Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

English novelist P. G. Wodehouse wrote several stories where people stayed at other people's homes pretending to be someone else. One of my favorites of his novels has someone staying at someone else's home pretending to be himself.

In a similar vein, in this, the final regular series episode of "Hart to Hart," the Harts come home to find their house taken over by an entire staff they don't recognize, headed by an Englishman played by Patrick MacNee, "John Steed" of "Avengers" fame.

Just as in "The Avengers," where Steed was a man of perfect manners who had a sense of danger lurking beneath them, here MacNee's character is of perfect manners but is clearly dangerous.

The funny thing is, MacNee and the phony staff are waiting for a couple to show up who will pretend to be the Harts in an early form of identity theft. When the Harts walk on, MacNee assumes they are the counterfeits. Jonathan and Jennifer have no choice but to pretend to be strangers only pretending to be themselves.

But what will they do when the genuine phonies show up?

A neat little episode where the Harts walk a tightrope, but nothing special for the end of a five-year-old series.

Now, as with "Colombo" and "The Rockford Files," we have to wait for the movies for more Hart-felt adventure.