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A couple weeks ago I randomly watched a couple episodes and one was Joseph Campanella's one-shot return in a different role five years after he left the show. I couldn't help but think again how one final Joe-Lew confrontation of burying the hatchet and parting as friends would have been much better.
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Posted: |
Sep 30, 2020 - 1:29 AM
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By: |
Rollin Hand
(Member)
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MANNIX #8: The Tired Season
BEST CASES NOTES (in broadcast order)
· "Game Plan" (directed by Arnold Laven and guest starring James Olson). Albuquerque: a man returns home to see a ransom note related to his abducted daughter when he calls his friend Joe Mannix to help him but then withdraws his decision and pays the ransom money by loosing at a game of Gin Rami. Mannix senses something wrong and investigates to crack a ring of kidnappers led by the boyfriend of the victim.
· "A Fine Day for Dying" (directed by Leo Penn and guest starring Pamela Franklin, James Naughton, Marc Lawrence, Alan Fudge). A young woman awakes after a one year coma due to a car accident and Mannix is summoned to see her at the hospital and questions her about the death of a notorious gangster's son. The woman is now the target of a mysterious hit man willing to silence her. It's derived from a season 4 episode entitled "Voice in the Dark".
· "Walk on the Blind Side" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring Lincoln Kilpatrick, Leonard Stone). By accident, Mannix saves a runaway female bookie from the Syndicate and gives her an appointment in a movie theater to escort her to the airport but, later on, secretary Peggy Fair is mistaken and kidnapped by the henchmen. One of the hood falls in love with her and pretends to kill her in order to hide her in his secret concrete basement. It's derived from the season 5 "A Choice of Evils".
· "A Small Favor for an Old Friend" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring Jim Antonio, Ben Hammer and Val Avery). Returning from a three weeks holiday at Twin Valley Lake, Mannix is framed by his old war buddy pilot Harry Endicott and bartender Art Butler in the stealing of a cash briefcase belonging to the San Francisco Syndicate. Mannix is stuck up between two sides: an obsessive Syndicate executive and an invading insurance investigator, but ends up in the island of Alcatraz.
· "The Survivor Who Wasn't" (directed by Michael O'Herlihy and guest starring Paul Burke, Carol Lawrence, John Milford). After a business man survive the crash of a plane and he's found wandering in the desert, his wife hires Mannix because she suspects he is not her real husband. The case turns into an intricate federal undercover job related to the Syndicate big brass working in legitimate enterprises.
· "A Word Called Courage" (directed by Bill Bixby and guest starring Anthony Zerbe, Joe Sirola, Brenda Benet). Mannix meets ex-con and Korean War veteran Sgt. Harry Elliott who traps him to the Syndicate as a revenge for his sentence to the Leavenworth prison as a traitor.
· "Man in a Trap" (directed by Michael O'Herlihy and guest starring John McLiam, Paul Lambert, Madlyn Rhue, Erik Estrada, Pamela Bellwood, Peter Brocco). After his mentor in the profession got gunned down in a parking garage by a hood, Mannix decides to find the employer of the hit. In the course of his investigation, infamous Syndicate boss Tony Kordic got eliminated by the same hood so his younger brother Gilbert hires Mannix to find an evidence proving he didn't commission the assassination of his relative because a Syndicate council will soon take place in his house to clear the situation.
· "A Ransom for Yesterday" (directed by Bill Bixby and guest starring Diane Hyland, Dabney Coleman, Alan Oppenheimer, Woodrow Parfrey). A wealthy woman receives a ransom note to get a young son back but after six years and a first failure attempt. She hires Mannix to help her but he gets caught up by the kidnappers leader who happens to be a big and respectable company manager.
· "The Empty Tower" (directed by Bill Bixby and guest starring Bill Bixby, Pat Renella). Business man Anthony Elliott offers his friend Joe Mannix to go on a fishing trip. On the way to leave Los Angeles, Elliott asks Mannix to stop by his office at the Warren Tower to get some flies. Mannix wait for too long and decides to go check his friend when three robbers lock them up in a vault. Mannix and Elliott succeed in escaping from the vault but the criminals seal off all the exits and hunt them down!
