Shark Bytes

You could cut the sexual tension between Mannix and Peggy with a knife. Hot stuff!

On a '90s episode of Dick Cavett (the show he did for CNBC), Chris Elliot told Dick about the time Walter Cronkite came over to his house for dinner (his dad Bob Elliot is a radio legend). Cronkite went into the living room where a teenaged Chris was watching the Magnavox. The two didn't have a lot to say to each other, except for the following exchange:

Walter: What's that you're watching?
Chris: Mannix.
Walter: That's a good show.
Chris: Yeah.

Mannix...bridging the generation gap!

The Mannix series, has been the best detective series to date. Joe and Peggy, were perfct for the roles.

Well, I can understand the people that say it jumped after the 1st season. He was at odds with the computers and drove a customized Torenado convertible.

But, I loved it until he started driving the Challenger. No more convertibles. But, the writing also went way down hill. But the time he drove the Camero, it was embarrassing!

MANNIX is on DVD...check it out!!! Long live Mannix and peggy!

I THINK YOU CAN SPLIT the TV/PI genre into 2 eras...Pre-Rockford & Post-Rockford. Mannix was probably the best of the 'pre's'.
>Character was named for Edwin Mannix,who had signed Desi&Lucy to their first movie contract.
>Mannix, Mission Impossible & Star Trek were the last 3 shows that Desilu produced before being sold.
>The PaseoVerde sets at Paramount were destroyed inthe studio fire (late 70s?)
>Stephen Cannell has said that when he was creating Rockford with Roy Huggins, they'd watch Mannix eps for research...anything Mannix did in a given situation, Rockford needed to do the opposite.
> I recently bought the awful Canadian DVD set (don't!) and am amazed at how well the show holds up. It can be long on cliche's (the 70s were a cliche') but it's a classy deal most of the time.
>Mannix comes closest to JTS when it resorts to the 'evil twin' cliche'. Mike Connors sounded like Edward G Robinson done by Rich Little in one of those. The 'Cuda over the edge' was overdone,too,and Joe was 'certain death' to borrowed cars! he also was hired by children a few times, and had a dead girlfriend or two too many.
>The much-abused Mannix rides seemed to heal themselves... Par paid $1 apiece for hero & rides from Chrysler, treated 'em like they got 'em free. Incredibly, two Darts are still around. A '68 will hit Ebay soon, the '69 is being restored now.
> A friend & I cowrote a screenplay in the early 90s tobrng Mannix back as a TVM project, sim to Columbo & Rockford tvms. We got shot down (very rudely...)by Connor's agent in favor of an ep of Diagnosis Murder. How sad for my IRA! Ours was GOOD,theirs was okay...
Go to bonediggers.com>archives>top10 carguytvshows formore snide comments!

When Dawn Lyn The Queen of Grunge appeared on the show it jumped the shark. Voted The most annoying child star of all time her "Nails on a chalkboard" voice was enough to kill any show.

My favorite episode starred Darrin McGaven as a karate-trained Korean war veteran who had it in for Mannix.

Part of the show was filmed at the karate school of the famous karate expert Ed Parker.

Never jumped in my opinion, and yes there were a few dull episodes but overall a great and well remembered show that should be on DVD.

Mannix never jumped.One of the best detective series ever. Joe Mannix had tenacity, street smarts and class. Tough enough to take on the bad guys without becoming hardened or cynical.Loved the '71 'Cuda he drove. Mannix also had one of the best theme song of all time.
A few clarifications to earlier posts:
Peggy Fair's husband was a cop who died in the line of duty. In one episode, he was accused of being on the take, and Mannix had to clear his name.
Peggy's son was named Toby.
Robert Reed played Lt Adam Tobias, Lt Malcolm was played by Ward Wood.
There was another police detective in earler episodes who was played by Larry Linville, who would later play M*A*S*H's Maj. Frank Burns.

Mike Connors as Mannix was a great inspiration to us middle aged men. Think about it, though. He was severely beaten each episode, usually knocked unconscious.

Never jumped! Mannix always left his car running. At least, he never had to start it as far as I could see. Simply jumped in it, jammed it in gear and took off. I guess that's one of those timesaving t.v. show behaviors, like coming into someone else's home without knocking.

This was a great action-packed show to watch, in an era inundated with sappy musical variety and goofy comedy shows. I remember that one of the opening scenes, with the helicopter, reminded me of Cary Grant in "North by Northwest." I think his secretary, Peggy, had a son named Corey. Mannix' cop friend, Lieutenant Malcolm, was played by the very macho Robert Reed (avec beard).

Mannix was the best TV detective of the 60s and pre-Rockford 70s, even though the storylines frequently used predictable situations -- his car's brake lines get cut resulting in a dangerous downhill drive as a warning to Mannix to "get off the case" (I would think that by the 1970s, every TV detective would learn to check the brakes BEFORE starting the car as a precaution against this scriptwriter's gimmick); Peggy used as hostage bait to lure Mannix into a dark, abandoned warehouse in a deserted part of town ("Come alone Mannix or she dies!"); or Mannix dashing off as soon as he figures out the identity of that episode's culprit, refusing to fill in his police contact with the details ("I don't have time to tell you now. I'll call you later!") Somehow the police would then figure it out and show up seconds after Mannix had subdued the bad guy after a prolonged fight, with sirens blaring and lights flashing. I loved it! We miss you, Mike Conners!

Mannix never jumped. Used to be a nice way to top off a Saturday night in the late sixties after watching comedy shows. Someone mentioned the psycho war buddy which was also a personal favorite. If I recall correctly Mannix was put in this dark maze that had all sorts of booby traps to try and kill him. Guess what, he made it out. It was scary and well done. He also seemed about the most solo of any detective show, no family, not much on his personal life, guess he just worked all the time. So there was just Peggy and I believe one cop he occasionally asked for help. Also recall this being a very serious detective show, which was fine, just an observation. No occasional moments of levity on shows like say Colombo. As for Peggy she did seem good in her role, but the what the hell did she do all day. Mike was usually out investigating, so she probably spent the week preparing a single invoice for the client, 10 minutes max. Also liked the fact she was black, as I do not recall a lot of black secretaries at that time on TV. Off the top of my head I believe Mike Connors nick name was Touch Connors because he was a good college football player.

Dig this. Mannix had a cool f-ing car. He was a real man, he wasn't sensitive, like Alan Alda. He kicked ass. He wore cool threads. He hated hippies. When my dad and I could not agree on anything, we watched Mannix and everything was cool. So you little slackers who think it was dated. You did not live in the era, so here's a pistol whip....BOOM.