Mannix is Coming! (All things Mannix w/spoilers) (7 Viewers)

[jompaul17]

Almost 7 years since Hank started this thread! Thanks to all the contributors who helped tipped me toward purchasing Season 1, and the rest is history...The first season intrigued me with how it set up the tension between Joe's "street smarts" and the computers' "data smarts," and how often Joe was beat up! In later seasons, it was "The Sound of Darkness" and the episode with Darren McGavin as Joe's Korean War buddy turned into a sadistic killer that really led me to appreciate the show's depths (the latter episode has some wonderful meditations on violence); there are of course many other great episodes in there, but those two pop into my head as pivotal to enhancing my current affection for a show that existed only in the margins of my childhood TV viewing; I was more of a "Rookies" and "Six Million Dollar Man" kid.

My Mannix viewing is currently on "hiatus" until I pick up Season 6 set. Maybe I will watch "summer repeats" of Season 5 in the meantime, to replicate what TV-watching used to be like.

Ron,

Those are a couple of pretty good episodes you mention! We haven' discussed "A Ticket to the Eclipse" much here, but you are right about it being one of the early episodes of series television to explore the inner darkness of its heroic leading character. Admittedly, Star Trek does so as well with "The Enemy Within." But, that involved an explicit split into halves. In Mannix, we get to see Joe having to confront himself as himself.

And the scene does not take very long, really only a few minutes in an episode that is jammed-packed with all sorts of stuff going on, in typical Mannix fashion. But I so distinctly remember seeing it as a kid, and thinking how unusual it was to see Joe as less than perfect like that. It was a beautiful thing, really. The beautiful thing is consistent with Harry's previous post. Joe quickly moves beyond this awareness of something decidedly less than desirable in himself. He is aware of it, and he gets over it. He does not dwell on it -- and he moves on.

He is not an anti-hero. And he is not a perfect hero. He is a middle of the road hero, which is where all true heroism lies, specifically because heroism lies in struggle, itself -- and moving on in the best (most heroic) way we can.

I just can't pick up enough of that kind of spirit. I wish I could inject it directly into my veins. But the only way we seem to be able to infuse ourselves with that is by exposure to certain kinds of story -- and reflecting upon it, projecting ourselves into it.

By the way, "The Sound of Darkness" has a similar theme. Joe has his dark moments. But he moves beyond them. So, it is curious that you would explicitly mention those two episodes.

Also, notice how "A Ticket to the Eclipse" was written by Bruce Geller.

So, I hope it does not take you too long to get to season 6!

But, summer re-runs can be fun to watch (and discuss) too!

 

[jompaul17]

I just wanted to let fans know this news. Hallmark Movie Channel HD will airDiagnosis Murder (TV Series)Joe Mannix- Hard-Boiled Murder (1997) ... Joe MannixThe date is May 15th 1:00 AM. I do not know if this is EST time or CSTtime. I saw it when it first aired even though I was not a fan of the DM series. I had read that Mike would be on the show as Joe Mannix so of course I tuned in. Now I will get my chance to record this one last time to see Joe Mannix again. Sort of a follow up to the show. I also liked his comments about Peggy during the show. I like the fact that us as viewers could draw our own conclusions as to what their relationship had become. The fact they were still together made me want to think in TV land fantasy that they were much closer now.

Mark,

Welcome back to the thread!

No Mannix fan could escape noticing how they left the relationship between Joe and Peggy utterly ambiguous in that Diagnosis Murder episode! I remember watching it first-run and thinking, "Gee, I must have not been the only one that thought there was chemistry there!"

And, that's all they really did -- leave it ambiguous -- just the same way they did in the "real" series.

I've said before that even though I think they did a credible job on the DM episode, I can't consider it the 195th episode of Mannix because Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts did not supervise the script.

Still, it has MC and seeing him slip right back into the role of Joe Mannix after all of those years -- so sweet.

