Originally Posted by Todd View Post
I expected the article to be praising the 12th season, given your "disturbingly positive" description. However, the author hadn't seen any episodes yet (perhaps they weren't complete?), so that didn't occur.

But yes, this came off as a puff piece.

Two things I wondered after reading it:

1) Did James MacArthur really give short notice he was leaving? Did CBS just screw up and forget to tell Jack Lord in time? It does look like Jack and James exited the situation not liking each other too much.

2) Is it really true that the show mainly ended because Jack Lord wanted it to be done? Or was the decision made for him, and he was just saving face in the article?

My understanding is that MacArthur's decision to leave the show came rather late in the day. As for Lord, I don't know, but it seems implicit in Smith's comments that he thought it could very likely the last season.