Leonard Goldberg modernized Sidney Sheldon's 1970 script in 1978 to create a modern adventure-comedy show that would befit its times. The show - Hart to Hart. The finishing touch - "Robert Wagner. If I couldn't get him I'd scrap the entire project."
Bob Wagner "liked the pilot script", insisted Stefanie Powers "to play opposite him if he should agree to do the series" and "we had to come up with another 'page 6 provision' in the contract." That "page 6 provision" was known in the industry as a way of "maintaining the goodwill of the star."
"It began in 1973," Leonard Goldberg explained. "We had a good looking TV-movie script....It was a natural teaming for Natalie (Wood) and R.J....(But) to sweeten the pot for them in order to nail down the deal....on page 6 of the 180-page contract there was a provision that within one year they could develop a series pilot, in which neither of them had to play a role. It was a nice gesture.....If nothing was submitted by the Wagners during the year, the network would simply have to pay an additional $25,000."
When Leonard came up with the series, Charlie's Angels, "(R.J) and Natalie figured, however, that they had nothing to lose. They'd get far more than $25,000 if a miracle happened." The miracle did happen. And although Robert Wagner acknowledged he had no involvement in the development of Charlie's Angels, by agreement, the Wagners were still entitled to half of the show's bottom line.
Robert Wagner revealed, "I finally got the smarts in the 1960s. I had done some good pictures with skilled actors like Spencer Tracy and Robert Mitchum, I got to know them, and they seemed to like me, and I made it my principal ambition to learn everything I could from them about acting; and I studied every little trick that David Niven and Cary Grant ever used on screen."
"I never wanted to be anything but an actor. Christ, what more could you ask for? This is a wonderful, wonderful business, getting to make people smile, taking them out of their lives for a little while.
"When I first met Natalie, I was a different type than she was used to. Remember, I was eight years older than she was. She was still playing Bing (Crosby's) daughter when I was out at Pebble Beach with Bing, playing golf. By the time she was a teenager, she was running around with Jimmy Dean and those guys, you know, part of the rebel movement.
"Me, I was around the elite of Hollywood - (Tyrone) Power, (Clifton) Webb, (Barbara)Stanwyck, Bogie (Humphrey Bogart), Betty (Lauren Bacall), (Gary) Cooper. These were the people I was going around with, and it was a whole new world to her. Hell, Gilbert Roland took us to the bullfights down in Mexico- she'd never seen anything like that. So she fell into that world with me."
Bob Wagner "liked the pilot script", insisted Stefanie Powers "to play opposite him if he should agree to do the series" and "we had to come up with another 'page 6 provision' in the contract." That "page 6 provision" was known in the industry as a way of "maintaining the goodwill of the star."
"It began in 1973," Leonard Goldberg explained. "We had a good looking TV-movie script....It was a natural teaming for Natalie (Wood) and R.J....(But) to sweeten the pot for them in order to nail down the deal....on page 6 of the 180-page contract there was a provision that within one year they could develop a series pilot, in which neither of them had to play a role. It was a nice gesture.....If nothing was submitted by the Wagners during the year, the network would simply have to pay an additional $25,000."
When Leonard came up with the series, Charlie's Angels, "(R.J) and Natalie figured, however, that they had nothing to lose. They'd get far more than $25,000 if a miracle happened." The miracle did happen. And although Robert Wagner acknowledged he had no involvement in the development of Charlie's Angels, by agreement, the Wagners were still entitled to half of the show's bottom line.
Robert Wagner revealed, "I finally got the smarts in the 1960s. I had done some good pictures with skilled actors like Spencer Tracy and Robert Mitchum, I got to know them, and they seemed to like me, and I made it my principal ambition to learn everything I could from them about acting; and I studied every little trick that David Niven and Cary Grant ever used on screen."
"I never wanted to be anything but an actor. Christ, what more could you ask for? This is a wonderful, wonderful business, getting to make people smile, taking them out of their lives for a little while.
"When I first met Natalie, I was a different type than she was used to. Remember, I was eight years older than she was. She was still playing Bing (Crosby's) daughter when I was out at Pebble Beach with Bing, playing golf. By the time she was a teenager, she was running around with Jimmy Dean and those guys, you know, part of the rebel movement.
"Me, I was around the elite of Hollywood - (Tyrone) Power, (Clifton) Webb, (Barbara)Stanwyck, Bogie (Humphrey Bogart), Betty (Lauren Bacall), (Gary) Cooper. These were the people I was going around with, and it was a whole new world to her. Hell, Gilbert Roland took us to the bullfights down in Mexico- she'd never seen anything like that. So she fell into that world with me."
