Development Remington Steele’s initial premise was conceived in 1969 by long-time television director
Robert Butler as a series featuring a solo female private investigator. Butler pitched the idea to
Grant Tinker before he was head of
MTM, but Tinker felt the series was ahead of its time. In January 1980, following the success of several sitcoms featuring working women, including the groundbreaking
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Butler and Tinker, now head of MTM, revived the concept. MTM Vice President of Programming Stu Erwin felt Butler's concept was only "half a show" and suggested that Butler work with veteran writer Michael Gleason to expand the premise. Imagining Holt's fictional boss, Gleason proposed to Butler: "Wouldn’t it be great if he showed up and made her crazy?" In 1981, Gleason, Butler, Erwin and Tinker pitched the series to NBC and were initially rejected by executives who failed to "get" the premise. Shortly thereafter, Tinker left MTM to become chairman of NBC, then the number-three network, and subsequently a pilot was ordered. Stephanie Zimbalist, an established actress with roles in several television movies, was approached for the role of Laura Holt. At first she turned the series down, not wishing to be tied down to one show, but had a late-night change of heart. Pierce Brosnan (best known then for his role in
The Manions of America) auditioned for the role of Remington Steele but was initially refused by NBC executives who were concerned that he was a relative unknown in America. MTM's Stu Erwin stood firm in a face-to-face meeting with NBC executive
Brandon Tartikoff, and Tartikoff relented. and
Stephanie Zimbalist in
Remington Steele Season 1 The first season included two recurring characters: Murphy Michaels, a detective and rival for Laura's affections, played by
James Read, and Bernice Foxe, the secretary-receptionist, played by Janet DeMay. Both Murphy and Bernice knew that Remington Steele was a fraud. Episodes in the first season set in motion the slow evolution of the romantic relationship between Laura and "Mr. Steele" (she never called him "Remington" until the show's fifth season after they were "married") while revealing elements of the characters' backstory. The first season established the pattern where each episode made direct reference to an old movie (for example,
The Maltese Falcon and
The Thomas Crown Affair, which was remade in 1999 with Pierce Brosnan in the lead role of Thomas Crown). Key episodes include "Thou Shalt Not Steele", which introduced Laura's mother and Felicia, a woman from Steele's past; "Sting of Steele", which introduced Daniel Chalmers (
Efrem Zimbalist Jr., the real-life father of Stephanie) as Steele's former mentor; and "Vintage Steele", a fan favorite that focused on Laura's past. Additionally, writer Joel Steiger won an
Edgar Award from the
Mystery Writers of America for his script for the first-season episode "In The Steele of the Night".
Remington Steele also received strong critical reviews in the first season, noting its intelligence and stylish sophistication.
Season 2 At the end of season one, James Read made Michael Gleason aware that he was unhappy with the direction of his character. Gleason released him from the series and also let Janet DeMay go, thinking that the detective/investigator and secretary characters could be combined into one character. Gleason originally wrote the replacement character, Mildred Krebs, as an attractive 35-year-old woman who was a rival for Steele's affections.
Doris Roberts, an established character actress who had recently won an Emmy for a guest role on
St. Elsewhere, asked to read for the part. Although Roberts was not the right age for the character Gleason originally conceived, she won him over with her audition. Gleason then changed the character of Mildred Krebs to reflect the casting (her first appearance in the first episode of the second season was as an
IRS inspector investigating Steele's taxes). The character, being new to the agency, did not know that Remington Steele was an imposter, and treated Steele as the company head. NBC moved the series from Friday to Tuesday nights at 9pm following
The A-Team, increasing its budget and prominence on the network schedule. The second season continued the slow evolution of the relationship between Laura and Steele as he became a more competent detective. Key episodes include the two-hour season premiere, "Steele Away With Me", filmed on location in Mexico; "Red Holt Steele", a fan-favorite dramatic episode in which Laura's house is destroyed in an explosion; and "Love Among the Steele", another fan-favorite episode in which the agency acquires a 1936
Auburn Boattail
Speedster, which was used symbolically in several subsequent episodes.
