Remington Steele on DVD (1 Viewer)

I'm pretty late to discuss this show. All the threads I checked have been archived. Anyway, I've recently started buying this show. I came in around season 3 back in the 80's & really enjoyed the series. I remember hearing the name & knowing it was a detective show & thinking it would be more along the lines of Mike Hammer or some other rugged private eye show. It really won me over though as a teen. Whenever I later caught it in syndication I never failed to enjoy it. I didn't follow the information about the DVDs when they were being released. Was there much discussion about the replacement music? It's such an issue now but I wondered if it was an issue then. Otherwise I'm enjoying watching the DVDs. Really another era!

There is one episode that had MAJOR music replacementSeason 3 - Steele Trying. It involved a trip to San Francisco, and most of the music was supplied by Tony Bennett (he even got a special credit). However when it was released on DVD, his music was gone. They didn't even use the same songs covered by another performer.Another episode that had some replacement was Season 3 - Springtime For Steele. It involved a singer, and some of her songs were replaced. While the replacements were unfortunate, they weren't as jarring as the missing Tony Bennett songs from the other episode.I'm not aware of other substitutions, but there might have been some.

Some heavy substitutions in "Breath Of Steele", which also had a musical motif. There were also substitutions of piano music in "Steele Trap." But yes, "Steele Trying" was the episode that was really damaged by the changes. The syndicated versions as of the late 1990s all had original music; I'm not sure if the current syndication prints use the substituted versions or not.

I remembered a few others..."Hearts of Steele" lost Laura singing "Satisfaction," "Steele Away With Me" lost a few seconds of "Beat It" playing in the background, and one of my personal favorites, "Steele Your Heart Away" has the music from the watch altered, so it's no longer the appropriate "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling."

The Tony Bennett is the episode I noticed. I was scanning the DVDs & when I checked this episode I see Bennett in the credits but don't hear his voice. It's a shame because the music plays such a part in the episode. I've been enjoying rediscovering the series however. Definitely one of my favorites from the 80's.

I just picked up seasons 4 & 5 and noticed a scene where Laura looks to be singing "Girls want to have fun" but a generic song is playing. Weird to watch.

I was a fan. I purchased all 5 seasons on DVD when they were initially released and never watched them. Just a week ago I opened my season 1 set and started watching them all.


I love this show and I'm enjoying them even more than before. I personally find no equivalent to this series. It's the prefect blend of adventure, mystery, comedy, escapism. I enjoy these, hundred times more than any of Brosnan's Bonds. Funny thing, they wanted to cash in on Brosnan's fame and they put only his name and picture on the season 1 boxset. Then after the outcry, they just put a sticker with the name Stephanie Zimbalist on the box. It's kind of ironic and perfectly in sync with the series theme!


Any chance of getting them on Bluray. Are they shown any where in HD?

I recently finished buying the series. I occasionally jump around & just watch random episodes. It's really a well made show. I'm amazed at how polished the pilot & first episodes are. By the 2nd episode, it feels as if you're into the 2nd season! It really started off strong. I remember thinking the final "season" was pretty bad & there were some clunkers along the way but this is one of my favorite shows from the 80's.

Are you looking at them in broadcast order? License to Steele, where Laura and Steele meet, was actually the fifth episode produced. The network originally didn't want an episode showing them getting together, and then after a few episodes were filmed, they thought it was confusing and changed their minds. Tempered Steele, which aired second, was the actual pilot, which was intentionally written to seem as though things had been going on for a while.

The first few episodes were very well-made. Robert Butler is a very good director, and he stuck around for most of those first several shows. The production and performances being so good from the beginning probably has a lot to do with him.

At the same time, I thought the plots got much more varied and interesting as the first year went on.

Episode 102 Tempered Steele was filmed first, then the pilot, 101 License to Steele was filmed second. They were aired in the correct order and they are in the correct order on the DVDs. I'm watching all my DVDs from start to end all five seasons including the audio commentaries.

They were aired in the correct order, of course, because the production order wouldn't have made sense. But after Tempered Steele was filmed as the pilot (by definition, the pilot is the first show filmed so as to sell the series) and the series was bought, Steele Belted, Signed Steeled and Delivered, and Steele Waters Run Deep were all filmed before License to Steele.

FanCollector said:

They were aired in the correct order, of course, because the production order wouldn't have made sense. But after Tempered Steele was filmed as the pilot (by definition, the pilot is the first show filmed so as to sell the series) and the series was bought, Steele Belted, Signed Steeled and Delivered, and Steele Waters Run Deep were all filmed before License to Steele.

