Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 12, 1994 TAG: 9402120218
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACKIE HYMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
"There was a rush of memories coming back, I can tell you that," says Wagner, who agreed to reunite with Stefanie Powers in four NBC movies based on the series, which ran from 1979 to 1984.
The crime-solving Harts, whose romance lends spice to their adventures, scored healthy ratings with the first of the two-hour reunion movies last November.
The second of the movies, "Home is Where the Hart Is," airs Friday (at 9 p.m. on WSLS-Channel 10), with guest stars Roddy McDowall, Howard Keel, Alan Young and Maureen O'Sullivan. In the story, Jennifer Hart inherits a town and uncovers long-kept secrets.
Stirring up the past is usually taboo for Wagner, a veteran actor.
"I don't look back very much," he said. "I just don't think it's a very good idea - I mean, professionally. . . . It's all smoke, anyway. You can't grab ahold of it. It's hard to get something that's lasting."
Over the years, Wagner turned down several offers to do "Hart to Hart" specials.
"I said, `I don't want to do a one-night thing,' " he explained. "I said, `Let's do four or six movies.' "
When NBC offered the chance to do four movies this season, he and Powers accepted. But Wagner, who serves as an executive producer, still admitted to some initial reservations.
"We were kind of anxious, because it's 10 years later and you've got to have that work come together," he said. "It was a special feeling, to have it take off. I don't think I've ever been so anxious as I was when it went on the air."
In a third "Hart to Hart" movie later this year, he said, the Harts will back a Broadway play.
"What we're trying to do is romantic adventure," he said. "It's quite a trick to write it. One of the things we have going is the relationship, which can be entertaining for people. We're trying to bring some joy into people's lives, which is a great privilege."
Wagner was interviewed over coffee in the living room of his 1930s hacienda-style home in a coastal area of Los Angeles.
Reserved at first, he soon proved a genial host, providing a tour of the stables where he breeds quarter horses. He also raises chickens, pheasants and doves.
Though his home escaped damage in the Jan. 17 earthquake, a brush fire last October burned 70 acres of his ranch in nearby Thousand Oaks and briefly threatened his Pacific Palisades home.
"It all happens so fast - my God," he said. "I was in New York promoting `Hart to Hart.' I got back to the hotel and saw it (on television). But the wind turned and went the other way. No one got hurt and no animals were lost. That's the main thing."
Wagner's career spans such films as "The Towering Inferno," "Harper" and "The Pink Panther." He was chosen by Laurence Olivier to co-star in the television adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
In addition to the "Hart to Hart" movies, he will be seen in the ABC miniseries "Heaven and Hell," airing Feb. 27-28 and March 2, in which he plays a former Confederate Army officer.
"The war is just over and he's come back to the South to reclaim his dignity and his land and to start all over again," he said. "It was an interesting character to play."
As for the future, "I sort of roll with what's happening," Wagner said.
"I've never been an actor to say, I want to play THAT part. I've always felt that it's in the wind, whatever's out there, and you never know from one day to the next. It changes. A wonderful book could be written with a great role in it, a director could see me doing it and could change my whole life.
"I think you have to stay flexible," he said, adding with a smile, "It's essential when you've got three daughters."
by CNB