Remington Steele

Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) had a love for excitement that led her to become a private investigator.  However, few clients were interested in hiring a woman for such work.  To get the clients in the door, she invented a boss, Remington Steele.  With this one change, customers lined up around the block and she, as Mr. Steele's assistant, could handle the case while he was away on some other business.  The scheme worked so well that she brought in another investigator, Murphy (James Read), hired a secretary, Bernice Foxe (Janet DeMay), and leased an office in skyscraper.  The scheme goes awry during a case to protect a valuable gem collection.  A conman and thief (Pierce Brosnan) is scouting the jewels and determines that Remington Steele doesn't exist.  He steps into the role.  Laura can't very well expose him without producing the 'real' Steele.  Besides, he's rather charming.

The interaction among the office staff is a large part of the show.  Remington and Laura are obviously attracted to one another, but she fears the consequences of succumbing to the mutual feeling.  How could she run the agency after that?  To complicate matters, Murphy is also attracted to Laura though she views him merely as a colleague.

The faux Mr. Steele is a great fan of movies and in virtually every episode he associates the current case with a movie, always offering the title, the year it was released, the studio, and often the stars. Quite often, he picks an alias that is a character from a classic movie. Occasionally, his old life intrudes with guest appearances by an old lover (Cassandra Harris - Brosnan's wife) or an old mentor (Efram Zimbalist Jr. - Stephanie's father).

Some of the guest stars of the first season went on to great success: Sharon Stone had a small role as a sister bent on revenge, Paul Reiser was a patient in a sleep clinic with narcolepsy, and Annie Potts was a hippie recalling her days of college protests a decade before.

Despite having aired 40 years ago, the show is still entertaining and relatable.  Good popcorn fun.  Recommended.