You don’t really ever have to explain why a universal remote is a good idea. You have a bunch of stuff that needs controlling; this thing controls them all. Many companies have set out to build a product worthy of this idea, and one product came much closer than most. It was called the Harmony, and for many years it was the best universal remote on the market. Maybe the only one that mattered. And still, even the Harmony couldn’t make it work.

The impossible dream of the universal remote is still very much alive. Sure, smart TVs and integrated entertainment systems have made the whole idea less necessary, but there’s something about the universal remote that feels as enticing as ever. So we try to figure out why this quest continues.

On Version History: What the Harmony remote got right, why it never got everything right, and whether we still need one today. The Verge's David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and John Higgins are joined by Matt Rogers, the CEO of Mill and former co-founder of Nest, to reckon with two decades of buttons and touchscreens. The product begins as the Easy Zapper, takes off, sells to Logitech, expands like crazy for a number of years… and then begins to fade.

But there’s something about the universal remote that feels as relevant today as it did in 1984 when the first one hit the market. Even if streaming has taken over, the idea of having one device control all our gadgets remains compelling. The question is: will we ever truly have a real universal remote or are we destined to forever tinker with imperfect solutions?

This is the first episode of the fourth season of Version History. (We are so back.) For the next several weeks, we’re telling a bunch of stories about the smart home, from Hue lights to Keurig coffee to the viral sensation that was The Clapper.