· "Search for a Dead Man" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring John Hillerman, Paul Mantee, Robert Symonds). After shooting down West Coast Syndicate boss Albert Coleman, hit man Norman Thompson can't find the body and his employer refuse to pay him so he hires Mannix to locate the vanishing victim. But things are not what they appear to be and, later on, every men related to the contract suddenly die.
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Posted: |
Sep 30, 2020 - 7:09 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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(Member): Every episode you listed earned at least an 8/10 rating from me, so we agree as to the best of S8. The shows Bill Bixby directed were of high quality.
I must disagree with the labeling of S8 as "tired." I thought that other than a handful of average episodes that S8 was an improvement upon S7, which I'd rate a bit below S8. I did notice an alameming number of episodes in which Mike Connors' energy level was a bit down, and I deducted points in my ratings because of it, but I still found much to enjoy. "Latter-day" Mannix (seasons 6-8) is highly enjoyable to me, so I look forward to starting the start of that era, S6.
S5 is the only less-than-stellar season in Mannix history, though even that has a handful of quality shows.
Unlike previous Mannix re-watches, this time I'm going in reverse order, and will be ending with S1, the glorious Intertect season.
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(Member): Every episode you listed earned at least an 8/10 rating from me, so we agree as to the best of S8. The shows Bill Bixby directed were of high quality.
I must disagree with the labeling of S8 as "tired." I thought that other than a handful of average episodes that S8 was an improvement upon S7, which I'd rate a bit below S8. I did notice an alameming number of episodes in which Mike Connors' energy level was a bit down, and I deducted points in my ratings because of it, but I still found much to enjoy. "Latter-day" Mannix (seasons 6-8) is highly enjoyable to me, so I look forward to starting the start of that era, S6.
S5 is the only less-than-stellar season in Mannix history, though even that has a handful of quality shows.
Unlike previous Mannix re-watches, this time I'm going in reverse order, and will be ending with S1, the glorious Intertect season.
I disagree concerning season 5 because this is the peak of the season 2 formula.
By season 6, the series gets its third and final shape that I still enjoy.
Besides, I never liked the season 1 formula at all because of the dry story leaning.
I'm a season 2 to 5 die hard. That's my bias.
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MANNIX #7: Action speaks louder than words!
BEST CASES NOTES (in broadcast order)
* "A Way to Dusty Death" (directed by Sutton Roley and guest starring Howard Duff, George Murdock). Mannix travels by plane to the little town of Lindero to help an old woman acquaintance who hires him to find her son, falsely accused of rape and murder but the local sheriff teams up with a shady businessman to nail the son first. Warning: it's style over matter and Sam Peckinpah-oriented.
* "Climb a Deadly Mountain" (directed by Arnold Laven and guest starring Greg Morris, Robert Donner). Mannix is on a secret case and on his way to Albuquerque when his jet crashlands. An escaped convict helps him but they must both run away from four sadistic prison guards chasing them in the mountains. The plot borrows details from two feature films (Stanley Kramer's "The Defiant Ones" and Joseph Losey's "Figures in a Lanscape") and an episode of "I Spy" entitled "Home to Judgment".
* "Silent Target" (directed by Arnold Laven and guest starring John Hillerman, Frank Langella, Barbara Luna, Del Monroe). Mannix is on holiday and on his way to fish at Turtle Lake when his car breaks down in the middle of the wilderness. He goes looking for help and stops at a strange resort run by hitmen whose one knows him very well and must execute a $20,000 contract on an oil figure. It's a remake of the season 4 "Sunburst".
* "Sing a Song of Murder" (directed by Arnold Laven and guest starring Nancy Kovack, Paul Stevens, Laraine Stephens, Liam Sullivan). Opera singer Barbara Sonderman hires Mannix to find out the killer who harasses her. Mannix ends up in the little town of Santa Marina and discovers many leads that include her late cop father and her tutor who are under the grip of the Syndicate. It's an intense love story disguised as a criminal case.
* "Cry Danger" (directed by Don McDougall and guest starring Diane Muldaur, Peter Donat, Fred Beir, Tom Reese). Mannix goes on a mission in San Francisco when, by accident, he meets a woman acquaintance at the airport. He is mistaken for someone else and held prisoner by local gangsters who give him the third degree. After concluding his transaction with a partner, he decides to look for his old flame who is mixed up in a case of heroind deal and blackmail and must follow the orders of the Syndicate to get back her deserter brother.
