Steele Here (in English)

02-23-2006

Glenn Gordon Caron

Glenn Caron started his carrier as a TV writer at the end of the 70s on Taxi and Breaking Away. The Remington Steele adventure began in 1982: he wrote the first 10 episodes of season 1. Then he quitted and became executive producer, director and writer of Moonlighting, the show that introduced Bruce Willis. Recently, he worked on Now & Again and Medium.

Below is an exerpt from an interview dated September 2002. It mainly concerns Caron's experience on Moonlighting, but he also mentions his collaboration on Remington Steele. 

Diane: "We know that you wrote for "Remington Steele" before you did "Moonlighting." Did the inspiration come from seeing what you could do, what you thought you could do better with a detective show, or did it come from elsewhere?"

Glenn Caron: "Obviously, I used some of the experience that I gained on Remington Steele. I was with Remington Steele for a very, very short time. I was there really just for the first 10 episodes. And I was there largely because I sort of made it a mission in my life to work with a guy named Bob Butler who directed the pilot for Remington Steele. And really, he sort of came up with the premise for Remington Steele. He'd been carrying it around for years. Michael Gleason developed it for television, but the original idea was actually Bob's. And I really wanted to work with Bob Butler. I got to Remington Steele, worked with Bob. At a certain point, Bob was leaving. I decided to leave. So I really wasn't there as long as a question like that would suggest, although I did contribute a tremendous amount of writing to those first 10 episodes. I think they all, if not all, then most, certainly went through my typewriter at some point. And I still am very fond of my friendship with Pierce. And we were both sort of new to television, so we, you know, he and I developed a relationship. I think I was also really the first writer over there who recognized that he could be funny. In the original conception, I don't think he was thought of as particularly funny. I think Stephanie was thought of as sort of the person who was going to lead the charge of the show, and she's a wonderful actress. But, it just became clear to me hanging around with Pierce, that he had a huge funny bone and so I really tried to write to that."

To read the whole interview, click here.

02-20-2006

Steele Music

Henry Mancini

He composed the main theme of Remington Steele. Or I should say *the main themes*... He was born in 1924 and started working for Universal in 1952. Since then, he composed various themes that became very famous: The Pink Panther, Abbott & Costello, Murder She Wrote, The Invisible Man, Peter Gunn, Charlie's Angels, Columbo, Dumb & Dumber... Some of his compositions were reused in Waterworld, The Big Lebowski, Ocean's Eleven, Minority Report and Farenheit 9/11. Mancini died in 1994, and his name counts among the most talented TV and movie composers.

Richard Lewis Warren

He composed the music of Remington Steele episodes. He also workd on various shows: Dynasty, Hart to Hart, Dallas, Moonlighting and The Love Boat.

Donald Nemitz

Donald Nemitz has a big and beautiful carrier. As a composer and orchestrator, he joined the Remington Steele crew in 1982 and left in 1985. He worked for television (McGyver, Moonlighting, Dallas, The Simpsons, Dark Angel) and cinema (The Pacifier, Spy Kids, Jimmy Neutron, Scary Movie, Alien: Resurrection, Tombstone, Junior...).

02-17-2006

Interview with Michael Gleason

Click on the link below to read a terrific interview with Michael Gleason, who was the co-creator of Remington Steele. It happened in September 2005 for the season 1 DVD release.

Interview

02-16-2006

The Founding Fathers

Robert Butler

Born in 1927, Robert Butler met TV series very early and started to work for the TV industry in the 50s. Here is a list of some TV productions on which he took part: Bonanza (featuring Michael Landon), The Fugitive, The Untouchables, The Twilight Zone, Hogan's Heroes, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Hawai Five-O, The Invaders, Hill Street Blues and Columbo. It was Butler who first had the original idea of Remington Steele. He wanted to create a TV series about a female private eye who could not work because she was a woman. He then contacted Michael Gleason who added the character of a fictitious male boss. In the very beginning, Butler was only director but he soon became executive producer with co-creator Gleason. After the end of Remington Steele, he then worked on various TV shows like Moonlighting and Lois & Clark (he directed the pilot).

Michael Gleason

He is the other figurehead of Remington Steele. He was scriptwriter, director and above all executive producer on the series. He wrote the pilot, License to Steele. About Stephanie Zimbalist, he said that "it was a pure delight working with her". As far as Brosnan is concerned, he compared him to a "Cary Grant of the 80s" and noted that he immediatly found Brosnan amazing when he saw him auditioning for the role of Remington Steele. And he added, in an interview published by the Chigaco Sun Times in July 2005: "Laura Holt was the brains. Remington Steele was the sex object". Furthermore, Gleason is responsible for the movie lines Remington systematically refered to in the series. After the end of the show, Michael Gleason worked on Moonlighting, Lois & Clark and Charmed.

