Mannix Pilot Episode
Mannix debuted on CBS in 1967
Mannix ran for eight seasons on CBS and was produced by DesiLu.
Mike Connors who played the suave private eye looked as if he could’ve played James Bond too. Connors passed away in 2017 at the age of 91.
The show was originally titled Intertect. Intertect was a large L.A. detective agency. The agency used computers to help solve crimes so, as you can see, it was light years ahead of its time.
Mannix, while an employee of the company didn’t like the way the company did things, didn’t trust it either.
Mannix belonged 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. He wears plaid sport coats and has his own office that he keeps sloppy between his assignments.
His boss, played by Joseph Campanella is also light years ahead of the world. He has cameras in all the rooms of the Intertect offices 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 questions Lew, comparing him to Big Brother.
The show’s first season wasn’t too impressive in the ratings department. DesiLu head Lucille Ball and producer Bruce Geller made some changes. Lucy thought the computers were too high tech and beyond the comprehension of the average viewer. For the next season, Lucy had the computers taken out of the show and the crazy loon ‘big brother boss.’
It was a good move, after that change, the show ran for 194 episodes, 8 seasons and came to an end in 1975. Not a bad run.
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Source: Sal Amato