Thu 10 Mar 2011
A TV Series Review by Michael Shonk: MR. & MRS. SMITH (1996).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[21] Comments
MR. & MRS. SMITH. CBS. September 20, 1996 through November 8, 1996. Cast: Mr. Smith: Scott Bakula, Mrs. Smith: Maria Bello, Mr. Big: Roy Dotrice, Rox: Aida Turturro (two episodes). Created by Kerry Lenhart and John J. Sakmar.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith was a better than average mindless TV romantic comedy mystery.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith worked for The Factory, a worldwide private intelligence firm with the latest gadgets and unlimited resources. The company was run by a man known as Mr. Big. The Factory had a rule that no agent could know anything about another agent’s past. So, while off saving the world and solving crimes, the Smiths spent their free time trying to uncover the other’s secret past. Why they don’t even know the other’s name!
If this secret past bit sounds like Remington Steele doubled, it was not by accident. Creators Lenhart and Sakmar were on the writing staff of Remington Steele during the third and fourth seasons. Michael Gleason, co-creator and showrunner of Remington Steele, wrote the final episode of Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
The series had an interesting twist to the overdone “will they or won’t they” cliche. At times, she was willing to hop into bed with him, and he was tempted, but there was something in his past stopping him.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith were complete opposites, and on TV that makes them the perfect team. She was talkative and impulsive while he was quiet and deliberate. If one did not know something, the other was an expert on the subject.
The sexual attraction each had for the other was understandable. However, the two leads’ chemistry did not heat up the screen. Scott Bakula gave his usual performance, ranging from wooden to over the top. Maria Bello was a wonderful surprise, with an emotionally expressive face able to reveal Mrs. Smith’s damaged past without a word.
The writing was typical television, ranging from great fun to embarrassingly bad. The mysteries relied more on twists, but did feature an occasional obvious clue. The stories’ pace were fast enough, so if you turned off your brain, you did not care about the, at times, unbelievably stupid behavior of the characters.
The best clues were not for the mystery of the week, but for the arc story of the mystery of Mr. and Mrs. Smiths’ pasts. The characters and their relationship evolved each week as they learned more about each other.
Sadly, CBS aired only nine of the thirteen episodes, and at least two were noticeably out of order. In “The Grape Escape”, Mr. Smith goes through Mrs. Smith’s hidden trunk of past mementos. But it is a trunk the viewer and Mr. Smith did not know existed until “The Publishing Episode” that aired the week after.
Without the last four episodes, the viewers missed out on the satisfying ending to the central mystery of the characters’ pasts.
The final four episodes were aired sometime overseas. All thirteen episodes are available at You Tube. No DVD is currently legally available.
EPISODE INDEX
Pilot (9/20/96) Written: Kerry Lenhart and John J. Sakmar. Directed: David S. Jackson. Mr. Smith meets the future Mrs. Smith while each, on opposite sides, attempt to find a missing scientist who had invented a new energy source.
The Suburban Episode (9/27/96) Written: Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green. Directed: Oz Scott. The Smiths move to the suburbs of St. Louis and pose as new neighbors to a man suspected of selling top-secret government codes.
The Second Episode (10/4/96) Written: Kerry Lenhart and John J. Sakmar. Directed: Ralph Hemecker. Mr. and Mrs. Smith help a bumbling assistant stop his boss from selling arms to a terrorist.
The Poor Pitiful Put-Upon Singer Episode (10/11/96) Written: Del Shores. Directed: Nick Marck. The Smiths try to find out whom wants to kill the head of a small record label.
The Grape Escape (10/18/96) Written: Susan Cridland Wick. Directed: Daniel Attias. The Factory sends the Smiths on a mission to save the vineyards of Europe from a scientist’s bug bombs.
The Publishing Episode (10/25/96) Written: Douglas Steinberg. Directed: James Quinn. The Smiths have to stop the sale of a tell-all spy book written by a missing British spy named Steed. Each Smith wants to find the book first, so to read about the other’s past.
The Coma Episode (10/28/96) Written: Douglas Steinberg. Directed: Michael Zinberg. Mr. Smith plays doctor with Mrs. Smith taking the role as coma patient so they can get closed the a guarded coma victim that knows the plans of terrorists to attack a peace conference.
