NBC is remaking "Remington Steele" as a comedy

[Mr. Television]

http://www.deadline.com/2013/10/remi...le-reboot-nbc/


NBC To Reboot ‘Remington Steele’ As Comedy With Ruben Fleischer, Jay Scherick & David Ronn

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday October 9, 2013 @ 2:17pm PDTTags:


Remington Steele Reboot NBCEXCLUSIVE: Three decades after Remington Steele launched the career of Pierce Brosnan, the romantic comedy/drama procedural is getting a next-generation reboot, this time as a half-hour comedy. NBC, which aired the original hourlong series for five seasons between 1982-1987, has nabbed the sequel project from 20th Century Fox TV, which owns rights to the show via News Corp’s acquisition of Remington Steele producer MTM. Titled Remington Steele, the reboot follows Olivia Holt, the daughter of Remington Steele and Laura Holt, as she reopens the once-world-famous Remington Steele Detective Agency — only to fall into the same hilarious, action-packed, romantic entanglements of her parents. Jay Scherick and David Ronn are writing the script and Ruben Fleischer is set to direct the project, which has a script commitment plus penalty. The three are executive producing, with Fleischer’s executive Heather Petrigala as producer.

In the original series, Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist), a licensed private detective, recruits a con man (Brosnan) to pose as fictitious male superior Remington Steele at her detective agency. (Watch the opening sequence to Henry Mancini’s theme music below.) While sparks between the two were flying from the first episode, Holt and Steele did not get together until the series finale. The dramedy, which co-starred Doris Roberts, helped establish shows with strong, independent women at the center and is credited as being a precursor to the similarly themed Moonlighting. Gangster Squad director Fleischer, who is under an overall deal at 20th TV, just landed a cast-contingent pilot order at ABC for comedy Strange Calls, co-produced by Kapital Entertainment. He is with UTA and attorney Warren Dern. Scherick and Ronn, who started off in television working on Spin City, have been focused on features for the past decade, recently co-writing the two Smurfs movies and the upcoming Popeye. They are with UTA and attorney Robert Offer.

[TMC]

Is Castle already, sort of an unofficial remake or spiritial successor to Remington Steel?

[mr awesome]

EXCLUSIVE: Three decades after Remington Steele launched the career of Pierce Brosnan, the romantic comedy/drama procedural is getting a next-generation reboot, this time as a half-hour comedy. NBC, which aired the original hourlong series for five seasons between 1982-1987, has nabbed the sequel project from 20th Century Fox TV, which owns rights to the show via News Corp’s acquisition of Remington Steele producer MTM. Titled Remington Steele, the reboot follows Olivia Holt, the daughter of Remington Steele and Laura Holt, as she reopens the once-world-famous Remington Steele Detective Agency — only to fall into the same hilarious, action-packed, romantic entanglements of her parents. Jay Scherick and David Ronn are writing the script and Ruben Fleischer is set to direct the project, which has a script commitment plus penalty. The three are executive producing, with Fleischer’s executive Heather Petrigala as producer.

In the original series, Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist), a licensed private detective, recruits a con man (Brosnan) to pose as fictitious male superior Remington Steele at her detective agency. (Watch the opening sequence to Henry Mancini’s theme music below.) While sparks between the two were flying from the first episode, Holt and Steele did not get together until the series finale. The dramedy, which co-starred Doris Roberts, helped establish shows with strong, independent women at the center and is credited as being a precursor to the similarly themed Moonlighting. Gangster Squad director Fleischer, who is under an overall deal at 20th TV, just landed a cast-contingent pilot order at ABC for comedy Strange Calls, co-produced by Kapital Entertainment. He is with UTA and attorney Warren Dern. Scherick and Ronn, who started off in television working on Spin City, have been focused on features for the past decade, recently co-writing the two Smurfs movies and the upcoming Popeye. They are with UTA and attorney Robert Offer.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/10/remi...le-reboot-nbc/

No way will this survive development, but a cool concept that's reminiscent of FOX's Get Smart with Andy Dick as Max and 99's son.

