Customer Reviews

McMillan & Wife - Season One

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

In August 2005, Universal will finally release some long-overdue programs of that '70s mainstay, the NBC Mystery Movie. Tell me you can't hear that whistling theme song in your mind as you read those words!

In March 2005, season one of the most famous Mystery Movie, Columbo, was released. Clearly, Columbo is still popular, as this release was quickly followed with season two. In August, season three of Columbo makes it to DVD, along with (finally!) season one of both McCloud and McMillan and Wife. For the first time in DECADES, we can see these detective shows UNCUT and COMMERCIAL-FREE. This is great news for fans of terrific '70s TV!

Season one of McMillan and Wife consists of one two-hour pilot, ONCE UPON A DEAD MAN, and seven episodes, each 90 minutes long (73 minutes sans commercials). The episodes originally aired from Sep. '71 - Mar. '72, and their titles are:

MURDER BY THE BARREL (directed by John "Gomez Addams" Astin!)
A barrel contains dishes, then a body, then the body disappears.

THE EASY SUNDAY MURDER CASE
A woman's husband and dog are both kidnapped.

HUSBANDS, WIVES, AND KILLERS
Mac and Sally go to a masquerade, where a necklace is stolen.

DEATH IS A SEVEN POINT FAVORITE
A mysterious note is discovered inside a football.

THE FACE OF MURDER
Sally is targeted for murder by a jewel thief.

TIL DEATH DO US PART
Mac and Sally are sealed in their home to be fumigated to death.

AN ELEMENTARY CASE OF MURDER
An old flame of Mac's comes back into his life.

Support '70s detective shows on DVD by picking up all of these babies that you can. Maybe Streets of San Francisco will be next!

I was still in grade school when the Sunday Night Mystery Series came out but watched it every weekend with my mom. McMillian and Wife was always my favorite. Watching the show brings back fond memories of watching with mom, but also of the effervescent Susan St. James, the bitingly funny Nancy Walker, endearing John Schuck and of course the ultra-cool and patient Rock Hudson as the commissioner.

I'll have to echo the comments already aired here about the lack of any special features or inserts. What gives here? Also, the dual layer DVD's are a real drag. How about a little more substance for the season two set, Universal? Don't be so cheap!

Finally, you've got to add in the Mystery Movie whistle theme...

Love the show, so glad to see the DVD's. Let's go Season Two!

PS: Having watched the entire season now, I found a hidden episode with Claude Akins. It's not documented on the DVD packaging, probably because the last 20 minutes are riddled with DVD skips. This episode has Mac and Sally visiting Palm Springs to play golf with Mac's old buddy played by Claude. On the way back in the private plane they're in, the pilot gets shot and Mac has to land the plane in the middle of nowhere. No explanation of how they find a phone, but hey, that's okay. It's still cute, if you can stand the skips at the end. I found it by selecting "play all" on disc 2 side B.

If my review were based solely on the merits of "McMillian & Wife", it would easily score five stars. This modern interpretation of Dashelle Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles from "The Thin Man" is, to its fans, almost flawless television. It was my favorite of the NBC Mystery Movie entries, and today I enjoy it even more than I did then. How delightful to slip back into the more innocent, gaudy, fun times of the 1970's with Mac and Sally.

However, one must beware of DVD compilations released by Universal Studios. Like all of my other Universal sets, skips and sticks beset this one. Two of the eight episodes are ruined, one has a gap of about 90 seconds that is lost to a sticking problem, and another loses almost ten minutes in this same fashion. There are similar comments all over Amazon reviews by others who have had these same problems with Universal sets. We also own the Dragnet set, which skips, sticks, and has a totally jacked menu. We recently purchased the Adam-12 set, and it not only skips and sticks, it appears to have actually damaged our DVD player. Now the machine makes a loud whirring sound, and has begun to skip and stick on ALL DVD's.

I can't imagine what is wrong with those people at Universal, but they are putting out some seriously botched product. Buy any set from them with caution.

Universal seems to be having problems with their DVDs of TV Shows.

I gave my wife the McMillan and Wife Season One set. It freezes and skips throughout. It's a shame because she loves the show. The discs are not damaged in any visual manner...no smudges or scratches. They just freeze.

She gave me the Dragnet series of DVDS...another Universal product.
My joy turned to aggravation though as those Discs kept freezing up as well.
And it is not just our DVD player. We have four in the house and it did it in all of them.

It's obvious Universal is having a problem with the production of DVD's.
I did a little checking on the internet and it appears alot of other people are having the same problems. Universal needs to recall their compilation series.
Evidentially the Adam-12 discs have the same problem.
So be warned, if you buy Universal TV series DVD's, there could be problems.

McMILLAN AND WIFE is a five star show, Universal is a negative 100,000. Do not expect to see any new McMillans from them, this show will have to be farmed out to get released in full. I am so sick of buying the first season of a series only to realize that the rest of the series won't be, like Kojak, etal. Or, you can buy the whole series, one DVD release at a time like I did for the Wild Wild West only to have it then re released WITH the two made for TV movies included and no you can't get the movies separate at this time. Keep ripping us off and sooner or later, no one will bother with your crap.

The original "McMillan & Wife"--a wonderful TV-movie series along the lines of "The Thin Man" films--included only 36 episodes (not counting the few dull "McMillan" outings after Susan St. James departed). So why did Universal decide to issue this cheaply produced "season one" set?

Blank DVDs and plastic cases cost pennies--there's no valid financial reason for any production company to put out double-sided disks. All the complaints about defective disks have hurt sales. And if sales are slow, Universal will abandon the project, leaving those who did buy with only a fraction of the series in their libraries.

It would have been smarter to issue a well-made box set of the entire series--perhaps including a new interview with St. James--and charge a premium price. I'm willing to pay more to get the entire series in good condition. But I'm not willing to pay $25 or $30 for skipping disks when I know the rest of the series may not be released.

McMillan & Wife bring back memories of the good old days. At least they were for me. By today's standards this kind of TV would be considered hokey. But in 1971-1972 this was good clean TV with good plot lines. Please release more of their episodes because I have already memorized the lines for the first six episodes.

I really enjoyed the parts of this DVD set which I could watch. However, after returning 2 sets because they kept hanging up during the same episode, I finally gave up and asked for a refund. It's too bad the studio that released this DVD didn't bother to do an adequate job of quality control on their product.

As a fan of Susan Saint James, I have been waiting a long time for this to be released on DVD. Season 1 was probably the best of the series, but hopefully 2-5 will be forthcoming soon. Quality of the picture is excellent, although some dirt and grain is visible in many scenes. No extras are provided, nor are there any additional flyers inside the package. Fans of the show will be very pleased nonetheless. In my opinion this is the series that elevated Susan Saint James' career and spotlighted her incredible beauty!

Of all the major studios to release movies and television series on DVD, Universal has had, by far, the most problems with defective disks i.e. freeze-ups, skips in scenes, or even to a completely different part of the program. The blame here rests almost entirely with Universal's insistence(until recently)on stamping all the sounds and images onto double-sided disks. This is a difficult manufacturing process involving four different encoding stages, with the latter steps often leaving physical damage to the earliest ones. 20th Century Fox also prefers two-sided disks, but oddly, has not experienced problems to the extent that Universal has. Both Warner Bros. and CBS/Paramount use only single-sided disks, and I am happy to report that of the hundreds of Warner-Paramount titles in my library, NOT ONE has ever given me a problem!

It is impossible to tell if a disk is defective, merely by visual inspection. A badly scratched disk may play just fine, while one you can see your reflection in may skip all over the map. Nor is there any way to tell when buying a disk(s) whether or not you have also bought yourself a load of trouble.

The safest advice is to only buy DVDs new from a reputable dealer. Then, if they are defective, at least you can bring it back for an exchange or refund. Avoid used copies in mint condition. Why on earth would the previous owner give it up(I should talk. I just bought a mint, used McMillan & Wife. Look for a future update!)?

You might also consider upgrading your DVD player to a more high-end model. Expensive or well-engineered units often have circuitry that can compensate for defects in the disks. Ask around, or read Amazon's customer reviews before making a final decision. I've also recently discovered a trick that works well and doesn't cost a cent: As soon as problems begin to rear their ugly heads, press the "Eject" button (not the "Stop" ), and remove the disk. Spin it slightly and then place it back on the tray and reload. With most DVD players, the action usually picks up right where it left off, and in some 70% of the cases, I've found, this does the trick, and there are no more hick-ups (At least for awhile). Its especially helpful with DVD-Rs. However, in the case of those blasted Universal two-sided abortions, all bets are off!