02-15-2006

Pierce Brosnan in a New Movie

According to Inconmovies, Pierce Brosnan will be filming next March in Vancouver a new movie entitled Butterfly on a Wheel. An apprently perfect couple, played by Maria Bello and Gerard Butler, is forced to comply with their daughter's abductor (Pierce Brosnan). For more information on the synopsis, click here.

02-14-2006

Inside the Actors Studio

This is a sequence from the tv show Inside the Actors Studio presented by James Lipton. Pierce Brosnan was invited on November 2002. He talks about the first James Bond offer in 1986 that he had to refuse to film the 5th season of Remington Steele. There is a bit of frustration in his words as he missed the role because of only few episodes. But he finally got the role in 1994!

Right click and "save as":

Actors Studio (WMV file - 2.5 Mo)

Stephanie Zimbalist Biography

Stephanie Zimbalist is born on October the 8th, 1956 in  New York City. She comes from a family of artists: her grand-father, Efrem Zimbalist Sr, was a famous violonist; her grand-mother, Alma Gluck, was an opera singer; and her father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr, was an actor (he played in Maverick, Remington Steele, Zorro...).  She has a half-brother, Efrem Zimbalist III, and a half-sister, Nancy Zimbalist. Stephanie grew up in the family ranch of Encinon, California. She was a real tomboy when she was young, and she practiced a lot of sports (swimming, riding, playing tennis, dance, diving...). That’s why she has an athletic graceful figure! Stephanie was sent in various private schools before entering the famous Stanford University where she graduated in Science. Then she entered the Julliard School where she learnt acting, dancing, doing tap and singing. Her carrier started on stage: she played The Tempest, from Shakespeare, with Anthony Hopkins, as well as The Awakening with Charlton Eston. She was offered several roles in TV series but refused them everytime... until the producers of Remington Steele convinced her to become Laura Holt, a female private detective. She played the role from 1982 to 1987 with her co-star Pierce Brosnan. During the filming of the 4^th season, the producers of Robocop offered her the role of Anne Lewis, but as she was under contract for Remington Steele this role was finally given to Nancy Allen. After the end of the TV series, Zimbalist appeared in various movies on the big screen (Love on the Run with Alec Baldwin and The Prophet’s Game with Dennis Hopper) and on television (Caroline in1990 which won an Emmy Award, Nash Bridges, Family Law, and in an episode of the series Touched by an Angel that was a hit in term of audience). She also taped some audio books. But Zimbalist essentially focused her carrier on theatre (musical My One and Only, Sylvia). Her discretion in the media and her carrier choices resulted in the fact that she is mostly known in the United States and theatre industry, but she is an actress of great talent, as gifted as her ex-partner in Remington Steele, Pierce Brosnan. 

[Sources : Rogers Video, Wikipedia and IMDB]

For a complete filmography of Stephanie Zimbalist, visit the IMDB.

Young Stephanie

Stephanie and father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr

02-13-2006

Pierce Brosnan Biography

Pierce Brosnan was born in 1953 in Navan, Irland, where he lived until he was 11 years old. Pierce’s youth was quite hard as his father abandoned the family while Pierce was only 1. His mother then decided to live and find a job in London. She left Pierce to his grand-parents, but both of them died when he was 6. The young boy was put in some relatives’ care and sent to a Christian school where he was beaten. Pierce was finally reunited with his mother in 1963. Now living in London, he was often mocked by his schoolmates due to his strong Irish accent and his short height. He learnt the basis of acting while trying to imitate the London accent and the behaviour of his classmates.

Although Pierce was particularly brilliant in arts when he was in high school, he decided to quit at the age of 16 and started an artistic training in the Ravenna Studios. In the same time, he took part to experimental plays at the Oval House Theatre in Kennington Oval. But to earn his life, Pierce had to take various ungratifying jobs. He was, for instance, a cab driver, a dishwasher, a house cleaner and even a fire-eater in a circus! In the Remington Steele episode entitled High Flying Steele as well as in the remarkable Muppet Show episode in which he was invited, Brosnan showed his fire-eater talents... He pursued his training attending various theatrical workshops and then entered the London Drama Centre in 1973. He graduated in 1976 and became a stage assistant manager at the York’s Royal Theatre. Six months later, Tennessee Williams chose Brosnan to perform in the English production Red Devil Battery Sign. This was Brosnan's first step to a prestigious theatrical carrier, with roles in remarkable plays like Filumena (directed by Franco Zeffirelli) and Wait Until Dark.

