Was 'McMillan & Wife' any good?

I remember Nancy Walker as their maid better than I remember them. They were part of a rotating 'Mystery Movie' anthology that also included Dennis Weaver's MacCloud and Peter Falk's Columbo. There was also one called Hec Ramsay that took place in the early 20th century but I don't recall a lot about that one.

[quote]I remember Nancy Walker as their maid better than I remember them.

I'd forgotten about her.

I seem to remember she was supposed to be all goofy, hilarious and adorable, right?

I remember liking it a lot.

I think the last season it was just McMillan - and it was as boring as a McCloud episode. It just wasn't the same without Susan Saint James.

[quote]I think the last season it was just McMillan

Where did she go?

I think I got smacked in the head by my grandfather for vocalizing the high pitched theme music.

[quote]for vocalizing the high pitched theme music.

It wasn't catchy AT ALL.

[quote]Where did she go?

"She" meaning the star or the character?

Sally was killed in a crash. Susan wanted more money than NBC was willing to give her.

Nancy Walker wasn't on that last season either, although in her case it was because she went to do another series.

The absence of both of them really killed the show.

R4- I think SSJ had contract problems with the producers so either they fired her or she quit. On the show, I remember Sally was pregnant right before SSJ left but I can't remember if they killed off Sally or if she and Mac got divorced.

Hec Ramsey starred Richard Boone, of "Have Gun, Will Travel" fame.

Catching repeats as a stoned teen, I decided Susan St. James was a fellow toker- she always seemed out, really really out of it.

Plus, she was completely different in Kate & Ali ( Could it be she was paired with Mohammed Ali instead of Jane?).

Not that theme, the one they used for all three, the NBC Myster Movie theme

[quote]Not that theme, the one they used for all three, the NBC Myster Movie theme

This makes more sense. Glad you came back, I would have been in a quandary about this for the rest of the evening.

I remember watching some episodes here and there. Agree with (R7) departure of SSJ made me forget all about it. Besides, the programming seemed to appeal to "adult" audiences, a little on the conservative, dreary side so I switched to other things - if and when I was near a t.v. which wasn't all that often.

[quote] a little on the conservative, dreary side

Especially if that fucking theme tune is anything to go by.

It used to be re-run on a shitty channel along with "Fall Guy,"

I would turn them both off when I heard the theme song.

Sally McMillan AND the baby apparently "died" in a plane crash, something explained in a single throwaway line by Sgt Enright (John Schuck) when the season became jus McMILLAN. In spite of the loss of both SSJ and Nancy Walker I tried to watch the new version of the show, but was, frankly, so off-put by the fact that the lead character never mourned or mentioned the wife and child he'd lost and instantly reverted back to the womanizing skirt-chaser it was implied that he had been before he got married was a total turn-off.

When the show began, the chemistry between Hudson & SSJ was very much like Nick and Nora Charles, but with a twist -- since "Sally" was so much younger than Mac, there were often inter-generational conflicts -- she wants to eat at organic-health food restaurants and he's a meat-and-potatoes man (more than we knew, apparently!). And she drove a little yellow sports car which the 6'4 Hudson could barely fit inside. Add to that the Eve Ardenish quality of wise-cracking Mildred the housekeeper (Walker) and the bumbling sidekick cop (Schuck) and the original show was good fun. I also liked the semi-recurring role of Mac's mother, played by the sophisticated but tart-tongued Mildred Natwick.

It's in syndication now, and I still enjoy the episode's I catch from time to time. It's also fun to see the other closeted gay stars Hudson brought on the show (Tab Hunter in the episode called "Greed"; Van Johnson in the episode called "Downshift to Danger"; Roddy McDowell the episode called "Death of a Monster") and to try to figure out which of the hunky supporting players Hudson was probably screwing/being screwed by.

I'm sure she used to call him "Mac".

I can still hear her saying it in her throaty little voice, all these decades after.

R16- They probably thought that the real draw for the show was just Rock Hudson and they thought that they could basically 'sweep' Sally under the rug. But the chemistry between Susan and Rock was the real draw IMO.

Having Mac 'forget' about Sally undermined the character of Mac. Why should we care about him or care if he solved a crime if he clearly didn't give a damn about his dead wife and baby?

I remember they had great chemistry. You could believe they were fucking.

I used to fantasize about Hudson and Shuck!

I watched it when I was a kid and I agree, it was the Mac/Sally relationship which was fun to see, not the mysteries which were probably lame.

I have been watching Mannix reruns on one of the new channels and sadly, I don't think they hold up.