Season 3 Remington Steele achieved its greatest ratings success in the third season, finishing the year in the top 25. Key third-season episodes included the premiere, "Steele At It", shot on location in
Cannes; "Steele Your Heart Away", shot on location in Ireland; and "Maltese Steele", shot on location in Malta. The season also included "Steele Trying", set in San Francisco and featuring the songs of
Tony Bennett, and "Diced Steele", filmed on location in Las Vegas. "Puzzled Steele" earned Doris Roberts an Emmy nomination for best supporting actress. The third season also included an episode, "Steele in the Chips", co-written by Stephanie Zimbalist and writing partner
Robin Bernheim. The final episode of the season ended with a cliffhanger as Laura and Steele seemed to be going their separate ways. Michael Gleason explained to the
Los Angeles Times, "We want to pull the relationship apart and bring it back together again with a little bit different attitude."
Season 4 Season four was the final full season of the series. In the two-part season opener, "Steele Searching", filmed on location in London, Mildred Krebs learned of Steele's secret, changing the dynamics of the trio. Other key episodes, including "Forged Steele", "Steele in the Spotlight", and "Sensitive Steele", continued the slow evolution of the romantic relationship between the main characters. Facing a possible cancellation by NBC (whose fortunes had now changed to become the number-one network) Gleason contrived a phony marriage between the characters in the final episode of season four, "Bonds of Steele", as an attempt to garner additional interest and provoke NBC to pick up the series for a fifth season.
Proposals for season 5 Gleason originally wanted the characters to have a real marriage at the end of season four and had plans for how to change the series in season five to accommodate the change, but both Brosnan and Zimbalist rejected the idea. Following that decision, Gleason pitched another concept for season five to NBC in May 1986, introducing a character named "Tony" as a rival for Laura's affections. Two months after the cancellation, NBC executive
Warren Littlefield reversed the decision, responding to an outpouring of support from fans and a sharp upswing in the show's ratings during the summer of 1986. The cancellation and reversal affected film role opportunities for Brosnan and Zimbalist, as both had received firm offers to do films in the interim.
Albert R. Broccoli offered Brosnan the part of
James Bond for the film
The Living Daylights. Following NBC's reversal, Broccoli stated he did not want Bond to be identified with a current TV series and instead gave the role to
Timothy Dalton. Brosnan became 007 in 1995, making his debut in the film
GoldenEye. Zimbalist had accepted the role of Officer Anne Lewis in the science-fiction movie
RoboCop, but she was forced to pull out of that production, to be replaced by
Nancy Allen.
Final season NBC reversed the cancellation but did not slot a full 22-episode season into their schedule. The final abbreviated season consisted of six hours of made-for-TV films broadcast in early 1987, including installments filmed on location in Mexico, London, and Ireland.
Jack Scalia joined the cast as a rival for Laura's affections. The circumstances surrounding Steele's birth as well as the identity of Steele's father are revealed in the final episode. The final scene of the series implied that Steele and Laura were about to consummate their relationship.
Rumors of discord Although part of the show's appeal was the sexual tension between the main characters, in real life the production was dogged for years by rumors that its two leads did not get along. Brosnan and Zimbalist have admitted some level of personal conflict in press interviews during and since, attributing some of it to the stress of long working hours, while also maintaining that it did not damage their ability to work together. Doris Roberts confirmed that Zimbalist and Brosnan rarely spoke to each other and that such tension played a role in the series' end: "It was awful. They didn't talk to each other." Whatever discord there may have been at the time of production, Brosnan and Zimbalist speak fondly of one another in more recent interviews and are occasionally in touch. In an interview included on the DVD release of Season 1, Brosnan says they did get along and trusted one another professionally. Brosnan also praises Zimbalist's acting on his official website, saying that he would work with her again on the right project.
Potential projects Film With the release of the series on DVD in 2005, Pierce Brosnan expressed interest in developing a
Remington Steele feature film through his production company, Irish Dream Time, but later stated on his web site that it is unlikely to be produced.
Television In October 2013, NBC announced plans to reboot the series as a half-hour comedy. NBC's deal with 20th Century Fox had screenwriters and a director attached but no cast was attached ; NBC presumably cancelled the project. ==Home media==