The Kidnapping Episode (11/1/96) Written: Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green. Directed: Sharron Miller. Before the Smiths can discover who is causing problems at a drug company, their client is kidnapped.
The Space Flight Episode (11/8/96) Written: Michael Cassutt. Directed: Lou Antonio. When an ex-astronaut hires The Factory to find a space prototype and his son, the trail leads the Smiths to Area 51.
The Big Easy Episode (never aired on CBS) Written: Del Shores. Directed: James Whitmore Jr. The Smiths visit New Orleans when The Factory is hired to clear a Senator’s mistress of a conviction for selling government secrets.
The Impossible Mission Episode (never aired on CBS) Teleplay: Kerry Lenhart and John J. Sakmar. Story: Douglas Steinberg. Directed: Artie Mandelberg. The Smiths help fellow Factory agents, the Jones, trap some counterfeiters.
The Bob Episode (never aired on CBS) Written: Sanford Golden. Directed: Jonathan Sanger. Bob, a friend from Mr. Smith’s pre-spy days, gets caught in the middle between the Smiths and a terrorist with enough plutonium to make an atomic bomb.
The Sins of the Father (never aired on CBS) Written: Michael Gleason. Directed: Rob Thompson. Mr. Smith disappears while in mid-assignment when he is blackmailed with his past. While The Factory writes him off, Mrs. Smith rushes to his rescue, whether he wants her to or not.
March 10th, 2011 at 2:53 pm
As a confirmed Maria Bello fan, this was the work that introduced me to her, though I’ve seen only half the episodes CBS bothered to broadcast. Can’t argue with a single thing here, though I think that’s just a bit hard (not too hard, mind you) on Bakula.
This is my last relevant posting…, but she’s certainly done more than enough to improve the mediocre projects she’s been involved with, and shined in the good to great ones…
March 10th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Thanks Michael — I don’t even remember this one. I must have the patented televison verison of amnesia.
I’ll certainly look it up. It sounds as if despite any problems it had a little sense of fun and imagination.
March 10th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
I don’t recall this one, either. In 1996 I don’t think I was watching much TV, but what I was doing, I don’t remember that either!
It’s available on collector-to-collector DVD, and I’ve ordered a set. Michael, your reviews have been right on target as far as TUCKER’S WITCH and RAINES have been concerned, so I’m betting you’re right about this one, too.
As far as Maria Bello is concerned, Todd, I’ve been looking at her credits on IMDB. They seem to alternate between movies I just haven’t managed to see yet but have been meaning to (COYOTE UGLY, THE COOLER) and movies I’ve never heard of (SILVER CITY, 100 MILE RULE).
Plus one you couldn’t drag me to go see (THE MUMMY 3).
March 10th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
THE MUMMY 3 is better, I’m sorry to say, than COYOTE UGLY. Hard to believe, given the pulchritude of the cast of the latter, but true. I thoroughly enjoyed THE COOLER and 100 MILE RULE…and A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, and THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE…and a number of others. The first three mentioned in the previous sentence, at least, are relevant to this blog’s interests.
March 10th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
For Maria Bello fans. She has been casted to star in NBC’s remake of PRIME SUSPECT. She will play Jane Timoney. It is now in pilot stage but we should know by May if it will be a series next fall.
March 10th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Steve in comment #3 doesn’t remember what he was doing in 1996. Hell, I remember what he was doing 15 years ago. He was working full time as a math professor, reading alot of mystery and western books, and publishing his print version of MYSTERY*FILE.
I was working full time in management, trying to figure out how to fire worthless employees who had union protection. But my main occupation was reading and collecting, just as it has been most of my life. We are talking 55 years and counting since I started at the age of 13.
When I look back on my life, I don’t see a worker, family man, law abiding citizen. I see a collector and reader, a baseball fan, a jazz music lover, with a love for old movies.
March 10th, 2011 at 7:33 pm
Another casting note about this series. If you watch the pilot there is a young actor playing a computer nerd called Scooby who is Mr. Smith’s partner. It is Timothy Olyphant playing a role far from Raylan Givens of JUSTIFIED.
March 11th, 2011 at 7:55 am
No one has mentioned it as yet so I will: Bello plays the hatchet woman for slimeball CEO Craig T. Nelson in THE COMPANY MEN, which is well worth your time. She also…but I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen it as yet.
