Steele In The Press

[Ace]

‘Steele’ is a genuine yum-yum
Detroit Free Press
Oct 1, 1982

“Remington Steele” is remarkably fresh entertainment confection, a genuine yum-yum

Put it this way: If you have food memories of such breezy, intelligent delights as “The Rogues” and ‘The Avengers” you might well enjoy the classy echoes from those shows that brighten this new NBC comedy-drama about a pair of immensely attractive private eyes
‘Remington Steele” debuts at 10 tonight (Channel 4, in Detroit}

Stephanie Zimbalist stars as Laura Holt a private investigator who invents a male boss named Remington Steele in order to get clients. Delicious complications follow when the fantasy man actually appears on the scene in the person of ridiculously dapper and sexy Pierce Brosnan.

In comparison to such pedestrian glop as ‘Matt Houston” or “Knight Rider,” “Remington Steele” absolutely glistens.

The show is produced by MTM, a sure sign of quality. The excellent theme music is by Henry Mancini. The support cast fine. And the
writing, much of it from executive producer Michael Gleason, sparkles.
There is a stylish, champagne wit to the entire affair.

When Brosnan is temporarily subdued by thugs, he snappily responds: “May I get up or do you prefer me in the groveling position? And when he is about to send Zimbalist into a steaming fury concerning his identity as Remington Steele, be jauntily says, “Years from now, when you talk of this, be kind.’ Deborah Kerr to John Kerr, Tea and Sympathy,’ 1956.”

Not exactly your typical Boss Hogg television dialogue.

What is also appealing about this hour of adult escapism is the genuine romantic heat generated between Zimbalist and Brosnan. And that heat is so believable because “Remington Steele” offers the viewing audience a pair of sophisticated, intelligent lead characters who will likely never grovel for our attention.

Thank you, NBC. A modern man, a modern woman and a marvelous, entertainment are the blessings of “Remington Steele."’


---From Steele Blarney Vol. 1 No. 1984

[Ace]

Private Eye Capers At Caton

Dublin Evening Press
Philip Malloy
August 6, 1984

Remington Steele the popular TV detective was at stately Carton House, in County Kildare, searching for a prize racehorse called Xanadu.

Remington had arrived from Phoenix Park in a stolen rolls and quickly pinpointed the missing racer to a small stable at me rear of the building.

It was here he was introducing Emmet Bergen and a grim accomplice to the shovel.

Steele, in a splendid black pin-stripe suit, had been closeted behind the stable door for an incredible length of time, for him, three full takes. This is the fifth set-up of the day and according to Irish location manager, Don Geraghty, they are already breezing through the script. The routine is apparently two rehearsals and one take.

If Navan born Pierce Brosnan, as Steele, and Stephanie Zimbalist, his co-star, miss a line it is an event according to veteran director Seymour Robbie.

By the end of the day they expected to have seven and a half minutes in the can. And they were due to return today for another seven and a half.

Then it is on to Dublin airport and the Phoenix Park tomorrow, and the Sally Gap, Annamoe Roundwood, Trinity Hall in Rathmines, The Docker’s Pub, The Guiness Boat, The Regent Cinema and St. Michael’s Prep School, Aislesbury Road in Dublin next week.

Within eight days Executive Producer Gareth Davies hopes to have a full fourty-six and a half-minute episode back with his bosses at MTM Enterprises In Los Angeles and Xanadu back in his well-grazed paddock.

Intent on stopping him are the formidably built Marie Come, as a villain called Mrs. Armedale and Frank Kelly, as her henchman, Skeggs.

Kelly, stripped to the waist as we spoke, accused himself of real thuggery in the story. “I’m doing my damndest to shoot someone. I’m going around with a loaded shotgun trying to find someone to shoot.”

Brosnan, after a chase through the intricate shrubbery in a pony and trap, expressed himself satisfied with the way the work was going

This was his first visit to Ireland since he made “The Manions of America” here in 1979. He may now return on a more regular basis.
He has a home in Wimbledon, which he intends to sell. And he hopes to buy a new one in County Wicklow.

Brosnan speaks in the slightly clipped tones of his TV persona, has formed a film and television production company with his wife Cassie, which they have called, Killkenny Productions. This is to enable them both to branch out as writers, producers and actors.

As we speak the evil Skeggs is plotting wanton villainy just wide of the new set-up and Brosnan departs once more to put him down.

