Mannix
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mannix | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Crime Drama |
| Starring | Mike Connors Gail Fisher Joseph Campanella Ward Wood Robert Reed |
| Theme music composer | Lalo Schifrin |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 194 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | September 7, 1967 – August 27, 1975 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
Mannix was a television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS.
Developed by executive producer Bruce Geller (who also created Mission: Impossible), the title character played by Mike Connors (an actor of Armenian heritage) is an Armenian-American private investigator.
During the first season of the series Joe Mannix worked for a large Los Angeles detective agency called Intertect. His superior was Lew Wickersham, played by Joseph Campanella. Mannix belonged to the classic American detective archetype and thus usually disobeyed his boss's orders and set out to do things his own way.
From the second season on, Mannix worked on his own, with the assistance of his loyal secretary Peggy Fair, a police officer's widow played by Gail Fisher (one of the first African-American actresses to have a regular series role). He also had assistance from the police department, the two most prominent officers being : Lt. Art Malcolm, portrayed by Ward Wood and Lt. Adam Tobias, portrayed by Robert Reed. Other cop contacts were Lt. George Kramer (Larry Linville) and Lt. Dan Ives (Jack Ging).
Joe Mannix was a regular guy, without pretense, who had a store of Armenian proverbs to rely upon in conversation. What demons he had mostly came from his having fought in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Unfortunately a sizeable percentage of his old Army "buddies" turned out to have homicidal impulses against him.
Joe Mannix was notable for taking a lot of physical punishment. During the course of the series he was shot and wounded (over a dozen separate times) and/or knocked unconscious far more often. Whenever Mannix got into one of his convertibles he could expect to be shot at from another car, run off the road by another car, or find his vehicle sabotaged. Nevertheless he kept his cool and persevered until his antagonists were brought down.
Mannix featured a dynamic split-screen opening credits sequence set to theme music from noted composer Lalo Schifrin.
For his work on Mannix, Mike Connors was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, winning once, and for four Emmy Awards. Gail Fisher was nominated for four Emmy Awards, winning once, and for three Golden Globe Awards, winning twice.
The series itself was twice nominated for the Emmy Award for best dramatic series, and four times for the Golden Globe Award, winning once. In 1972, writer Mann Rubin won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the episode "A Step in Time".
In 1997, Mike Connors reprised the character on an episode of Diagnosis: Murder. The episode was actually a sequel to a 'Mannix' story from the original series, with many of the guest stars from that episode reprising their roles.
CBS Paramount Television (formerly Paramount Television), which gained ownership of Mannix in 1967 following Gulf + Western's purchase of Desilu Productions, syndicates the program. However, Paramount does not release episodes from the series' first and last seasons into syndication. The reasons for these episodes being omitted from Paramount's syndication packages is not known.
[edit] Mannix's automobiles
The automobile was a focus of Joe Mannix's professional life, and he had a wide assortment them as his personal mount in the eight-year run of the series. These were:
- Season 1 - customised Oldsmobile Toronado (GM never produced a drop top Toronado)
- Seasons 2 - 3 - Dodge Dart GTS 383 convertible
- Seasons 4 - 6 - Plymouth Barracuda convertible
- Season 7 - Dodge Challenger Coupe
- Season 8 - Chevrolet Camaro LT
Peggy Fair's car was less well publicised, but they were a Simca 1204, Dodge Colt sedan and finally a Chevrolet Vega.
