Friday, November 19, 2004

Child Free TV Couples – Hart to Hart

When I was a kid, I remember sitting at my grandparents' house after school eating Pringles and watching Hart to Hart, starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers. Back then I wasn’t thinking about how their crime-fighting adventures would be drastically curtailed if they were dragging a kid around with them.

But now that I have proclaimed myself a member of the child free community, anytime I see a "role model" for those of us who don’t want kids, I take notice. And the Harts are one heck of a role model for child free couples!

Jonathan and Jennifer have it all: a gorgeous mansion, a steamy relationship, and the freedom to skip town and head to a tropical isle or to Paris "on business" at a moment’s notice. They live in high style, are hopelessly in love with each other and enjoy every minute of their lives.

The decision not to give the characters any children was deliberate and helped to create a super couple that proved you don’t have to have kids to be fulfilled in life.

Robert Wagner believed that fans wouldn’t accept the danger-laden lives the Harts led if they had kids. “I mean (viewers) got crazy when we'd go away without the dog,” he said.

In an another interview, Stefanie Powers said that it “just didn’t seem practical” to give them a family.

Indeed, it isn’t practical to introduce a baby into a relationship that is thriving just the way it is. Face it, the Harts could have afforded a whole slew of children. Even though they never talked about it on the show, they must have *chosen* not to have a family. And they are more than content without one.

Sounds like a lot of us, doesn’t it? (minus the Rolls Royce and private jet, of course).

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