This third series of “Remington Steele” will begin a new 22-week run in the States on September 25th. The Irish episode, which is being made at a cost of just over $900,000 is the fourth.

The last one made before the company decamped for six weeks in Europe was co-written by the co-star of the show Stephanie Zimbalist.

The daughter of “77 Sunset Strip” star Ephrem Zimbalist, Jr., Stephanie is a charmingly natural and articulate advocate of “Remington Steele”.
She admits she turned the show down twice, mainly because she didn’t want to be tied, but eventually succumbed to the sunny mixture of comedy, mystery and adventure.

She is not so sure that it is really appreciated here or in Britain, but she contends that it is her favorite TV show- with the situation comedy “Cheers”.

Miss Zimbalist’s character, Laura Holt has followed Steele to Ireland after learning he is in a sanitarium. He has apparently come here on the promise of information about his father. He stumbles on a plot to kidnap the racehorse and develops amnesia when he is clubbed by Kelly’s flunkies.

Thus the question about his ability at karate. True to the show’s format of aping old movies, Steele is involved in a double chase similar to Richard Hannay in “The 39 Steps”.

We’re hardly likely to tell here if he betters the crooked Conmee and her crew, but he does go on to further adventure in Cannes and Malta.

---From Steele Blarney Vol. 1 No. 1984

[Ace]

The Irish Times
July 9, 1984
Actor Steeles punter’s hearts

By Maev Kennedy

There are, of course, two stars of “Remington Steele, but only one of them was born in Meath. The Meath one moved through the Phoenix Park races on Saturday afternoon in the centre of a little riot. “Ah he is, though, isn’t he, he’s reely gorgeous!” the women demanded of their own unfortunate menfolk as they clamoured for Pierce Brosnan’s autograph.

Behind him moved his co-star, all by herself, edging her way politely through the crowds, ignored. It was only when they turned the cameras on Stephanie Zimbalist that the crowd felt it might be worth asking for her autograph, if they couldn’t get through to the gorgeous Mr Brosnan.

Gorgeous Mr Brosnan’s wife was there too, very much so. Through the entire afternoon’s filming, Cassandra Harris didn’t move further than four yards from his elbow. She looked like a woman wearing her diamonds, but not entirely sure they shouldn’t have been left in the bank vault.

“We would ask you not to look directly at our actors or at the cameras,” the director implored, “just make like you’re watching the racing.”

“Act natural, but don’t stand in front of the cameras,” gorgeous Mr Brosnan translated, “Americans!”

In “Steele Your Heart Away” - what else?- — our own Godfrey Quigley is plaing a character, ignominously described on the shooting script only as “Fat Man”, who has his Rolls Royce stolen. He spent most of the day sitting, very hot in a morning suit, at the wheel of the biggest, sleekest, glossiest open top Rolls ever seen in a teenage fantasy. “One could get very used to this,” he sighed.

The Phoenix Park racecourse people were purring with delight over the whole thing. The racecourse looked enchanting, all roses and white railings and silk dresses and silky horses shimmering in the sun. All over America they’ll be looking at this next winter and thinking Ireland really looks like that. They should be prosecuted under the Consumer Information Act.

---P.B. Chronicles Nov 15, 1984 Vol 1, Issue 5

[Yuliya]

Ace said:

Gorgeous Mr Brosnan’s wife was there too, very much so. Through the entire afternoon’s filming, Cassandra Harris didn’t move further than four yards from his elbow. She looked like a woman wearing her diamonds, but not entirely sure they shouldn’t have been left in the bank vault.

Priceless. And thank you. Such diligence, and yet, at 4 o'clock in the morning.

[curious george]

What great pieces! Thanks, Ace!!

cg

[Ace]

Leave it to Yuliya to pick out my favorite quote from all three pieces! Priceless isnt it?! Four yards though... still too much room for all those barracudas to pounce, I'd have given him 2 tops, or maybe not even have let him out of the vault. ;D

And what else is there to do 4am on a weekend... scratch that don't answer that.... it's all too depressing to think about.

Ace

[Myrtle Groggins]

Great stuff. Loved the first one. It's the best critical write-up the series I've ever read.