[MacLeaper]

What?
I quote Kenan Thompson- "WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????????????"

Hopefully this will die quickly. "Remington Steele" is a great '80s detective series with a good mix of romance as well, and it attracted both male and female fans. It doesn't need a remake. (Especially not a comedic one.)

[MacLeaper]

The main difference with this concept and the "Get Smart" remake is that the latter show was intended as a comedy- "Get Smart" (the original series) originated as a parody to begin with. However, I have never viewed "Remington Steele" as a dramedy. Yes, it has some comedic moments, but so do a lot of series that aren't considered dramedies. "Remington Steele" is an action/adventure detective show for the most part, with some romantic overtones as well and some comedic moments. I don't see the comparison to "Moonlighting"- that series was smashing the fourth wall in most every episode! That was a show that had an emphasis on comedy with action/adventure in there as a backdrop as well. I see that one as quite different from "Remington Steele". (Though I enjoy them both.) I don't know- a remake of "Remington Steele" might be okay if it's done right (and particularly if Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan appear in it), but I'm not particularly interested otherwise. I'd rather just watch the original series.

[MacLeaper]

Well, there's an idea. Why not just plain make an original show without using older characters? Why not just make a comedic-tinged detective show? (Hopefully one that does not rip off "Psych" or "Police Academy: The Series" or "Moonlighting" or "Sledge Hammer" or "Police Squad!", etc.)

[icecream]

Why does NBC insist on more remakes? They've all failed recently: Bionic Woman, Knight Rider, Ironside.

[MacLeaper]

Wait- Ironside is dead already? Didn't it just start this fall? Wow!

(For the record, I saw some of the "Knight Rider" remake and I liked it okay, I suppose- but the pilot had a ton of raunchy stuff I would never have expected to see on the original series- and so I was turned off by that. The later episodes seemed to be a bit more tame, I think. And at least David Hasselhoff made a cameo in the pilot- but yeah, it just wasn't the same.)

[icecream]

Ironside isn't cancelled yet but it's only a matter of time after it premiered with a DOA 1.4 rating.

[70s show watcher]

why are they even trying?

[robyrob]

I think Castle is a good show, and it may take some inspiration from RS, but I would hardly call it a remake /successor - it has a very different dynamic.

I'm not sure about this remake idea - although a spin-off/continuation series would be a better idea than an outright reboot. The problem is how do you introduce the titular character in a modern setting as a con-man/phony when he would be well-established after 30-odd years as a bona fide detective?

[mr awesome]

Remember the 'comedic' Dragnet movie from the 80s w/ Ackroyd and Hanks, with the off-spring of Joe Friday,kind of the same concept. That movie wasn't very good IIRC.

NBC's so desperate to recapture its glory days. I'm still waiting for them to get to CHiPs.

[mr awesome]

The only way this could even work is if they ould get Pierce Brosnan attached. IIRC the cast bickered and all viewed working on the show as a negative experience.

How would the concept work anyway? Would Remington Steele's daughter meet a new mysterious 'Remington' or would it be just her mysterious father assisting her in cases? Just weird and a somewhat random show to revisit. Knight Rider didn't work and that was also a reboot/continuation where the lead character was Michael Knight's son.

[McGillicuddy]

Originally Posted by 70s show watcher

why are they even trying?

Look what happened when they tried to re-boot The Munsters, as more of a dramatic series.

[loaferman]

They don't even make the pretense of originality any more. Just slap the name of a classic show on something supposedly new. At least they are not trying (so far) to recast someone other than Brosnan as Steele. We older viewers may not get much consideration in these things, but to us certain roles are iconic and recasting them is just a waste. I don't see Brosnan doing a sitcom. As for "Ironside" he will always be the late Raymond Burr, the role is iconic so leave Steele as Brosnan or drop it.