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 year saw the release of the 3rd season and this month they are finishing it up with the release of a combined set of the 4th and 5th seasons.

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.

The 4th & 5th seasons brought with them several interesting bits of casting and some plots that the fans definitely wanted to see. The most interesting of the former was the casting of Efram Zimbalist, Jr. as Laura's dad, which is interesting because he was really Stephanie Zimbalist's dad! The 5th season ended up being a bit rushed as it was completed in a series of 2-hour movies. Though fans were glad to see that the 'relationship' between Laura and Steele finally went where they wanted it to go.

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. In the 3rd season set, she was actually in on one of the commentaries.

This new set also has its fair share of features. Three commentaries and four featurettes. For the episode "Steele of the Air", we hear from writers John Sakmar and Kerry Lenhart, while on "Beg, Borrow, or Steele" and "Bonds of Steele", we have commentary from writers Michael Gleason, John Wirth, Brad Kern and Jeff Melvoin. As for the rest of the extra features, there is one that focuses on how the fans worked to revive the show after its initial 4th season cancellation while another looks at the myriad of guest stars that appeared on the series, most notably the aforementioned Efram Zimbalist, Jr. There is also a featurette that details the use of real Los Angeles locations into the production. Finally, there is a bit of a reminiscence of the show and what kind of impact it had on its stars and creative team.

“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:
Season 4 -
Steele Searching (1)
Steele Searching (2)
Steele Blushing
Grappling Steele
Forged Steele
Corn Fed Steele
Premium Steele
Coffee, Tea, or Steele
Dancer, Prancer, Donner and Steele
Steele on the Air
Steele, Inc.
Steele Spawning
Suburban Steele
Santa Claus is Coming to Steele
Steele Blue Yonder
Sensitive Steele
Steele in the Spotlight
Steele at Your Service
Steele in the Running
Beg, Borrow, or Steele
Steele Alive and Kicking
Bonds of Steele

Season 5 -
The Steele That Wouldn't Die (1)
The Steele That Wouldn't Die (2)
Steele Hanging in There (1)
Steele Hanging in There (2)
Steeled With a Kiss (1)
Steeled With a Kiss (2)

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Stephanie Zimbalist,
Specifications: Full Screen
Studio: Fox
Release Date: 8/15/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Remington Steele: Seasons 4 & 5 a B.