I used to love the theme to the NBC Mystery Movie too, R11. The difference is I was a little too young for the show, so I couldn't watch it, but my bedroom was next to the living room, and I could put my ear to the wall and hear the theme. Then the next morning my mother would tell me what the show was about (a sanitized version, I'm sure).

I remember doing that for the Barnaby Jones theme too, another favorite.

You know, to this day, I don't think I've ever seen an episode of McMillan or McCloud. I have seen a few Columbos...maybe that lasted a couple years longer?

More importantly, when and why did John Shuck change his name to CONRAD John Shuck?

SJJ was all sexy wearing football jersey and (supposedly) panties.

Loved the show. SSJ had a cool shag haircut the first season. The banter between Mac and Sally was terrific. Loved Midred - Walker played her unlike she played Ida Morgenstern. Nancy Walker become a hot property for those 2 shows and doing Rosie the Bounty paper towel waitress. ABC finally snagged her to do her own show and it was AWFUL.

Opening credits for Walker's wretched sitcom, BLANSKY'S BEAUTIES. She played den mother to a troupe of Las Vegas showgirls, featuring Gary Marshall favorites Scott Baio and Eddie Mekka.

When Nancy Walker left the show, she was replaced by Martha Raye, who was much funnier in the role as the housekeeper.

The show was about as mediocre 70s TV as you could get. It depended on the chemistry of Rock and Susan St. James, which more like father-daughter that husband-wife. Poorly written, with mediocre plots.

Last year, I watched a specific episode on Netflix or Hulu or something — McMillan got "replaced" by a lookalike planted by the Mob (Rock Hudson in blue contact lenses).

I'd hoped for campy fun, but the show hasn't aged well except for the unbelievable 1970s interiors.

The woman on the show was a right old bitch

Rock Huson's gay status circa McMillan was the first time I knew I could trust even elementary school playground gossip over what my mother knew. I have very little memory of the show however.

R20 R23 SCHUCK, not Shuck.

r31, Go Schuck Yourself. Now answer the question -- why is he suddenly "Conrad" John Schuck? Odd for a steadily working character actor to suddenly change his name after building a name, reputation and resume with another one.

I was in Frankfurt and saw some very hot looking guys in the streets - with a more aggressive vibe than I'm used to in blondes. Curious - are you including het guys or just overtly gay guys?

r10 We're you channelling "Saturday Night Live"? BITD they did a short spoof of "Kate & Allie," Katherine Hepburn and Muhammed Ali, portrayed by Martin Short and Billy Crystal, in bed together. I hope it's on YouTube.

Which of SSJ's hairdos did y'all like better -- her shag from the early episodes or long, straight, and center-parted?

The shows were detective/mysteries so they were fun to watch. The length of the show (90 minutes) allowed for a more thorough story to develop. There were a couple that were pretty memorable, especially a Halloween show that had some gruesome special effects (I remember a severed foot walking down a hallway.) Rock Hudson as a Seventies clone was hot.

[quote]Sally McMillan AND the baby apparently "died" in a plane crash...

That was one of the weird things about the show, [R16]. SSJ would get pregnant (I swear this happened more than once), and they wouldn't even try to hide it. She just got bigger and bigger, and they never referred to it all.

R35- I think I like her early shag cut better than the longer, straight style. But SSJ looked best in her 1960s style. Sort of a short pixie style.

Well, Conrad is his real first name (and he's a junior), so maybe he wanted to honor his father? Here's a fun tidbit about his breakthrough role in MASH (the movie):

[quote]Schuck's first appearance in film was the role of Capt. Walter Kosciusko "Painless Pole" Waldowski in Altman's film M*A*S*H (1970). As Painless, Schuck holds a place in Hollywood history as the first person to utter the word fuck[ing] in a major studio film.

I always thought it was ironic that it was set in San Francisco, and of course, the show ran in the '70s.

San Francisco in the '70s?! .. I didn't live there, but it seemed like a gay wonderland!

[quote] I didn't live there, but it seemed like a gay wonderland!

Not really, there were a few streets.

OMG: Nancy Walker! Nancy Walker! Nancy Walker! That is all.

This show ROCKED! remember, it was just a short while earlier that My Mother the Car was green-lighted by somebody. It's relative.

I was the reuns on VisionTV here in Canada and it's great campy fun. What other show can you see a police commissioner in a ten speed bike chase around the streets of SF?

Diane Keaton was runner up to SSJ for Sally McMillan.

To each his own, loved this show and thought Rock and SSJ had GREAT chemistry. Hudson and Nancy Walker worked great together too. I remember that Halloween show - Col Klink from Hogan's Heroes was in it. The plot made no sense, but who cared.

[quote]Diane Keaton was runner up to SSJ for Sally McMillan.

Shame she didn't get it.

She wasn't in any of the TV series of the 70s, was she?

