Featured TV Series of the Week
The Outer Limits is an American television series that aired
on ABC from 1963 to 1965. Similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone with
more science fiction than fantasy stories, The Outer Limits is an anthology of
discrete story episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end.
The series was revived in 1995, airing on Showtime from 1995–1999, then on
Sci-Fi Channel from 1999 until its cancellation in 2002.
The first 32 episodes of the original series, comprising the entire first
season, are available on Channel 98 Worldwide.
Simon and Simon
The show revolves around polar opposite brothers Rick (McRaney) and A.J. (for "Andrew Jackson") Simon (Parker). Rick was a United States Marine Corps Vietnam veteran and had much more street sense, while A.J. went to college and had book smarts. Rick preferred things that were viewed by his brother as lower-class, like pickup trucks (Rick's Dodge Power Wagon is notable for its dull paint and large metal bumper used in one episode to crush the engine of a car), while A.J. took care of his money and could afford to be more fashionable (A.J. often drove a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, and later, a customized Chevrolet Camaro Z28 and also drove a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro RS convertible in the two-part episode, "Pirate's Key"). A.J. was a practicing Catholic, while Rick was not. Rick lived on a boat in A.J.'s yard. A.J. preferred to first try to do things by the rules while Rick was much more of a free spirit, using a classic P.I. type of justice. Even their guns are different: Rick has a .44 Magnum and A.J. has a .357 Magnum revolver.
The two went into business together, running a private detective service; the
contrasting ways that the brothers went about their investigations and the
subsequent conflicts between them provided much of the story each week, in
addition to the plots of solving the cases. Although the premise in the series
is that Rick is older and A.J. is younger, in fact McRaney and Parker were both
born in 1947 with only a four-month age difference.
The original 1978 pilot called Pirate's Key was set in
Florida. When the show was picked up by CBS, the characters' home was changed
from Florida to San Diego, California, where the show's storyline remained for
the course of its eight-year run on CBS.
The show was almost canceled in 1982 due to low ratings. However, CBS decided to
give the series another chance and moved the show to Thursday nights at 9 PM
following Magnum, P.I.. Simon & Simon became a hit after that, and continued to
draw ratings for the next several seasons. Simon & Simon actually had a
crossover with Magnum, P.I., on the Magnum double episode "Ki's Don't Lie" and
in the Simon & Simon episode "Emeralds Are Not a Girl's Best Friend" (both in
1982).
Simon & Simon moved to Saturday nights late in its run, and the ratings dropped
considerably. CBS only committed to a 13-episode season for fall of 1988, but
canceled the series with two episodes left unaired including the series finale.
That episode did not air until the show entered syndication. Watch it here at
Channel 98 Worldwide
Remington Steele
Stephanie Zimbalist plays Laura Holt, a private detective who
appears to find that her potential clients are unwilling to hire a woman.
Business picks up dramatically when she invents a fictitious male superior named
Remington Steele. In the show's pilot episode, which was the second episode
broadcast, Laura reveals that she took the name "Remington" from the brand of
typewriter that she used and "Steele" from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In the first episode, she encounters a Humphrey Bogart-loving thief, played by
Pierce Brosnan, who overhears someone calling for "Remington Steele" and, in
order to escape a pair of murderous thugs, impulsively assumes Remington
Steele's identity. By the end of the episode, he chooses to make the alias
permanent and assumes the role of Laura's "boss." The real name of Brosnan's
character was never revealed and hence even HE never knew it, even though Daniel
Chalmers, who was Steele's mentor and surrogate father--and revealed himself to
be his true father in the end--always called him Harry. In one episode, trapped
on an island and fearing for their lives, Steele started to open up to Laura,
stating that he was of Irish origin, as was Brosnan himself. In later episodes,
it was revealed that Steele did not know his own real birth name, and his
attempts to discover it became a running theme.
One running joke throughout the series was "Remington's" penchant for quoting
lines from famous movies as bits of pseudo-philosophy, and occasionally using
techniques from cinematic mysteries to attempt to solve crimes, with variable
degrees of success. In fact, more often that not, Laura would solve the case,
giving Steele the credit as part of the pretense.
A number of plotlines were openly inspired by famous film noir thrillers, such
as the first-season episode "Steele Flying High," which took its lead from the
Humphrey Bogart classic The Maltese Falcon.
Remington Steele was an American television series, produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 to 1987. It starred Stephanie Zimbalist as private detective Laura Holt and Pierce Brosnan as a roguish former white-collar thief and former con man who assumed Remington Steele's fictitious identity--without his originally having planned on doing so. The show combined the standard TV detective genre with ironic plotting and elements of romantic comedy.
Watch several seasons on Channel 98 Worldwide.
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