''McMillan & Wife'' (known simply as ''McMillan'' from 1976–77) is an American

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eithe ...

television series that aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are ...

from September 17, 1971, to April 24, 1977. Starring

Rock Hudson Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Gold ...

and

Susan Saint James Susan Saint James (born Susan Jane Miller; August 14, 1946) is an American actress and activist, most widely known for her work in television during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, especially the detective series ''McMillan & Wife'' (1971–1976) and ...

in the

title role The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...

s, the series premiered in episodes as part of Universal Television's

wheel series A wheel series, wheel show, wheel format or umbrella series is a television series in which two or more regular programs are rotated in the same time slot. Sometimes the wheel series is given its own umbrella title and promoted as a single unit ins ...

NBC Mystery Movie ''The NBC Mystery Movie'' is an American television anthology series produced by Universal Pictures, that NBC broadcast from 1971 to 1977. Devoted to a rotating series of mystery episodes, it was sometimes split into two subsets broadcast on dif ...

'', in rotation with ''

Columbo ''Columbo'' () is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired on NBC f ...

'' and '' McCloud''. Initially airing on Wednesday night, the original lineup was shifted to Sundays in the second season, where it aired for the rest of its run. For the final season, known as ''McMillan'', numerous changes were made that included killing off St. James' character of Sally McMillan.

Plot

''McMillan & Wife'' revolved around Stuart McMillan (

), a 50-ish former criminal defense attorney who becomes

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

police commissioner, and his attractive, bright, affable wife Sally (

), who was in her 20s. The episodes often found Mac and Sally attending fashionable parties and charity benefits before solving robberies and murders.

John Schuck Conrad John Schuck Jr. (born February 4, 1940) is an American film, stage and television actor. He is best known for his role as Sgt. Charles Enright in the 1970s crime drama ''McMillan & Wife''. He also played Herman Munster in the late-1980s ...

, as McMillan's likeable, somewhat bumbling aide Sgt. Charles Enright and

Nancy Walker Nancy Walker (born Anna Myrtle Swoyer; May 10, 1922 – March 25, 1992) was an American actress and comedian of stage, screen, and television. She was also a film and television director (lending her talents to ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', on w ...

as Mildred, the couple's sarcastic, hard-drinking maid, provided comic relief. Sally is pregnant at the end of season 1, but this is apparently

retconned Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subse ...

away and is never mentioned in later seasons. She is pregnant again in season 4, and has the baby (a boy) in the final episode of season 4. The baby is not seen or mentioned in season 5.

Cast

Episodes

The show ran for five seasons as ''McMillan & Wife'' and a sixth season as ''McMillan'' on the NBC television network, from September 17, 1971, to April 24, 1977, for a total of 40 episodes.

Popularity

Like the other two original shows in the ''NBC Mystery Movie'', ''McMillan & Wife'' was an immediate hit. After its network run on NBC, it appeared regularly as part of ''

The CBS Late Movie ''The CBS Late Movie'' is a CBS television series (later known as ''CBS Late Night'') during the 1970s and 1980s. The program ran in most American television markets from 11:30 p.m. ( ET/ PT) until 2:30 a.m. or later, on weeknights. A ...

'' and later, in the form of syndicated reruns on local and cable television in the United States. On January 1, 2015, ''McMillan & Wife'' began airing on

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...

as part of the "MeTV Mystery Movie" late night block. That block included the other two long running Sunday Mystery Movie series, '' McCloud'' and ''

'', the Wednesday Mystery Movie series ''

Banacek ''Banacek'' is an American detective TV series starring George Peppard that aired on the NBC network from 1972 to 1974. The series was part of the rotating '' NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie'' anthology. It alternated in its time slot with several o ...

'' and the ''

Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a cli ...