Where do you find such gems

[Ace]

FALL TV PREVIEW

ABC's pilots are at the head of the class (Excerpt)
By ALAN PERGAMENT

9/6/2004

While previewing ABC's 2004 pilots, my thoughts turned to 1982, when I began getting paid to watch television. Back then, I was absolutely frightened by how much I liked NBC's new class of shows. After all, it was a struggling network that appeared lost.

And here was a rookie critic falling in love with several new shows. It made me fear that I didn't have the cynicism for the job, and cynicism was something I'd never been accused of lacking in my previous life as a sportswriter.

Little did I know that there might never be another NBC season like 1982, when "Cheers" with Ted Danson, "Family Ties" with Michael J. Fox, "St. Elsewhere" with Denzel Washington and "Remington Steele" with future James Bond Pierce Brosnan premiered.

[Ace]

And the last of NY Times TV review spam.

NY Times: TV VIEW; A STYLISH SUCCESS AND A HIGH-TONED FAILURE

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: May 15, 1983

NBC might seem these days to be trapped between the programming high road, with series such as ''Hill Street Blues'' and ''Cheers,'' and the exploitative low road, with violent concoctions like ''The A-Team.'' But in fact, the network is beginning to look strongest in the crucial middle ground of its schedule, most notably with a stylish private-eye series entitled ''Remington Steele.'' Currently shown on Tuesdays at 9 P.M., immediately following ''The A-Team,'' this MTM Enterprises production is frequently witty and it features what surely must be the most attractive couple on television's entertainment menu.

Stephanie Zimbalist, daughter of Ephram Zimbalist Jr., and granddaughter of the famed violinist, plays Laura Holt, a young woman who has set up her own detective agency only to find that many clients prefer male detectives. She then invents a male boss named Remington Steele, who always happens to be busy elsewhere when clients visit the office. But then one day a man claiming to be Remington Steele does indeed show up and begins to assert his authority at the agency. Played by Pierce Brosnan, the terribly suave Steele spends much of his time being either amused or mysterious.

The premise, clearly, demands more than a little faith in the inventiveness of the writers. But the results in the show's first season have been generally encouraging. The show attempts, rather successfully, to generate the kind of partnership glamour that has been marketed in every male-female detective romp from ''The Thin Man'' to ''Hart to Hart.'' The touch is light, and the overall effects are nicely appealing. Steele, for instance, is a movie buff. In the first episode, Laura Holt discovers that he has had passports listing himself as Douglas Quintain in England, Michael O'Leary in Ireland, Paul Fabrini in Italy, John Murrell in France and Richard Blaine in Australia. As it happens, each name was filched from characters that had once been portrayed by Humphrey Bogart. In other episodes, Steele has been heard quoting from ''Tea and Sympathy'' and has used films such as ''Notorious'' and ''Murder on the Orient Express'' to help solve his own mystery cases.

Miss Zimbalist has something of the cool American look - quietly chic and ready to tackle, elegantly, just about any social situation. She has some of the patrician restraint that was the hallmark of Grace Kelly, a quality that makes her reluctant but uncontrollable attraction toward Steele all the more winning.

As for the apparently irresistible Steele, with a name like Pierce Brosnan, it should come as no surprise that the actor playing him was born in Ireland. Living in England for much of his life, he was first seen in this country as the dashing hero of the mini-series ''The Manions of America,'' Agnes Nixon's saga of an Irish family battling its way to prominence in this country. Mr. Brosnan has dark good looks, which are carefully framed in ''Remington Steele'' with a dark-toned, well-tailored wardrobe. The longer he hangs around in this series, which has been renewed for next season, the more likely he is to become a favorite matinee idol.

He is already inspiring unusual viewer responses. A reader from Reading, Pa., has taken to verse to describe Steele's appeal. She writes: ''Remington Steele is my ideal/A bit of a heel/ A touch of schlameel (sic)/ But always genteel/ And lots and lots of sex appeal/ So who cares if he isn't real!'' That's the kind of loyalty from which stars can be made.

[Ace]

LA Times: Vintage Steele

An episode she'd written for a popular TV series had become something of a classic. As she watched it decades later, she remembered why.

By Susan Baskin

Susan Baskin wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award-winning film "Violet."

August 27, 2006

I was sitting in my office when the call came from Fox TV. The studio was releasing a DVD collection of the first season of "Remington Steele." Was I willing to be interviewed for a special feature about my experiences writing for the show, and an episode of mine they wanted to highlight?