 

[benbess]

Since I know almost nothing about this show, I hesitate to post on a thread with 103 pages and such obvious experts, but....

A couple of questions. Since I've never seen the show, what show from this era would you say you would most compare it to? Or is it really unique when it comes to detective shows?

I assume you folks have all seen that CBS has created new HD masters for this show, all 195 (?) episodes. Are these available anywhere streaming? I assume the chances for blu-rays for this are very low? It sounds, however, like the DVDs are quite good, and so I might give the first season a try at some point.

First, however, I have to work through the dozens of DVDs and blu-rays I've bought and haven't watched yet...

Thanks in advance, Ben

 

[jompaul17]

Since I know almost nothing about this show, I hesitate to post on a thread with 103 pages and such obvious experts, but....

A couple of questions. Since I've never seen the show, what show from this era would you say you would most compare it to? Or is it really unique when it comes to detective shows?

I assume you folks have all seen that CBS has created new HD masters for this show, all 195 (?) episodes. Are these available anywhere streaming? I assume the chances for blu-rays for this are very low? It sounds, however, like the DVDs are quite good, and so I might give the first season a try at some point.

First, however, I have to work through the dozens of DVDs and blu-rays I've bought and haven't watched yet...

Thanks in advance, Ben

Ben,

Welcome to the thread!

Probably the fact that the thread has 103 pages is a good reason to ask questions as opposed to going back through all of the posts!

So, I am absolutely, positively the WRONG person to ask if Mannix is in a class by itself. Because I will go through its antecedents, contemporaries and descendants in great detail to say why I think that is indeed the case. And my guess is that most people do not want to see that.

Conventional wisdom would say that the closest comparison might be The Rockford Files. That is one reason I used that series as a basis for comparison, somewhat, in my book. But, as heroic types, those two characters are very different, in my opinion.

Yes, the thread started by saying that Mannix was being restored with HD masters. Those seem to translate very well to standard DVDs. So, while I'd like to see Mannix in blu-ray, the quality of the DVDs is so much higher than I ever expected to see for this series and so much higher than I've seen for other classic series that I'm just plain grateful for what we have. Still, if the Mannix blu-rays would happen, I'd be banging at the storefront door for them!

There are actually only 194 episodes of Mannix. I don't consider the Diagnosis Murder episode in which Joe Mannix appears to be an episode of Mannix, and that is consistent with the official points of view (Paramount, CBS, the IMDb...).

So far as I know, it is not being streamed. I can't say I am disappointed that it is not -- I'm not a big fan of streaming.

As far as your other DVDs, all I can say is what I used to say on this thread all of the time. Mannix makes you better!

 

[benbess]

....So, I am absolutely, positively the WRONG person to ask if Mannix is in a class by itself. Because I will go through its antecedents, contemporaries and descendants in great detail to say why I think that is indeed the case. And my guess is that most people do not want to see that.

Conventional wisdom would say that the closest comparison might be The Rockford Files. That is one reason I used that series as a basis for comparison, somewhat, in my book...


Yes, the thread started by saying that Mannix was being restored with HD masters. Those seem to translate very well to standard DVDs...

Thanks, jompaul, for the welcome.

I may be the only one, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. Sounds fascinating. And you have a book on the show too? Wow.

Good to hear that the DVDs are sourced from the HD masters. That helps.

My Dad liked the Rockford Files when I was a kid. He used to watch it quite a bit, and I'd watch with him....

PS I see your book at amazon. Looks good. I'll probably get it at some point, but I need to go easy on the credit card after just buying a book on Gunsmoke, and the complete Dick van Dyke show on blu-ray. But probably sometime this summer. You've made me curious about the show if you've been inspired enough to write a book about it. Congrats!

 

[Harry-N]

I'd like to add a little more about JoAnn's book on MANNIX, ("and now, back to mannix"), by way of a story, and a comparison.

