan went on to work in The Movies.
But the show Remington Steele, arguably, only made it to television in the first place because of the accomplished work of Stephanie Zimbalist. She was the "name" when the series began.
That is why I tuned in. To see Stephanie at work.
She already had quite a resume of fine TV roles, I was glad to see her get a series.
And I watched every ep, and delighted in her character. And as time went by, the skinny guy:}, with the odd accent and great hair began to grow on me. Together, they were so very watchable.
Then the chemistry began to work. The writing. The timing.
Everything about that show worked. Adding Doris Roberts was a
stroke of genius. Kudos to the writers that brought her to the show. Laura Holt's wardrobe changes, the tweaking of the second season, all the fine tuning that went on really jazzed the series up.
We will never know for sure what off-screen enmity passed between
the two main players.
Neither Stephanie or Pierce ever let it intrude into their onscreen roles.
Well, that is until those last, was it 6 eps they and we were forced to endure<ugh>. Ghastly.
Leaving Stephanie Zimbalist, the Star of the show, off the cover is a grievous insult to true admirers of the show.
Whoever, ultimately, made that decision,I give you a loud and obnoxious rasberry!
But, we can't expect the "money people" to care
about what made the series work.
I'll buy it with only Pierce on the cover because I know
much of the contents were made memorable because of
Stephanie. Her beauty, her intelligence, her outstanding talent that gave us a truly engaging portrayal of Laura Holt.