Remington Steele. It was a name out of my past. I searched through my office for tapes of the show, pulling each one out like old evening wear stored in the back of my closet. That night I watched them, not knowing what to expect after all these years. Like a classic little black dress, each episode held up. It was clever. It had charm. It was funny.

"Remington Steele" was the first television series for which I wrote, a first job for many of its writers. Most of us were young. Single. Just married. Or having flings. And the irreverent tone of the show fit us like a snug pair of jeans.

The writing staff worked out stories together, throwing ideas around in a good-natured free-for-all, filled with inevitable one-upmanship. The beginning shows centered around Remington. Who was he? What was his past? The only woman, I presented the revolutionary notion of writing about the brains behind the operation, Laura Holt. There had to be more to Laura than the buttoned-up professional we saw on the screen. What about lovers? What if an old flame turned up? My husband had just returned from a business trip to Rancho Cucamonga, a name intrinsically funny to me. There were wineries there. What if we set the story in a winery? What if? What if? My episode, "Vintage Steele," was born.

Feeding the maw of a weekly television series means writing quickly. Long nights. I wrote my script. Did rewrites. On the first day of shooting, I drove out to the location—a winery, yes, in Rancho Cucamonga. There were the actors. Director. Camera and cables. All this hullabaloo.

Unlike my own kids, I didn't grow up in a media-saturated culture, where cashiers, as well as studio heads, can recite weekend box-office receipts. You turned on the TV and images appeared on the screen, like magic. You never wondered how. Now there was magic of another kind, seeing a world made real because of the words I'd written.

I did other episodes for "Remington Steele," went on to different shows, wrote films for television and features. "Remington Steele" went off the air.

Just the other night, I watched the DVD, special features and all, for the first time. As I listened and watched, I realized that in the paradoxical way our culture discards its products ever faster, only to reclaim them in order to savor—and profit from—the past, "Remington Steele" had become something timeless. Like memory.

At the end of the first season, the executive producer told me that "Vintage Steele" was being submitted for an Emmy that year. It didn't win. It didn't get a nomination. But promise beckoned in that first blush of working life, the heady bouquet of the future rose.

And I understood, whether on the glittering road to the Emmys, or in the satisfaction of filling the first blank page of a script, a single truth moves the laughter and tears called forth from the audiences that Norma Desmond so poignantly calls "those wonderful people out there in the dark": In the beginning, there is the word.

[Myrtle Groggins]

And that word was "Steele", "Vintage Steele".

Thanks for posting this Ace. Vintage is one of my very favorite episodes, so it's nice to read this about its making.

[eaz35173]

Found this recently in a box stashed in the back of my closet ....

Remington Steele’s Suit Fits Brosnan
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
February 1, 1983

By: William Hickey


While critics have rightfully written reams of columns chastising the public for ignoring “Cheers” and “St. Elsewhere,” there is yet another solid NBC show that has been left out in the Nielsen cold and deserves better. It is “Remington Steele”, and it airs Fridays at 10.

Though it is on hiatus this week because the network is rerunning “Shogun,” it will return next week. Let me suggest if your presence is not required elsewhere, you tune in to WKYC channel 3 and catch it. The very least it deserves is to be sampled.

Remington Steele stars Stephanie Zimbalist, perhaps the most adorable actress in all Hollywood, and is dedicated to the proposition that escapist fluff, done in superb and sophisticated fashion, should have its place in the primetime entertainment scheme of things.

It also stars one Pierce Brosnan, about whom little was known when the series made its debut last autumn, but who proved to be every bit as charming as Zimbalist is adorable. Here was a man I felt I had to interview.

Brosnan showed up dressed as sleekly as the character he portrays on the tube. The only difference was that he chose a lighter color than the navy blue he usually wears on the show. But the ascot was in place and so was the matching handkerchief in the breast pocket.

For the ladies it should be noted that Brosnan is, indeed, as handsome as he appears on the screen. And yes, he is one of the most debonair Irishers I have yet to meet. His Irishness came out as follows: I asked for confirmation of his Irish heritage. He nodded. Where in Ireland was he from?

He smiled wickedly and said: “I told you that I am Irish. There is only one Ireland.”

When I pointed out that I was seeking the county of his origin and not whether he was from Northern Ireland or the Republic, he smiled more broadly and said:

“Oh I see. You must forgive me. So many people don't know the difference and I have to point it out to them. I'm from Limerick and essentially I am the product of the Christian fathers despite being exposed to English ways for many years.

“In fact, I haven't lived in Ireland for 17 years. My father was the ambitious type and thought he could better the family fortunes in England. We followed him there. I've been back to Ireland, visiting numerous relatives, but I live in London. I just bought a lovely Victorian home there, as I never expected to be in an American television series.”

How did he end up in Hollywood, doing “Remington Steele?”

“I came here the first time to play Rory in the miniseries ‘Manion's of America’ he said. During the filming, I found an agent who sent me packing about town doing auditions. Nothing much came of that and I return home. My agent lured me back here with promises that things would soon break for me.

Since I wasn't exactly flush with money after buying my home in London, I returned and I was sent to MTM productions where an executive said, “Welcome ‘Remington Steele.’ I did know quite what to make of it when they insisted I was the man for the part. I saw no point in correcting them.

“When I first walked on the set, I didn't have much hope for the series, but as the weeks passed and the scripts continued to be good, I changed my mind. I have come to like the character I play in the show. In its genre, I think it's very good. At least, I haven't seen anything better, not that I watch American television all that much.”

How much Pierce Brosnan was there in “Remington Steele?”

“Oh, I suppose a fair amount,” he said. “However, I want to make it clear that I panic more often than he does. I marvel at his coolness in the tight situations, his charming insouciance that comes to the fore whenever danger presents itself.

“I would also have to say, while I like to think I am as charming as he, I have my doubts. I do know one thing, and that is I'm not quite as irresponsible as Remington Steele. But there've been many times when I wished I were or could be. I think he's an interesting character and hope viewers feel the same.”

Brosnan, whose early training was on the London stage and whose talents were stretched from Tennessee Williams to Shakespeare, isn't all that caught up with working in the legitimate theater. Asked about the difference between his formative years on stage and his chores today he said:

“I'm always surprised that so many people, especially out here, make such a big deal of the London stage. While I thoroughly enjoyed it, I find that I enjoy acting no matter the medium. I would be perfectly happy if this series ran five years. I'm in no hurry to return to the stage.

“I'm getting to like California living. The house we rent has a pool, sauna, all that nonsense, and my wife and I and the two children are fast becoming Californians. Of course, I wouldn't mind doing a few feature films while I'm here. In fact I would like to write and direct films, if not act in them.

“In the meantime, I'll be happy doing Remington Steele. I just thought of the reason I like it. However charming and debonair he might be, he falls on his face a lot, just as I do.”

[eaz35173]

And here's another one from that same box.....


‘Steele’ Owes Much to Luck and Accident
The Baltimore Sun
September 1984

By: Michael Hill


The creation and sustenance of the successful television series is rarely - if ever - an act of scientific planning. Usually, it is a combination of happenstance and luck. As executive producer Michael Gleason tells the story, “Remington Steele” is a prime example.

About to begin its third season, “Remington Steele” has become, quite simply, one of the best shows on television. It stars, Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist, are talented actors as well as attractive personalities. It's “Thin Man”-style wit is intelligent, its mystery stories usually compelling.

For many it is part of a triad of programs – with fellow NBC offerings “Cheers” and “Hill Street Blues” - that are worth staying home for. Throw in “St. Elsewhere” for those who can afford to give up their Wednesday night's, too.

But “Remington Steele” is the one mentioned the least. It doesn't have the same snob appeal. “Hill Street” is of course, in the dramatic tradition, while the half-hour sitcom is an established artform brought near to perfection by “Cheers.” “Remington Steele” seems to have no such pretensions. It seeks to entertain using the action comedy genre, one that has been appropriated by “The A-Team” and “Magnum PI” and other shows that depend upon hackneyed formulas.

But there is a traditional genre for Remington Steele - that of the 30s comedy, “The thin Man” being the best example. Like “Cheers,” it draws upon the mismatched-match genre of that time, defined in the book “Pursuits of Happiness” by Stanley Cavell, a Harvard philosopher.

Cavell points to such movies as “Bringing up Baby,” It happened one Night,” and the “Philadelphia Story” as examples of 30s films that center on a romance between two people who seem made for each other though their social circumstances dictate that they should not be together. ABC's new “Who's the Boss” with Tony Danza as a city street wise type moving in as a housekeeper with a fancy Connecticut woman is the latest use of this genre.