It happened that just the other day, I was reading a thread somewhere on the Web about the much-discussed Gary Cooper movie HIGH NOON which got me to thinking. The fact is that it took me forever to discover HIGH NOON. It happened that I was playing with an early CD-ROM that celebrated the LaserDisc releases in the Criterion Collection. This CD-ROM, with its new technology, actually allowed little video snippets of movies to play on your computer. Imagine that!

Well one of the clips was for HIGH NOON. It showed the familiar montage of the clock approaching noon interspersed with all of the townspeople and what they were doing at that moment, the train arriving, and the thundering Dimitri Tiomkin score pulsing to the beat of these cuts. Powerful stuff - and enough to suggest to me that I should see this movie. Not an easy thing to do as I grew up disliking westerns. I tolerated GUNSMOKE only because it was Dad's favorite.

So one day, I happened upon a LaserDisc store that was going out of business and I picked up the Criterion CLV of HIGH NOON. It took yet another prodding, somewhere along the line, to get me to watch the film, but when I did, I was really impressed with it, so much so that I later decided to listen to the commentary track by Howard Suber. I had no idea who HE was either, but was interested enough to listen to his commentary, which was riveting.

In later years, I added a couple of DVD versions of HIGH NOON to my library, but noted that Howard Suber's commentary was missing, so I hung onto that old LaserDisc just to revisit the commentary some day. That day turned out to be this past week, as I finally made the effort to transfer the LaserDisc of HIGH NOON to DVD-R with just the commentary track in an effort to keep the track available for me as older LaserDisc players die off.

While listening to Mr. Suber's commentary, I was reminded many times of the text and themes in JoAnn Paul's book on MANNIX. The idea of heroes, and what they do and how they do it seemed ripped right out of JoAnn's book. It's obvious that she and Mr. Suber share a lot of views.

So that got me to thinking again... (always dangerous) ...wouldn't it be fabulous to someday get JoAnn to sit down and do a commentary track on a MANNIX episode or two? Even a do-it-yourself sync-up of an MP3 track with the episode could be fun.

Harry

 

[jompaul17]

Thanks, jompaul, for the welcome.

I may be the only one, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. Sounds fascinating. And you have a book on the show too? Wow.

Good to hear that the DVDs are sourced from the HD masters. That helps.

My Dad liked the Rockford Files when I was a kid. He used to watch it quite a bit, and I'd watch with him....

PS I see your book at amazon. Looks good. I'll probably get it at some point, but I need to go easy on the credit card after just buying a book on Gunsmoke, and the complete Dick van Dyke show on blu-ray. But probably sometime this summer. You've made me curious about the show if you've been inspired enough to write a book about it. Congrats!

Ben,

Well.. I use Rockford as a big basis for comparison in my book. Some of the precursor to that writing is also way back on this thread.

My mini-thesis is that Joe Mannix is a classic hero, portrayed, written and produced beautifully. He contains some elements that are important to our evolution as good individuals, as classic heroes do.

Since then, we seem enveloped in central characters that are either anti-heroes or all powerful victors. We over-intellectualize everything or we simply bludgeon the bad guy. Since Western Civilization is built on its foundation of story as much as its institutions, I think we've lost something important these past decades -- far more important than we realize -- when we no longer have heroes that portray the struggle we all face as individuals. No one can avoid struggle if they are going to lead a good life. We learn how important it is to face struggle through heroes in story -- and really nowhere else. What if that kind of story is no longer around for us?

Thanks very much for the congratulations on the book. This has been an extremely tough year for me personally, but it's getting to be time where I need to get moving helping promote the book -- however that is done! I have no idea!

 

[jompaul17]

I'd like to add a little more about JoAnn's book on MANNIX, ("and now, back to mannix"), by way of a story, and a comparison.

It happened that just the other day, I was reading a thread somewhere on the Web about the much-discussed Gary Cooper movie HIGH NOON which got me to thinking. The fact is that it took me forever to discover HIGH NOON. It happened that I was playing with an early CD-ROM that celebrated the LaserDisc releases in the Criterion Collection. This CD-ROM, with its new technology, actually allowed little video snippets of movies to play on your computer. Imagine that!

