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Created by producer-novelist Sidney Sheldon and executive produced by Aaron Spelling, the weekly, hour-long adventure series Hart to Hart starred Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as the fabulously wealthy and drop-dead gorgeous married couple Jonathan and Jennifer Hart. A self-made millionaire, Jonathan ran a variety of thriving business enterprises with a firm but fair hand; Jennifer was likewise gainfully employed as a journalist. Good hearted souls that they were, the Harts were forever helping out friends and acquaintances who'd been victimized by criminals or accused of crimes they didn't commit. This, of course, required Jonathan and Jennifer to go the "Thin Man" route with some amateur sleuthing, which often as not nearly got them killed, or at the very least in the direst of dire peril. Acting as the Harts' chauffeur, aide, and self-appointed protector was gravel-voiced Max, a plum role for veteran character actor Lionel Stander. Also on hand was the Harts' "Asta" counterpart, a dog named Freeway. The series debuted August 25, 1979, in the form of a two-hour TV movie, in which Jonathan and Jennifer investigated the suspicious death of an old friend at a health spa. Not only did the movie set the deft, tongue-in-cheek mood of the series to come, but it also featured a well-publicized "surprise" cameo appearance by Robert Wagner's then wife Natalie Wood, billed under her real name Natasha Gurdin. The series proper lasted 112 episodes, closing out its successful ABC run on July 31, 1984.