MacGYVER YOUR ENTHUSIASM (11)
By:
February 6, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating favorite TV shows from the Eighties (1984–1993). Series edited by Josh Glenn.
REMINGTON STEELE | 1982–87
When I passed notes in junior high, I often signed them RSF, which stood for Remington Steele Fanatic. I don’t remember when I started watching the show, but by the time I tuned in, the debonair mystery man played by Pierce Brosnan had already assumed the identity of private investigator Laura Holt’s fictitious boss. Holt, played by Stephanie Zimbalist, invented “Remington Steele” as her “decidedly masculine” superior, because despite her skills and training no one would hire her. “A female private investigator seemed so… feminine.”
Laura invents “Remington Steele” because clients don’t trust that a woman can do the job. Laura’s attracted to the man who passes as Steele, but doesn’t trust him. Clients do trust Steele, but he needs to prove he’s trustworthy to Laura, despite his shady past — which has, conveniently, given him transferable skills, e.g., lock-picking, bypassing security systems, etc.
Steele’s devotion to vintage cinema also comes in handy. He gets insights about cases via the plots of old movies. The cinematic homages extend to the show’s music: Background composer Richard Lewis Warren said he was directed to compose in the style of the films being referenced, “so one day I was doing Carmen and the next day I was doing Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the next Elmer Bernstein.”
Mildred Krebs (the favorite character of a friend whose note-passing code name was MM: Mildred Maniac) first appears as an IRS auditor. Played by Doris Roberts, Mildred becomes the firm’s secretary and a strong investigator too. Eventually she even gets a trenchcoat, an article of Detective Clothing akin to Laura’s fedora. (I know. But on Laura, it’s genuinely jaunty and cute.) Steele, of course, needs no wardrobe-based signifiers.
I was thrilled (as far as I can recall) by the banter and double entendres I now find heavy-handed: In the first episode, Steele asks Laura how long she’s been a dick, and whether she carries a rod. I liked the glamorous settings. I think that, in one of the classic queer identity clichés, I wanted them (both), and wanted to be them (both). I wanted someone who’d respect my intelligence and competence the way Steele respected Laura’s. I no doubt loved that Steele acknowledged how good Laura was at her job, even though he got the credit for solving their cases.
PS: Life imitates art. By the time the first season was released on DVD, Pierce Brosnan had ascended to 007-based fame. Fox Video put Brosnan’s photo on the DVD box and promoted him as the sole lead. Eventually, a sticker was added: “Also starring Stephanie Zimbalist.”
MacGYVER YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Michael Grasso on MAX HEADROOM | Heather Quinlan on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 | Mark Kingwell on CHINA BEACH | Judith Zissman on SANTA BARBARA | Adelina Vaca on TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES | Deborah Wassertzug on MOONLIGHTING | Josh Glenn on VOLTRON | Adam McGovern on A VERY BRITISH COUP | Alex Brook Lynn on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION | Nikhil Singh on CHOCKY | Sara Ryan on REMINGTON STEELE | Vanessa Berry on THE YOUNG ONES | Dan Reines on GET A LIFE | Susannah Breslin on PEE-WEE’S PLAYHOUSE | Marc Weidenbaum on LIQUID TELEVISION | Elina Shatkin on PERFECT STRANGERS | Lynn Peril on THE SIMPSONS | David Smay on THE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF MOLLY DODD | Annie Nocenti on THE SINGING DETECTIVE | Tom Nealon on MIAMI VICE | Anthony Miller on ST. ELSEWHERE | Gordon Dahlquist on BLACKADDER | Peggy Nelson on SEINFELD | Nicholas Rombes on TWIN PEAKS | Ramona Lyons on ÆON FLUX
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!