* "All the Dead Were Strangers" (directed by Leslie H. Martinson and guest starring Julie Gregg, Anthony Zerbe, Donald Moffat, Woodrow Parfrey). Fashion designer Carol Middleton escapes from an assassination attempt and asks Mannix to help her. She used to swear to keep a secret concerning the confession of the survivors of a plan crash. The hitman carries on eliminating all the remaining survivors and on his way to execute a big shot coming to testify against the Syndicate at the train station.
* "Race against Time, Part 1 & 2" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring John Colicos, Ina Balin, Cesare Danova, Paul Mantee, Alan Bergmann). Mannix is summoned by a government head to go with a reluctant surgeon to a South America country ruled by a military junta in order to operate the heart of a dying rebel leader. It's a departure from the series format and it's written like a "Mission: Impossible" foreign intrigue.
* "The Dark Hours" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring Elizabeth Ashley, William Devane, Paul Shenar, Victor French, Alan Fudge). Returning home, Mannix is knocked out from the rear, abducted, gunned down and dumped into a ditch. At first glance, he is considered dead. Out of the blue, his body reacts and he is sent to surgery. Mannix remembers the case that fails to kill him for good: a writer named Karen Winslow working for a Syndicate big brass, falsely accused of murder.
* "A Night Full of Darkness" (directed by John Moxey and guest starring Michael McGuire, Michael Baseleon, Paul Lambert). After the celebration of Lt. Art Malcolm's wedding at 17 Paseo Verde with key police department officials, the wife of Malcolm is violently gunned down by a mysterious car at night. Malcolm is hit and at the hospital while Mannix is investigating the assassination along with Lt. Ives and Lt. Gaynor. All clues lead to gangster Johnny Sato who oddly is murdered by a sniper: Lt. Art Malcolm posing as George Arthur. But the real guilty one is another member of the police on the payroll of the Syndicate.
* "Walk a Double Life" (directed by Leslie H. Martinson and guest starring Val Avery, Robert Burr, Marie Windsor). An ex-convict and executive of a company named Steve Walker is found with a smoking gun inside the office of his dead boss and escapes from the De Marco building but with a bullet in his body. The wife of Walker hires Mannix to find and prove the innocence of her wounded and fugitive husband. Many members of the company are shady including the head of security.
* "The Girl from Nowhere" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Yuro, Lew Brown). To trap Mannix into her con game and gain a loot of $700,000, a woman pretends to be sensitive to the death of a little girl, seduces and uses Mannix to get rid of her two male opponents. Nicely Machiavellian.
* "Mask for a Charade" (directed by Sutton Roley and guest starring Claude Akins, Marj Dusay, Dennis Patrick). Indebted and with a sick wife, police Sgt. Al Reardon is accused for the night assassination of usurer Nick Briscoe at the exit of the Club Tempe and hires his friend Joe Mannix to prove his innocence. It's all a frame to force him to let escape and eliminate old gangster Ellis Varko on his way to the airport.
* "The Ragged Edge" (directed by Don McDougall and guest starring Don Gordon, Linda Evans, Roger Perry, Paul Carr). Mannix pretends to be a serious drug addict and a turncoat to infiltrate the Syndicate and break a heroin deal between a drug baron and two corrupted officials of the Justice Department. To prove his loyalty to the mob, he must gun down his friend Lt. Art Malcolm. It's a remake of "One for the Lady" and "The Inside Man".
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MANNIX #6: The Vietnam War Youth!
BEST CASES NOTES (in broadcast order)
* "The Open Web" (guest starring Rip Torn, John McLiam and Bruce Watson) in which psycho hitman Victor Roarke fails to shoot down Mannix at his office and, later on, abducts Lt. Malcom with the help of three henchmen wearing police uniforms to get a ransom and a jet.
* "Cry Silence" (directing by actor Alf Kjellin and guest starring Anthony Zerbe, Joe Maross and Geoffrey Lewis) in which a former priest hires Mannix to find out a man with a heavy conscience who used to confess a deed which happens to be performed by a blackmailer master of disguise hitman. Mannix is the target of this crazy mechanic.