March 12th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Final comments here. Due to lack of space, I left out that Scott Bakula was an executive producer and his production company owned a piece of the show. Not that usual as more and more actors formed production companies at that time. It was a way to control your own projects rather than sit and wait for scripts to show up.
If I have one question, is after that last episode, what would have happened if there had been a second season?
March 12th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Not having seen that episode, Michael, nor any of the series so far, there’s no way for me to answer that. But that’s a common problem with many series. When the basic premise for their being has run its course, but the show and the characters are still popular, what do they do for an encore? The money says to go on, but there’s no good direction to go.
March 12th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
Michael
Of course there is no way of knowing for certain, but some like this that have a clear arc will write a final episode to clear up things for the fans just in case they get canceled. It usually happens when the producers are involved in the writing and creative aspect and have a full story they want to tell.
Sometimes they know before filming that they aren’t coming back and neatly tie all the loose ends, while other times there is still some question and they leave a few loose ends just in case.
This sounds like they knew they weren’t going to see another season and just brought it to an end, not knowing it wouldn’t be aired.
Today networks are more likely to eventually air those episodes if only because it is cheaper to do an episode of something already in production than anything new, and because they do so few episodes of the series that are returning.
Also if they contract and pay for fourteen episodes even if the cancel it before those are aired they want the product delivered.
In some cases the networks insist on a finale being written and arranged to be produced on serial series rather than alianate fans who might not watch a new serial if they think there is a chance it will never be completed.
After all it took a couple of made for television movies to get Gilligan off that island, and by then Ginger just wasn’t herself anymore.
March 13th, 2011 at 12:03 am
David and Steve, it is hard to explain my question without giving away the ending. The mystery of who the characters were was solved before the final episode. We learned her name in “The Grape Escape” and we learn his in “The Bob Episode”. But how it ends make you wonder how they could continue to work for The Factory.
Occasionally, a network does not air all the episodes filmed. Last year’s BETTER OFF TED has two episodes on iTunes that never aired on ABC. Few things the networks do make financial sense.
It appeared the mystery of the characters were to last only one season (something REMINGTON STEELE should have done), but I wonder what they had planned for the next season. I have a good guess but will never know.
March 14th, 2011 at 9:19 am
Thanks for the post. I missed this series the first time around and will try to check it out. I am studying TV writing as a grad student now, and have a developed a fascination with the fact that Michael Gleason mentored so many writers on Remington Steele that went on to run their own shows (Glenn Caron, Lee Zlotoff, Jeff Melvoin, John Wirth, Brad Kern) yet Steele gets overlooked by most critics as an example of good TV writing. I understand it wasn’t the gritty realism, or the full out serialized narrative of the later “quality” shows, but it seems to me that it was a part of the evolution of TV writing in the ’80s.
Anyway, on your comment in #12 that Steele should have had the mystery of the characters last only one season: Gleason talks about this on one of the special features of the Steele DVDs. He says that at the end of Season 1, Brosnan came to him and asked “what do we do next?” Coming from the UK, where series are shorter, he thought they would do a new show the next year. Gleason responded, we do this, for as long as they let us, and says Brosnan was still a bit incredulous that they had to do the same characters, again.
March 14th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
For anyone who missed it, here’s a direct link to Michael’s review of the first season of REMINGTON STEELE: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=6245
March 14th, 2011 at 11:39 am
Lynn, have you read my earlier review here on the first season of REMINGTON STEELE?
My problem with the mystery name was it was obvious by the second season that he did not know his original name. I am a huge fan of Stephanie Zimbalist and Laura Holt. I was annoyed by Laura’s constant complaint that he refused to tell her his name when everyone had made it clear he did not know his name. Her questions about his past was valid but the focus on the name was a mistake. Besides, as recent shows such as LOST have shown, answering such questions are usually a disappointment.
BTW, the fan, Gleason mentions in the DVD, who wrote the “Book Of Steele” was me. I did it each season to get my foot in the door so they’d read my spec scripts. Even then Gleason was known as a mentor. But he also hired Elliott Lewis, a major writer,producer,star from the days of radio. I had a pitch meeting with Mr. Lewis and screwed it up big time. It was before the internet. When he told me I should consider writing books rather than TV, I ignored his advice, not knowing he had a series of mysteries (BENNETT) on sale then. Or that he wrote, acted, was considered for the lead role of my favorite radio series, THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE. Or that he was involved in the first TV adaptation of James Bond. Or…
Always google anyone you will meet in your many future pitch meeting.
