|
Post by Ace on Aug 20, 2007 15:19:08 GMT -5
Only as a response to the clip clip of coconuts. Too late! We should have offered some of these to the RS soundmen. As for the One Night Steele story, forgive me if my take on the psychology makes Laura sound so self involved. It's just that in this situation I think she is. There's so much of an emotional hump to get over (pardon the expression) for her to be with Steele sexually that it almost has to be "all about her." This is when I create ire in at least half of fandom and ask "when isn't it?" ;D Ace
|
|
|
Post by Lauryn on Aug 20, 2007 15:26:38 GMT -5
Too late! We should have offered some of these to the RS soundmen. As for the One Night Steele story, forgive me if my take on the psychology makes Laura sound so self involved. It's just that in this situation I think she is. There's so much of an emotional hump to get over (pardon the expression) for her to be with Steele sexually that it almost has to be "all about her." This is when I create ire in at least half of fandom and ask "when isn't it?" ;D Ace Ace, you underestimate yourself. <wink> Only half?
|
|
|
Post by Ace on Aug 20, 2007 15:59:51 GMT -5
I'm nothing if not modest. ;D Though I did say "at least". As a fan though I should count myself lucky that Gleason's last ditched seemingly mescaline fueled idea for the 5th season where Tony is Laura's long lost husband and Steele is content to play emotional doormat to both of them never happened. Aiyeee. If PB ever read that synopsis I'm surprised he came back into the country to film RS. $20million threat of lawsuit or not. Ace
|
|
|
Post by Lauryn on Aug 20, 2007 16:57:51 GMT -5
I'm nothing if not modest. ;D Though I did say "at least". As a fan though I should count myself lucky that Gleason's last ditched seemingly mescaline fueled idea for the 5th season where Tony is Laura's long lost husband and Steele is content to play emotional doormat to both of them never happened. Aiyeee. If PB ever read that synopsis I'm surprised he came back into the country to film RS. $20million threat of lawsuit or not. Ace Sorry, Ace, but I gotta disagree. If Gleason was on psychotropic drugs we would have gotten something more original. Not necessarily linear, but more original.<wink> Settting aside the fact that the "triangle" would have been excruciating to watch (just like most of the real fifth season) it would be worse because we almost got the world's oldest plotline (inconvenient appearance of missing husband, baby, etc. borne from ill-advised night of passion). Certainly Steele didn't, but what did we ever do to almost deserve this!! Gleason should have been ashamed to show his face in the better restaurants. To be fair, though, no one's heart was in writing the Tony character into the mix, and it showed.
|
|
|
Post by sparklingblue on Aug 21, 2007 10:25:38 GMT -5
As a fan though I should count myself lucky that Gleason's last ditched seemingly mescaline fueled idea for the 5th season where Tony is Laura's long lost husband and Steele is content to play emotional doormat to both of them never happened. Aiyeee. If PB ever read that synopsis I'm surprised he came back into the country to film RS. $20million threat of lawsuit or not. Ace I think Michael Gleason must have had a very bad day (heavy bout of illness? high fever? hangover? no sleep in ten days? ) to even think of such a scenario. He seems to be a nice guy from what I gather from the DVD featurettes, so he doesn't seem like he would subject our dear Mr. Steele to so much (added) cruelty, not even "under the influence", as it were.
|
|
|
Post by Ace on Aug 21, 2007 13:29:41 GMT -5
Sparkling, let's just say if Mr. Gleason were under the weather he managed to write an awful lot of horrific permutations on his scenario from hell. (Laura does everything but ask Steele to cut off his coconuts and hand them to her in a gift wrapped bag) Alas enough of it remains in the vestiges of the 5th Season we got to show he was serious. Thank god for who or whatever stopped him -- even if it meant certain cancellation. Lauryn, it's all too dead eyed cliche to be a true flight of fancy via mescaline -- if he was writing a soap opera. Then it would be positively the norm but he was writing Steele - Remington Steele and it's so character and show destroyingly awful that it seems to have been more than a case of too much caffeine. It's killing the thing you love to try and keep it alive. It's obvious now why he never put a foot on set in the 5th season. It wasn't just the better restaurants he was deservedly avoiding. Ace
|
|
|
Post by Lauryn on Aug 22, 2007 22:24:28 GMT -5
Parts of the fifth season do make you fantasize about going up to Michael Gleason, shaking his hand, and saying of your favorite show (in your best Groucho Marx) "And I want to thank you for all the enjoyment you've taken out of it."
