When Rock Hudson's film career began to fade, he decided to star in the TV series McMillan and Wife, which may have been inspired by the Thin Man films. Hudson was a gifted comedian and the series gave him a opportunity to share his talent in ways he had not been able to do since his pairings with Doris Day in Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, and Send Me No Flowers.In the TV series McMillan and Wife, Rock Hudson plays a San Francisco police commissioner, Stewart McMillan, with a much younger, flower power wife, Sally (Susan Saint James). The story lines sometimes had Mac and Sally attending glamorous parties and charity events while solving robberies or murders. John Schuck performed as the lovable character Sgt. Charles Enright and Nancy Walker was Mildred, the couple's sarcastic maid.
Fun Fact: The interior set of the McMillans' home in the pilot episode was Rock Hudson's real home. In the second episode, they moved and the exterior shots were done on Greenwich Street, in San Francisco. The address for the couple was once given in the show as 250 Carson Street. In later episodes, a different house was used as the exterior shot of the house. In the final season, McMillan moved into an apartment .
Video from the pilot episode: McMillan and Wife (TV series 1971–1977), Once Upon a Dead Man. Sally, drags the commissioner to a charity auction where a theft takes place, which leads to a murder.
Because of a contract dispute between Saint James and the studio, the characters of Sally and their never seen (sometimes mentioned) son were killed off in an airplane crash during the fifth season. With one of the main characters missing, the show was renamed McMillan. Other cast changes included: Mildred left to run a diner (actress Nancy Walker departed to star in her own sitcom); Mac got a new apartment and a new housekeeper, Agatha (Martha Raye), who was Mildred's sister; Sgt. DiMaggio (Richard Gilliland) assisted Mac as Schuck also left for his own series.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the first season of McMillan and Wife on DVD in 2005-2006. On May 21, 2010, Visual Entertainment announced it had acquired the rights to distribute McMillan and Wife, releasing seasons 2 and 3 on June 7, 2011, followed by seasons 4 and 5 on July 5, 2011.
Susan Saint James (born August 14, 1946). Some of her early television performances were two episodes of the first season of Ironside ("Girl in the Night", December 1967 and two months later, playing a different role in the episode "Something for Nothing"). She also had a supporting role in Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968).
From 1968 to 1971, she performed in the series The Name of the Game, winning an Emmy Award for her role in 1969. At the same time she had a recurring role as "Chuck", Alexander Mundy's partner in crime and "friend with benefits" in four episodes of the series It Takes a Thief. She also performed in the pilot episode of Alias Smith and Jones (1971). From 1971 until 1976, she played Sally McMillan opposite Rock Hudson in the series McMillan and Wife and received four Emmy Award nominations.
When she left the show, she co-starred with Peter Fonda in the film Outlaw Blues. She also performed in the vampire comedy, Love At First Bite (1979). Between films, she made a guest appearance in the 1980 episode of M*A*S*H (episode 192: War Co-Respondent). She returned to television, performing in the comedy series Kate and Allie opposite Jane Curtin from 1984 until 1989. She received a additional three Emmy Award nominations for this role. She also performed in guest roles, as the mother of (her real-life niece) Christa Miller in the first season of The Drew Carey Show, and ten years later, as a defense attorney on the February 28, 2006 episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. She also starred in the 1999 Warner Theatre production of The Miracle Worker. On June 11, 2008, Saint James was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
