When the show changed to "McMillan", Lt. Enright said that Mac was returning to work--and a very active social life--a mere 18 months after Sally was killed. That seems to me to be a mighty quick recovery from such a tragic loss. In fact, Mac became a real cowboy, dating woman after woman, forgetting Sally's existence. His maid Agatha kept calling him a "bachelor", not a "widower".
So much for a happy, loving marriage!
I think the viewers would have had very little tolerance for a morose, grieving Mac going around solving crimes - this was an escapist show, after all. So that's why they moved the timeline up so much, so it was less jarring than Mac going around dating only six months after Sally's death.
shareIt would have been nice though if they'd at least acknowledged her death with a little more dignity, like perhaps a couple minutes of a montage of Mac remembering Sally with scenes from other shows (something they did in an episode where she'd been kidnapped and he feared for her life), or just a few rueful words about how tragic it had been but he has to move on now. Having it done as a throwaway line by Enright I think is what infuriated most people.
share[deleted]
Hi All,
Let's remember the actors are just employees. SSJ wanted more $$ and the studio was furious- very much like Charlie Sheen and 2 and a half men. So, what does the studio do?- they kill off the character! Actor is an employee with no choice.
What I find sad is that Rock Hudson apparently never realized the whole show rested not on him, but on the chemistry he has with SSJ. When she went, so did the show. The last season really sucked and never should have been produced. You could see the studio desperately trying every young starlet week after week, to try and find that same chemistry as he had with SSJ. No one did and so it died that last year.
With all the money Rock had, you wonder why he didn't tell the studio he wouldn't do the show without SSJ- pay her or you loose me! Remember in the finals seasons of the Soprano's, that's exactly what the cast did, they all banded together and negotiated collectively.
Universal paid the actors one time and they have made over $500 million on the reruns form McMillan. They would have had a whole another season o2 two of shows to rerun if they had paid SSJ what she wanted. Some studio exec who said fire SSJ really f'ed up on that one, but executives never have been known for smarts.
The show's ratings had declined to the point where NBC almost cancelled it at the end of season 5. Season 6 almost certaiinly was going to be the last season even had Susan Saint James stayed. So the thinking was - why pay the money, and instead a revamping of the show might change things. Didn't work, but I understand why they tried.
shareHi,
Thank you for the info, I was 10 years old then and we really enjoyed the show. My favorite episode was the one in 1971 where the guy locked them inside the house and put the big plastic bag over it and tried to fumigate them! Some years ago, I went to 1134 Greenwich St in SanFran which is the actual condo where the exteriors were shot. The next door neighbor had lived there since 1970 and told me that Rock Hudson and Susan St James used his bathroom all the time, he said he used to keep a pot of coffee for them. he said they were real nice and very polite and professional and I really enjoyed hearing his stories. If you look at the 1947 movie Dark Passage, the seen where Bogie is up on top of the roof of Madge's building, he does a pan of the skyline of SF and you can see the vacant lot that would become the McMillan condo complex! Right next to that building, which is still there, you can see a city water reservoir. That was filled in and built on as well.
Thanks again for the info, I know ratings are the mother's milk of any show and I did not realize it was already on the cusp.
They shouldn't have killed her. They could have sent her to Europe on a trip or had her off screen for the rest of the series.
I never watched the show during its original run but I have seen a bunch of episodes and I like the show but ever since I found out how they killed her, it kind of cooled me on the series. I know its a little silly but to have killed her in such a meaningless way...it just made the series a tragic as a whole for me.
If they had given her a more meaningful death, it would have been better. But to gloss over the entire event as if she had never been there to begin with...I did not like that.
I like the show, I just wish they hadn't done that. It was such a disservice to the fans.
The character was killed off and forgotten because they were angry at SSJ for quitting the show. It was handled very badly and there was really no practical way to continue the show without her. I have stated before that it might have worked better to have McMillan resign as Commisioner and become a PI. He could have resigned after being ordered off a case by a corrupt Mayor or Governor , then continuing his investigation privately. It could be explained that Sally was now a stay-at-home mom and no longer got involved in Mac's cases. His assignments could take him out of San Francisco , thus no at home scenes. Enright could have remained as Mac's Police contact a la Becker in "The Rockford Files".
shareI think the departure of SSJ was very quick in reality. The season had finished and she wanted more money than they were willing to pay. It wasnt as if she had been working with Rock yesterday and wasnt there today. She says in the book Rock Hudson My Story she never got to say goodbye to him and wondered if he was mad at her.
I dont think it would have worked for her to have just disappeared into the background. She was integral to the show in that she helped Mac solve the crimes in her zany way. They could have had her die in some kind of shoot out, accidentally shot, but because her departure happened between seasons they could not have filmed this as she wasnt there for the next season. In other words it wasnt a planned departure.