'' television movies. Each week featured a different series, with the series airing every night during its feature week. Beginning in 2022, the series airs on

Cozi TV Cozi TV (stylized on-air as COZI TV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations division of NBCUniversal. The network airs classic television series from the 1960s to the 2000s. The network origina ...

as part of a "Columbo & Company" programming block, paired with episodes of

The NBC Mystery Movie ''The NBC Mystery Movie'' is an American television anthology series produced by Universal Pictures, that NBC broadcast from 1971 to 1977. Devoted to a rotating series of mystery episodes, it was sometimes split into two subsets broadcast on dif ...

programs

, McCloud ,

and

Quincy, M.E. ''Quincy, M.E.'' (also called ''Quincy'') is an American mystery medical drama television series from Universal Studios that aired on NBC from October 3, 1976, to May 11, 1983. Jack Klugman starred in the title role as a Los Angeles County med ...

Cast and series name change

For its sixth and final season, the series underwent a major retooling. Susan Saint James left after being unable to come to terms on a new contract. Nancy Walker also left the series before the sixth season premiered in 1976 to star in The Nancy Walker Show, a sitcom that was cancelled after 12 episodes. With these developments, the show became known as ''McMillan'' and Sally was killed off in a plane crash along with the couple's never-seen son. Mac, now a widower, moved out of the family home and into a luxury apartment. Mildred, meanwhile, was written out as having left the McMillans to open her own diner on the East Coast, which was an inside joke playing up her role as Rosie the waitress in a then-ongoing series of commercials for Bounty Paper Towels. John Schuck had his role reduced as he joined the sitcom '' Holmes and Yo-Yo'', on which show director Leonard B. Stern was working. Meanwhile, Sergeant Enright was promoted to Lieutenant and became Deputy Chief of the San Francisco Police, which took him away from his position as Mac's liaison.

Martha Raye Martha Raye (born Margy Reed; August 27, 1916 – October 19, 1994), nicknamed The Big Mouth, was an American comic actress and singer who performed in movies, and later on television. She also acted in plays, including Broadway. She was honored ...

, who had played Mildred's sister Agatha in an earlier episode, joined the series full-time with Agatha taking over Mildred's role as Mac's housekeeper in his new apartment.

Richard Gilliland Richard Gilliland (January 23, 1950 – March 18, 2021) was an American television and movie actor, best known as JD Shackleford in ''Designing Women'' (1986–1992). Life and career Gilliland was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He attended high sc ...

joined the cast as Enright's replacement, Sergeant DiMaggio, who always introduced himself by saying "no relation" (in reference to

Joe DiMaggio Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...

Home media

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

released the first season of ''McMillan & Wife'' on DVD in Region 1 & Region 2 in 2005/2006. On May 21, 2010,

Visual Entertainment Visual Entertainment Inc. (VEI) is a home video/television distribution company that is based in Toronto, Ontario. An independent label, it has released several well-known TV series on DVD, some through sub-licensing deals with other labels such ...

announced it had acquired the rights to distribute ''McMillan & Wife'' on DVD in Region 1. They subsequently released seasons 2–6 on DVD in Canada and the USA. All US releases are distributed by

Millennium Entertainment Alchemy (formerly Millennium Entertainment) was an American independent global film distributor based in Los Angeles, California. The company acquired and distributed feature films, television series and specialty programming. History Millennium ...

. On November 30, 2012, VEI released ''McMillan & Wife: The Complete Series'' on DVD in both the US and Canada. This 24-disc set features all 40 episodes of the series as well as bonus copy of '' The Snoop Sisters'' Complete Collection. In Region 4,

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatri ...

has released all six seasons on DVD in Australia. On November 20, 2013, it released ''McMillan and Wife: The Complete Collection'', a 19-disc set featuring all 40 episodes of the series.

Filming locations

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. The address for the couple was once given in the show as 250 Trenton Street. In later episodes a different house was used as the exterior shot of the house. In the final season McMillan, newly widowed, moved into an apartment and the house was never seen or mentioned again.

References

External links

*
''McMillan & Wife'' episode guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:McMillan and Wife 1970s American crime drama television series 1970s American mystery television series 1971 American television series debuts 1977 American television series endings Fictional married couples NBC original programming Television shows set in San Francisco Television series by Universal Television NBC Mystery Movie English-language television shows American detective television series Television duos Television series about marriage