Thu 9 Jul 2020
A TV Episode Review: McMILLAN & WIFE “Murder by the Barrelâ€(1971) .
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[18] Comments
McMILLAN & WIFE “Murder by the Barrel.†NBC, 29 September 1971 (Season 1, Episode 2). Rock Hudson (Police Commissioner Stewart McMillan), Susan Saint James (Sally McMillan), John Schuck (Sgt. Charles Enright), Nancy Walker (Mildred). Guest Cast: Kenneth Mars, David Huddleston, Vito Scotti. Director: John Astin.
According to Wikipedia, this second episode of the series was preceded by the pilot “Once Upon a Dead Man” on 17 September 1971, while IMDb calls this the first episode. (The pilot they call episode 0.) The pilot was two hours long; the episodes of the series itself varied between 90 minutes or two hours long; this one runs 90 minutes, including commercials. I’m not sure how long it lasted as part of NBC’s Mystery Movie wheel series, but at least at the beginning, it ran in rotation with Columbo and McCloud.
“Murder by the Barrel†begins with the McMillans moving into their new home, but with Mac having left for the office, Sally finds a body in one of the barrels, one that her grandmother’s best china is supposed to be in. Of course, when Mac and Sgt. Enright get there, the body is gone. What follows is a hearty mixture of laugh-out-loud comedy and detective work that’s at least adequate, split about fifty-fifty.
There are a lot of suspects – everyone that the three leads comes across is somehow connected with the case, which of course begins with the moving company as the focus of all their attention. Even though Rock Hudson had the bigger name at the time, I think that the more than outgoing Susan Saint James is the real star of the show – a throwback to days of Nora Charles and Pam North and lots of other female halves of many many other detective duos, each in their own distinctive way, of course.
Wordplay is a strong key to the comedy. A full minute is spent, for example, with the three of them in a police car riffing on the difference between shipping barrels and storage barrels: You can ship in a shipping barrel and store in a storage barrel, and you can store in a shipping barrel, but you can’t ship in a storage barrel.
Well, I thought it was funny.
It is no wonder that the series was on for six years. The last season was a dud, though. Because of a salary dispute with Susan Saint James, Sally McMillan was killed off, and the show tried to go on without her, emphasis on the word “tried.â€
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For as long as it stays up on YouTube, here’s a video of this particular episode:
July 9th, 2020 at 12:26 am
Mike Tooney has talked about some of the episodes of this series earlier on this blog, three that were based on stories by Edward D. Hoch. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=32176
July 9th, 2020 at 2:46 am
Little-Known Fun Fact:
Susan Saint James wasn’t the first choice to play Sally McMillan.
Rock Hudson had cast approval over who his leading lady would be – and he didn't want a co-star who'd steal the spotlight from him.
Universal-TV proposed two different up-and-coming actresses for Sally, both of whom Hudson vetoed (reasons disputed to this day).
One was Diane Keaton.
The other was Jill Clayburgh.
Susan Saint James was the compromise choice from the Universal contract list.
The rest, you know …
July 9th, 2020 at 10:40 am
An interesting comment, Mike. I had the privilege of r reading the initial television pilot which had been sent to Patrick O’Neal, at the time a friend of mine. Pat was seriously enthusiastic relative to the series’ potential, while I frankly did not get it. As for the women, all three would have been fine, and Hudson made the right choice. There is a lot more to casting than talent and on a series you have to want to know these people, perhaps for years.
July 9th, 2020 at 11:55 am
It was the chemistry between Hudson and Saint James that made this show so watchable. The scenes of them in bed at the end of the day were great. Invoking the “pillow talk” films Hudson made with Doris Day. Saint James had been making some great appearances as recurring characters on “It Takes A Thief” and “The Name Of The Game”. A “salary dispute” means that they weren’t paying her what she was worth, and she was too smart to go along with it.
July 9th, 2020 at 4:32 pm
I enjoyed MCMILLLAN & WIFE long long ago. As Matthew says, the chemistry between Hudson and Saint James was part of the appeal of the series. I’ll have to track down those episodes based on Edward D. Hoch stories and rewatch them.
July 9th, 2020 at 7:40 pm
I watched the show back when it was on as often as I could, but those were the days when I was teaching, and sitting down for a long 1 1/2 to 2 hour movie at night was a luxury I often didn’t couldn’t afford. And do you know, I don’t remember the final season (without Sally) at all.
July 9th, 2020 at 7:41 pm
Virtually the definition of lightweight entertainment, but often fun for that. The best episodes caught something of the Nick and Nora/Jerry and Pam vibe, and Hudson and St. James never edged into the smug self satisfaction that sometimes plagued HART TO HART. It was a comfortable fit between COLUMBO and MCCLOUD on a revolving basis and the length generally a benefit to plot development rather than an excuse for filler.
