It was not alwasys easy working with Freeway.
Various publications have reported Robert Wagner's story about Freeway. He explained that Freeway had to have verbal commands from his trainer to tell him what to do all the time. This caused some trouble in love scenes between him and Stefanie. Wagner explained that "the trainer would yell Down! Down! Roll over. Roll over" and he'd do all these commands .. and I thought he was talking to me. I get real confused. The dog loved Stefanie. I'd have to get the dog out of the bed and say "No, that's where I am." 1
"When we get the scripts for Hart to Hart, we figure out what he's got to do. Usually its' a combination of at least five things he knows. The secret is to tailor-make it for the shots, so that it looks as though Freeway were just doing it naturally. We get the scripts in advance and go through them looking for dog action.
"If there's something Freeway doesn't know, we'll train him. If he know what is needed, we will brush him up on them, so that when he walks on the set, he is prepared. It's just like an actor learning his lines."
Freeway earns much more than the $200-a-day rate for an animal actor, and leads the same sort of life as a movie star. "Everyone at the studio knows him and they say hello to Freeway before they say it to me. The stars all make a fuss of him, especially Stefanie, " said 25-yearold Bob Blair jnr. "She loves him. A lot of times she'll come by and take him in her motor home with her and play with him for awhile. Bob Wagner likes Freeway a lot too."
Lisa Lazarus was a scriptwriter on Hart to Hart and says "I remember that there was a lot of problems with Freeway, (whose real name was "Charlie".) By the way, he was found by the trainer at the pound. Freeway was kept in a crate when not in use, and there was always an ASPCA guy watching while he was there. Freeway missed a lot of cues and they had to do several takes with him, which is expensive. 3
Click here to read an interview with Freeway's trainer: how did Freeway become a star?