I recently bought the complete 5-season DVD set of the 80's TV show "Remington Steele." I liked it when it first aired, and now, seeing it again, I can appreciate it even more.
I'm about half-way through the first season. Some observations:
- In the second episode, Pierce Brosnan, as Remington Steele, utters the line, "My word is my bond." It's repeated several episodes later by Stephanie Zimbalist as Laura Holt. Of course, Brosnan eventually went on to play James Bond, even though commitments to "Remington Steele" made it happen later than it could/should have.
- In one episode, Steele compares the current case to the plot of a movie called "The Thomas Crown Affair," starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. Brosnan would later play Thomas Crown in a remake of the movie, which also starred Rene Russo.
- In an episode set at a Playboy-like mansion called, I think, the Devil's Hideaway, Remington and Laura pose as a doctor and his nurse. Laura suggests that she use the alias "Tracy Lord" (or maybe it was Lords, I don't remember). The episode was from 1982, which was before the adult film star of the same (or similar) name arrived on the scene.
- Glenn Caron served as a write and supervising producer in the first season. A couple years later, he came out with "Moonlighting," which, if you think about it, is really like "Remington Steele" in reverse. Instead of a competent female PI with an ingenue male partner, "Moonlighting" had a competent male PI with an ingenue female partner. In both cases, the couples engaged in witty banter and the occasional simultaneous shouting match.
In all, they don't make 'em like this anymore.