Remington Steele: Season One (1982-83)

Steel Got It?

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Remington Steele: Season One on DVD.

The sparkling chemistry between Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) and Remington Steele (Pierce Brosnan) is pretty much the only thing that keeps this clunky series going. Zimbalist has a lovely and homey but sharp, intelligent quality to her that perfectly matched and clashed with Brosnan's silly, irresistible charm. Her character, Laura, is a female detective who can't get a client until she invents a fictional male figurehead for her company. A con man (Brosnan) shows up and assumes Steele's identity, sometimes helping and sometimes hindering casework. Creators Michael Gleeson and Robert Butler didn't bother to cook up very many interesting mystery stories, and third wheel character (James Read) never really coheres into anyone three-dimensional; sometimes he forms a love triangle, while other times he's a playboy. Subsequently, he never made it to Season Two. But Zimbalist and Brosnan carry many of the episodes, and it's interesting to see Brosnan throwing in many James Bond-type mannerisms that would help him land that part years later. The great Henry Mancini composed the music for this series.

DVD Details: Fox has released the 23 episodes of Season One on four discs, running a total of 1078 minutes. Extras include a couple of chintzy "making of" featurettes that do not include either Zimbalist or Brosnan.

DVD Details 2: Season Two, spread out on four, two-sided discs, was released in late 2005. Doris Roberts joined the cast.

Starring: Stephanie Zimbalist, Pierce Brosnan, James Read, Janet DeMay
Written by: Michael Gleason, Glenn Gordon Caron, etc.
Directed by: Robert Butler, Jeff Bleckner, etc.
MPAA Rating: NR
Running Time: 1078 minutes
Date: July 24, 2005