This Week's Hot Pick: 'Remington Steele' (Season One)

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF

This delightful romantic mystery series from the mid-'80s made a star out of Pierce Brosnan, whose portrayal of Remington Steele was a perfect preparation for James Bond. It pitted his handsome, suave thief/con man against brassy, glamorous private eye Laura Holt, played with spunk and charm by Stephanie Zimbalist.

The basic plot: Holt doesn't find success as a detective until she creates a fictitious boss -- Steele. Brosnan's mysterious character, trying to steal jewels, pretends to be Steele in the first episode and then is hired to play the role. The two stars' chemistry and teasing romance, combined with fast-moving scripts that lifted plots shamelessly from old movies and were set in luxurious locales, recalled the screwball comedies of the '30s and '40s and the romantic conflicts between such stars as Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.

In the DVD extras, Brosnan recalls how he and his late wife, Cassandra Harris, took out a second mortgage on their south London home, flew to L.A. on a budget airline and drove around town in a "rent-a-wreck" while he tried to break into movies.

After the show's creators picked him as their Steele, they had to stand firm against network efforts to replace him. They weren't helped by his portrayal. Harris asked him how he was playing the role and he showed her. "That's the way you are going to play it?" she asked, then suggested he just be himself -- and he was soon flooded with fan mail from female viewers.

The show, which ran four seasons plus two "movies," didn't make Zimbalist a big star, although she's sparkling in the role -- and wears a great collection of hats. Brosnan denies there was friction between them: "People said we didn't get along, but we got along quite well."

The 22 episodes come on four double-sided discs, which include three commentary tracks from the show's creators and writer, a making-of featurette and short pieces on the four main characters, including those of James Read and Janet LeMay, who were unfortunately dropped after the first season.

GRADE: A-