Line #38 Series/Mannix


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mannix_1.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Mannix with Lew Wickersham...]]
3	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mannix_2.jpg]]
4	[[caption-width-right:300:...and with Peggy Fair.]]
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6	''Mannix'' is an American DetectiveDrama television series starring Creator/MikeConnors as PrivateDetective Joe Mannix. Created by [[Creator/LevinsonAndLink Richard Levinson and William Link]] (also known for ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' and ''Series/MurderSheWrote'') and developed by Bruce Geller (''Series/MissionImpossible'', which through ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' shares a universe with ''Mannix''), it was the last show produced by Creator/DesiluStudios (which also originated ''Mission: Impossible'') before its acquisition by Creator/{{Paramount}}. It aired on Creator/{{CBS}} from 1967 to 1975. The showrunners Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts would later create [[Series/CharliesAngels a popular detective show of their own]].
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8	During the first season of the series, Mannix works for a large UsefulNotes/LosAngeles detective agency called INTERTECT that utilizes state-of-the-art (for its time) computer equipment to 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 desks at one time, Mannix belongs to the classic American detective archetype; thus he usually ignores the computers' solutions, disobeys his boss's orders, and sets out to do things his own way, all the while outsmarting and mocking his superior, Lew Wickersham (Creator/JosephCampanella).
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10	To improve the ratings of the show, Desilu head Creator/LucilleBall made some changes, making the show similar to other private-eye shows. Ball thought the computers were too high-tech and beyond the comprehension of the average viewer of the time and had them removed.
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12	From the second season on, Mannix works on his own with the assistance of his loyal secretary Peggy Fair (Gail Fisher – one of the first African American actresses to have a regular series role), a police officer's widow. He also receives help from the Los Angeles police department, the two most prominent officers being Lieutenant Art Malcolm (Ward Wood) and Lieutenant Adam Tobias (Creator/{{Robert Reed\|Actor}}). Other police contacts are Lieutenant George Kramer (Creator/LarryLinville), who had been the partner of Peggy's late husband, and Lieutenant Dan Ives (Jack Ging). In the second season, he also employs the services of a competitive private investigator, Albie Loos (Joe Mantell), as a sort of investigative gofer.
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14	The series concluded after 8 seasons on an episode that did not give closure to the show. However, two decades later, Mannix would reappear in a {{Crossover}} with ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' to solve the loose ends of "Little Girl Lost" in the episode "Hard-Boiled Murder", where Mannix finally makes good on his promise to Tina Reynolds to solve her father's murder despite growing older and developing an arterial blockage. This served as the backdoor finale to the adventures of Mannix and left him on a high note as he continued to pursue his detective work with a renewed sense of health and a healthy infusion of new casework to go home to. It also reveals Dr. Mark Sloan is the one responsible for treating Mannix's many injuries on the job all along, who must operate on Joe to save his life. This episode also established ''Mannix'' sharing a universe with ''Series/{{Matlock}}'', ''Promised Land'', and the ''Series/MissionImpossible'' franchise by way of those shows having crossovers with ''Diagnosis: Murder'' (with ''Promised Land'' being a two-part, two-show crossover and the other two being post-cancellation guest appearances from characters from those shows), as well as ''Series/JakeAndTheFatman'', the parent series of ''Diagnosis: Murder'' and itself was inspired by a ''Matlock'' episode, and ''Promised Land'' parent series ''Series/TouchedByAnAngel''.
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17	!!This series contains examples of:
18	* AmnesiaEpisode: "What Happened To Sunday?" has Mannix having amnesia. Given his notorious propensity for sustaining head injuries, it's surprising it took until season 4 for this trope to turn up.
19	* BlandNameProduct: "Holiday House" stands in for "Holiday Inn" in "Intent to Kill".
20	* CircusEpisode: "Once Upon a Saturday", where Mannix is hired to investigate bizarre accidents plaguing a traveling circus.
21	* CoolCar: Mannix drove a 1968 Oldsmobile Toronado convertible that was modified by famous car customizer George Barris. The Toronado was popular enough that it got its own model kit. And once per season, Mannix would wind up driving a new vehicle, and Peggy had her own fair share of fancy rides.
22	* DayInTheLimelight: "The World Between" is a Peggy-centric episode.
23	%%* DeadPersonImpersonation: [[spoiler: "A Pittance Of A Faith."]]
24	%%* DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler: "Bang, Bang, You're Dead".]]
