In 1973, McGavin played Oliver Spencer in the original pilot film "The Six Million Dollar Man". McGavin starred in the comedy "Zero to Sixty" (1978), produced by his wife, Kathie Browne, in which he portrayed a divorced man attempting to sort out his life. In 1983, he starred as "Old Man Parker", the narrator's father, in Bob Clark's comedy "A Christmas Story". He portrayed a middle class father in 1940s fictional Hohman, Indiana, who was endearing in spite of his being comically oblivious to his own use of profanity and completely unable to recognize his unfortunate taste for kitsch. Blissfully unaware of his family's embarrassment by his behavior, he took pride in his self-assessed ability to fix anything in record time, and carried on a tireless campaign against his neighbor's rampaging bloodhounds. The film was a moderate box-office success and went on to become a classic holiday film in the years since its release.