Do you agree with Gleason that Remington and Laura should have married in season three? Imagine a bickering married couple. Laura and Remington could have been the best since Nick and Nora Charles.
I would enjoy reading your thoughts of the ending to this series and where it was going.
March 14th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
In reply to Michael, totally not relevant to either the Smiths or Steele, Elliott Lewis was one of my all-time favorite radio actors, and I envy your chance to talk to him — even though it didn’t turn out well.
He’s no relation, of course, as far as I know, but his last name meant that it caught my ear and I remembered it, even when I was a kid.
March 14th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Michael, Steve — Thank you. I had missed the earlier review. I appreciate the chance to talk about Steele and the writing process. Thanks for sharing the story about your pitch meeting with Elliot Lewis.
As to my opinion on whether or not they should have gotten married, I’m really of two minds. I like parts of the scenario Gleason outlined on the DVD (I can’t remember which audio commentary it’s from — one of the later ones) where he would have married them, but had Laura say they couldn’t work together anymore, and then have Steele secretly hire her to work on his cases. I like the complication of that scenario, but I don’t know how they would have kept that up, and I think the show would have suffered if they weren’t working together on the mysteries and only had more personal scenes together.
I’m also influenced by Zimbalist saying on the season 2 DVD that she didn’t want the series to go down that road. As much as I admire Gleason as a writer, I think Zimbalist brought a lot of complexity to the role that Gleason may not have intended originally, so I tend to defer to her instinct. (And wearing my academic hat, I am interested in the interplay between writers and actors in this kind of long running series — how the characters get shaped over time through the back and forth.)
Also on that question, I’ve often wondered why they never had Laura search for her father, or even indicate a desire to do so. From Laura’s point of view, she’d have to resolve that old wound to some extent to marry Steele for real. They make that pretty explicit in “Sensitive Steele” in season 4.
Lynn
March 14th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
When people think of REMINGTON STEELE they tend to focus on the obvious. But the characters had a depth that rarely is pointed out.
Remington had never stayed in one place for more than a year until he met Laura. Every man in Laura’s life had left her, her father when she was sixteen and her live in lover Wilson (“Vintage Steele” – my favorite episode). Imagine those two married. One with the constant urge to run and change himself into someone new, the other living with the fear of waking up one morning and finding him gone. That would have given the marriage enough conflict to last several seasons.
Stephanie Zimbalist held the view like many that once they consummated the relationship, answering the question “will they or won’t they?”, the audience would lose interest. As if once you have had sex or are married all the conflict disappears.
My opinion was, during the third season, the audience lost interest anyway. I lost respect for Remington who continue to accept Laura’s less and less rational reasons to say no. I found it impossible to believe two beautiful people as Steele and Laura had remain celibate for four years just because of Laura’s wacky excuses.
I was surprised the writers gave into Stephanie, but I suspect her views had strong support among the writers and networks. MOONLIGHTING had gone down this path. Some give this as the reason MOONLIGHTING ended. I agree with others that MOONLIGHTING failed for other reasons.
March 14th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Michael —
We are in complete agreement on the depth of the characters. It’s what makes the series remain so fascinating to me all these years later. Thanks for the discussion.
Lynn
October 14th, 2013 at 6:17 am
Hey guys,
I’m a big fan of this show and I’ve been trying to hunt it down everywhere. I can’t seem to find it on Youtube (as this post suggests) and I was wondering if one of you would be able to tell me how I could go about ordering the DVDs for my collection.
Thanks for your time!
October 14th, 2013 at 3:32 pm
It was on YouTube when I wrote this, but as is common with YouTube the full episodes have since been removed due to copyright issues.
You still can watch a few minutes of episodes, just not any complete episode.
So what can you do? There is what is called a collectors market where you might find the series for sale. Places to go include websites such as iOffer and sell.com. I have seen this pop up on occasion so good luck.
The series was produced by Scott Bakula production company. A letter to the actor might get you an answer if there are plans to bring the series to DVD.
If the rights to the show is with CBS, a letter to CBS might be useful.
In reality your best bet is to check out the bootleg collectors market while keeping an eye out for YouTube where things tend to get reposted when the heat cools down.