Magnum Mania!

I will post screen caps of Tom's insanely-brief and laughably-framed scene from the S8 Mannix episode "Design for Dying" but the pictures won't do him justice except for the fact that we hear his distinctive "Little Voice"! Even Larry Manetti's role in his episode was showier!

If anyone doubts that Selleck paid his dues before finally hitting it big on MPI needs to see his all-too-brief part on Mannix to truly appreciate what he had to go through. Selleck must be one of the great "Never Say Die" actors of all time.

Wow, tough room here. I thought posting screen caps of future Magnum stars would have at least generated *some* response, this being such a small forum and all.

I'm always interested, LG. Please, by all means, post some pics of TS and LM on Mannix!

Yea...we're waitin' for the pics...

Yeap, I'm waiting too............

Special viewing glasses required?

So sorry to see Mike Connors passed away! Mannix was the first private detective show I truly loved! Couldn't wait for Saturday nights when it first started! Pepsi, popcorn, and Mannix, what a great night!

R.I.P Krekor Ohanian a.k.a. Mike "Touch" Connors. One of my favorites.

Betcha didn't know he played basketball at UCLA for John Wooden.

FYI: If you get the MeTV network (East Coast), they recently started airing Mannix reruns.

http://www.metv.com/shows/mannix

Wow, I didn't even hear he had passed. I am old enough to remember the original run of the show, I always had a pre-teen crush on Gail Fisher as Peggy. God Speed "Touch" (what a great trivia question)..........I still think the first Magnum theme sounded an awful lot like the opening theme to Mannix...

RIP Mike Connors...you were a great one. So many of my earlier in life heroes/idols are passing away. I guess it is just "that time" for many of them. They elicit great memories.

Steve wrote:Wow, I didn't even hear he had passed. I am old enough to remember the original run of the show, I always had a pre-teen crush on Gail Fisher as Peggy. God Speed "Touch" (what a great trivia question)..........I still think the first Magnum theme sounded an awful lot like the opening theme to Mannix...

Hi Guys,
It's been over 40 years since I saw it but I recall Connors did his Mannix character on one of the color Lucy series - The Lucy Show? - that ran in the 1960's and 1970's. A constant was Gale Gordon as Lucy's boss, eventually her 2 real life kids replaced her previous "family" in the last version. Lucy also had Colonel Hogan and Sgt. Schultz in a episode, though how they mixed the 2 fictional settings I can't remember but it must have been bizarre.
Gail Fisher went to Metuchen High in NJ, hailing from the Potters Field area of Edison which, as when she grew up, is the "Black" side of town. She was the first African American in history to star in a national tv commercial.
Fisher was a significant figure in that millions of Americans saw for the first time a classy, educated Black woman whose white boss respected and had affection for as a fully realized human being. Mannix dwarfed Star Trek in the ratings and ran far longer so 'Peggy' was more important at the time than Uhura, though of course in reruns Star Trek became part of the culture worldwide while Mannix has faded.
My family never missed an episode when I was growing up and I agree with you guys, the theme was awesome. Production values were always good and the color was beautiful.
Plus back then tv series weren't so stage bound and actually filmed outside most of the time, as a bonus you get to see the world as it was, period cars, incredibly low prices in the supermarket, etc.
It's also fun on occasion to spot the child actor who later became a star, like Helen Hunt portraying Murray's daughter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
It just now occurs to me but I believe "Mannix" appeared more than once on Murder She Wrote.

IMDb shows that Mike Connors appeared in three episodes of Murder She Wrote. One was in 1989 and two were in 1995. My wife and I are currently watching reruns of Murder She Wrote and it is amazing the number of big name actors that appeared on that show.

Little Garwood wrote:I will post screen caps of Tom's insanely-brief and laughably-framed scene from the S8 Mannix episode "Design for Dying" but the pictures won't do him justice except for the fact that we hear his distinctive "Little Voice"! Even Larry Manetti's role in his episode was showier!
If anyone doubts that Selleck paid his dues before finally hitting it big on MPI needs to see his all-too-brief part on Mannix to truly appreciate what he had to go through. Selleck must be one of the great "Never Say Die" actors of all time.

Hi Garwood,
I just watched "Design For Living"(1975), season 8 episode 22 when it ran on Me-TV this morning at 2 AM. Below average episode, probably because everyone
knew the series wasn't coming back. Tom Selleck is Don Brady and as you noted, he's onscreen for maybe 20 seconds as he is interviewed by a newswoman
on a beach about a drowning he witnessed.
So Garwood, it's been 7 years, where are the screen caps you promised?

Little Garwood wrote:Guess who showed up in the sixth season of Mannix?




John Hillerman as not-so-nice-guy Larry Lawton in Light and Shadow, which aired December 17, 1972. He has a relatively small part, but he does get to verbally abuse Joe Mannix.

Hillerman has two more appearances on Mannix, seasons seven and eight. I have seven on the way and eight is due to be released in December.

It looks like Little Garwood's uploads have disappeared so I made this composite showing JH's three roles on Mannix. He played villains all three times, two different hit men and a shady society gossip columnist.

Mannix “predicted” two future film classics:

To Kill a Memory (S6; Oct 29, 1972) is a bizarre, delightfully hallucinatory precursor to Apocalypse Now. This episode’s guest star, Martin Sheen, plays a Vietnam veteran in what could be a dress rehearsal for the Francis Ford Coppola film. Sheen's "Alex Lachlan" character even has a scene in which he's lying down and looking vacantly at the ceiling while blearily reciting dialogue. (Yes, I know Apocalypse Now is based on Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad).

The Empty Tower (S8; Feb 16, 1975) is a precursor to Die Hard, with Joe Mannix conducting actions against a heist gang who are robbing every office in an empty skyscraper. Well directed by Bill Bixby. It's unlikely--though not impossible--that the Die Hard producers ripped off this episode since S8 of Mannix is said to have never been aired in syndication.

I really enjoy seasons 6-8 the most, but the first year is fantastic, too. Actually, I like every season save for season 5, which, ironically, was the show’s highest rated season!