* "The Inside Man" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring John Colicos, Lloyd Battista, Nancy Kovack and Barry Russo) in which Mannix goes undercover as a hood to infiltrate the organization of gangster Mr. Lytell and, in the process, falls in love with her employee Angela. The infiltration charade is a veiled reference to the season 4 "One for The Lady" but blended with the season 2 love story "The Girl Who Came In With The Tide". This cat and mouse plot is about nailing the informer of the outfit!
* "To Kill a Memory" (directed by Sutton Roley and guest starring Martin Sheen, John Vernon, Ford Rainey) in which Mannix is assigned to an amnesic young Vietnam veteran who has a double identity (married footsoldier Alex Lachlan/electronic expert Dan Turner) and is mixed up with a crooked corporate big shot willing to steal diamonds from a top merchant. Find a psychedelic character's study combined with a heist subplot. This is the triumph of style thanks to Sutton Roley aka the Orson Welles of television who fashions his personal vision filled with a Pop Expressionist tapestry: see the two airport scenes, the dreamlike tunnel scene and the diamonds merchant office scene and its delirious flashes of memory from the Vietnam front. Sutton Roley continues to explore the inner mind of a disturbed young man as in the previous season 5 "A Step in Time".
* "Light and Shadow" (directed by Sutton Roley and guest starring Christine Belford, Murray Matheson, Cesare Danova, John Hillerman and Frank Christi). It's another goodie executed by the great Sutton Roley that deals with a bizarre case of murder inside a wealthy family combined with an unexpected heroin deal. Two guest actors (Christine Belford and Murray Matheson) were parts of a 1972 series entitled "Banacek".
* "Lost Sunday" (directed by Reza S. Badiyi and guest starring Harry Townes, Kevin Hagen, Tom Reese, Luana Anders) in which Mannix is hired by a country woman to find out the murderer of her brother but things gets complicated when a wealthy industrialist protects his mentally-disturbed son, returning from the Vietnam front, and while some corruption in the local police department occurs. Don't miss the first scene in the gravel plant during Act 1: M16 potshots galore! Find two scenes in slow motion taking place in the gravel plant.
* "The Man Who Wasn't There" (directed by Sutton Roley and guest starring Clu Gulager, Arthur Batanides, Ken Lynch, Robert Middleton) in which Mannix is the target of a former Korean War veteran buddy named Corporal Lyle Foster who has lost his mind, laughs maniacally, finishes his short sentences with `Kay', tricks him with a mini reel players and chases him until the boxing arena. Demiurge director Sutton Roley highlights this showdown with panache. Don't miss the flashback scene taking place in the 1950's Korean POW camp, punctuated by composer Jerry Fielding's martial score for the season 4 "One for the Lady".
* "Out of the Night" (directed by Paul Kasny and guest starring Joyce Van Patten, Leonard Stone, Paul Carr) in which secretary Peggy Fair goes underground by posing as Detroit hooker Tracy Dee--who communicates with a lipstick-transmitter--and work for a female drug dealer in order to indict an unknown top drug dealer figure. As in the season 4 "The World Between", she has an impossible romance with another man but from the underworld. The episode is done like an intrigue from the season 6 of "Mission: Impossible".
* "A Problem of Innocence" (directed by Don McDougall and guest starring Fritz Weaver, John Randolph and Anne Archer) in which the daughter of an ex-con hires Mannix to inform a third party to stop harassing her about the stolen loot of her so-called dead father. Don't miss the nice twist from both sides!
* "The Danford File" (guest starring John Gavin, Richard Bradford, Jessica Walter, Arlene Martel) in which Mannix meets an ex-call girl--that he saved twelve years ago--in a party organized by her husband (a notorious political figure on campaign) and he decides to help her again in order to find out and stop her mysterious blackmailer. Don't miss two subliminal flashbacks: one for the meeting at the party and one on the road near the house of Mrs. Cornell. Here's an updated version of the season 3 "Who Is Sylvia?". Actor Richard Bradford is remembered as McGill from the 1967 English series "Man in a Suitcase".
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