The problem is sustaining that mismatched-match tension for more than one season of television. Those 30s films ended with the match made and everyone living happily ever after. But a television series is never a system supposed to end. Thus at the end of its first season, “Cheers” tried putting its mismatched pair, Sam and Diane, together. The result was a very uneven second season as the writers resorted to stereotypes to keep the tension between them alive. As “Cheers” enters its third season, Sam and Diane have been split up, in an effort to recapture the spark that the show had in its initial 22 episodes.

“I think my daughter put it best when she said that she didn't like all the mushy stuff last season,” Gleason said of what happened on “Remington Steele” when its main characters, Steele and Laura Holt, became more involved in its second season.

“We definitely went too far. It was an easy way out for the writers to give them a love scene. It just didn't work. We’re trying to recapture the tension this season.”

Sitting in his nice corner office at MTM Enterprises, Gleason talks like a kid who's been let loose in the amusement park and is worried that his mother is about to catch him. He cringes when he mentions most of his work in television and film over a long career, but mainly he complains about the restrictions of working for a major studio, the production lines of television, where he had to follow the company line or get yanked off the project.

At MTM, the classiest organization in TV, he has found himself free to work pretty much as he pleases. “It makes sense,” he explained. “They hire me to produce shows, and then they let me do it.”

But the genesis of “Remington Steele” demonstrates just how delicate, or perhaps crazy, that process is. Not long after he arrived at MTM, Gleason was having breakfast with another MTM producer, Robert Butler, who mentioned an idea he had been trying to float for 15 years about a woman who ran a great detective agency but had to make up a male boss who was always out of town in order to get clients. Gleason suggested that the boss - or someone impersonating him - should show up. Suddenly a 15-year-old idea came to life.

That was only the beginning. A go-ahead was given for a treatment, working up the rough outlines of a series. Then NBC OKed the idea for a 20 minute film based on the treatment. That meant casting. Gleason said the original concept called for middle-aged types, a la “The Thin Man.” But there was this 30-ish Brithish actor who seemed great for the part of “Remington Steele,” so they were after a woman in a younger age range.

They fixed on Zimbalist, but her agent said no, definitely, she will not do series TV. They stayed fixed on Zimbalist. One of the casting personnel at MTM happen to live near Zimbalist's house, so she drove up the driveway one night and left the treatment on the doorstep. Then NBC gave the go-ahead for a pilot. When that script hit the doorstep, Zimbalist read it, she liked it, she took the part.

Great! But now that other British actor realized that if NBC bought the pilot, he would have to move to Hollywood. Horrors! He thought. Then the man who was responsible for making the couple young backed out. A shooting schedule was at hand, the script and concept called for an international type, and Gleason couldn't help think of that Irish English fellow who had been by looking for a job a few days ago.

Brosnan's miniseries, “The Manions,” had just aired, and he had come to Hollywood from London to see if he could parlay that into a little work on this side of the Atlantic. He made the rounds and didn't find any work. Then Gleason called. Brosnan was flown back to New York for a once over by NBC. The part was his, no readings, no nothing.

Thus, completely by luck and accident and the perseverance of nighttime trips to Stephanie Zimbalist's doorstep, was this very successful partnership made. A similar thing happened to “Remington Steele” last year when James read, who played Laura's colleague at the agency and a rival for her affections was released from his contract and allowed to go looking for his own series. The receptionist character played by Janet Demay was also eliminated.

“We decided to combine the two characters into one,” Gleason said. “We wanted one person who could be a secretary and do detective work. We had in mind a young woman, but Doris Roberts just insisted on reading for the part. We told her we weren't interested.”

“I heard about the part and I went after it,” said Roberts, a veteran actors who was in “Angie” and won an Emmy for a part on “St. Elsewhere.” “I thought it could really say something about middle-aged women. This is a character who had the guts to make a career change at that age and go for what she wanted. I wanted to tell all those women who are getting a little thick around the middle, ‘So what?’”

Roberts came in, put her classic comedic touch on the reading, and once again Gleason and crew changed their ideas and rewrote a part to fit the actor. It was a successful move last season, though the show did miss the rival love interest that helped keep the tension between Laura and Remington.