Well one of the clips was for HIGH NOON. It showed the familiar montage of the clock approaching noon interspersed with all of the townspeople and what they were doing at that moment, the train arriving, and the thundering Dimitri Tiomkin score pulsing to the beat of these cuts. Powerful stuff - and enough to suggest to me that I should see this movie. Not an easy thing to do as I grew up disliking westerns. I tolerated GUNSMOKE only because it was Dad's favorite.

So one day, I happened upon a LaserDisc store that was going out of business and I picked up the Criterion CLV of HIGH NOON. It took yet another prodding, somewhere along the line, to get me to watch the film, but when I did, I was really impressed with it, so much so that I later decided to listen to the commentary track by Howard Suber. I had no idea who HE was either, but was interested enough to listen to his commentary, which was riveting.

In later years, I added a couple of DVD versions of HIGH NOON to my library, but noted that Howard Suber's commentary was missing, so I hung onto that old LaserDisc just to revisit the commentary some day. That day turned out to be this past week, as I finally made the effort to transfer the LaserDisc of HIGH NOON to DVD-R with just the commentary track in an effort to keep the track available for me as older LaserDisc players die off.

While listening to Mr. Suber's commentary, I was reminded many times of the text and themes in JoAnn Paul's book on MANNIX. The idea of heroes, and what they do and how they do it seemed ripped right out of JoAnn's book. It's obvious that she and Mr. Suber share a lot of views.

So that got me to thinking again... (always dangerous) ...wouldn't it be fabulous to someday get JoAnn to sit down and do a commentary track on a MANNIX episode or two? Even a do-it-yourself sync-up of an MP3 track with the episode could be fun.

Harry

Harry,

Oh, I love this post!

And you know, we discussed Will Kane in this thread before! Those posts are dated around August 2, 2012. We were comparing heroic types back then, actually.

As I just posted in answering Ben, Will Kane is a prototypical heroic type -- and Joe Mannix is in his mold. I just can't say enough how important it is for those heroes to be around us in story. They help us to endure, overcome and just plain do more in life. They have the power to make us better people, if we bother to pay attention.

Now, there is no way I'd wind up doing commentary on a Mannix DVD, because I wasn't involved in the show's production! But thanks for being so nice as to even mention such a thing!

On the other hand, I'd LOVE to see MC more involved with future releases -- maybe Blu-ray?

Towards that end, MC is interviewed on the forthcoming episode of TV Confidential. I can't wait to hear that. I was also interviewed for the broadcast/podcast, but wasn't there to hear MC. Here is Ed Robertson's post as taken from the Mannix Facebook page....

Join us this week on TV Confidential as we welcome actor Mike Connors (Mannix, Tightrope, Today's F.B.I.), television writer/producer David Breckman (Monk), and author JoAnn M. Paul (And Now, Back to Mannix). Visit our website, www.tvconfidential.net, for more information on broadcast dates and how to listen in.

Mike Connors: Next on TVC
www.tvconfidential.netActor Mike Connors, television writer/producer David Breckman and author JoAnn Paul will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing May 14-19 .

So, now I need to figure out how to listen to all of MC and none of me...

 

[benbess]

Ben,

Well.. I use Rockford as a big basis for comparison in my book. Some of the precursor to that writing is also way back on this thread.

My mini-thesis is that Joe Mannix is a classic hero, portrayed, written and produced beautifully. He contains some elements that are important to our evolution as good individuals, as classic heroes do.

Since then, we seem enveloped in central characters that are either anti-heroes or all powerful victors. We over-intellectualize everything or we simply bludgeon the bad guy. Since Western Civilization is built on its foundation of story as much as its institutions, I think we've lost something important these past decades -- far more important than we realize -- when we no longer have heroes that portray the struggle we all face as individuals. No one can avoid struggle if they are going to lead a good life. We learn how important it is to face struggle through heroes in story -- and really nowhere else. What if that kind of story is no longer around for us?

