MovieChat Forums > McMillan & Wife (1971) Discussion > Why was Sally always called Mrs. McMilla...

Why was Sally always called Mrs. McMillan?

posted 11 years ago by eliz7212-1
4 replies | jump to latest

This used to drive me nuts. I'm watching an old episode and no one calls her Sally. Not Enright, Not Mildred. Always Mrs. McMillan.

They were all friends, no?

And I know it shows a measure of respect but Sally was so young.

I do remember an episode where Mildred and Sally were going on some investigation and Sally says: 'you should call me Sally"

This is the only thing that bugged me about this show and I can't imagine that it didn't bug anyone else

[–] Tobey 11 years ago

I think what you wrote about respect is right on the nose, regardless of her age. Mildred has probably been a housekeeper all her life and would never dream of calling her employers anything but Mr. or Mrs.

Enright would do it out of respect for both Mac and Mrs. McMillan, he always seemed like a gentleman.

[–] Movie_map 10 years ago

She was Enright's boss' wife and Mildred's boss. So calling her Mrs. McMillan seems appropriate. Besides, she usually referred to Enright by his rank.

[–] eliz7212-1 10 years ago

I hear you but because they were all friends I would have thought that Sally would have said "Please call me Sally". I guess I am completely wrong. lol

I had a co-worker (many many years ago) and we had a supervisor who was the boss' daughter. Her name also was Sally. My co-worker refused to call her by her last name because she was younger than all of us. My co-worker would call her Sally. I once said "Aren't we supposed to call her Mrs. Mody because she is our supervisor?" My co-worker then replied "I don't care, she's younger than me and I don't call anyone younger than me Mrs. Anything". After a while she was fired.

Thank god I never called that supervisor by her first name. lol

[–] bmills76 10 years ago

I think it was mostly out of respect. It was also a different era & I think people were more respectful in general.