R.I.P. Mike Connors of "Mannix" Fame

Another childhood TV icon gone. I know as a kid that this show was weekly viewing in my home. Wasn't it on the same night as Mary Tyler Moore? It's sad, as baby boomer I'm afraid we're just going to keep seeing more & more of these familiar faces from this period pass away. RIP.


Ps. There are now 2 of these Mike Connors threads active.

 

The theme was so different from MI, another Lalo creation of greatness. Mannix' theme really swung. I watched it sporadically. I guess all the action kept me interested.
I also remember it was unusual, cause his assistant was black and there were so few shows with black people on the networks. I don't know if it was the first where the person was #2 in the cast.

 

A neat clip for music lovers:

 

Loved that show growing up.

RIP Mike...

Thanks for the memories.

 

You should have seen all the 'David Bowie dies' threads

 

The Equalizer, Rockford and now Mannix..who are we to turn to now.

 

Just started Mannix as ME TV now has it on, I watched it somewhat as a kid the first time around. RIP.

 

That was Gail Fisher as Peggy Fair. She was the first black woman to win an Emmy and the first to win a Golden Globe

 

For just one TV season, 1970-1971, the year that MARY TYLER MOORE premiered, her show immediately preceded Mike Connors' MANNIX on CBS Saturday nights. It was the fourth season of MANNIX and its last in its Saturday night birth. For the remainder of its run, CBS would use it as a pawn in the game of network TV scheduling. MANNIX ultimately got its highest ratings when it aired one year on Wednesday nights.

RIP Mike Connors.

 

She had a troubled life after Mannix, it seems :

Gail Fisher - Biography - IMDb »

"Once "Mannix" was canceled in 1975, however, acting offers slowed down considerably and chaos rose beneath her usually calm and controlled exterior. Not in keeping with her public image, she flew into a series of marriages and divorces and developed a major drug problem. She made tabloid headlines in 1978 when she was busted for possession of marijuana and cocaine and for using an illegal phone device. She entered rehab and eventually recovered but her career was irreparably damaged. Sporadic acting roles came in such series as "Medical Center," "Fantasy Island," "Knight Rider" and "Hotel," and the TV-movie Donor (1990) and the Grade "Z" crime film Mankillers (1987) co-starring Edd Byrnes, but they were very few and far between. Fisher was married at least twice and had two daughters, Samara and Jole, from her marriage to John Levy, which ended in divorce in 1972 during the run of "Mannix". She briefly married second husband Robert A. Walker the following year.

Gail's battle with drug addiction contributed to her health decline. A diabetic as well, she was later diagnosed with emphysema. Gail died of renal failure in Los Angeles in 2000 at age aged 65 and was cremated. Unnoticed and forgotten, news of her death did not surface until four months later. Survived by brother Herbert and sister Ona, another brother, Clifton, died of heart failure twelve hours after Gail's passing. Gail was such a class act on TV and it is inconceivable that she could fall from grace as hard as she did...but she did."

 

Mike Connors is on Diagnosis Murder on METV right now. He is playing Joe Mannix.

 

For the first season, Gail Fisher's character wasn't the show's #2; Joseph Campanella's was. He ran a detective agency that employed computers more than spiffy clothes, clenched fists, and .38 specials. The show was made over in season 2. The only reason I remember this was that our neighbor at the time was related to Campanella

 

don't remember that at all..............wow

 

Love Mannix as a kid growing up, 91's a good long run, I should be so lucky

 

Thank you - I'm on the west coast so it comes on in two hours and I'm recording it. I've never seen it.

 

No one could jump over desks like Mannix

 

It was pretty good. It had a few flashback clips to the original show.

 

There's also the scene from Seinfeld where George proposes that they jump and roll out of the moving limousine. "Who are you, Mannix?" Jerry exclaims.

Lots of references like that in Seinfeld that younger viewers (and certainly today's rerun viewers) have no clue about.

 

RIP - Mike...boy did I love your show!

 

Get a record of the soundtrack. It is a very good recording.

 

RIP Mike, always enjoyed Mannix

 

I watched Mannix all the time as a kid. I think the last time I saw Connors was his guest appearance 10 years ago on Two and a Half Men. Always enjoyed watching him. RIP

 

I see there are some episodes of Tightrope on Youtube. I'll have to watch one.

Mannix was one of my favorite shows. I remember all of my friends would go off and watch Night Gallery. I'd get on my bike and go home to watch Mannix by myself.

 

Fond memories of watching "Mannix" with my big sister when I was around five years old. I recently watched "Situation Hopeless But Not Serious" with Mike, Robert Redford and Alec Guinness, funny little film. RIP Mike.

 

Just watched this and it was really good. I liked how they flashed back to the original Mannix episode that this Diagnosis Murder was a continuation of. It was interesting to see what a difference 20 years made in the appearance of Mike Conners, and, to my surprise, two of my favorite female character actresses from back then, Beverly Garland and Julie Adams.
Thanks again for the head's up, I never watched this show at all.