Still, it’s clear why Michael Gleason has that kid-in-the-fun-house smile on his face. He has the best show of his career on his hands and yet he seems to know that he has little control over its success or failure. And he's working hard to keep it that way.

[Ace]

Thanks for the articles!

“I think my daughter put it best when she said that she didn't like all the mushy stuff last season,” Gleason said of what happened on “Remington Steele” when its main characters, Steele and Laura Holt, became more involved in its second season.

“We definitely went too far. It was an easy way out for the writers to give them a love scene. It just didn't work. We’re trying to recapture the tension this season.”

BOO HISS!

One can have tension and still be together when the characters are so different. The show would have been even better and groundbreaking if it had a more sustained defined arc of growth in character and relationship.

[eaz35173]

One can have tension and still be together when the characters are so different. The show would have been even better and groundbreaking if it had a more sustained defined arc of growth in character and relationship.

I agree! Besides, how old was his daughter at the time - 6? I really don't think that was the target audience, so why was he even taking advice from her?

[jlr]

I hadn't seen the Michael Hill article before (and I thought I had seen most of them) and agree that the "mushy stuff" quote leaves a bad taste.

For what it's worth, I think Gleason expresses himself better on this question in a LA Times article at the end of season 3 that I'll post below. And I have to assume he's not referencing his daughter Courtney in the Hill article (who would have been very young) but one of his daughters from his first marriage.

Here's the Times piece:

Steele: He's Gone But Not Forgotten

May 10, 1985|LEE MARGULIES | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

"Remington Steele" fans are in for a surprise Tuesday. In the last episode of the season, Steele walks out on his beloved Miss Holt and their detective agency.

It isn't exactly a cliffhanger in the "Dallas" tradition: The series, after all, is called "Remington Steele."

"He's coming back," promises Michael Gleason, executive producer and co-creator (with Robert Butler) of the three-year-old NBC series.

No, Steele's disappearance is more of a punctuation mark in the hot-and-cold running romance between him and Laura Holt (as portrayed so deftly by Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist).

As Gleason and his writing staff are fashioning the new season, the story picks up with Laura tracking down Steele in London. There, in a two- or three-part episode to be shot on location, she learns more about his mysterious past and helps solidify his present identity as the famous private detective whom she originally had created as a ruse to bring in new clients to her agency.

As a result, Gleason says, Steele will no longer always feel compelled to defer to Laura in decisions about how the firm is run and what cases they take.

The goal, he says, is to recapture some of the feistiness and professional vs. personal conflict that their relationship had during the first season.

"We want to pull the relationship apart and bring it back together again with a little bit different attitude," Gleason explains. "We want to get that spark of the first year back."

That was when the charming con man with five passports and a checkered past full of international intrigue had forced himself into Laura's life, assuming the identity of her fictitious boss and bumbling his way through her investigations. She didn't want him messing up her work, but she couldn't expose him without revealing publicly that there never had been a Remington Steele--and she wasn't sure she really wanted to anyway because of her strong attraction to him. It also didn't hurt that his passion for old movies often helped crack her cases.

But neither did she trust him enough to make a commitment.

The evolution of that relationship has been the distinctive attraction of what otherwise would have been a fairly routine private-eye show. "Remington Steele" achieved its best ratings ever this season--up 6% over a year ago to rank 27th among all series--and is credited with having inspired such imitations as CBS' "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" and ABC's "Moonlighting."

What Gleason doesn't want to do next season, and has resisted doing from the second season on, is have Steele and Laura go to bed with each other and begin a conventional affair--even though it's quite clear by now that they love each other.

That has been the show's fundamental creative dilemma: how to make the premise of a 1940s romantic comedy credible in a 1980s setting.

"We've had to contrive all sorts of reasons about why they don't sleep together," Gleason acknowledges.

The plot often stops dead in its tracks to allow the characters to reflect on the current state of their relationship, because that relationship "is as important as the case they're on," Gleason explains. Sometimes one is interested in moving to the next plateau but the other isn't; other times they're both interested but lose the moment to a development in the case.

Gleason, an exuberant man who is refreshingly passionate about his show and doesn't hesitate to jump up and act out scenes to help make a point, is adamant about sticking to the no-sex rule.

"The show is about two people who are very attracted to each other but who won't give an inch in what they want," he says. "If they give that inch, we'll be doing a different series. We'll be doing Mr. and Mrs. North, or Nick and Nora, or 'Hart to Hart'--which is what we set out not to do."