25	* DrugsAreBad: In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5MTJv63wgg Warning: Live Blueberries]]", there's a Timothy Leary {{Expy}}, Prof. Wilson (Phil Leeds), who runs a meditation center where people "turn on". The blonde chick of the week is shown pleading with a friend to return with her to "the center of the earth" to experience "the taste of blue and the colors of twelve." (Yes, that's Music/BuffaloSpringfield [including Music/NeilYoung and [[Music/CrosbyStillsNashAndYoung Stephen Stills]]] playing in the nightclub scene.)
26	* EveryCarIsAPinto: It was routine for a car to explode into flame after it drove off a cliff... ''even before impact, while still in mid-air''. Someone apparently liked this so much that an example showed up in the TitleSequence so we could [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM3vxbesg1A&feature=related=related see it every week!]] (It's about 6 seconds in.)
27	* FakedKidnapping: [[spoiler:The plot of the very first episode, "The Name Is Mannix." It goes even further; not only is the kidnapped girl in on it to extort money from her hoodlum father, her mother is too.]]
28	* FramedFaceOpening: Mannix appears in the opening in a square rectangle surrounded by smaller rectangles and squares representing computer punch card patterns.
29	* FullyAbsorbedFinale: The last televised adventure of Mannix takes place about twenty years later as a special guest crossover with ''Series/DiagnosisMurder''.
30	* HardboiledDetective: Mannix was pretty old-school hardboiled for a late-'60s/early-'70s TV detective.
31	* InstrumentalThemeTune: A {{jazz}}y, up-tempo number composed by Music/LaloSchifrin of ''Series/MissionImpossible'' fame.
32	* LatexPerfection: In "Edge of the Knife," a boy gets into a car with his father, only for it to turn out to be a man wearing a latex mask. When Mannix finds the guy who made the mask, he's played by one actor, then pulls his face off to reveal another actor.
33	* MushroomSamba: In "Death Is the Fifth Gear," Mannix is driving in a race when he starts to hallucinate and wrecks the car. He comes to in the hospital, and spends the rest of the episode trying to figure out what's going on while battling paranoia and continuing hallucinations.
34	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Karen Steele's Australian accent in "Harlequin's Gold" is ''atrocious'' (not that the other Aussie accents on display are much better.)[[note]]other than Don Knight's[[/note]] British actress Kate Woodville's American accent wavers distractingly in "What Happened To Sunday".
35	* OneWordTitle: The series itself (also a ProtagonistTitle), and eight of its episodes ("Huntdown", "Deadfall", "Sunburst", "Overkill", "Catspaw", "Lifeline", "Scapegoat", "Hardball").
36	* ProtagonistTitle: The series takes its name from the name of its protagonist, Joe Mannix.
37	* {{Retool}}: In the first season (1967-68), the title character worked for a detective agency called INTERTECT that utilized state-of-the-art (for its time) computer equipment to solve crimes. However, Mannix generally disregarded the computers and the agency's rules to solve crimes his own way. Creator/LucilleBall (''Mannix'' was the last show produced by Creator/DesiluStudios) decided that the computers were over most viewers' heads and asked to have them worked out of the show. This turned Mannix into a more conventional detective series. The [[UsefulNotes/{{Fonts}} font]] used in the credits were based on IBM's corporate font of the time. That font and the theme music were about the only things that transitioned over into the new version of the series. This is best shown in the title cards; in season one, the ''Mannix'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF_49tWPNWA&NR=1 title card is literally a computer card.]] From season two and beyond (1968-75), [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyZL_3bxD68 with the better known title card with the shifting letters.]]
38	* ReturningWarVet: Part of Mannix's {{backstory}} is that he was a POW during UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar. One of his police contacts, Lt. Malcolm, served with him in the same Army unit.
39	* SloMoBigAir: Common enough on the series that whenever it occurs in one of the films shown in ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', one of the bots will yell "Mannix!"
40	* TemporaryBlindness: In "The Sound of Darkness" Mannix is hired by a man who was shot at, but not harmed, by a hired killer. While shadowing his client into a derelict building, Mannix is shot at by the hitman, and the bullet grazes Mannix' temple, causing a bout of psychosomatic blindness. Mannix then has to learn how to survive in the world of blindness to prepare himself for the hitman's return to finish the job of silencing him.
41	* WouldHitAGirl: Mannix does indeed punch out a woman in "Skid Marks on a Dry Run."

Context Series / Mannix