Hi Guys,Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 3:59 am For the many Mannix fans here, they can enjoy a Mannix episode from 1973 and it's sequel/resolution of the same case 24 years later on Diagnosis: Murder.
The 1973 Mannix episode "Little Girl Lost"(season 7 episode 4) is going to be shown Tuesday, January 18 at 2:05 AM on MeTV.
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel runs Diagnosis: Murder every day from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
So in a few short weeks they will be up to 1997's "Hard Boiled Murder", (season 4 episode 17), the sequel or crossover episode with Connors again as Mannix, working on the "Little Girl Lost" case.
Actors Beverly Garland, Julie Adams and Pernell Roberts reprise their roles from the original as well.
These shows will be a hoot to record and then sit down to watch both, a quarter of a century between the two.
Today I watched the original Mannix episode and the Diagnosis: Murder reworked sequel. This was not a case of exactly continuing the Mannix script but rather harvesting it's bones
and visual footage to fashion a new retro episode. And unlike the Magnum/Murder She Wrote effort, this one works, with a twist ending that you will never see coming.
Diagnosis's writers made changes to the flashback footage from Mannix through clever editing.
Thus bad guy Leon the Chauffeur was now the murdered reporter Lou Reynold's assistant. Leon didn't benefit from the change even if
originally he was given cement overshoes and chucked into the Pacific.
This time he did a involuntary Brody and was chucked off an apartment terrace.
These changes don't hurt one's enjoyment as you can appreciate the artful way the writers pulled this off 24 years after the original story.
Besides, it works.
All the actors seemed to be up for this effort, Dick Van Dyke and Mike Connors worked well together.
Connors is heavier but still game and he does seem to be having a good time. He gets the last line, which is humorous, maybe a first for Joe Mannix?
The normal aging process was most noticeable with Beverley Garland(best known for My Three Sons).
For a woman who specialized in playing sexy blonde parts who drew focus from every other female in a given scene, the 24 year contrast was striking.
I am not being ageist or insensitive, rather it really hits home when you watch these episodes together and see how the passage of time took
Beverley on, as well as Mike Connors, Pernell Roberts and Julie Adams.
In any event this was a pretty good swan song for tough guy dick Joe Mannix. Too bad he never showed up on Magnum PI.