MAC, THE 'MERRY WIDOWER'
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Ankhet1056 — 15 years ago(November 20, 2010 08:06 PM)
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 wayit 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 withI did not like that.
I like the show, I just wish they hadn't done that. It was such a disservice to the fans. -
garth8769 — 15 years ago(January 25, 2011 11:02 AM)
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".
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sharon-matthews4 — 14 years ago(April 24, 2011 09:30 PM)
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. -
sharon-matthews4 — 14 years ago(April 24, 2011 09:32 PM)
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. -
uofmme1 — 11 years ago(March 04, 2015 11:29 PM)
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. -
Sjbradford — 12 years ago(October 20, 2013 04:09 PM)
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 lookOK. 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. McMillanthe 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. -
uofmme1 — 11 years ago(March 04, 2015 11:00 PM)
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. -
hernemesis — 10 years ago(January 01, 2016 11:33 AM)
No, 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.
In the next episode he's on a plane, flirting with another woman and has a passionate kissing scene with her later in the episode, while in another scene he flirts with a new widow and says maybe he should come back after she had finished grieving (paraphrasing). Very inappropriate, especially for a police commander.
I loved Mac with his wife, but really don't like Mac.2 and I'm not surprised that it ended when it did. -
PrometheusTree64 — 10 years ago(June 23, 2015 01:46 PM)
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: