remained unfilmed for several years before producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg decided to update the idea for a potential television series. They offered the script to screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz, who had by that time written several screenplays, including three of the James Bond films. Their instruction to Mankiewicz was to update the script to make it more contemporary and viable for a potential weekly series. They also told Mankiewicz that if his draft was successful, he would also be able to direct the pilot episode himself. Mankiewicz reworked Sheldon's original script and it was renamed Hart to Hart, emphasizing the romantic aspect of the couple. Mankiewicz also made his directorial debut with the pilot episode as planned, and remained a creative consultant to the series afterwards. The first ten episodes were developed by Mankiewicz and the series's original story editor, Bob Shayne. Spelling's and Goldberg's initial choice for the role of Jonathan Hart was Cary Grant. However, Grant (seventy-five years old at the time) had effectively retired from acting some years earlier; his last film, Walk, Don't Run, had been released in 1966. They then decided to find a younger actor who might embody the same style, zest and persona that Grant was famous for, and offered the role to Robert Wagner. No one else was seriously considered for the role; George Hamilton had a high profile at the time and was suggested, but Aaron Spelling said that if he was signed for the role, "the audience will resent him as Hart for being that rich. But no one will begrudge RJ [Wagner] a nickel." ABC wanted Wagner's then-real life wife Natalie Wood to co-star with him as Jennifer Hart, but Wagner did not think it was a good idea. (Wood did make a cameo appearance in the pilot, as an actress playing Scarlett O'Hara.) Initial choices for the role of Jennifer Hart included Suzanne Pleshette, Kate Jackson (months removed from ending a three-year turn starring as detective Sabrina Duncan on Charlie's Angels) and Lindsay Wagner (no relation), but Wagner suggested Stefanie Powers, who had previously worked with him when she made a guest appearance in an episode of his action-adventure series It Takes a Thief in 1970. Wagner wanted Sugar Ray Robinson to portray Max, but ABC-TV executives were worried about a black man as majordomo for a rich white couple. Eventually they signed Lionel Stander, who had