Robert Butler (4) (1927–)

This was a truly stylish television show that tapped into the kind of Stanley Donen light mystery/romance that is missing from the movies today. Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist were perfectly cast and the show only got better with each episode. The classy Henry Mancini theme captured the feel of this light and sophisticated show tinged with humor perfectly. It was as evocative and as much a part of the show as his “Peter Gunn” theme had been decades before.

Laura Holt (Zimbalist) couldn't get her private detective agency off the ground in spite of her skills, until she invented the phantom male agency head, Remington Steele. Business was booming and everything was going swell until Pierce Brosnan showed up and assumed the roll of the nonexistent Steele, both around town and with clients. An uneasy alliance was formed that to the delight of fans moved more and more towards the romantic as time went by.

Brosnan’s Steele was debonair and stylish, his past a shady mystery. Each season Laura discovered new things about his past in Ireland and his exploits in other countries. Steele was also a film buff, and to the delight of classic film fans he would make constant references to films of the 1930s and 1940s that he felt pertained to the case. It made all us film buffs who knew just what he was talking about feel like we were insiders, and it was one of the many charms of this wonderful show.

Brosnan and Zimbalist were a terrific screen couple in the tradition of all those ones we remember fondly. One could say they were the Nick and Nora Charles of their time. There was fun anticipation for viewers as week after week we watched the two become involved in a mystery while they danced around their growing affection for one another. And it was always fun when little tidbits of Steele’s past were discovered by Laura. In one episode, however, Steele learns things about Laura’s past, to the delight of audiences.

Season one put this on the radar, and cast changes — Murphy got axed, Mildred Krebs became integral — only seemed to make the show even better for the remaining seasons. Bosnian’s opportunity to become James Bond had to wait, and we got a truncated season at the end. What had preceded it was so wonderful, however, that fans have always held a soft spot in their heart, and a place in their film cabinet, for this refreshing show that was at the same time quite nostalgic.

Fun and sophisticated in a way that always left viewers with a good feeling by episode’s end, this kind of entertaining television is sorely missing from today’s dreadful offerings. Remington Steele filled a void left for those seeking the kind of fun escapism which all but disappeared when the Hollywood studio system began to collapse, and has virtually disappeared entirely in our day. Remington Steele was something really special in television. Every lover of classic films was in love with this show. It was — and still is — a refreshing reminder of what television could, and should be.… (mehr)