4 Things You Never Knew About ‘Scarecrow & Mrs. King’
Scarecrow and Mrs. King aired on CBS from 1983 to 1987, and quickly won fans with its clever mix of spy action and everyday life dramedy. Starring Kate Jackson as Amanda King, a divorced housewife, and Bruce Boxleitner as Lee Stetson, a top-level Agency operative known as “Scarecrow,” the show follows their unusual partnership and slow-burning romance that started with a chance meeting at a train station.
Fans of the show may know the main story, but here are a few things you probably never knew about Scarecrow and Mrs. King:
1 Kate Jackson’s iconic necklace appeared on SNL
Warner Bros./Everett Collection
That beautiful heart-shaped diamond necklace she wore during the series wasn’t just a costume piece. Jackson bought it way back in 1979, before she hosted Saturday Night Live. She wanted something special that would catch the light against the black silk blouse she planned to wear that night. Little did she know, it would become a subtle trademark for her character.
2 The actor playing Amanda’s ex-husband had an interesting connection to Jackson
Gene Trindl/TV Guide/Everett Collection
Sam Melville, who later portrayed Amanda’s ex-husband Joe King, had already worked with Jackson years earlier; the two played a married couple, Mike and Jill Danko, on the 1970s cop drama The Rookies. Their on-screen reunion in Scarecrow and Mrs. King brought a nice layer of familiarity, even though Joe doesn’t appear until Season 3 (in fact, Melville even made another appearance in Season 2 as a completely different character).
3 Bruce Boxleitner returned to the spy genre decades later
Greg Gayne/NBC/Everett Collection
More than two decades after Scarecrow and Mrs. King ended, Boxleitner revisited the spy genre with guest appearances on Chuck in 2007. That show also featured a spy-civilian team-up, proving that the chemistry and fun of this kind of partnership never really go out of style.
4 You can see a crew member during Season 1
Warner Brothers/Everett Collection
If you’re a sharp-eyed fan, you might have caught a little behind-the-scenes surprise in Season 1, episode 4. When Amanda runs out of her house after being told an RV is coming, you can spot a crew member’s hand and pole briefly visible on the right side of the screen. Oops!
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