The Face of Murder

Mr. Thrilling and I were recasting MacMillan and Wife the other night for the remake that I fondly hope someone will make one of these days. They remake cartoons into movies, so why not rework a successful series?

We'd started out recasting Banacek--since that was what we were watching at the time--which was one of Mr. Thrilling's boyhood favorites. He was rather disappointed to learn that I did not care for Banacek in my formative years--in fact, I faithfully skipped every episode. Anyway, Mr. Thrilling envisions them bringing Banacek back as a MOVIE, and therefore he selected George Clooney for the title role. I tried to tell him that we were working with a TV Land budget here--and that no one would be interested in a Banacek movie (even with Clooney, who has aged rather well--at least I really liked him in that flick where he played the smarmy lawyer...what WAS the name of that film?). Mr. Thrilling, however, is a man of conviction. He also saw Mark Wahlberg as the chauffeur, but that would only work if we were going to really beef up the chauffeur's part. Mr. Thrilling is SO unrealistic about these things. There was also that really annoying girl-woman character (Callie? Cassie?), but we didn't get around to casting her last night. Maybe that chick who played Karen Cisco?

Anyway, then we moved on to casting MacMillan and Wife, which is (was) the FAR BETTER show, IMHO.

I was handicapped in my selections by the fact that I just don't watch much current television. Basically I hang out at TCM and the Mystery Channel (which should be called the Horror channel, since the mysteries they show are few and far between--do NOT subscribe to STARZ on the basis of the Mystery Channel; you'll be wasting your time and money).

So anyway I came up with Jennifer Love Hewitt as my new Sally, to which Mr. Thrilling made gagging sounds. I was sort of going by the fact that she LOOKS like I picture Sally MacMillan--and I think she can sort of act (I saw her in a horror flick a while back), and although she seems like she would be ghastly at comedy, you never know.

Mr. Thrilling suggested Sandra Bullock, who is adorable, granted, but waaaay out of our budget, as I tried to remind him.

So then I threw out Angie Harmon, who is my absolute favorite TV actress. Eventually we both agreed that she would be terrific in a PI show--and maybe we should write one for her--but that she wasn't really Sally MacMillan material. Sally has to be sort of...well, not ditzy, exactly...but a little naive and a little impulsive. Cute. More cute and intuitive than brainy.

So then I turned my expert attention to Mac, since I would rather think about handsome men anyway. I came up with Chris Potter.

He's Canadian, so it was difficult for Mr. Thrilling to nix him, however, based (I think mostly) on the fact that I was raving just a little too much about how abso-damn-lutely perfect Chris was--and maybe I should play Sally, Mr. Thrilling said, no. He said Chris was too young to be a police commissioner with a heroic war record and a thriving law practice.

Mr. Thrilling suggested CLIVE OWEN. He suggests Clive Owen for just about everything, so I don't feel that it really counts as a choice. I'm partial to Clive too, don't get me wrong, but not for Mac.

So here are our choices for the MacMillan and Wife remake:

For the role of Mac:
Chris Potter
Chris Noth
Jeff Fahey
Peter Wingfield

Here's my logic--you want someone experienced with a lot of "character," but who hasn't been...um...overused. These guys are all underappreciated and can really act.

For the role of Sally:
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jenna Elfman
Neve Campbell

Yes, I know. Not a lot of variety there. I really need to watch more TV.

Yeah, THAT'S what I need to do! Because that writing thing is fun, but where is THAT going to get me?

Hey, remember to vote for your favorite MacMillan and Wife cast. Vote smart and vote often, that's what I always say.