Thanks very much for the congratulations on the book. This has been an extremely tough year for me personally, but it's getting to be time where I need to get moving helping promote the book -- however that is done! I have no idea!

Very well said. I don't know how to promote your book, but you've made one sale right here. I'm heading to Amazon this very moment to buy a copy. I'm also going to get the second season of Mannix, since it seems that the first season they were going with a somewhat different concept from what the show became.

Actually, I do have one possible idea for how to promote your book: try to write an op ed piece for a newspaper. Since what you're talking about in interpreting Mannix is an idea that goes far beyond this show, and is about the concept of the hero in society more generally, it might have more general interest. If you've never written an op ed, study in detail several that you like in the NY Times, Washington Post, as well as your local paper to get a feel for the form. They usually have a strict word count of about 800, and so probably aim for that. Just a thought....

 

[Mark Collins]

I just want to remind folks that tonight or early this morning 1AM CST or 2AM EST you will get to see Mike play Joe Mannix for the last time on the Hallmark Movie Channel HD on the DM TV series. They play two episodes back to back on DM and the Mannix is the second one so do not be confused. I have only seen it when first ran so I will now have a recording of that episode to add to my collection.

 

[swan4022]

JoAnn, had you considered submitting a proposal to present on Mannix (and thereby promote the book as well; there is usually an area with books on sale) at the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association Conference, to be held in Baltimore Nov. 6-8? They are accepting proposals through June 14, and you can find their homepage by googling "mapaca".

Beware, there is an alpaca association with same acronym, MAPACA!

 

[jompaul17]

Very well said. I don't know how to promote your book, but you've made one sale right here. I'm heading to Amazon this very moment to buy a copy. I'm also going to get the second season of Mannix, since it seems that the first season they were going with a somewhat different concept from what the show became.

Actually, I do have one possible idea for how to promote your book: try to write an op ed piece for a newspaper. Since what you're talking about in interpreting Mannix is an idea that goes far beyond this show, and is about the concept of the hero in society more generally, it might have more general interest. If you've never written an op ed, study in detail several that you like in the NY Times, Washington Post, as well as your local paper to get a feel for the form. They usually have a strict word count of about 800, and so probably aim for that. Just a thought....

Ben,

That is a great suggestion -- and thanks very much for that! I'm not sure how well received an op ed might be, but I strongly believe that our fractured story has more to do with divided government (among other things) than most people realize.

And thanks for buying the book! As a preface, I probably should have put a single page with "And now for something completely different..." So, here's hoping you enjoy it!

Season 2 is a logical place to start watching Mannix. Even I sort of consider season 1 a kind of "bonus" year, where you can go back and see the character, but in a completely different setting and establishing the background he brought with him to season 2. For those reasons, it is all kinds of fun. But, there is a tendency for people to become attached to season 1 (because it really is a good season in its own right) and so they get kind of mad when the premise goes away in season 2, with hardly a mention (although there IS some mention -- which is worth looking for).

Bu that was the way Producers Bruce Geller, Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts did things. They do not spend a whole lot of time looking back. Not even any villains recurred in Mannix! I just don't know how they pulled off all of those different kinds of stories focused on that one character over eight years time. It's incredible -- and it may never be matched again.

 

[jompaul17]

I just want to remind folks that tonight or early this morning 1AM CST or 2AM EST you will get to see Mike play Joe Mannix for the last time on the Hallmark Movie Channel HD on the DM TV series. They play two episodes back to back on DM and the Mannix is the second one so do not be confused. I have only seen it when first ran so I will now have a recording of that episode to add to my collection.

Mark,

And watch for that reference to Peggy! I agree with you regarding the intent -- but really, it is left quite ambiguous!

