Cheap Remington Steele - Season 1 (DVD) (Pierce Brosnan) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Remington Steele - Season 1

What were they thinking?
I was really pushing for my company to release "Remington Steele" on DVD, but it seems someone beat us to it. Pity -- but at least the episodes WILL finally be available (must admit that my old VHS tapes from late-night reruns circa 1986 are probably quite deteriorated by now). <
> <
>I have to say, though, that, I, too, am extremely annoyed that Stephanie Zimbalist was omitted from the package's cover. That was an extremely lame move on the part of the people putting the set together, and they obviously (a) know nothing about the show, and (b) didn't care enough about it to put it togther RIGHT. Anyone who was a fan of the show can tell you that Stephanie was key to how well it worked. And, as a ten year old girl at the time, she was kind of my hero. The compilers of the package took the easy, cheesy path to marketing this title, and all I can say to that is SHAME ON THEM. <
> <
>As a fan, I'd just like to add that the best season of the show was season 1. Apart from the glaring photo faux pas, the package should be pretty cool, and it will be great to watch these episodes again.

---

Steele worth watching
The name is Steele. Remington Steele. <
> <
>Before the advent of reality TV and gritty cop shows, detective shows were apparently the thing -- and the 1980s show "Remington Steele" was a standout. The mixture of humor, romantic tension and high-gloss detecting is constantly entertaining. <
> <
>Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) worked hard to become a private eye, only to discover that sexism was holding her back. So she invented a fake boss, Remington Steele, who was always conveniently absent when clients came to talk to his "assistant." The deceptive little system works perfectly... until Laura tries to protect a multimillion-dollar jewel collection, and runs into a man (Pierce Brosnan) who now claims to be Remington Steele. <
> <
>The flesh-and-blood Remington Steele is dapper, intelligent, loves old movies, and is a master criminal. Laura can't expose him without exposing her own fraud, so she comes to a tenuous truce with him: She'll let him stay, and finance his apartment and living, if he behaves himself and doesn't mess around with her detecting. Her assistants Murphy and Bernice (James Read and Janet DeMay) don't like it, but they have to accept him. <
> <
>But Steele doesn't want to stay in the shadows. He begins to take an interest in solving cases, and helps Laura find a missing video game genius, deal with a body in a winery, and encounter the Yakuza, murderous fellow P.I.s, B-movie queens, smut publishers, insomniacs, old lovers, divorce lawyers, and much more. All the while, Laura tries to figure out who Steele really is, as they try to figure out how they feel about each other. <
> <
>Humorous detective stories are not an easy thing to do -- they can easily descend into slapstick or idiocy. "Remington Steele" straddled the line perfectly. The first two episodes are rather grim, but by episode three we have Brosnan's charming smirks and the slightly oddball cases that the show became known for. Okay, maybe Laura's on-the-run striptease was a bit much, but Steele's look of shock is worth it. <
> <
>Surprisingly, not much has aged about this show. Sure, we have some ludicrous 80s hair and clothing, and computers were in their infancy. But the storylines are still hugely entertaining, the sort of stories that could be easily transferred (well, most of the time) to the 1920s, 2000s, or most places in between. <
> <
>Pierce Brosnan, pre-Bond, gives Steele the right amounts of earnestness and smoothness, quoting old movies and enthusiastically needling Murphy. Zimbalist does an almost equal job; she gets a bit smug in some scenes, but overall carries it well as the Beatrice to Pierce's Benedick. The two stars have remarkably electric chemisty -- a shame they didn't like each other. <
> <
>DeMay and Read aren't as good -- they were only in one season -- primarily because their characters seem rather one note. And the various guest stars are very good, whether old ladies or distinguished actors, such as Zimbalist's father Efram Jr. And keep an eye out for a young Sharon Stone in a very brief role. <
> <
>A deeply entertaining and well-written series, "Remington Steele" managed to bridge the gulf between detective shows and dry comedy. Fun, tense and intelligent.

---

Finally! This is a DVD I've been waiting for.
Pierce Brosnan may be the reason this show is released on DVD, but die-hard "Remington Steele" fans know Stephanie Zimbalist was equally responsible for the show's quality. It was Ms. Zimbalist's acting as a smart, single, business woman that was intriguing to me as a teenaged girl. I'm sure I'm not alone in viewing her Laura Holt character as a role model. <
> <
>When "Remington Steele" premiered in 1982, it was a breath of fresh air with super smart scripts (many writers from the show have gone on to other successes including Glenn Gordon Caron who created "Moonlighting"), tight direction, and the palpable chemistry and talent of the leads--Mr. Brosnan and Ms. Zimbalist. <
> <
>The first season--in my mind--is the best. The series writers and scripts were at their highest level. There was a sophisicated edge to the locales, the storylines, and acting. Even the guest stars--Paul Reiser, Annie Potts, Sharon Stone, Roxanne Hart, Peter Scolari come to mind--made the show special. The series walked a fine line between that sophistication and gumshoe grit--something that I think is hard to pull off. <
> <
>The show's quality did slightly slip in season 2 once it was paired with "The A-Team". It's been said that for season 2, NBC purposely made the show less cerebral to gain a wider audience. It did find it's highest ratings after season 1 with the stronger "A-Team" lead-in. No matter, "Remington Steele" was still a smart, delightful series throughout its run and I'm looking forward to revisiting it.