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

The Nanny Complete Series

     The Nanny is an American sitcom that ran from 1993 to 1999 for a total of 6 season and 146 episodes. Produced by Fran Drescher and her husband Peter Marc Jacobson as a starring vehicle for Fran the show was a fish out of water story. Fran plays Fran Fine an about to be 30 year old who after breaking up with her fiancé is jobless, living with her parents (the amazing Renee Taylor plays her Mother), and selling cosmetics door to door. After a chance knock on a door in a swish part of New York City and the butler who answered the door mistaking her for the new nanny, she sees a better opportunity and tries to squeeze her way in with a chance, despite Niles (the butler, played by Daniel Davis) quickly realizing she is not the nanny they were expecting she ends up with the position as they are in a somewhat desperate position. British actor, Charles Shaughnessy plays Mr. Sheffield, a distant father who since the death of his wife has not found a way to connect with his kids and further threw himself into his work as a broadway producer. In a loose take of the sound of music Fran plays the Maria role and rides into save the day and the children (Nicholle Tom, Benjamin Salisbury, Madeline Zima) from this beige existence of grief and propriety.

     Over the first series we see the kids open up and really start to bloom and come to life as Fran manages to walk the line between honouring their mother and helping them move on with their life. As a result of the unconventional ways she goes about this we sometimes see conflict arise with Mr.Sheffield who seems to have never encountered someone with such chutzpah before (slightly unbelievable as he does work in theatre but we go with it). The push and pull relationship between them develops early on and a will they/won’t they element becomes a key element of the show. The chemistry between the two is undeniable but the plot and circumstances surrounding the two makes it something you know isn’t going to happen quickly as there are some excellent roadblocks set up around the two of them.

     Mr. Sheffield’s role as a Broadway producer provides excellent chance for gueststars over the course of the series, sweeps week/month was always extra special, and some of whom weren’t often doing tv spots at the time.

 

     The show is easily watched by children (I was young when I first watched) but upon rewatching as a adult there are a lot of jokes and innuendo packed into the episodes that went way over my head at the time (& I couldn’t quite believe when I watched more recently). Definitely layered comedy and something that you can enjoy as a adult while the kids are watching tv. (And I would say enjoy, even if you don’t have kids or just want to watch it on your own). The writing is strong and ahead of it’s time in how it dealt with lgbtq+ portrayals and issues (remember the aids epidemic was ranging when this show started airing), race, religion, and gender issues. They were not being jammed into the episodes willie-nillie but it was a show that lead with love on that front, and took the opportunities presented to reinforce positive stereotypes rather than negative.

     I made a video after the passing of Ann Morgan Guilbert last month talking more aboutsome of the ways the show impacted me, if you are interested you can see what I had to say here.

     Now onto the packaging... This is a Shout Factory release from 2015 and comes a the complete series and a disc of bonus features. Also included is a nice booklet on glossy, much heavier than usual paper, with extra pictures and the episodes and a brief description of each included.

booklet

     As I mentioned in my video, the outer box is the heaviest duty case I have ever seen. This is not going to bend or warp from being picked up or being left on your shelf.

     The seasons are packaged in three standard size DVD cases, each case holding 2 seasons. The discs are on front and back cover as well as interior flip trays. They are not stacked, so are easy to find and take out, an ideal situation for preventing damage to discs. The discs have pictures on them and are multi-coloured and easy to see and read. The season and disc number is written in the same spot across all season in bold writing with a high contrast background. The discs of each season have a different colour prominently featured, making it easier still to identify what season is what and where they belong as the disc colours match they case exterior. Making this a vision impaired friendly set on that front. Closed captioning is also provided for all episodes.

 

discs inside case holding season 1 and 2

     As for bonus features this set has an exclusive to the complete set extra disc with new interviews that tell the behind the scenes story of The Nanny and a Making of The Nanny feature. beyond that, select episodes have commentary provided by Fran and others involved with the show.

bonus disc

     Overall, this is one of my favourite sets. Shout Factory rarely disappoints but this has to one of my favourites from them so far. If you are wanting to revisit The Nanny or have been thinking about thinking about purchasing this set, I would say there is nothing in the packaging to worry about and the series is still a fun, enjoyable watch all these years later.

     What is a show you would like to see a complete set of/ Shout release? I’ve got a few still on my list Coach, Living Single, and Caroline in the City being high on the list. I would love to hear some that you would like to see out soon, so let me know in the comments below.

     Be sure to check out my Youtube channel if you haven’t before. I post new videos every Wednesday and often an extra one at the weekend as well. I’d love it if you’d subscribe and it’s definitely where I am most active.

     I hope you are having a great week!

Come and find me other places on the internet!
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/anniethyme
Twitter: @ThymeAnnie https://twitter.com/ThymeAnnie
Instagram: @ANNIETHYME https://www.instagram.com/anniethyme/?hl=en
Blog: http://anniethyme.blogspot.ca/

Cheers Complete Box Set Packaging Information

Cheers is an American sitcom which ran for 11 seasons in the 80's and 90's. It starred Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Kirstie Alley, John Ratzenberger, George Wendt, Rhea Perlman, Woody Harrelson, Kelsey Grammer and Nicolas Colasanto.

  In this set they have split the series 1-6 and 7-11 which are respectively housed in large plastic containers (kind of like those pencil boxes from the 90's). Inside each one is a plastic insert that is similar to a book with one disc being held on each page.  You can easily flip through the discs to find what you are looking for and no discs are stacked on top of one another.

On the inner cover of each plastic box is a list of episodes and the disc they are on. Their are no episode descriptions but I am glad they at least included the episode  titles. As it is such a successful show it will not be difficult to find more information online if that is what you prefer.

These two plastic cases come housed in an exceptionally sturdy box that even has artwork on the inside!  This is something I haven't seen on a new set in quite some time and was a small touch that I really appreciated especially as the quality of everything else was also good.

The one thing I wish were different is the writing on the  disc itself. The discs are gray and silver and it can make them very difficult to read, a small irksome matter in an otherwise exemplary set! 

From what I can see several other recent releases are also packaged like this.  It looks like Fraiser, Matlock, and McGyver (mcG definitely is as I have seen it) and I'm guessing others might be as well. But for now these are the ones I'm aware of.

Here is a video of me displaying the set 'in action' if you are interested!  

I hope you are having an enjoyable day!

See you soon,

Annie.  x

First Video || Decoy Bride Review

Hi people of the Internet!

-The Decoy Bride-

 So I just posted my first ever video to YouTube.  It is a review or maybe better described as some personal observations/thoughts about the movie The Decoy Bride. Anyone who manages to find this blog post I would love it if you would go and check out this video. 



The Decoy Bride- Back of case.

The Decoy Bride- inside of the case.

If you are looking for this movie I have seen it a bunch of places online.  I have linked a few below.

Canada:  Chapters/Indigo

America:  Amazon
Netflix

UK: Amazon

I hope if you haven't seen the movie already you will check it out.
Thanks for reading,
Annie