ONTVLand: Remington Steele (An ONTD original)
Click to viewYears before he was James Bond, Pierce Brosnan starred in Remington Steele about private eye Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalsit) who starts her own detective agency. The problem is, no one takes a woman P.I. seriously so she invents male boss; Remington Steele (named after a typewriter & a football team) which leads to getting more clients. This works out fine, until a thief and con man (Brosnan) shows up saying he’s Remington Steele as part of his latest scheme. Afterwards, for plot reasons, he has to keep up the pretence which leads to film noir vibes, zany situations, madcap adventures and unresolved sexual tension that you could cut with a knife. The series ran from 1982 to 1987 on NBC.
Holt starts out with a staff of secretary Bernice Foxe (Janet DeMay) and investigator & rival for Laura’s affections Murphy Michaels (Jame Read), but at the start of season 2 it’s noted that Bernice ran off with a Saxophone player & Murphy left to start his own agency in Colorado. They’re replaced by former IRS investigator Mildred Krebs (Doris Roberts) who came to investigate why “Remington Steele” hasn’t been filing his taxes, got caught up in one of their investigations, fixed Steele’s tax problem & decided to stay on.
Meant as a star vehicle for Stephanie Zimbalist, the unexpected attention that Pierce Brosnan received created conflict between the two. Reports were that after a while they rarely spoke to each other outside of the scenes they were in together. In the years that have followed both actors admitted this was true, but they blame the long hours on set and location for the conflict and both insist that any personal issues did not affect their work.
By the fourth season there had been major interest in naming Pierce Brosnan the next Bond and when the series was canceled (because there was no room on the schedule), it was all but guaranteed it would happen. In the meantime the ratings shot up with Summer reruns (likely boosted by the Bond casting talk) and NBC executive Warren Littlefield suddenly renewed the show for a fifth season. It didn’t get a full season of 22 episodes, or even a half of one. Just six episodes! Which were put together in three two hour movies with a guy named Tony Roselli (Jack Scalia) shoehorned in as a rival for Laura’s affections and neither actors, nor fans of Remeington Steele & James Bond were happy.
The James Bond producers couldn’t wait for this nonsense and gave the role to Timothy Dalton. Brosnan later said that at the time he was most likely too young for the part anyway, being 35 at the time filming would start. He would get his chance in the mid 1990’s.
Steele’s former mentor is played by Stephnie’s father (& future voice of Alfred in Batman: The Animated Series) Ephrem Zimbalist Jr.
Mildred Krebs was originally supposed to be 35 and a rival for Remington Steele’s affections. But Doris Roberts inisited in auditioning and impressed the producer enough that he changed the character and gave her the role.
Brosnan wasn’t the only one who lost out on a movie when the series was renewed. Zimbalist lost the part of Officer Anne Lewis in Robocop.
Pierce Brosnan's late wife Cassandra Harris appeared in a few episodes as Steele’s former girlfriend.
The season one DVD box reflects the show and reality in that neither Stephanie Zimbalist’s name or picture is anywhere to be found. A sticker saying “Also starring Stephanie Zimbalist” was added to the boxes later. She has star billing on the rest of the DVD series boxes though.
Where can you watch it?
Currently Remington Steele is not streaming anywhere, but you can buy 2 seasons on Apple iTunes & Amazon Video and all 5 seasons are available on Region 1 & 2 DVD. Some episodes can be found on YouTube.
The series is not often found on TV, when MeTV ran it from Sept. 3 to Dec. 31, 2012 it was the first time in nearly 20 years it had been in local syndication. It is possible that MeTV, RTN or even PlutoTV may have it at some point.
Sources; Me, Myself & I
Wikipedia
Just Watch
IMDB 1, 2
YouTube 1, 2, 3