 

[jompaul17]

JoAnn, had you considered submitting a proposal to present on Mannix (and thereby promote the book as well; there is usually an area with books on sale) at the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association Conference, to be held in Baltimore Nov. 6-8? They are accepting proposals through June 14, and you can find their homepage by googling "mapaca".

Beware, there is an alpaca association with same acronym, MAPACA!

Ron,

Thanks for the suggestion -- I sincerely appreciate it.

I doubt if the book would qualify for such a conference though, because it isn't really an academic book. And I'm not that kind of academic! But because you can't get the academic out of someone once it is burned into them, it has something of a quasi-academic style.

It's just a hybrid -- what you might expect of a very philosophical Computer Engineering academic who found out how important story is to who we are as a culture and as individuals by re-discovering the qualities of her childhood hero and noticing along the way how culture has changed to not have those qualities so much anymore, all focused on how great that series and character was and still is...

...as if that helps.

The book is what it is. I suspect the audience is there who might appreciate it, but that audience might be hard to find.

I also suspect that those who already love Mannix will enjoy the book -- and that is just fine with me. It will be even better if it helps new people find the series or re-discover its qualities -- because that is impetus behind all of this writing. Mannix makes you better!

 

[jompaul17]

More on the Mannix episode of TV Confidential... this is from Ed Robertson, the host:

here is a list of broadcast times and start times in case you want to pass them along:


WROM Radio
Detroit, MI
Wednesday 5/14
8:42pm ET, 5:42pm PT
2:42am ET, 11:42pm PT
Sunday 5/18
8:42pm ET, 5:42pm PT
2:42am ET, 11:42pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at WROMRadio.net

WYYR: Yesteryear Radio
Vero Beach, FL
Wednesday 5/14
9pm ET, 6pm PT
Click the On Air button at WYYR.com

Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 5/16
7:42pm ET, 4:42pm PT
10:42pm ET, 7:42pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at KSAV.org
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSAV

Indiana Talks
Marion, IN
Weekends, various times
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks

KSCO-AM 1080
San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA
KOMY-AM 1340
La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA
Sunday 5/18
11:47am ET, 8:47am PT
Also streaming at KSCO.com

Boost Radio Network
Paramus, NJ
Sunday 5/18
8:42pm ET, 5:42pm PT
Click on the On the Air button at BoostRadioNetwork.com

KHMB-AM 1710
Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 5/18
9pm PT
Monday 5/19
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com
or use the Live365 app on your smartphone and type in KHMB

The Radio Slot Network
San Francisco, CA
Monday 5/19
10:47pm ET, 7:47pm PT
with replays Tuesday thru Friday at 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com

Both interviews will then become available online for listening on demand at TVConfidential.net beginning Wednesday 5/21.

 

[benbess]

Today in the mail was a box with JoAnn Paul's book "and now, back to mannix," along with the second season on DVD. The book seems quite a page turner so far, and I've read up to page 33. On p. 32, there's a sentence that describes some of the importance of a hero like Mannix: "This hero seemed to understand that taking beatings wasn't a reflection of failure on his part, but a part of the process of doing something right." Anyway, I like the book so far, which is not a typical TV show book, but instead more personal and philosophical. There are thoughts here that go far beyond Mannix.

Eventually, I turned on the first episode of the second season of the show. Even though I'm 49, and recall hearing the promos for the show since I was a kid (I remember wondering if there was a show called "Womannix," just like the Six Million Dollar Man had as its sister show in The Bionic Woman), I had somehow never before seen an episode of the show. In terms of PQ, I thought it looked very good for most of it. The almost avant-garde jazz music score by Lalo Schifrin was entertaining and over-the-top. They sure don't write TV scores like this anymore! The show was also nicely photographed and edited. The period details were a hoot, from the clothes, to the cars, to the hairstyles and everything else. It was very nice that the deaf woman shown in the episode was played by an actress, Audree Norton, who actually was deaf. And Mannix was certainly a caring, handsome, and effective hero.