It has a kind of timeless comfort zone quality when watched today.
July 9th, 2020 at 9:01 pm
I wish there was a ‘like’ button for your comment, David.
July 10th, 2020 at 6:41 am
People watched this series for the comedic supporting cast. Rock Hudson performed the role of straight man very well but needed strong likable support characters.
The series was well formatted. Mac had his wife Sally for romance and adventure. He had his lovable sidekick Sgt Enright (John Schuck) for the police sections. And some may have enjoyed Nancy Walker’s Mildred for home hijinks.
So when all that support left the audience with them.
SPOILER: did they really have to kill her off? it took the fun out of the show.
July 10th, 2020 at 11:04 am
Personally I could have done without Nancy Walker, but I have to agree that the role she has in the comedy portion of the series was pretty much essential. I’m guessing, really, but weren’t there times when she was also involved in the detective end of things?
What I found interesting is that she doesn’t turn up (and for the first time in either this episode or the pilot, or so I read somewhere) until about halfway through. She should have been there at the beginning, helping the McMillans move in, but for whatever reason, she’s not. (All of a sudden she’s just there, helping Sally hang up drapes.)
As for killing Sally off at the beginning of the last season, you’re right. You can chalk that up as one of the most boneheaded decisions about a TV series ever.
On the other hand, what could they have done? Divorce would have been out of the question, and she couldn’t have been away visiting her sick mother all season.
A rhetorical question, really. What they could have done was to have paid Susan Saint James what she deserved.
July 10th, 2020 at 2:22 pm
Meanwhile, back at the Susan Saint James Fan Board:
I just happened to remember something I read Back In The Day.
TV Guide did a profile sometime in the ’70s about Henry Slesar, who was headwriting The Edge Of Night, a job he’d had for some years.
The story took note of many other writing activities of Slesar’s, among which was “story development” for McMillan And Wife.
That title could mean just about anything, of course; Slesar was based in New York, so any contribution he made to Hollywood-based McMillanwould have been long-distance.
What came to mind here was this:
On daily soaps, it’s not uncommon for killed-off characters to return from that state, with either a recast or (better yet) the original star coming back in triumph.
On Edge, Slesar pulled off a few such resurrections over what eventually became a 16-year tenure as storyteller-in-chief (I think; correction welcomed if needed).
It occurred to me that if NBC had decided to keep McMillan another year or so, possibly Henry Slesar (or someone like him) might have been engaged to revive Sally McMillan – perhaps as the subject of a “very special” sweeps-period whodunit …
… Hey, stranger things have happened in TV …
July 10th, 2020 at 4:30 pm
It was not as common as it is today or in soaps for 70s prime time to kill off a character. Today her and the baby’s death would be no big thing, but in the 70s it was rare (I think of NICHOLS but what other series from that era tried it?).
Today they would end the series as syndication plays less of a role in the financial success of TV series and there is less need to suck as many episodes as you could from a series.
But it was greed that killed Sally McMillan and spoiled the show for the fans. I suspect it would be better remembered and had done better in syndication if Mac, Sally and baby had a happy ending and one less season.
July 13th, 2020 at 10:06 am
A follow-up of sorts:
I was spending the day at YouTube, looking for random items of interest, and found a podcast that Susan Saint James and her husband Dick Ebersol did with a friend, earlier this year.
The Ebersols have been married for 38 years; they now live in Hawaii, in what Susan describes as “delirious retirement”.
Sometime this year, Susan Saint James turns 74; to use the common term, she has aged quite well.
The callers to the podcast were mainly old friends, who called to swap stories and have fun, as all of you who visit this doubtless will as well.
After all this time, I have never learned how to link.
Just go to YouTube and type Susan Saint James in the search box, and you’ll find it (that’s what I did, anyway).
July 13th, 2020 at 10:52 am
Mike
I think this is the one?
July 13th, 2020 at 10:08 am
Steve:
Since you’ve mentioned that you don’t like 13 comments in a post …
… never let it be said that I didn’t aim to please!
July 13th, 2020 at 10:55 am
I was able to intercede on my own, Mike, but thanks!
Not that I’m superstitious or anything.
February 20th, 2022 at 12:27 am
McMillan & Wife. My goodness. I haven’t thought about this series in a long time. Now, I’m suddenly missing it. A really fun program from back when the world was still sane and normal.
February 20th, 2022 at 12:35 am
p.s. Nancy Walker: the savants at mysteryfile.com/blog/ really need to review Neil Simon’s “Murder By Death” …and for that matter, where is Sam Neill in “Reilly: Ace of Spies” (!)