REMINGTON STEELE: ETCHED IN STEELE (TV)
Summary
One in this detective series about private investigator Laura Holt, whose Remington Steele Detective Agency fails until she pairs up with a suave stranger claims to be the fictitious Remington Steele. In this episode, Laura frets over her lack of work, but is distracted when she sees a small piece in the newspaper about Remington’s plans to write a book about his most thrilling cases. She hurries to his home and reminds him that he is not, in fact, actually Remington Steele, and he takes her to meet his would-be publisher, Forsyth, at a party he is throwing for another famous writer, Charlotte Knight, known for her bodice-ripping romance novels. There they meet her inebriated husband, Mitchell, who tells them that her first two books were based on the early days of their marriage, and that the manuscript for her third book has the husband character falling to his death from the balcony of a 35th-floor apartment, much like theirs. A short time later, Mitchell himself meets the same fate. Laura and Remington meet Charlotte’s agent, Baker, who says that the husband’s death was not in the book as described by Mitchell, blaming his drunkenness for his claim. Nonetheless, Laura suspects that he was murdered, but Remington doubts it. At Laura’s request, he visits Charlotte, who confesses herself “far from devastated” at Mitchell’s death. When he asks about her writing techniques, he learns that she dictates into a tape and someone else does the typing, and he and Laura listen to her steamy recorded stories, which make them both uncomfortable. They soon realize that it is actually Mitchell on the tapes, however, and conclude that he is the true author of the books.
When they confront Charlotte, Forsyth and Baker, they admit the “myth,” saying Charlotte made a better face for the publications than Mitchell, and ask that the detectives keep the secret. Laura still suspects foul play in Mitchell’s death, and Remington berates her for being a “workaholic,” saying she never has close relationships because of her obsession with cases. Undeterred, she searches the Kings’ balcony for evidence and meets Tony, Charlotte’s typist and “gigolo,” who says he wrote an unpublished novel of his own and lived with Charlotte and Mitchell for a time. He claims that Mitchell jumped to his death, distraught over his wife receiving the attention for his work. Laura thinks the case is solved, but Remington finally believes otherwise—he plays another tape on which Mitchell clearly has writer’s block and references the film “The Shining” in which a writer goes insane from lack of inspiration. They conclude that there was another ghost writer, and that whoever wrote the third book is the killer.
Remington convinces Forsyth to throw him a party for his upcoming book and gathers all the suspects in one place, and grandly accuses first Charlotte, then Baker, and then Forsyth of the crime in front of everyone, but each one of them provides a logical reason for why they are not the killer. Stumped, Remington turns to Laura, who finds Tony writing in another room. They realize that the phony manuscript in which the husband falls to his death was typed and realize that Tony wrote it himself to drive Mitchell crazy. He wrote the third book in exchange for his own being published, but wanted to keep it a secret, as the tawdry book would have damaged his reputation as a writer. Mitchell planned to reveal the truth at the party, and Tony killed him to save face. Forsyth reveals that he has the original manuscript of the third book, and Tony is caught. Later, as Remington reads about the arrest in the paper, Laura tells him that she is doing “nothing” for once, taking his advice to heart, although it bothers her greatly to be so slothful. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: November 19, 1982 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:49:13
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:67158
- GENRE: Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/private detective
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1982-1987
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Michael Gleason … Executive Producer, Created by
- Glenn Caron … Supervising Producer, Writer
- Gareth Davies … Producer
- Carl Vitale … Associate Producer
- Robert Butler … Created by
- Stan Lathan … Director
- Henry Mancini … Theme Music by
- Richard Lewis Warren … Music by
- Stephanie Zimbalist … Cast, Laura Holt
- Pierce Brosnan … Cast, Remington Steele
- James Read … Cast, Murphy Michaels
- Janet Demay … Cast, Bernice Foxe
- Shannon Wilcox … Cast, Charlotte Knight
- George Morfogen … Cast, Dennis Baker
- Richard Cox … Cast, Tony Dinaldo
- Joel Colodner … Cast, Mitchell Knight
- Lyman Ward … Cast, Russell Forsyth