Remington Steele/Trivia


 * Actor Allusion: Pierce Brosnan's late wife Cassandra Harris made four appearances on the show playing two different former lovers.
 * Stephanie Zimbalist's father Efrem Zimbalist Jr would appear almost every season as Daniel Chalmers, Steele's surrogate father and.
 * Edited for Syndication: One episode actually used this practice as a major plot point: The killer du jour had used a co-worker as an alibi, noting that the two had watched a classic TV show together at the time of the murder (unbeknownst to the co-worker, the culprit had ; but it turned out that.
 * Executive Meddling: The series started out with each episode being a genuine Fair Play Whodunnit, but they got renewed for a second season on the condition that they dumbed down the plots, so after that, they pretty much just cut to the chase.
 * Reality Subtext: In "The Steele That Wouldn't Die" -- the first episode after the series was Uncanceled -- a number of references are made to James Bond, the role Brosnan was forced to give up. Brosnan's performance was also considerably less involved than in previous seasons, due to his anger at NBC screwing him over as well as a general desire to move onto better things.
 * Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan reportedly did not like each other. They both deny this, ostensibly to protect loyal fans and viewers, but the subtext of dislike or distrust is prevalent in Steele and Laura's relationship.
 * Screwed by the Network: NBC cancelled the show in its Fourth Season, which left Brosnan free to do The Living Daylights. Because of the fan publicity Brosnan was getting from being announced as the new Bond, NBC renewed the show for a fifth season, for which Brosnan was contractually obligated to do. The fifth season is deemed by fans to be the worst. As a result, the show was cancelled for good. As a side-effect Stephanie Zimbalist had to turn down RoboCop, and her career never recovered, even though Brosnan did eventually get to be Bond.
 * Star-Making Role: The series introduced audiences to Pierce Brosnan, but it wasn't until GoldenEye that his career really took off.
 * Uncanceled: See Screwed by the Network above.