“Be Mine Week” continues with “Hart-Shaped Murder,” the “Hart to Hart” episode ABC broadcast 29 years ago tonight.
Sinful! To thank her friends for their help with her charity work, rich socialite Jennifer Hart (Stefanie Powers) purchases Valentine’s Day chocolates from grandmotherly confectioner Mrs. Bittersweet (Nedra Volz), unaware one of the candies conceals a tiny, valuable bird sculpture. Mrs. Bittersweet’s son, chocolatier/smuggler Mr. Krump (Dick Davalos), sends his goon Oscar to retrieve the candy from Jennifer; when Oscar fails, Krump feeds him a poisoned nougat. “Oscar seems to have eaten something that disagrees with him,” Krump says as the toady croaks. “Mwahahaha.”
Sticky! For no good reason, Krump sends Jennifer poisoned chocolates, but since she and hubby Jonathan (Robert Wagner) are dieting, the box sits unopened in their kitchen. Meanwhile, Krump’s minions break into the homes of Jennifer’s friends, looking for the bird sculpture. “Our Hart problem could become terminal,” Krump says when the henchmen come back empty-handed. One goon wonders if Jennifer has tasted her Valentine candy. Responds Krump: “If she has, she’ll be giving up chocolate – permanently. Mwahahaha.”
Sweet! Jonathan and Jennifer become suspicious when they learn someone is breaking into their friends’ homes and smashing their chocolates to pieces. Finally, the Harts discover the bird sculpture and take it to the candy shop, where they determine it activates a cuckoo clock that controls an espionage messaging service. (Don’t ask.) Krump and Mrs. Bittersweet are spies! “More bitter than sweet,” Jennifer observes. The spies discover the Harts snooping around, a fight ensues and Krump winds up on a conveyer belt, covered in chocolate. “Well, if it isn’t a chocolate-covered nut,” says Jonathan.
“Hart-Shaped Murder” can be streamed at Hulu and purchased at iTunes. It’s also part of the “Hart to Hart: The Complete Second Season” DVD set.
Elsewhere on Television
TV Guide listings for February 10, 1981:
7 AM NBC TODAY – Tom Brokaw
Paul Newman and Jack Klugman are interviewed. (2 hrs.)
SYNDICATED MERV GRIFFIN
Guests: Jack Klugman, Elke Sommar, John Huston and Judith Krantz (“Princess Daisy”). (90 min.)
11:30 NBC TONIGHT
Scheduled: Bill Cosby, Jack Klugman. Johnny Carson. (60 min.)
… And in the News
New York Times excerpts from February 10, 1981:
G.A.O. PREDICTS ELECTRONIC MAIL WILL REDUCE POSTAL SERVICE ROLE
The General Accounting Office said in a report today that an increasing use of electronic mail would dramatically change the United States Postal Service in the next two decades, sharply reducing the volume of conventional mail and cutting postal employment by two-thirds.
U.S. TO DELAY REQUIREMENT FOR AIRBAGS AND AUTOMATIC PROTECTION IN CARS
The Reagan Administration proposed today to change Federal automobile safety rules so that manufacturers could postpone installing airbags or other automatic crash protection for at least one year. The proposed change, which is subject to public comment before it becomes official, was eagerly sought by the industry and looked upon with dread by auto safety advocates, who say that delays may cause unnecessary deaths on the highways.


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