REMINGTON STEELE: STEELING THE SHOW (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 and Remington are handed the case of a woman, Veronica Kirk, who has gone missing. Her daughter, Jennifer, explains that her mother is an alcoholic with delusions that someone is trying to kill her, but Remington is thrilled to realize that Veronica was once a famous B-movie actress known for her femme fatale roles. When they meet with a producer, Haver, he says he was trying to engineer Veronica’s comeback, saying that “nostalgia sells,” but that her “greedy” daughter was trying to prevent it and refuses to tell them anything about Veronica’s whereabouts. However, Haver’s publicist, Howell, offers to tell Laura and Remington where Veronica is in exchange for an interview with Jennifer and Mickey Prentice, Veronica’s butler and confidante. They agree and find Veronica at a motel, and Remington is excited to meet her. She claims that Jennifer wants her money and that someone really is trying to kill her, and Remington spirits her away and hides her from Jennifer. Laura is furious at his breach of ethics, but Veronica says that she can prove that someone is after her. When Veronica returns home, she explains that she saw someone standing over her bed with a gun and that they fired at her and missed. Remington finds a bullet hole in the wall, but Jennifer claims it is thirty years old, from when her no-good father, Edgar, was shot and killed by the brother of his teenaged mistress. Howell arrives and demands his interview, asking Jennifer about her father and about Veronica’s relationship with Prentice. Later, Remington apologizes for taking Veronica away, but Laura assures him that he has good instincts. Veronica then calls Remington and reveals that she may have shot Howell, found dead on her bed. When Remington and Laura arrive at her home, Jennifer coldly informs them that Veronica has been committed to a mental institution. Laura interrogates Haver again, but he is unfazed by the tragedy and merely seeks to make money from the insurance. When Laura and Remington try to visit Veronica at the mental hospital, they are forbidden access, so Remington impersonates a patient and has himself committed as well. When he locates Veronica, she admits she has no memory of shooting Howell, although the gun was in her hand. With Laura’s help, Remington sneaks Veronica out of the asylum and questions her about her relationship with Howell prior to his death. Going off a note in Veronica’s file, they travel to Ventura, where they find another man shot dead: Twain, the policeman who investigated Edgar’s death. Veronica explains that Prentice covered for her that night by lying and saying she was at a motel with him at the time of the murder, and states that the abusive Edgar “deserved it.” They soon suspect that Jennifer committed all three murders and that Prentice helped by inventing the young mistress and her brother, but when Remington goes to search Prentice’s room, he pulls a gun and attempts to shoot Veronica. It is then revealed that he was in love with her and killed Edgar to protect her, and then killed Howell and Twain because they knew too much. He then pretended to threaten Veronica’s life to scare her away from doing Haver’s new film. Once he is arrested, Veronica returns to the screen in a new television role, much to Remington’s delight. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: January 7, 1983 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:50:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:67164
- 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
- Gareth Davies … Producer
- Kevin Inch … Associate Producer
- Peter Lefcourt … Writer
- Robert Butler … Created by
- Seymour Robbie … Director
- Richard Lewis Warren … Music by
- Henry Mancini … Theme Music by
- Stephanie Zimbalist … Cast, Laura Holt
- Pierce Brosnan … Cast, Remington Steele
- James Read … Cast, Murphy Michaels
- Janet Demay … Cast, Bernice Foxe
- Bibi Osterwald … Cast, Veronica Kirk
- Frances Lee McCain … Cast, Jennifer Kirk
- Peter Jurasik … Cast, Phil Haver
- Duncan Ross … Cast, Mickey Prentice
- Richard Backus … Cast, Eddie Howell
- Than Wyenn … Cast, Dr. Dudworth
- Michael Cornelison … Cast, Hospital Resident