I remember my Mom and sisters loving -- and loving Rock Hudson, but I they stopped watching it when they killed off SSJ. I think a combination of the distaste of killing off a well-liked character and really jettisoning the chemistry that made the show. Big miscalculation on the producers to underestimate what made the show work and popular.

I remember when Rock got sick and died, my Mom's younger sister and my sisters who knew him mainly from McMillan and Wife was surprised that he had been gay, whereas my Mom who probably knew him just as much from his 1950's movies pretty much had known for years..

Amazing it's been 30 years since Rock's death. The only thing I knew him from was watching Dynasty when I was a kid, when he (obviously) didn't look his best. But he really was a great looking guy in his prime.

Blansky's Beautys was terrible, but the Nancy Walker show with the incomparable Beverly Archer as her daughter was a hoot and should have lasted longer.

r48 can you imagine all the sailors he boned?

Nancy was busy for awhile between McMillian -- Bounty commercials and playing Ida Morgenstern. Rhoda was another show that faltered when she left temporarily.

If you want to watch some of the episodes for yourself, go to this link and select an episode (just not the first one marked "0" as it's not included). Then choose one of the video sources that come up. The one marked "Best Stream" seems to still have just about most of them available. They all look to be around 73 minutes long, and this reminds me that the show used to be one of those 90-minute NBC Mystery Movie things in rotation with Columbo and McColud.

I just watched part of the first one, and I'd forgotten how striking the age difference between Mac and Sally was supposed to be - at least 20 years - not to mention how much shorter Susan St. James appeared opposite 6'4 Rock Hudson. She really comes across like his college-age daughter.

The interior set of the McMillans' home in the pilot episode was actually Rock Hudson's house. In the second episode they moved to a new home, exterior shots were done on Greenwich Street in San Francisco.

Salary:

Giant (1956) t$100,000 A Farewell to Arms (1957) t$17,000 per week McMillan & Wife (1971) t$120,000 /episode (first season) McMillan & Wife (1971) t$75,000 per 90 minutes episode Dynasty (1981) t$100,000 per episode

Rather fascinating those references to his salary.

Though of course it's hard to know what they mean in today's money.

Rock looked AWFUL on that show, so why watch it?

R54 where aaaaare you?

I kid. Anyway $75,000/ep in '71 would be about $450,000 today. $100,000/ep for Dynasty would be about $290,000.

George Nader the sole heir of Hudson's estate.

[quote]Anyway $75,000/ep in '71 would be about $450,000 today.

Jesus, that a lot of money. How many McMillan episodes were made? & if it ran from '71 until '77 surely his salary went up.

Also, from what I remember he didn't leave a great fortune when he died. I could be wrong on that.

Rock and George.

It ain't that much R58!

[quote]Also, from what I remember he didn't leave a great fortune when he died.

A man who is gay and has AIDS fails to leave behind an estate?

I hope a small child punches you in the nuts, R58.

Your post doesn't make sense, R61. Why the anger?

$10 Million in 1986 dollars.

[quote]Blansky's Beautys was terrible, but the Nancy Walker show with the incomparable Beverly Archer as her daughter was a hoot and should have lasted longer.

YES! (Or YAAAAAAS! as the children say.) Beverly Archer was brilliant in this -- I think there was a running joke about her being a hypochondriac. Wish this was on YouTube.

New Trier class of 1942 yearbook with "Roy"

That's not anger,R62.

In words you'll understand- AIDS was a mystery and experimental therapies were very very very expensive. Very. Oh, and none were effective. It's why he died. He died, you know.

He even found her sexy when she was pregnant. Check out 1:34 of this video.

Sally/Mac with a side of Mildred's drunken antics made the show, IMO. SSJ was surprisingly good at some physical acting in the show. I recently watched an episode, and Sally is tied to a chair. She manages to bounce it over to a desk, picked up a pencil with her mouth, and began trying to call her husband using the rotary dial phone. The camera stayed on her for long parts of the scene, and it was hilarious, though probably moreso now since rotary dial phones are a thing of the past. It was also a reminder of how long scenes were allowed to go when a third of the hour didn't have to be devoted to commercials. Sometimes that led to boring car chases, but sometimes you got a gem like this one.

Neither the age gap/trophy wife implications or Mildred's comedy alcoholism would play well today, but the cast had good chemistry all around, and the show had charm. I enjoy catching it every now and again in reruns late at night.

Oh, I see...you seem to think, R66, that me saying 'he didn't leave a great fortune when he died' that it was somehow a judgement...so you raced to insult me and very aggressively.

It was not a judgement at all, not in any way. What you need to look at is why you should perceive it as such.

