TV Series (Apr 2022)
Dial M for Markham, McNutley and the Milland Show: Remaking and Reimagining Ray Milland’s Established Cinematic Image for 1950s Television
Abstract
This article investigates Ray Milland’s work on 1950s television, focusing on the two series he starred in: Meet Mr McNutley/The Ray Milland Show (1953–55) and Markham (1959–60). Over seven decades, the Welsh-born Milland moved seamlessly between British and American cinema, theatre, radio and television, effortlessly fitting the many roles and genre assigned to him, whether as lead or supporting player. His rise to stardom was particularly slow, his first leading man role was in his thirty-fourth film, The Jungle Princess (Wilhelm Thiele, 1936), and won his only Academy Award for his sixtieth film, The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945). After twenty-one years at Paramount, and with his ‘stardom years’ behind him, Milland became an independent agent and began appearing regularly on television, firstly starring in all 77 episodes of the situation comedy Meet Mr McNutley, a role he concurrently portrayed on radio. Whilst establishing a new televisual image for Milland, the series conversely borrowed more familiar comedic elements of his cinematic persona as bumbling professors embroiled in ludicrous situations. The crime drama Markham employed other, somewhat opposing, but still recognisable facets of Milland’s established screen persona as tough, virile and suave leading man displayed across his dramas and crime films since the 1930s. This article not only explores the star persona that Milland had developed across several decades in film but analyses how his long-established image was reimagined and reinvented for television, a particularly little-studied element of his career. This reassessment of Milland’s acting skills and range broadly argues for the need to re-examine the images and careers of overlooked stars such as Milland who moved to television in its early days.