What they set out to do was a romance, he says, noting that in the 1940s movies that they were emulating, the principals never got together until the end. So even though the series has been on the air for three years, "Remington Steele" is still technically in the middle of its story.

"It's a fade-out once they get together," Gleason insists. "Otherwise it becomes very mundane as they get up in the morning and say, 'How would you like your toast?' If you lose sight of what show you're doing, I think the audience will get confused and say, 'They don't know what they're doing' and go somewhere else."

So while other series rush to incorporate rock music with their visuals to emulate the success of "Miami Vice," there was "Remington Steele" this week punctuating its story with songs by Tony Bennett.

That's knowing what show you're doing.

[eaz35173]

I like this article much better, and it sounds like he definitely had a direction in mind for the show. Thank you for posting this!

[jlr]

If you have the DVDs, listen to Gleason's audio commentary on "Diced Steele" (season 3) where he tells the story of how he would have developed Season 5 if he had free reign. Gleason originally wanted Steele and Laura to get married for real, and then have Laura decide that they could no longer work together, so Steele would have to set up his own competing agency. SZ and PB both rejected the idea, which was one of the things that led to the disastrous "Bonds of Steele".

[eaz35173]

I must have missed that commentary. Guess I'll have to watch that later today.

[jlr]

I've got one other thing while we're doing old articles here. I generally avoid the topic of the supposed feud between SZ and PB but I see the topic gets a lot of traffic on the message board here.

This is an article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2000 where SZ talks with columnist Cheryl Johnson about a reunion she had with PB in 1999:

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

April 25, 2000, Tuesday, Metro Edition

Stephanie Zimbalist gets her weather wish; Bicycling around Minneapolis last week was somewhat unpleasant, actress found

Cheryl Johnson; Staff Writer

SECTION: NEWS; C.J.; Pg. 4B


Stephanie Zimbalist should be easy to detect bicycling around Minneapolis without a helmet. "The theater just handed me the bike to get around, and it's fine," she said. "I guess I should buy a helmet. Without the makeup and duds, I don't really get that recognized, which is fine, just the way I like." Zimbalist is here doing the Guthrie Lab's "Side Man." It's "a play and a role I have drooled over," she said. "I saw it four times in New York. . . . When the opportunity came to audition for the Guthrie I leapt at it. I'm thrilled to pieces to actually get the role." A synopsis: " 'Death of a Salesman' in a jazz motif. You asked for short; that's it." Play runs May 10-28. When we talked Thursday, Zimbalist was hoping for some better biking weather. "In the rain and the snow it's not the greatest," she said. I explained what natives mean by "On your left" when biking the lakes, and I provided guidance on not riding against the auto traffic. "I was riding happily [with the traffic but perhaps on the wrong side] when a bus honked and said, Get out of my lane. Alas, I sometimes revert to the sidewalk." Between biking and a Y membership _ "I love to swim" _ she's quite fit.

A reunion tour

Besides biking and working, Stephanie Zimbalist also has had time to renew acquaintances. "I have an old friend here, Peggy O'Connell. Together we did a tour of 'My One and Only' with Tommy Tune. There is another mutual friend from that company, Kerry Casserly. Her family has a dance studio. She is here [when not in NYC]. It's been great reunion time." O'Connell is playing Ma Barker in the Great American History Theatre's "Gangster Musical." She and Zimbalist get together for hikes on Mondays. "We went to Taylors Falls and spent two hours looking for falls." . . . Last summer, Zimbalist had a reunion with her old "Remington Steele" co-star Pierce Brosnan. Makeup man Bron Roylance arranged a reunion. "We had a lovely, great reunion, the three of us in New York," she said. And Brosnan "seemed extremely grateful and appreciative of his success and good fortune. He knows how lucky he is, which was really kind of delightful to be around. . . . The three of us sort of bounced back into 1986, '85, '84." Zimbalist has done more than 30 TV movies from which she still gets residuals. "I actually do get checks for 89 cents and $1.29 when they show movies on some remote cable," she laughed. "It's funny with us actors when they don't see you on television all the time, they think you're not working: Well, when are you going to get a job again? Well, I have a job. Come to the Lab. It would be nice if more people came to the theater. If I could draw maybe one or two people who have never been to a play before because they like me on television, then I'm really happy."