From the first day I saw the series “Remington Steele” and saw Pierce Brosnan walk through the door of the famed detective agency, I knew we were looking at a future James Bond. Brosnan played the role of Steele for 5 seasons, and for a while I thought it wasn’t going to happen. It took some time, but the 'powers that be' finally recognized the man for the job, and Pierce stepped into the legendary spy’s shoe for 4 films from 1995 – 2002. If you never saw “Remington Steele”, then you can thank the fine folks at Fox Home Entertainment for bringing the future Mr. Bond’s early beginnings to the DVD market. The 1st and 2nd seasons of “Remington Steele” were released last year. This month they are following it up with the release of the 3rd season. First I feel I should bring you up to speed on just what “Remington Steele” was for those of you uninitiated into the fold. The series ran from 1982 until 1987, and starred Stephanie Zimbalist as Laura Holt, a hard-working detective with her own agency.

Well, she’d LIKE to be a hard-working detective, but thanks to the male chauvinist attitudes of the time, no one seems interested in hiring a woman to do their private detecting. So she does what any self-respecting woman would do. She creates a fictitious boss by the name of Remington Steele, and changes the name of her company to reflect his ownership. Proving her theory correct, she suddenly finds that her agency has more cases than it can handle, and all is well. Until the day that 'He'… walked in.

Wandering in off the streets one day is a rather dapper Englishman claiming to be a special agent by the name of Ben Pierson. The two eventually partner up, with him taking on the identity of Steele, and alleviating her need to produce him when asked for. The understanding is that he is to be eye-candy only, but before you know it, he is worming his way into all of her cases.

The 2nd season brought with it several changes, the two most notable being the addition of Doris Roberts to the cast as the agency’s new receptionist Mildred Krebs and the new digs that Laura Holt moves into. Roberts was a staple on TV recently as Ray Romano’s mom in “Everybody Loves Raymond.” The Emmy award winning actress was as welcome an addition to this series as she was on “Raymond.” Then in the second episode of the season, “Red Holt Steele”, Laura’s house is blown to smithereens and she is forced to move into a new loft apartment. This apartment continued to be a permanent set throughout the run of the series.

I watched “Remington Steele” years ago and have fond memories of enjoying the series immensely. The two stars shared some great banter that now reminds me of another love/hate relationship between Maddie Hayes and David Addison Jr. (though “Moonlighting” came later – 1985). The show was exceptionally well written, and the premise intriguing enough to keep me on as a viewer for the full run of the series. Having it available on DVD now is just icing on the cake as far as I’m concerned.

The overall quality on all of the sets varies from episode to episode, but this is to be expected from a series over 20 years old. Granted, a lot of work could have been done to restore it, but I’m sure the studio felt no need to go to such great lengths. After all, the episodes are still completely watchable. They did opt, however to add in some really nice extra features, which I prefer any day of the week.

I still remember when I saw the 1st season set, that I was rather surprised that Stephanie Zimbalist was not featured in any of the special features. She wasn’t even shown on the cover of the set, instead opting to have a solo shot of Brosnan. It really made me wonder what was going on there. However, in the 2nd season set, she was featured prominently on the cover and was in some of the behind the scenes footage. Now in the 3rd season set, she is actually in on one of the commentaries for the episode "Steele in the Chips" (along with the series co-creator Michael Gleason).

There are also two other commentaries, each with Michael Gleason and writer Jeff Melvoin. Doris Roberts joins them on "Diced Steele" and writers John Wirth and Brad Kern sit in on "Now You Steele It, Now You Don't." You'll also find some character profiles and a featurette on the 'Making of'… or should I say 'Baking of…' the episode "Steele in the Chips."

“Remington Steele” continued to be a smartly written detective show for all of its five seasons, so I’m glad Fox is doing it justice with these DVD releases.

Episodes:
Steele at It
Lofty Steele
Maltese Steele
Second Base Steele
Blue Blooded Steele
Steele Your Heart Away
A Pocketful of Steele
Puzzled Steele
Cast in Steele
Breath of Steele
Let's Steele a Plot
Gourmet Steele
Stronger than Steele
Have I Got a Steele For You
Springtime for Steele
Steele in the Family
Diced Steele
Now You Steele It, Now You Don't
Illustrated Steele
Steele in the Chips
Steele Trying
Steele of Approval

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Stephanie Zimbalist,
Extras: “The Baking of Steele in the Chips” Behind the Scenes Featurette, “Steele Michael” Character Profile, “Steele Trio” Character Profiles
Specifications: Full Screen
Studio: Fox
Release Date: 4/18/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Remington Steele: Season 3 a B.