The major problem I had with the episode, which my teen son who watched with me also had, was with the screenplay. There were some good moments and action scenes, and I liked the Alfred Hitchcock-esque battle in the theater at the end. But the bad guys were rather one-dimensional and underdeveloped. I know this is mostly what the conventions were at the time for this kind of crime drama, but imho shows like Star Trek, The Virginian, and some others often developed more complicated adversaries.

There also was what seemed to be something of a logic flaw early in the show. At first Mannix tells the husband that he's more likely to get his wife back if the police are involved and he doesn't pay the ransom. But the man doesn't agree, and Mannix suddenly seems to think it's all going to work out fine after all, with the wife home safe soon. And then he tells the deaf woman that with a smile a little while later. In fact, the kidnapped wife is already dead at that point, and so his confidence seemed almost like a non-sequitur given his attitude shortly before as well as the general situation. I had a few other quibbles that were a little like that.

Anyway, I think I like the book on Mannix better than the show so far....

 

[Mark Collins]

Back to the DM episode which I watched live and enjoyed it very much. MC was great. The line "Peggy is all the help I need" of course I loved. The other line where is she and the responding on vacation and why do you not join her I did love. Mike just stepped right back into that role as if it were another Mannix episode.

I am so glad Mike played Mannix once more and of course I had to watch the episode it was based on. I had forgot we even had Adam in it. Peggy Adam and we never much comment on how Adam treats Peggy. He KNOWs!!! I always felt that. The interplay between them from the moment Adam and Peggy did a scene he KNOWs. Right from the start when Adam come on the show. He does not treat Peggy as some flunky Joe hired. No way!! I could detail many episodes of dialog between the two but Adam KNOWs

Sorry I just had to say this. Bye for now as always and love reading the new fans views of Mannix.

 

[jompaul17]

Today in the mail was a box with JoAnn Paul's book "and now, back to mannix," along with the second season on DVD. The book seems quite a page turner so far, and I've read up to page 33. On p. 32, there's a sentence that describes some of the importance of a hero like Mannix: "This hero seemed to understand that taking beatings wasn't a reflection of failure on his part, but a part of the process of doing something right." Anyway, I like the book so far, which is not a typical TV show book, but instead more personal and philosophical. There are thoughts here that go far beyond Mannix.

Eventually, I turned on the first episode of the second season of the show. Even though I'm 49, and recall hearing the promos for the show since I was a kid (I remember wondering if there was a show called "Womannix," just like the Six Million Dollar Man had as its sister show in The Bionic Woman), I had somehow never before seen an episode of the show. In terms of PQ, I thought it looked very good for most of it. The almost avant-garde jazz music score by Lalo Schifrin was entertaining and over-the-top. They sure don't write TV scores like this anymore! The show was also nicely photographed and edited. The period details were a hoot, from the clothes, to the cars, to the hairstyles and everything else. It was very nice that the deaf woman shown in the episode was played by an actress, Audree Norton, who actually was deaf. And Mannix was certainly a caring, handsome, and effective hero.

The major problem I had with the episode, which my teen son who watched with me also had, was with the screenplay. There were some good moments and action scenes, and I liked the Alfred Hitchcock-esque battle in the theater at the end. But the bad guys were rather one-dimensional and underdeveloped. I know this is mostly what the conventions were at the time for this kind of crime drama, but imho shows like Star Trek, The Virginian, and some others often developed more complicated adversaries.

There also was what seemed to be something of a logic flaw early in the show. At first Mannix tells the husband that he's more likely to get his wife back if the police are involved and he doesn't pay the ransom. But the man doesn't agree, and Mannix suddenly seems to think it's all going to work out fine after all, with the wife home safe soon. And then he tells the deaf woman that with a smile a little while later. In fact, the kidnapped wife is already dead at that point, and so his confidence seemed almost like a non-sequitur given his attitude shortly before as well as the general situation. I had a few other quibbles that were a little like that.

