LOVE WILL FIND A WAY ON ‘REMINGTON STEELE’

When “Remington Steele” was canceled at the end of last season, executive producer Michael Gleason was as surprised as anyone and shared viewers’ frustration that the long-running courtship between Remington Steele and Laura Holt was left hanging.

Now that the NBC series has been revived for at least six episodes, Gleason says he isn’t taking any chances on it being axed again after that. “The audience will not be left high and dry at the end of the six hours,” he vows.

Gleason, who created the detective series with Robert Butler, said that he doesn’t want to spoil the story by revealing what will happen. But he did say that the characters played by Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist, after four years of flirting, finally will consummate their love affair this season.

The resolution provided by the sixth episode won’t come in the form of a “final episode,” however, since Gleason and other executives at MTM Enterprises hope NBC will decide to order additional installments as the season progresses.

But if it doesn’t, “this, hopefully, will leave the audience satisfied,” he declared in an interview.

When the curtain dropped at the end of the show’s fourth season, Remington and Laura had been married--bogusly, it turned out--in order to keep him from being deported. In the new installments, which will appear at an as yet unspecified time later in the season, they will continue to maintain the appearance of being married, Gleason said.

Since they clearly love one another, there wouldn’t seem to be much conflict in that situation. But Gleason plans to introduce a new obstacle: another man.

Jack Scalia, who starred last season in the short-lived ABC series “Hollywood Beat,” and previously played Rock Hudson’s son in “The Devlin Connection,” has been hired to join “Remington Steele” as a new competitor for Laura’s affections.

Of the new character, Gleason said: “If Remington is champagne, he’s beer. Where Remington would pick a lock, he’d just as soon bust the door down.”

Gleason hopes the introduction of a romantic triangle will breathe new life into the show, which he conceded was sometimes “treading water” last year as the creative team struggled for ways to keep the characters apart.

The original concept had been that the well-traveled Steele was afraid to make a commitment and overly cautious Laura didn’t trust him to stay around. But after four years together, Gleason noted, neither’s argument is valid anymore. That’s why he decided it was time to lift his previous ban on them making love.

At the same time, however, the show’s premise is rooted in their friction--hence the introduction of Scalia’s character.

“You can never make it too easy for them,” he explained. “Once you make it too easy, it really does become ‘Hart to Hart’ or Nick and Nora (of ‘The Thin Man’). It’s still got to be a rocky road. There may be a safe port in a storm, but there will be a lot of choppy waves before they get there.”

Never choppier, though, than when NBC canceled the show last May. After finishing 27th among all prime-time series the previous year, it fell to 51st last season. Gleason knew the ratings were off but believed the show would be picked up anyway, since he felt the decline was due at least in part to a midseason move from Tuesday to Saturday night.

He lobbied the network programmers to change their minds, he said, telling them of his idea to develop the romantic triangle. In July, they did. But Gleason said that what proved most persuasive was the deluge of letters from upset fans--more than 10,000, according to one NBC executive--and an upswing in the ratings during the early summer.

“It was very big of the people at NBC to say, ‘Maybe we did make a mistake,’ ” Gleason observed. “You usually don’t come back (from cancellation).”

One person who didn’t share Gleason’s thrill at winning renewal was Brosnan. He had been the leading candidate to star in the next James Bond film, but after “Remington Steele” was revived, he was passed over in favor of Timothy Dalton.

Gleason said that he isn’t worried that Brosnan’s letdown will affect his performance on the TV series. “I have to think that, while he’s obviously disappointed, when he steps in front of the camera he’s going to be the same professional he’s been for four years and be Remington Steele.”