Winter Kill
was the pilot film for a potential Andy Griffith TV series, to be titled
MacNeil
. Griffith plays the easygoing sheriff in a Northwestern ski resort town (actually Big Bear, California). The object of Griffith's attentions is a mysterious serial killer, who leaves puzzling spray-painted messages at the scene of each crime. The plot was adapted from the 1972 James Garner film
They Only Kill Their Masters
, which was set in Southern California.
didn't sell, but Griffith and his producer/manager Richard O. Linke attempted to promote the concept with two subsequent TV movies:
Adams of Eagle Lake
, in which Andy played the same basic character with a different name, and
The Girl in the Empty Grave
(77), wherein Griffith appeared again as Sam MacNeil.