Though Tom Mankiewicz is well known for his work on television, the writer established most of his credibility through film. Mankiewicz notably was responsible for writing several James Bond films, including Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Live and Let Die (1973). In the late 1970s, Mankiewicz rewrote and developed the first episode for the popular crime series, Hart to Hart.

During an interview with The Globe and Mail, Mankiewicz confessed that he worked on the pilot script not out of a love for writing, but rather, a desire to direct.

“Producer Leonard Goldberg said if I did a good job he’d let me direct the two-hour pilot - and as every screenwriter wants to direct, I was off and running,” said Mankiewicz. “I’m like that famous Hollywood talking dog who has made millions in the business but calls his agent up and says, ‘Listen, never mind the big salaries - what I’d really like to do is direct.’”

Watch Hart to Hart on MeTV!

Sundays at 3 PM

*available in most MeTV markets

However, Mankiewicz’s script doctoring helped the show become the well-loved hit it is today.

“The most important thing I did in Hart to Hart, I think, was to give the leading characters some background,” said Mankiewicz during an interview with The Montreal Star. “In [the original] script, the fellow was just rich, his wife was just his wife, and they lived in a penthouse in Century City, for God’s sake. I turned her into a journalist, a kind of Gail Sheehy type, and I made him a self-made millionaire who owns a conglomerate but lets his subordinates take care of the day-to-day operations. I gave them the kind of mansion that people like that would live in, but I didn’t want him to have one of those perfect English valets that he had in the original. We wanted someone more interesting than that and, with Stander, we got him.”