Not all was smooth running when it came to the scripts, and in the later years of the series both RJ and Stefanie were concernec that the show was relying on too many cliches. Scroll down to see how this was resolved.

 One day last November, there was a monumental flap on the set of Hart to Hart . Stefanie Powers suddenly refused to work and retired to the privacy of her trailer dressing room to seek consolation from her small menagerie of animals- Bear, a large dog, B.B., a tiny monkey-like African bush baby, and Papuga, a Brazilian parrot

The reason for the flap? The distaff Hart made it known that she would not reappear before the cameras until Leonard Goldberg (of the series production company Spelling-Goldberg) came down to the set to discuss the poor quality of the show's scripts. (Miss Powers' beef - which is shared by co-star Robert Wagner - was the show tends to rely on hoary cliches such as corpses falling out of closets, and rattlesnakes inexplicably inhabiting air-conditioning ducts, plus equally hoary dialogue like "You have a lovely face and if you want to stay lovely you will finish the job.")

The resolution of the flap? Leonord Goldberg did make an appeasing phone call that returned Stefanie to the sound stage, and the next day also made a rare visit to the set to thrash out the problem amid the squeaks, barks and screeches of the creatures in her dressing room. Not much was thrashed out - the prevailing network wisdom at ABC being that one does not tamper with a ratings success no matter how terrible the scripts. But Goldberg did mollify Stefanie by making a concession or two in the direction of the quaint and ancient actor's theory that they should be allowed to make up the lines as they went along.

Although he echoes Stefanie's concerns with the Hart to Hart scripts, Wagner - as co-producer of the show- is more sanguine about it because of the ratings., "As long as we can pull it off," he says "we'll try to get by on magnetism."As for Stefanie, she's still not so sure that she doesn't prefer to dispense her magnetism in smaller doses "Eighteen hours work a day, six days a week, sometimes is a little much" she laments. 1

Even so, RJ and Stefanie care about their characters and the way in which their alter-egos are portrayed, so have considerable influence on the script's final draft.

RJ says that "the whole thrust is the material. Stefanie and I work hard at trying to have us used in the right way. The problems that happen sometimes is by the script getting overloaded plot. What we don't want is to stand there and play the plot. We want a chance to reveal our relationship and reveal our lifestyle, and the way we operate within it.

Sometimes it gets complicated, so Stefanie and I just try to make it the best we can. We improvise a lot.It is part of being an actor, especially in a TV series because we have been playing these characters to long and know Jonthan and Jennifer very well. We need the writers to come up with the right kind of material for us."2

There has been quite a few heart-to-hearts on the set of Hart to Hart lately, and most of them have deteriorated into shouting matches. Alarmed by the plummeting popularity of the series which he co-owns, star Robert Wagner and his business associates have decided not to renew the contracts of any of the current writers, producers or directors if the show is extended another season. According to reports and his screen wife Stefanie Powers have become less and less pleased with scripts presented to them over the past few years and there have been expensive delays while they've virtually rewritten their own scenes.

Apparently all remains buddy-buddy between the two stars, but they feel , with some justification, their ship is going down. Usually in the top 2o prime-time shows, Hart to Hart recently slipped to 60th, an all-tile low for the program. 3