But, a truer thing can't be said about it than Ace just has:
Maybe the original conception's undermining of the show was, unconsciously, a form of passive aggressive behavior to the bosses that be. Imagining the worst the NBC brass could ever wish for to "spice things up" on RS -- then letting them have it. Almost worked, (the anti-Steele character is cut from roughly the same cloth as Roselli) but with the "long lost husband" thing the notion went a mite too far. <wink>
Speaking of imagining things, did Michael Gleason once reveal (on a commentary, or somewhere) that he had other plans for Steele and Laura -- had the cancellation not happened and the fifth season been allowed a natural progression? As I remember, it was to be a turn of events so unsettling that R & L's relationship might not have found its way back from the edge. Or am I confused and it turns out he meant the "long lost husband" scenario?
It would have been interesting to see what they could have done in the fifth year under more normal creative conditions. As Steele and Laura progressed I wouldn't have minded if the relationship took a slighter darker turn than we were used to (as long as it wasn't of the artificial "fake drama" sort).
The Unfortunate Fifth has always had an air of Gleason-in-absentia about it. As if he were the owner of a sausage factory and had cranked up the machinery but didn't really want to know how the stuff was made -- as long as Brad Kern and Robin Bernheim got it on the table.
|
|
|
Post by Yuliya on Aug 29, 2007 8:48:17 GMT -5
I don't know how he intended to allow natural progression considering Bonds of Steele was filmed, or at least written that way before they knew the show would be canceled. I suppose even if they filmed the unfortunate long-lost Tony-for-husband scenario, there was always a way out of it. in the tag, Laura could just wake up in the shower - she'd fallen asleep trying to wash the fish out of her hair...
|
|
|
Post by Ace on Aug 29, 2007 11:49:23 GMT -5
I don't know if Gleason had concrete plans for the 5th season before the first cancellation. he did have that rather IMO unworkable idea of having Laura telling Steele they had to work apart so he opens his own agency and sends people to her agency to get her to work for his clients anyway. Which might be funny for one episode but that's it and doesn't make much sense on Steele's end and who wanted to watch a show for any period of time with Laura doing footwork alone all day then coming home and telling Steele about her cases.
This THING in the book was Gleason's big hook/brainstorm to convince NBC to bring the show back after cancellation for a year so he planned to drag that out that long -- at least a year.
A shower wouldn't have helped this because everyone would have stopped watching long before Laura hoped in the stall. Dallas may have continued without Bobby but it was actually watchable in the interim before the hands of time were sent backwards. Steele would have been complete near unwatchable swill. I'm not even sure the pleasure of watching Pierce would have been enough for me to take the complete emasculation of Steele on a weekly basis. Yes, that bad.
|
|
|
Post by Yuliya on Aug 29, 2007 12:02:38 GMT -5
Oh dear. What happened to "I would listen to him reading the phone book?" (Though I don't remember you ever saying that specifically.)
|
|
|
Post by Ace on Aug 29, 2007 13:11:56 GMT -5
I would listen to him read the phone book and that would be vastly more entertaining than what Gleason threatened us with. Let me put it this way, I'd rather watch Entangled weekly because at least there his character has a spine and he's the one doing the torturing. Ace
|
|
|
Post by xcully on Sept 6, 2007 4:50:58 GMT -5
This discussion is very interesting. You know, I'm an italian fan and when Remington Steele was on tv the first time there isn't internet, there isn't a discussion group, so I watched the episodes in loneliness without confrontation . I liked every season, especially the 4th one, and I loved the 5th only because there was a sort of the end between Remi and Laura, they get togheter in the last scene of the serie and for me this was great because I waited too much time! I hated the charachter of Tony Roselli and I hated the way Laura is fascinated by this man (nothing compared with Remington!!!another universe ;D) But now, on internet I read many words on the 5th season, negative words and I like to know why! I'm so curious! And Michael Gleason there isn't in 5th season like producer?You know how the 5th season must be if there are other episodes and not only 6?
