Mannix was an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors. Mannix was the last series produced by Desilu Productions.

Scenario [link]

During the first season of the series Joe Mannix worked for a large Los Angeles detective agency called Intertect, which was the planned original title of the show.^[1] His superior was Lew Wickersham, played by Joseph Campanella with the agency featuring the use of computers to help solve crimes. As opposed to the other employees who must wear dark suits and sit in rows of desks with only one piece of paper allowed to be on their desk at one time, Mannix belongs to the classic American detective archetype and thus usually ignores the computers' solutions, disobeys his boss's orders and sets out to do things his own way. He wears plaid sport coats and has his own office that he keeps sloppy between his assignments. Lew has cameras in all the rooms of Intertect monitoring the performance of his employees and providing instant feedback through intercoms in the room. Unlike the other Intertect operatives, Mannix attempts to block the camera with a coat rack and insults Lew, comparing him to Big Brother.

To improve the ratings of the show, Desilu head Lucille Ball and the producer Bruce Geller brought in some changes^[2] making the show similar to other private eye shows. Lucille Ball thought the computers were too high tech and beyond comprehension for the average viewer of the time and had them removed.^[3]

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 has assistance from the L.A. police department, the two most prominent officers being Lieutenant Art Malcolm (portrayed by Ward Wood) and Lieutenant Adam Tobias (portrayed by Robert Reed). Other police contacts were Lieutenant George Kramer (Larry Linville) and Lieutenant Dan Ives (Jack Ging).

Character [link]

Joseph R. "Joe" Mannix is a regular guy, without pretense, who has a store of proverbs to rely upon in conversation. What demons he has mostly come from having fought in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Unfortunately a sizable percentage of his old Army "buddies" turn out to have homicidal impulses against him. In the episode "The Cost of a Vacation" it is revealed that Mannix worked as a mercenary in Latin America.

Joe Mannix is notable for taking a lot of physical punishment. During the course of the series he is shot and wounded over a dozen separate times, or is knocked unconscious around 55 times.^[4] Mannix frequently took brutal beatings to the abdomen; some of these went on quite a long time, particularly by the television standards of the era. Whenever Mannix gets into one of his convertibles he can expect to be shot at from another car, run off the road by another car, or find his vehicle sabotaged. Nevertheless he keeps his cool and perseveres until his antagonists are brought down. While making the television pilot The Name is Mannix, Connors dislocated his shoulder running away from a From Russia With Love type pursuit from a helicopter,^[5] and broke his left wrist punching a stuntman who happened to be wearing a steel plate on his back.

Mannix lives at 17 Paseo Verde, West Los Angeles. Following military service in the Korean War, Mannix attended Western Pacific University on the GI Bill, graduated in 1955 and obtained his private investigator's licence in 1956. He is a black belt in Karate. In the first season he carried a Walther PP semi-automatic pistol. From the second season on Mannix carried a Colt Detective Special snubnosed revolver in .38 Special caliber.

Production [link]

Gary Morton, the husband of Lucille Ball and head of Desilu Studios, noticed a 1937 Bentley convertible being driven by Mike Connors. A car enthusiast, Morton began talking about cars to Connors when he remembered a Desilu detective show coming up that he thought Connors would do well in.^[6]

Mannix featured a dynamic split-screen opening credits sequence set to theme music from noted composer Lalo Schifrin. Unusual for a private detective series, the Mannix theme is in triple time, the same signature used for waltz.

The show's title card, opening credits and closing credits roll are set in variations of the City typeface, a squared-off, split-serif face that was long used by IBM Corporation as part of their corporate design and still appears in their logo. This refers to the computers used by Intertect in the first season. The dot over the "i" in Mannix had the appearance of a computer tape reel. This was also removed after the first season.

Mannix's automobiles [link]

The automobile was a focus of Joe Mannix's professional life, and he had a several of them as his personal vehicle in the eight-year run of the series. Those were:

• Season 1 – 1966 Mercury Comet Caliente convertible (pilot episode: "The Name Is Mannix"), 1967 Mercury Comet Cyclone convertible (one episode only: "Skid Marks on a Dry Run"), 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 four-door hardtop then a 1967 Ford Fairlane 500 four-door sedan after the Galaxie got shot up – both were Intertect company cars (one episode only: "The Cost of a Vacation"). In all other Season 1 episodes Mannix drove a 1967 Oldsmobile Toronado roadster "customized" by George Barris, builder of TV's Batmobile from the 1960s Batman ABC series, since the producers wanted a convertible and Oldsmobile never produced an open-topped Toronado. Because of a change in episode run order ("The Cost of a Vacation" was the second episode of Mannix shot after the pilot although it was the sixth episode CBS broadcast), the one-shot appearances of the Galaxie and Fairlane were after the Toronado had been established as Joe's car.
• Season 2 – 1968 Dodge Dart GTS 340 convertible "kustomized" by George Barris with functional hood scoops, Lucas Flamethrower driving lights, blacked-out grille, racing-style gas filler cap, molded-in rear spoiler, blacked out taillight panel and custom taillight lenses. The car was originally red but Mannix Executive Producer, Bruce Geller, wanted it changed to a British Racing Green, which Barris did. (This car still retains its original red paint under the carpet.) A Motorola car-phone (a crazily expensive and rare item in 1968) was installed. Rader mag wheels like those on the Batmobile were originally installed by Barris, but changed later in the '68 season to Cragar S/S chrome wheels. George Barris also installed his own "Barris Kustoms" emblem on the lower part of each front fender. There were no duplicate 1968 Mannix Darts built; it is a "1 of 1" car. This car was used in both the 1968 and '69 seasons of Mannix.