R58 There were usually six or seven episodes per year, with a total of 40 episodes over the six year run. It was in rotation with Columbo and McColud. One of the considerations for Rock's salary would be that the episodes were either 90 or 120 minutes in length, and presented more like made-for-TV movies.

One of the two-hour episodes features Tab Hunter as one of the guest stars. They're at this old mansion. It's raining and storming outside, and his secretary has taken his car. He asks Mac if he can give him a lift back to his boathouse in the marina.

The detective/cop shows from the 70's were all character driven. Columbo, McMillan &Wife, The Rockford Files etc. all had so much charm and personality. They're a nice break from all the procedurals littering the airways these days. Shows like Law & Order SUV and Criminal Minds are so cold, harsh and violent compared to the older shows.

Agreed R72. The idea that there could be one story line through a show rather than three or four seems foreign to producers today.

R72 R73 Have either of you ever seen the Saturday Night Live skit on "Law & Order" Auditions? HILARIOUS, because it's so dead-on and points to the problem you raise with these procedurals. (Special bonus: Jake Gyllenhaal)

(R74} Thanks for that! I missed that episode of SNL. Very funny!!

Is SSJ the one who married Dick Ebersol and then her youngest son died in a plane crash?

R76 Yes. Ebersol and an older son, age 21, were both injured in the crash along with the co-pilot. Investigators believed the son who died was thrown from the plane, and then killed by debris hitting him. He was 14. The pilot and the steward were also both killed.

Not long after the accident, SSJ was on The Today Show and said many people had sent her condolence letters, and that she enjoyed receiving them because, with her young son dead, she no longer had anything to do.

Re R68.

Sally McMillan was a Data Lounger!

Rock Hudson looked lousy on the show.

Already AIDSy, it must be said.

[quote] Already AIDSy, it must be said.

It only must be said if you're a troll. Be gone.

Poor Sally and Son.

Even though I was only eight years-old when "McMillan & Wife" debuted, I recall it being sophisticated entertainment! It aired Sunday nights which was (and is) the highest HUT (houses using television) night of the week, and people loved it. The NBC Mystery Wheel always had FOUR components. I think "Columbo" was always the most popular and it really was better than the others. After the first or second season, "Hec Ramsey" was replaced for one season by "The Snoop Sisters" with Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick which I also enjoyed...because I was a future DataLounger, naturally.

My parents loved the mystery movies, but my father especially loved Banacek, the insurance recovery agent, with the classy car and gorgeous girlfriends. IIRC, the explanations at the end were ridiculous. In an interview, Peter Falk talked about the story structure of Columbo, and that they wanted to avoid "Moishe the explainer," a character who'd come in and explain all the little details away. That's how Banacek would end, with the ridiculously technical explanation of how the thief pulled off the scheme.

I liked Cool Millions, with James Farentino. He was the hottest. I guess the storylines weren't as good, because I don't think it lasted very long.

When shag haircuts were in style, what did the British call them?

When my siblings and I were kids, my whole family liked different series under The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie aegis. parents liked "Columbo" best, but we wouldn't watch it with them because we thought Peter Falk was schlubby and uninteresting. We much preferred "McMillan & Wife" because we identified with her since she was young and hip. and thought the San Francisco locations were so cool. We also thought Nancy Walker and Martha Raye were fun.

My sister would watch "McCloud," because she was horse-obsessed and McCloud was a transplanted New Mexico cowboy in NYC. My brother and I would not watch it with her.

The whole family would watch "The Snoop Sisters" with Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick, and we all were disappointed when it was canceled.

I'm still confounded as to how SSJ grew out the shag haircut between one season.

A wig?

I was a kid then so my memory may be fuzzy, but didn't NBC also start up a Wednesday Mystery Movie. That's where I remember Banacek and The Snoop Sisters making their home. No one has mentioned Jessica Walters as Amy Prentiss. I never watched it and they dumped it after a season. They never could quite come up with a lasting fourth show.

I loved McMillan and Wife, but I was just a kid. I'll have to watch one and see how it holds up. I still watch Columbo reruns. They're great. My favorite is the Ruth Gordon episode. She even turns the tables on him by saying, "Oh Lieutenant, just one more thing."

I wanted Sally to go into labor and MIldred deliver it. NEver happened. Dead.

After she was delivered Mildred wrapped the infant up n Bounty paper towels off screen. It would have been a touching moment. Also good cross-promotion.

[quote]your grandfather sounds like a bastard

He was one!

There was talk of doing just that and then having Mildred get hammered and roast a "fresh chicken" in the oven.

I really wish NBC would release all the movie mysteries on one huge DVD set. I already have the Columbo set, but would love to see a complete set with all the mystery movies.