In 1981, Pierce got the main role in the American miniseries The Manions of America. It was a great success in the United States and Pierce was then offered a role in the TV series Remington Steele. The series was broadcasted in lots of foreign countries. True to his classical background, Pierce appeared in the series Nancy Astor, produced by the BBC and won a Golden Globe for his role. Other notable performances followed like in Around the World in 80 days, Noble House etc.

Now living in the United States and while dozens of large circulation newspapers praised Brosnan performance in Remington Steele, several polls showed that he would be the ideal successor of Roger Moore as James Bond. In 1986, Remington Steele was losing audience and the 007 producers and United Artists offered Brosnan, for the first time, the role of the famous secret agent in Licence to Kill. But the series audience improved and Brosnan, still bounded to Remington Steele’s producers, had to start the filming of the fifth and ultimate season.

In 1995, Pierce got the James Bond role at last. The results commensurated with the expectations: Goldeneye became the most popular movie from the 007 saga with 350 million dollars in the box-office. Brosnan, who is capable of interpreting both action and comedy figures, immediately suited the James Bond character, offering an extraordinary performance full of energy, charism and charm. He also brought his know-how as a classical actor, and his athletic constitution enabled him to make most of the stunts in the four Bond movies.

Brosnan also became famous playing in various types of movies : comedy (Mrs Doubtfire, with Robin Williams), action (Dante’s Peak), drama (Evelyn), thriller (the 4th Protocol), sci-fi (the Lawnmower Man), romantic comedy (The Mirror Has Two Faces, Laws of Attraction) etc. In the height of his carrier, Pierce Brosnan extended his activities to producing movies. In 1998, he created the Irish Dream Time company with his associate Beau St. Clair. The company’s first production was The Nephew, which was presented in various film festivals. He then produced for MGM/UA the John McThiernan’s romantic thriller Thomas Crown that generated about 200 million dollars in the box-office. The third movie was Evelyn, directed by Bruce Beresford. Based on a true story, it enabled Brosnan to come back to his Irish roots and presented a bunch of talented actors like Stephen Rea, Alan Bates, Julianna Margulies and Aidan Quinn. More recently, Brosnan promoted The Matador that was released at the end of the year 2005.

As a committed environmentalist, Brosnan plays a very active part within various foundations for the environmental cause, particularly for the protection of whales. He was by the way honoured by the Environmenal Media Association and Woman In Film. In 1997, Michael Gorbatchev, the International President of Green Cross, gave to Brosnan the Environmental Leadership Award to thank him for his actions in favour of the protection of whales and fragile ecosystems. Brosnan also manages the campaigns launched by the Entertainment Industry Foundation that raises and allocates each year several millions of dollars of funds.

Pierce Brosnan, who originally planned to be a painter, continues his successful movie carrier. As far as his personal life is concerned, he was first married to Cassandra Harris (who was featured in the Remington Steele’s season 2 episode Woman of Steele). He met her in 1978 and they got married in 1980. Cassandra was 12 years older than Pierce and had two children from a previous union, Charlotte and Christopher. Pierce finally adopted them in 1986 after the death of their father. Cassandra and Pierce also got a third child, Sean, born in 1983. Cassandra Harris died on December 28th, 1990, after 4 years fighting an ovarian cancer. In 1994, Pierce met journalist Keely Shaye Smith to whom he married in Irland in 2001. Dylan Thomas (born in 1997) and Paris Beckett (born in 2001) enlarged the Brosnan family.

[Sources : Comme au cinéma and Tiscali] 

For a complete filmography of Pierce Brosnan, visit the IMDB.

Young Pierce

With wife Cassandra and kids Christopher and Charlotte

With son Sean

James Bond

With wife Keely Shaye Smith

With sons Dylan and Paris

02-12-2006

Steele Themes

Here are three versions of the Remington Steele's main theme. Due to my bad memory and a lack of raw material I cannot say which seasons the first two themes are related to... The third one is an amazing long version. Right click and "save as" :

Theme 1

Theme 2

Theme 3

02-11-2006

For your eyes only

This is my first RS music video, entirely dedicated to season 2. Enjoy! Right click and "save as" (10,5 Mo):
Clip