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I don't think so. Where do you get your information? I get mine from the official DVDs and as far as I understood, License to Steele was filmed second. Please provide a link.

This is one of my favorite mystery series. "Castle" came close at times during its first five seasons; but, overall, "Remington Steele" -- in it's first four seasons -- trumps any season-to-date of "Castle".


As far as the Remington Steele Season 5: I just pretend it doesn't exist! It was always clear that "Bonds of Steele" was *supposed* to be the last ep of the series, with Brosnan then moving on to Bond. (The next-to-last shot even depicts him in the classic Bond Tux, with the appropriate gun in his hand! Laura, on the other hand, appears totally disheveled. ) Of course, NBC then exercised it's option for the fifth season which delayed Brosnan from getting the Bond gig for about a decade. You could certainly tell that the actors were just "phoning it in" for that abortive fifth season.

I didn't care for the final episode of season 4. Just a poor ending. The series finale was bad as well. It's almost as if someone forgot how to write the characters. They seem like different people at times. Sad for a series that started exceptionally well & maintained quality for so much of it's run.

When I mentioned that the 2nd episode felt like it could have been from the 2nd season, I just meant there was none of searching for identity that most series go through. Usually it takes a handful of episodes before a series finds its "voice". Remington Steele had a great first season right from the start.

SamT said:

I don't think so. Where do you get your information? I get mine from the official DVDs and as far as I understood, License to Steele was filmed second. Please provide a link.

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The production numbers appear in the end credits of each episode. You can look on the DVDs or find lists on epguides.com.

"Steele Loved After All These Years" (a book on the series) has the production schedule for License to Steele. It didn't finish filming until August 23rd, which would have been impossibly late had it been the first show they filmed after the pilot (which was completed in April).

The fifth season was certainly a major letdown. It was probably a combination of the actors being dissatisfied, the loss of most of the writing staff, and Michael Gleason functioning in a purely "advisory capacity" for the first time in the series.

The fourth year is a more interesting question. I did feel that there were some excellent shows that year (particularly Steele Searching right at the start), but it was a much less uniformly excellent year than the previous three. Why do you guys think that is? For me, it seems as though it was just harder and harder to keep them apart for another year. Their fears of intimacy and commitment just made less sense after all they had gone through, and the characterizations seemed a little strained because of that. I wouldn't have wanted to see them together before the final episode, but I wonder if there simply weren't 94 stories to tell before they would end up with each other.

Any other impressions?

They seemed determined to maintain the status quo with regards to the relationship. They'd have episodes where clearly the characters had progressed but then they'd hit the reset button the next episode. There would be no warmth between the two. I guess they felt if the characters were actually in a relationship the show would be less interesting. Admittedly that was one of MANY things that killed MOONLIGHTING. I think it might have helped Steele a bit though.

One thing that I loved about the series was the music! Always elegant & always appropriate.

I thought that the evolution of their relationship in the third season answered so many of the questions and objections they each had that after Steele Searching, there just wasn't anything left that they would need to happen to take the next step. By the time we get to Sensitive Steele, for example, they are simply looking for conflicts where none exist anymore.

But this is all nitpicking about what I think is the best show of the last 35 years. Each episode worked on at least three different levels and the results were a magical combination of a truly believable and serious central relationship with a witty and timeless appreciation of the fantasies of old Hollywood and crime fiction.

Just watched episode 1x15 To Stop a Steele. I loved the idea that they were working secretly on the same case. The thing I don't get is why would Remington Steele accept a case from a thief about a criminal activity. That makes no sense at all. I'm sure their agency has a rule against working for crimes.

Wonderful episode! It's fun to see them working at odds, and also to see the different methods Steele and Laura employ. (Perhaps a preview of some of the debates on their future cases.)

Taking a case from a jewel thief would probably violate California law and put their investigative license in jeopardy, so I think you're right in that sense of there being a "rule" against it. I think Morrie simply has the good fortune to get Mr. Steele, rather than Miss Holt when he asks. Steele is not only a (mostly) reformed thief himself, but he is a notorious softie where stories of fathers and sons are concerned. I'm not surprised that Steele accepted the case, although Morrie seems surprisingly confident given that he doesn't know Steele.

Regarding your spoiler, can you be more specific? Why does he need him for what?