The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on NBC from October 1, 1982, to February 17, 1987.

Remington Steele's premise is that Laura Holt, a licensed private investigator (Stephanie Zimbalist) opened a detective agency under her own name but found potential clients refused to hire a woman, no matter how qualified.

Remington Steele is best known for having launched the career of Pierce Brosnan[2] and for serving as a forerunner of the similar, edgier series Moonlighting,[3] and was also an influential part of television history in its own right.

Recent evaluations, in the wake of the show's full release on DVD, conclude that Steele was solidly crafted, well acted and groundbreaking in its own way.

[10][11] In an interview recorded in 2005 for a DVD special feature, Remington Steele co-creator Michael Gleason and star Stephanie Zimbalist discuss the large number of women who have approached them over the years to express their appreciation for the character of Laura Holt.

[14] Remington Steele’s initial premise was conceived in 1969 by long-time television director Robert Butler[15] as a series featuring a solo female private investigator.

In January 1980, following the success of several sitcoms featuring working women, including the groundbreaking The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Butler and Tinker, now head of MTM, revived the concept.

Imagining Holt's fictional boss, Gleason proposed to Butler: "Wouldn’t it be great if he showed up and made her crazy?

"[17] In 1981, Gleason, Butler, Erwin and Tinker pitched the series to NBC and were initially rejected by executives who failed to "get" the premise.

[16]: 28 Originally, NBC asked for a pilot that imagined the series six months into its run, with the characters already working together in the detective agency.

[16]: 29–30  NBC also asked for a premise pilot which told the story of how Laura Holt met the man who became Remington Steele.

Gleason originally wrote the replacement character, Mildred Krebs, as an attractive 35-year-old woman who was a rival for Steele's affections.

Gleason then changed the character of Mildred Krebs to reflect the casting (her first appearance in the first episode of the second season was as an IRS inspector investigating Steele's taxes).

NBC moved the series from Friday to Tuesday nights at 9pm following The A-Team, increasing its budget and prominence on the network schedule.

[27] The third season also included an episode, "Steele in the Chips", co-written by Stephanie Zimbalist and writing partner Robin Bernheim.

Michael Gleason explained to the Los Angeles Times, "We want to pull the relationship apart and bring it back together again with a little bit different attitude.

[31] Following that decision, Gleason pitched another concept for season five to NBC in May 1986, introducing a character named "Tony" as a rival for Laura's affections.

According to Michael Gleason, Brandon Tartikoff's decision to give an early pick-up to the Stephen J. Cannell series Hunter left no room on the NBC schedule for Remington Steele.

[33] Two months after the cancellation, NBC executive Warren Littlefield reversed the decision, responding to an outpouring of support from fans and a sharp upswing in the show's ratings during the summer of 1986.

Following NBC's reversal, Broccoli stated he did not want Bond to be identified with a current TV series and instead gave the role to Timothy Dalton.

[36] Zimbalist had accepted the role of Officer Anne Lewis in the science-fiction movie RoboCop, but she was forced to pull out of that production, to be replaced by Nancy Allen.

[39] Although part of the show's appeal was the sexual tension between the main characters, in real life the production was dogged for years by rumors that its two leads did not get along.

[40] Doris Roberts confirmed that Zimbalist and Brosnan rarely spoke to each other and that such tension played a role in the series' end: "It was awful.

"[45] With the release of the series on DVD in 2005, Pierce Brosnan expressed interest in developing a Remington Steele feature film through his production company, Irish Dream Time,[46] but later stated on his web site that it is unlikely to be produced.

The first-season boxed set also has a picture of Doris Roberts on the back cover, even though she didn't join the show until the second season.