Wednesday, 17 August 2016

McMillan and Wife Complete Series Packaging Review & Demonstration



McMillan and Wife is an American tv movie mystery series that ran for forty episodes between 1971 and 1977 Starring Rock Hudson, Susan Saint James, Nancy Walker, and John Schuck. It was part of the NBC Movie Mystery wheel series which also included Columbo and McCloud.  The episodes are movie length and often split into 2 parts when the show is aired in syndication.



Rock Hudson stars as the likeable Stuart 'Mac' McMillan, police commissionaire  of San Francisco.  (Somewhat) newly married to Sally, whom has a great role up until the final series where she was written out (the show just went by McMillan that year).  Much like Columbo (or many other tv mysteries from the time) it is set up as a procedural and Mac tends to solve the case by the end of the episode.  Although their are tense moments (some episodes more than others) overall the show is pretty lighthearted especially by today's standards.  Which isn't in any way said to take away from the show which is well written and thoroughly enjoyable.  Susan Saint James' character of Sally is better fleshed out than many of the wives/girlfriends on tv. Her 'personality' and behaviour was consistent episode to episode and didn't seem to change based solely on what the writers needed that week. The show was the better for her being in it and it's a shame they decided to do the last season without her. Their were some great episodes in that final season, and even if they had done it without her it seemed unnecessary and odd to have written her and the baby out the way that they did as it failed to drive the story forward in any significant way and felt more like a hindrance to the stories at hand.

  John Schuck plays Mac's right hand man and is the perfect costar and character for Rock to play off both in drama and the comedic moments. The contrast in the energy they bring to the screen makes for always enjoyable scenes that have a lovely frisson to them.



Nancy Walker plays the McMillan's housekeeper.  You will recognize her as a wonderful character actress and she had starred with Rock Hudson in numerous movies before this  project.  They also appeared on several variety shows together over the years.  They were real life friends and that chemistry carried over nicely to the screen.  The absurdity of the height difference (she was less than 5 foot and he was well over 6) as well as the contrast between the characters they tended to play and it always elevated the comedy, and the drama. As the wayward maid, Mildred is just an absolute delight.  Her relationship and conversations with Mrs.McMillan are a delight and she really is the something that elevates the show to something special.



The packaging for the series is nothing too special but is by no means inferior.  Housed in a decently thick cardboard box that holds the three cases inside (each holding 2 seasons of the show).  One small thing I noticed as soon as I opened the box was that of these three cases the 2 thicker ones were black and the slimmer one is clear plastic- it's a small thing, but if that type of thing will bother you be aware that it might be the case.



The reverse side of the cover has the episode information on it.  On the clear case this is easy to read by simply moving a disc, for the black cases you can flip the cover if  you want to be able to see the episode info.






The discs are easy to access and take out and as an added bonus they are multi-coloured and easy to read which means it's never to much of a phaff to find the one you want to play.  Closed captioning is available on them as well.

To see this packaging in action check out my video for it here.

If you have this set let me know what you think of it!  And if you are a Nancy Walker fan please tell me so I know you are an awesome person with excellent taste! :)

I hope you're having a great week,
All the best,
Annie





Friday, 12 August 2016

Giant Yarn Haul * *August 2016

This post will be updated when better weather prevails and I can take some more pictures!

From August 8th until the 20th the Spinrite factory in Listowel, Ontario is having their annual August tent sale!  This year their is a different mix and selection from previous years and I picked up some great deals and interesting yarn.  You can see what I bought here in this youtube video where I show you what I purchased:

As promised in the video here are the worsted and soft worsted weight pictures.  You can see a bit of a difference which although not huge, makes a difference to the overall finished product. 

soft worsted (top, brighter colour), & regular worsted weight (on the bottom) yarn for side by side comparison

tent sale worsted

worsted and soft worsted (brighter colour that crosses over top) yarn from the spinrite tent sale


Listowel and the spinrite outlet, is not too hard to get to if you live in the southern or south western region. Less than an hour from Kitchener-Waterloo, about an hour  from Guelph or Kincardine, 2 hours from Sarnia or Barrie, an hour and 20 minutes from London, or an hour and three quarters from the St.Thomas, Hamilton or Mississauga regions(depending on which side you live on).  It's a pleasant bucolic drive once you get on your way! 
 
 
Leave a little extra time if you are going to be passing through Mitchel as they have some construction happening on the main road through.

 
Listowel also has a great health food store in Pandora's Pantry and an awesome shoe store if you have hard to fit feet or are in the market for a nice pair of shoes. (links to both if you click on either)


I will get some more pictures up soon, it's been a grey, stormy day so not the best for pictures.  But more will be posted soon. 
Let me know if you get to the tent sale yourself!  I'd love to hear if you found any gems for yourself and what you thought of it! 

Have a great weekend!
Annie x