Anyway, I think I like the book on Mannix better than the show so far....

Ben,

Hang in there with Mannix -- you've only seen one episode and it isn't nearly one of the series best (in my opinion)! It took a little while for the series to find its groove, even after the season 2 re-boot. Judging Mannix by "The Silent Cry" is like judging Star Trek by "The Man Trap." Because the series had no gimmick after the first season, the characters, and especially the main character, had to discover what they were all about. For example, you hardly see any kind of closeness between Joe and Peggy in all of season 2 -- that doesn't happen until the beginning of season 3. Having said that, there are some things I like about season 2, for sure.

Curiously, I don't tend to defend the plots. I even go so far as saying they aren't the feature of the series. When I do that, I get all kinds of pushback saying the plots in Mannix are really good. But, I tend to think they are secondary to matters of character.

Thanks for the good words about the book. It should be interesting to see which gets better, the book or the series

Yep, the book definitely goes beyond Mannix. But, it was the series that got its writer to thinking about everything in that book. And it all ties into the series. Luckily I never wrote a book before, so I didn't realize I was doing it wrong.

Ed Robertson mentioned that I was subjecting myself to criticism by writing such a book. I told him I knew that, and had already received it, on this thread for instance. That part may have been cut out of the interview though. I heard some of it last Wednesday and noticed that quite a bit of editing was done. I also noticed I sounded pretty bad, especially my tone of voice. I guess you have to be used to being recorded to know how that comes across. I'm more used to teaching, which does not translate well to recording. Live and learn... Anyway, MC sounded great!

I suppose there is a tendency to equate "Mannix" with "Man." But it's really just an Irish surname -- Levinson and Link knew someone with that surname in high school and remembered it when it came time to pitch the series, which was almost called "Intertect" anyway. Not sure what would have happened in season 2 in that case...

 

[jompaul17]

Back to the DM episode which I watched live and enjoyed it very much. MC was great. The line "Peggy is all the help I need" of course I loved. The other line where is she and the responding on vacation and why do you not join her I did love. Mike just stepped right back into that role as if it were another Mannix episode.

I am so glad Mike played Mannix once more and of course I had to watch the episode it was based on. I had forgot we even had Adam in it. Peggy Adam and we never much comment on how Adam treats Peggy. He KNOWs!!! I always felt that. The interplay between them from the moment Adam and Peggy did a scene he KNOWs. Right from the start when Adam come on the show. He does not treat Peggy as some flunky Joe hired. No way!! I could detail many episodes of dialog between the two but Adam KNOWs

Sorry I just had to say this. Bye for now as always and love reading the new fans views of Mannix.

Mark,

It was really quite amazing to see MC step right back into that role, wasn't it? He looked quite a bit older, but as if he had played the role yesterday. Just amazing.

But, as I've said before, he had to work harder on that series over a longer time period than any other actor in television history. He was in almost every scene of every episode. And each episode was just about him, save perhaps 1-2 of the 194 that could be said to be about Peggy -- and he was even important in those episodes!

Yes, I've noticed little things about the way Adam and Peggy interact. After "The Girl Who Came in With the Tide" and "The Sound of Darkness," Peggy and Adam seemed to have a kind of closeness that wasn't there between Peggy and other cops. Then again, that was true for Joe and Adam as well, in my opinion. All sorts of little things happen in those scenes that don't happen between Joe and other cop buddies. Robert Reed always talked about how proud he was of his work on Mannix.

 

[bretmaverick2]

Regarding Mannix appearance on DM: Anyone remember the Gambler mini series 'Luck Of The Draw' with Brady traveling west and running into multiple old western heroes?

I would have loved to have seen a similar mini series in which multiple detectives of the 60s, 70s and 80s working together to solve a huge case? Mannix, Rockford, Magnum, Peter Gunn and Burke being together even for brief scenes in one tv movie?

That woulda been a ton of fun!