Several changes were wrought upon McMillan and Wife for its sixth and final season on the air. Whatever its length, the series, for the most part, adhered to a well-worn but highly entertaining formula: No matter what they did or where they went, the McMillans invariably stumbled upon a criminal case, with Mac handling the "official" investigation and Sally providing backup in her own busybody fashion. The series would remain a Mystery Movie fixture throughout its run, in the process occasionally expanding from 90 to 120 minutes an episode. During its first season on the air, McMillan and Wife was one of several rotating 90-minute components of The NBC Mystery Movie, a weekly crime anthology. Added to the cast at this point were Nancy Walker as the McMillan's acerbic housekeeper, Mildred, who was frequently and reluctantly drafted into amateur sleuthing by the indefatigable Sally and John Schuck as police sergeant Charles Enright, who definitely was not as slow-witted as he looked. A Thin Man for the '70s, Once Upon a Dead Man promptly spawned a spin-off TV series, which premiered September 29, 1971, as McMillan and Wife. Helping Mac solve the murder at hand (though not without resistance from Mac) was his highly intelligent young wife Sally, played by Susan Saint James. Hudson was cast as Stewart "Mac" McMillan, the wealthy, fashion-plate police commissioner of San Francisco. A longtime television holdout, movie star Rock Hudson made his TV-movie debut in Once Upon a Dead Man, originally telecast by NBC on September 17, 1971.
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