I think the departure of SSJ was very quick in reality. The season had finished and she wanted more money than they were willing to pay. It wasnt as if she had been working with Rock yesterday and wasnt there today. She says in the book Rock Hudson My Story she never got to say goodbye to him and wondered if he was mad at her.
I dont think it would have worked for her to have just disappeared into the background. She was integral to the show in that she helped Mac solve the crimes in her zany way. They could have had her die in some kind of shoot out, accidentally shot, but because her departure happened between seasons they could not have filmed this as she wasnt there for the next season. In other words it wasnt a planned departure.
She couldn't pick up a phone and call him?
So it goes.
Hi All,
Let's remember the actors are just employees. SSJ wanted more $$ and the studio was furious- very much like Charlie Sheen and 2 and a half men. So, what does the studio do?- they kill off the character! Actor is an employee with no choice.
What I find sad is that Rock Hudson apparently never realized the whole show rested not on him, but on the chemistry he has with SSJ. When she went, so did the show. The last season really sucked and never should have been produced. You could see the studio desperately trying every young starlet week after week, to try and find that same chemistry as he had with SSJ. No one did and so it died that last year.
With all the money Rock had, you wonder why he didn't tell the studio he wouldn't do the show without SSJ- pay her or you loose me! Remember in the finals seasons of the Soprano's, that's exactly what the cast did, they all banded together and negotiated collectively.
Universal paid the actors one time and they have made over $500 million on the reruns form McMillan. They would have had a whole another season o2 two of shows to rerun if they had paid SSJ what she wanted. Some studio exec who said fire SSJ really f'ed up on that one, but executives never have been known for smarts.
COZI-TV recently reran "Philip's Game", which was clearly written to be the first episode of the sixth season (though it was aired third). Shirley Jones is the girlfriend of the week and when she meets up with Mac (she knew him before), she says, "You look...OK. Are you?" She also tells him, "You were always a dream, you and Sally," and Mac quickly changes the subject. Later, Agatha has a conversation with Enright and she says, "I've been here over a year now, since the week after Mrs. McMillan...the plane crash, and you'd never know how he really feels, unless you see him when you think he's alone." Enright says that he thinks Mac is coming along "just fine". Later, the villain of the episode mentions Mac's wife dying "barely a year ago", and Mac again changes the subject.
Shirley Jones also asks Agatha, "What happened to the commissioner's other housekeeper?" Agatha replies, "My sister, Mildred. She inherited a diner and moved east." Nancy Walker, of course, was playing Rosie the diner waitress in those Bounty commercials.
Even James Bond, the altime stickman, shows sentiment for his murdered wife Theresa in some movies.
shareHi All,
Let's remember the actors are just employees. SSJ wanted more $$ and the studio was furious- very much like Charlie Sheen and 2 and a half men. So, what does the studio do?- they kill off the character! Actor is an employee with no choice.
What I find sad is that Rock Hudson apparently never realized the whole show rested not on him, but on the chemistry he has with SSJ. When she went, so did the show. The last season really sucked and never should have been produced. You could see the studio desperately trying every young starlet week after week, to try and find that same chemistry as he had with SSJ. No one did and so it died that last year.
With all the money Rock had, you wonder why he didn't tell the studio he wouldn't do the show without SSJ- pay her or you loose me! Remember in the finals seasons of the Soprano's, that's exactly what the cast did, they all banded together and negotiated collectively.
Universal paid the actors one time and they have made over $500 million on the reruns form McMillan. They would have had a whole another season o2 two of shows to rerun if they had paid SSJ what she wanted. Some studio exec who said fire SSJ really f'ed up on that one, but executives never have been known for smarts.
Wasn't it 8 months, not 18 months?
shareNo, it was 18 months.
shareNo, it was 18 months.I watched an episode two nights ago, where John Schuck's character mentions to the new sergeant that Mrs. MacMillan had died in a plane crash, and I'm pretty sure that he said eight months earlier, not eighteen. I was shocked to see Mac flirting and getting cozy with the female guest star so soon after losing his wife. For a guy who was so madly in love and devoted, it doesn't ring true that he would become a ladies man so quickly.
When was Sally killed? I'm watching on Netflix and Season 6 he's acting like he's single.
share[deleted]
I remember John Shuck saying in 1976 how awful it was that they'd killed her off so flippantly with a reference to a plane crash when she'd been such a big part of the show.
But those NBC Sunday Mystery Movie things felt like an animal from the early-'70s and were dying out by the latter half of the decade anyway.
--
LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA