Newsday from New York, New York • 216

A -UJ- I'jTtr 5 -'w'-- I i I 1 si i THE MARVIK KITMAN SHOW PICKS Steele 9 star lacks the edge DRAMA Tom Selleck risks his life to save a Navy buddy who fears for his life because of an enemy from the Vietnam war in the debut of "Magnum 8 PM Chs 2 3 Stephanie Zimbalist plays a private detective named Laura Holt in "Remington Steele" which premieres at 10 PM tomorrow on NBC It is television's major statement for 1982 about the liberation movement Laura Holt is a great detective she believes But nobody takes her seriously as 'a PI (private investigator) She has earned the respect but they respect women in her chosen profession The point is made in the first episode First she is taken to be her own secretary A client an auto manufacturer who is an incredibly stupid businessman thinking he can sell a car made with jewels as well as a chauvinist pig insists on seeing the boss of her agency He is a fictitious character named Remington Steele that she has invented so people will take her seriously This is a very promising premise for a crime show if not a platform for ideas about the movement supposed to be funny and sexy It has a lighthearted romantic frothy feel to it a welcome change from last crime shows which were vicious grim violent and dull The first episode is done with some class It is after all an MTM show "Remington being at NBC is the start of the expected deluge of quality from MTM which Grant Tinker has promised or everybody thinks he has promised or expects since Tinker graduated to NBC from MTM "Remington is not "Sheriff or "BJ and the Bear" But it a great show like "Hill Street either There is one serious problem with the show in the casting a surprise since this is the area where MTM is normally flawless The flaw is Stephanie Zimbalist as the crack de- COMEDY Teenager Jennie Lee (Kathy Mala-nik) wants to sing but her fireman father (Brian Den-nehy) tries to scare her away from the stage on the new series "Star of the 8:30 PM Chs 7 8 tective who floats the whole elaborate con of the fictitious male boss hard to take her seriously as the great detective as she wants to be taken and needs to be taken to make the whole thing work Zimbalist comes from a respected law enforcement family Her father Edgar Zimbalist Jr was a major figure in the FBI on TV Zimbalist is a step forward in the portrayal of woman detectives from the Miss Vapids of Private eyelashes as I railed them She come to the office in a wet T-shirt and let the clients in while wearing a towel a serious detective Pity some will say As a matter of fhct she makes a solid first impression anyway arriving on the scene in a smashing hat But then the man designated to be Remington Steele ruins everything He is the actor named Pierce Brosnan supposed to play a corporate nonentity a shell a figurehead someone whom Laura Holt manipulates pulls the strings like a puppet He should have been a goop somebody dominated by Laura Holt But Remington Steele as played by Pierce Brosnan is one of this more powerful males seen on TV in a long time He is handsome suave debonair and enigmatic adroit quick-thinking with a mind like a steel trap They could have done worse getting James Bond (Sean Connery) But Brosnan is a pretty bad choice Stephanie Laura Holt seems kind of ditzy compared to Steele Steele should be the head of the agency What "Remington needs is a real mannikin Jack Scalia from "The Devlin or the fellow who does the Calvin Klein underwear ads Pierce Brosnan also just happens to be a super actor You may remember him from "The (Rory Manion) He is an Irish actor who has been starring on the London stage for years in repertory theater roles from Shakespeare to Noel Coward He has that kind of quality that lights up the screen which comes from the training and experience of British television funny how the pre-season dope described Pierce Brosnan as another one of the Tom Selleck lookalikes baloney He look like Tom Selleck and he act like Tom Selleck He is Pierce Brosnan Some day be talking about Pierce Brosnan types At the risk of starting an argument I would suggest that Stephanie Zimbalist is too light for such a heavy story Kate Jackson would have gone better with Pierce Brosnan Loretta Swit would be credible as a private detective Or how about Susan Stamberg of "All Things on NPR? For a show the problem may be that the show created by a woman All the people connected with the show at MTM Enterprises seem to be men it be great if TV asked Hell-man to write a woman detective show? Judging from the romantic interplay between Laura Holt and Remington Steele in tomorrow premiere one would imagine that "Remington is not going to be a show at all but more of a "Hart to lookalike with rich people solving crimes of nature shows servationist-bent show dealing with the animal world and nature Leonard Nimoy erstwhile Mr Spock of "Star who hosts "In Search which aspires to unfold the mysteries of outer space natural phenomena and mysterious happenings John Forsythe currently the patriarch in and host of "World of another nature show involving birds and beasts William Conrad star of the defunct series holding forth with nimili too in The Wild Wild World of Richard Crenna star of the new sitcom "For Better or and host of "Look at which reports mostly on human foibles and Peter Graves who starred in "Mission: and now hosts the new "Discover" series subtitled The World of Science COMEDY Nicholas Colasanto Rhea Perlman Ted Danson and Shelley Long shown from left play the staff of a Boston bar in a comedy series making its debut 9 PM Ch 4 Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan i i CO The solid hosts By Vernon Scott Bj United Praia International Americans apparently trust place a lot of trust in six actors the half-dooen mm who host informational television shows The six share rich sonorous voices and steady penetrating eyes They project rock-of-Gibraltar soundness and strong family images For the most part they are over 50 and solidly successful in their careers Their series are syndicated rather than network and are most often seen on weekends sometimes in prime time more often in prime-time access The sextet: Father-figure Lome Greene formerly of who hosts the "Last of the a con- COMEDY Latka (Andy Kaufman) and Simka (Carol Kane) mark a year of marriage with a matchmaking party for the other cabbies in which has moved to a new network 9:30 PM Ch 4 mSiam.