This show is steele cool by Gord Lacey (All reviews)
7/24/2005
Try this for a deep, dark secret. The great detective Remington Steele? He doesn't exist. I invented him. Follow...
I always loved excitement. So I studied and apprenticed, and put my name on an office. But absolutely nobody knocked down my door. A female private investigator seemed so... feminine. So I invented a superior. A decidedly masculine superior.
Suddenly, there were cases around the block. It was working like a charm.
Until the day he walked in, with his blue eyes and mysterious past. And before I knew it he assumed Remington Steele's identity. Now I do the work, and he takes the bows. It's a dangerous way to live, but as long as people buy it, I can get the job done.
We never mix business with pleasure. Well, almost never. I don't even know his real name.
Laura Holt explains the premise of the show through narration that accompanies every episode of the show. The series premiered on September 1, 1982, and ran for 4 full seasons, and a very short fifth. The series starred Stephanie Zimbalist as "Laura Holt," and introduced Pierce Brosnan as the dashing "Remington Steele." James Read (Murphy Michaels) and Janet DeMay (Bernice Foxe) rounded out the cast of the first season.
I watched Remington Steele on A&E about 10 or 11 years ago. I would record it and then watch it when I got home from school. I always thought it was a clever detective show, and I was right.
Fox has packaged this four disc set using double-slim cases. The whole thing takes up the same space as a keepcase. They've also release the season in two volumes, though I'm not sure why someone would want to buy half a season when the whole thing is out there. I guess it's a different release strategy; I wonder if it'll work.
Disc 1, Side A (3:16:28)
License to Steele (49:07)
Tempered Steele (49:03)
Steele Waters Run Deep (49:10)
Signed, Steeled, and Delivered (49:08)
Disc 1, Side B (1:38:13)
Thou Shalt Not Steele (49:04)
Steele Belted (49:09)
Disc 2, Side A (3:16:36)
Etched in Steele (49:06)
You're Steele the One For Me (49:07)
In the Steele of the Night (49:10)
Steele Trap (49:13)
Disc 2, Side B (1:38:12)
Steeling the Show (49:06)
Steele Flying High (49:06)
Disc 3, Side A (3:16:22)
A Good Night's Steele (49:08)
Hearts of Steele (48:58)
To Stop a Steele (49:08)
Steele Crazy After All These Years (49:08)
Disc 3, Side B (1:38:12)
Steele Among the Living (49:06)
Steele in the News (49:06)
Disc 4, Side A (1:37:23)
Vintage Steele (48:43)
Steele's Gold (48:40)
Disc 4, Side B (1:37:25)
Sting of Steele (48:43)
Steele in Circulation (48:42)
Video
The video quality of Remington Steele looks great, especially considering the age of the material. There are specs of dust here and there, and some scenes are grainy, but far less than I was expecting to see. The show may be a little dark at times, but it's not horrible. There's a chapter after the opening of the show, but the discs lack a "play all" feature.
Audio
Remington Steele features a fairly decent mono track; English only. The audio track is clear, and the dialog is easy to understand, but there's a slight hiss in some scenes, which can be a bit annoying. There are English, French and Spanish subtitles for the episodes, as well as closed captions.
Commentary Tracks
Michael Gleason (creator/writer/executive producer), Robert Butler (creator/writer/director/producer), and Susan Baskin (writer) comment on some of the episodes in the first season.
License to Steele - Michael Gleason and Robert Butler
Tempered Steele - Michael Gleason and Robert Butler
Vintage Steele - Michael Gleason and Susan Baskin
Remington Steele, Season One (12:26)
Stu Erwin (Executive vice president of MTM), Robert Butler (Co-creator), Michael Gleason (Co-creator), Andrew Laskos (Writer), Pierce Brosnan ("Remington Steele"), Gareth Davies (Producer), Kenneth Peach (Director of photography) and Glen Gordon Caron (Supervising producer) talk about the first season of the show.
Remington & Laura, Bernice & Murphy (14:35)
A nice featurette looking at the relationships between the characters. Features interviews with the cast and crew.
Comedy & Old Movies (8:10) Remington Steele featured comedic moments, and old movie references. This featurette deals with these two aspects of the show.
Summary
Being able to start the show from the beginning was a blast, and I really enjoyed watching the set. I love the flirting that goes on between the two characters; the writing is great.
Fans of the show are very upset that Stephanie Zimbalist isn't featured anywhere on the packaging, and I don't blame them. Brosnan has enjoyed a great career because of the show, but Zimbalist was one of the stars of the show, and she deserves equal billing on the packaging. I spoke with someone at Fox about the matter, passing on the complaints of fans, and I was told their selection of stock photos for that season is very poor, and they didn't have anything that was usable. It sounds as though they tried, but just couldn't find something good enough to use.
This is a pretty good set, and fans of the series should enjoy it (after they get over the lack of Zimbalist on the cover). The commentary tracks are a bit spotty, but there's some interesting information to be found in them. It's a shame Zimbalist wasn't in any of the DVD material; maybe she heard about the cover art issue (kidding, of course).
If you pick this set up you won't be disappointed. It's steele as good now as it was back then.