Even though a ’69 Dart was built by Barris to replicate this car, the ’68 was regularly seen in the ’69 series. (In the 1969 episode "A Penny for the Peep Show" both the ’68 and ’69 Darts are used in the same shot, to elude a police tail on Mannix, but there was no explanation in the episode why or how two identical customized Dart convertibles show up together.) The '68 car was reportedly sold to a secretary at Paramount Studios and then was lost for decades until being discovered near a ranger station in the California mountains. It has since been restored to its original Mannix/Barris condition and was featured in Hemmings Muscle Machines, December 2009 issue. The Dart and its intriguing history was also featured on the TV show "Drive" on Discovery HD Theater in 2010. The TV show reunited the car with Mike Connors for the first time in over 40 years. The car is currently owned by C. Van Tune, former Editor-in-Chief of Motor Trend Magazine, who conducted the TV interview with Mike Connors and who also wrote an article on the Mannix Dart for the Summer 2011 issue of Motor Trend Classic Magazine. In that article, the Dart is reunited with Mike Connors, George Barris, and Mannix stuntman Dick Ziker. Another article on the famous Dart is being published in the October 2011 issue of Mopar Action Magazine.

• Season 3 – 1969 Dodge Dart GTS 340 convertible "kustomized" by George Barris to replicate the '68 Dart. This car was totalled in a wreck soon after being sold, following its use on the series.
• Season 4 – 1970 Plymouth Cuda 340 convertible
• Season 5 – 1971 Plymouth Cuda 340 convertible
• Season 6 – 1973 Plymouth Cuda 340 convertible (actually the 1971 car updated with 1973 grille, headlamps, front fenders and tail lights)
• Season 7 – 1974 Dodge Challenger 360 Coupe
• Season 8 – Chevrolet Camaro LT

Peggy Fair's cars were less prominent, but in seasons 2 – 8 they included a Simca 1204 hatchback, Dodge Colt sedan and finally a Chevrolet Vega hatchback coupe.

Awards and honors [link]

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".

Royalties lawsuit [link]

In May 2011, Connors filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Paramount and CBS Television Studios, claiming that he was never paid royalties from the Mannix series.^[7]

DVD releases [link]

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first 6 seasons of Mannix on DVD in Region 1. Season 7 will be released on July 3, 2012.^[8]

In Region 4, Shock has released the first three seasons on DVD in Australia.^[9][10][11]

In popular culture [link]

• Mike Connors played Mannix in a 1971 episode of Here's Lucy, "Lucy and Mannix Are Held Hostage". He also appeared as Mannix in a 1976 Bob Hope TV special called Joys, which involved the great comedians and television detectives in a parody of Jaws.^[12]
• Connors, William Conrad (Cannon) and Barry Newman (Petrocelli) played themselves as actors hired to play crimefighters in an episode of The Fall Guy, titled "Private Eyes" (Season #4, Episode #6; original air date: October 24, 1984).
• In 1997, Mike Connors reprised the character on CBS's Diagnosis: Murder in the episode “Hard-Boiled Murder”. It was a sequel to “Little Girl Lost”, a 1973 Mannix episode from the original series' seventh season, with many of the guest stars (Pernell Roberts, Julie Adams) from that episode reprising their roles.
• Connors last appeared as Mannix in the 2003 film Nobody Knows Anything!.
• Mannix was parodied twice in Mad Magazine: Mannecch (December 1968) and Manic (July 1972); and on radio by comedians Bob and Ray in Blimmix.
• In the February 26, 1992 episode of Seinfeld entitled, "The Limo," Jerry and George are attempting to get out of a moving limousine. George suggests they open the door and roll out, prompting Jerry to say, "We're doing 60 miles an hour. Who are you, Mannix?"
• Mannix became a long- running riff in many Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. Mike Connors also appeared in at least one of the movies riffed by MST3K, Swamp Diamonds (billed as "Touch" Connors)
• The Lee Goldberg novel Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop, based on the television series Monk, has two significant homages to the first season of Mannix:
  • After Adrian Monk's consulting contract with the San Francisco Police Department is voided by Captain Stottlemeyer, Monk and Natalie Teeger are hired by a private investigations agency called Intertect, the same agency that Joe Mannix worked for in the first season of Mannix. It could even be suggested that at some point, Intertect folded operations in Los Angeles and moved to San Francisco.
  • In one scene during the novel, Monk is seen examining a case file regarding the apparent home invasion murder of a man named Lou Wickersham (Monk rules the man's death a suicide), an homage to Joe Mannix's boss at Intertect, Lew Wickersham, during Mannix's first season.

References [link]

Notes

External links [link]

• Mannix at the Internet Movie Database
• Mannix at TV.com
• DVD review of series and production history
• Discussion of Mannix on the Home Theatre Forum, "Mannix is Coming!" thread"