Although Pierce Brosnan was contracted to Remington Steele for seven seasons, NBC decided to cancel the show at the end of the fourth season due to low ratings. This meant that Brosnan was free to play James Bond in The Living Daylights. However, Brosnan's television contract gave NBC a 60-day period in which the network had the option to reverse the cancellation. During that time, the publicity over Brosnan's selection as James Bond led to an unexpected boost in the ratings for Remington Steele. As a result of this, in addition to viewer protests and a failed attempt to sell Remington Steele to another network, NBC had second thoughts about the cancellation. The network approached the Bond producers in an attempt to strike a deal that would allow Brosnan to play both James Bond and Remington Steele the following year without any scheduling conflicts. But eventually, Albert R. Broccoli famously told NBC that "James Bond will not be Remington Steele and Remington Steele will not be James Bond." At the last minute, NBC finalized its decision to renew Remington Steele, causing Brosnan to lose the role of James Bond to Timothy Dalton. NBC went on to make only six episodes for the show's fifth season, and then canceled the series for good in the spring of 1987.
During the run of the series, Pierce Brosnan was not only touted as the next James Bond, but he was also mentioned in published reports as being considered to star in a theatrical version of The Saint. This project never materialized.
Originally, the character of Remington Steele was supposed to be a mere figurehead, comic relief to be used in support of star Stephanie Zimbalist. Bronsnan became so popular and had such presence, that his part became more significant.
At the beginning of each episode, the episode title was displayed. All episode titles featured the word Steele: "Molten Steele", "Small Town Steele" and so on.
Writer 'Glen Gordon Caron' left this series to create Moonlighting, another series about a pair of bickering detectives.
The series was originally pitched to MTM by Robert Butler with just detective Laura Holt running a detective agency belonging to a male superior which she invented for business purposes. MTM put Butler into contact with Michael Gleason, who suggested the chaos that would ensue if the invented superior turned up one day, and the character of Remington Steele was created.
SPOILER: Recurring character Daniel Chalmers (played by Stephanie Zimbalist's father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), was a con man who mentored a fellow he called 'Harry' in the art of the con. 'Harry' eventually became Remington Steele and, in the final episode, Chalmers confessed to Steele they were father and son. Tragically, Chalmers then died of heart failure before he could answer Steele's eternal question, "I've always wondered, Daniel, what's my real name?"
Laura once told Steele that she named him after "A typewriter and a football team."
Steele was a serious Humphrey Bogart fan. He has 5 passports from 5 countries in 5 different names, all of which are characters played by Bogart.
The title character was a movie aficionado. He would try (sometimes successfully) to solve the crimes based on old movies plots.
Anthony Andrews was the first choice to play Remington Steele but he turned it down.
The exteriors of the Remington Steele Investigations office building are the Century Plaza Towers, 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City. They are a well-known and often used L.A. landmark.
The Hunter Jet Star 6000 is actually the Vector W2, manufactured by Vector Aeromotive as a concept car in 1978. It went into limited production in the early 80's but the company ceased production on all its car models in the mid-90's, eerily paralleling its fictional counterpart's woes.
Royal Lavulite is an actual jewel. Also known as Suglite and Royal Azel, this deep purple-to-gray/lavender colored gemstone is very rare and valuable. It's found in Japan, India, and South Africa, where the largest deposits are located.
Although this episode is first in time and shows how Steele and Holt met, the first episode filmed was Tempered Steele. The creator Robert Butler said on a DVD commentary that the network wanted to see a "sixth episode" to see if the concept worked as a series.
Although the episode "Remington Steele" (1982) {License to Steele (#1.1)} is first in order, and shows how Steele and Holt met, this was the first episode filmed. The Creator Robert Butler said on a DVD commentary that the network wanted to see a "sixth episode" to see if the concept worked as a series. There are some differences between this episode and others, including the Remington Steele offices, and Laura's home.
In this episode Laura Holt reveals she devised the name Remington Steele by combining the names from the Remington Typewriter Co. and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Laura: "What's wrong with Peppler? I'm a Peppler. You're a Peppler. He's a Peppler... She's a Peppler. Wouldn't you like to be a Peppler too?" Laura parodies a famous Dr. Pepper ad campaign of the 1970s and 1980s.
When Laura announces she is going to Mexico, she rattles off names of famous Mexican actors, Lupe Velez, Maria Montez, etc. Pedro Armendariz is one of them. He is in this episode as Captain Rios.
According to Laura's Driver's License, she is 5' 5" tall, weighs 110 lbs., and her DOB is 1/28/1956.
Cassandra Harris and Pierce Brosnan were married when she guest starred in this and three other episodes of Remington Steele.
The painting in the hallway by Nestor Bartholomew's apartment was painted by Pierce Brosnan.
During this show Remington's address is given as 5994 Rossmore, Apt. A, Fifth Floor, and his telephone number is 555-4377.
The film "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963) was Stephanie's inspiration for this script.
Gleason said about this episode, "The network wasn't thrilled with it, then that's how I knew we had a good show".
Pierce kept crouching down like Groucho Marx when he had scenes with Geena Davis so as to make her appear much taller than he was. In reality he is taller than Geena.
In the final scene Stephanie stepped on a little box for the final freeze frame of her and Pierce so that they could get the picture just right since she was so much shorter than Pierce. She stated that she had to step on the box in several other episodes also.
The scene in the gym originally called for a big food fight but the network said it was too silly so a rehearsing marching band was used instead. The week following the airing the series Moonlighting had a pie fight and this made Stephanie and Robin feel very vindicated for their "silliness".
This is the first episode where Fred the limo driver has a speaking line and you get to see his face up close.
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