|
|
|
Post by Ace on Sept 6, 2007 11:16:03 GMT -5
What people didn't like about the 5th season? Pretty much what you didn't like -- the introduction of Tony and the worse the way Laura acted with Tony. Like you everyone waited for a relationship pay off for so long and the last 6 hours were spent with different people and Laura running around after Tony. Not fun. Gleason was still the producer of the 5th season and Tony and the triangle was all his idea. It's just that he had a much much much worse idea before that one that would have been more than very disappointing it would have been completely destructive. Gleason though didn't go on location with them in the 5th season - partly because he was disappointed in it being canceled again but he was probably afraid of the actors not only being yanked back to the show from other projects but yanked back for a terrible script. I think there's a 5th season topic here where more people give their opinion. If you want to talk even more Steele there are two groups I'd recommend. Steelewatchers: groups.yahoo.com/group/SteeleWatchersAnd IMDB: Remington Steele imdb.com/title/tt0083470/board/threads/You have to join Yahoo Steelwatchers and/or the IMDB specifically to read and post.
|
|
|
Post by judithmoose on Sept 6, 2007 21:02:34 GMT -5
"partly because he was disappointed in it being canceled again but he was probably afraid of the actors not only being yanked back to the show from other projects but yanked back for a terrible script"
Not true. Michael didn't go because he was in the middle of a divorce and an extremely, extremely bitter battle to get custody of his children Courtney and Sean.
|
|
|
Post by Ace on Sept 7, 2007 0:40:15 GMT -5
Thank you Judith. That I didn't know. I didn't even know he was divorced from Lynn until you mentioned his second wife last year.
Though it's certainly not the impression the writers and Michael give when joking about calling him on his yacht (I think they also mentioned in the commentaries) from the set and how he was happy he wasn't the one dealing with irate actors. Of course the commentaries are for light entertainment and not the spilling of hard real life issues.
|
|
|
Post by judithmoose on Sept 7, 2007 1:10:39 GMT -5
Let's put it this way. Lynne's grown children went to court and begged the judge to give Courtney and Sean to Michael to protect them from having the childhood they did. She's not the most stable of women... By the time it was over, he got custody, but as Michael puts it, "She got the yacht and I got the nautical watch."
|
|
|
Post by xcully on Sept 10, 2007 10:17:12 GMT -5
" Not true. Michael didn't go because he was in the middle of a divorce and an extremely, extremely bitter battle to get custody of his children Courtney and Sean. It' so sad, I didn't know this story! For RS it's sad too because there wasn't the same chemestry on the set for so many reasons!
|
|
|
Post by Lauryn on Nov 30, 2007 0:43:07 GMT -5
Hello all. I have a new story up on my website called Vitruvian Steele. Thanks, Ace, for your website expertise, for the brilliant title, and for encouraging my artistic leanings. <very large wink> Enjoy. andrea11.t35.com/VitruvianSteele.htmlI see you're writing something, too, YS. We got over our writer's block together! As Andrew Osnard would say, "Looking good!"
|
|
|
Post by Yuliya on Nov 30, 2007 13:52:16 GMT -5
I see you're writing something, too, YS. We got over our writer's block together! As Andrew Osnard would say, "Looking good!" Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. I wouldn't say I'm writing anything, though; it was just a small dead-end piece I felt like writing. I'll upload it and post the link here in case anyone else wants to read it, but I'd afraid it'll be it for now. I'm sorry I have nothing to say about your story; I haven't had the time to read it yet. I liked your other one.
|
|
|
Post by Lauryn on Dec 1, 2007 12:36:31 GMT -5
I see you're writing something, too, YS. We got over our writer's block together! As Andrew Osnard would say, "Looking good!" Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. I wouldn't say I'm writing anything, though; it was just a small dead-end piece I felt like writing. I'll upload it and post the link here in case anyone else wants to read it, but I'd afraid it'll be it for now. I would never say that it needs to come to a dead end, though I guess in the real RS Fic challenge world there'll be a limit. You can always continue on from there, if you're so inspired. Don't feel like you have to rush. I took long enough to write something I could let out in public. Having an ending helps. Now that we've both vaulted over the Great Writer's Block Wall of China, who knows what will be next? I think I need to refresh my memory of Austen before commenting more on your version, or any additions you come up with. It's literally been decades since I read any. (I'm sure that strikes many as heresy, LOL!)
|
|