Mannix: The Final Season

-__________POLICE FORCES NOTESLos Angeles cop characters from the Homicide Division return and Lt. Art Malcom (actor Ward Wood) appears in all episodes except in:· "A Choice of Victims" with Lt. Dan Ives (actor Jack Ging)· "A Ransom for Yesterday" with Sgt. Charley (actor Ron Nyman)Additional cop characters supporting Lt. Art Malcom in:· "Hardball" with Captain Donegan (actor Paul Picerni) and Inspector Dundy (actor Red West)Local cop characters also return in:· "Death Has No Face" with a Santa Marta Sheriff (actor Warren Vanders) and his Deputy named Charlie (actor James-Burr Johnson)· "Desert Sun" with Clayville Sheriff Watkins (actor Joe Maross)· "Quartet for a Blunt Instrument" with Sheriff Fielding (actor Albert Stratton)One foreign cop character appears in:· "Bird of Prey, Part I & II" with San Leone Inspector Varda (actor Robert Loggia)A Fed from the Treasury Department steps into:· "The Green Man" with agent Anderson (actor Chuck Daniel)Private Investigators pop up in:· "A Small Favor for an Old Friend" with San Francisco insurance investigator Carl Schaeffer (actor Ben Hammer)· "Enter Tami Okada" with Japanese Tami Okada (actor Mako)Episodes with no guest cops:· "Portrait in Blues"· "Game Plan"· "The Green Man"· "A Small Favor for an Old Friend"__________BEST CASES NOTES (in broadcast order)· "Game Plan" (directed by Arnold Laven and guest starring James Olson). Albuquerque: a man returns home to see a ransom note related to his abducted daughter when he calls his friend Joe Mannix to help him but then withdraws his decision and pays the ransom money by loosing at a game of Gin Rami. Mannix senses something wrong and investigates to crack a ring of kidnappers led by the boyfriend of the victim.· "A Fine Day for Dying" (directed by Leo Penn and guest starring Pamela Franklin, James Naughton, Marc Lawrence, Alan Fudge). A young woman awakes after a one year coma due to a car accident and Mannix is summoned to see her at the hospital and questions her about the death of a notorious gangster's son. The woman is now the target of a mysterious hit man willing to silence her. It's derived from a season 4 episode entitled "Voice in the Dark".· "Walk on the Blind Side" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring Lincoln Kilpatrick, Leonard Stone). By accident, Mannix saves a runaway female bookie from the Syndicate and gives her an appointment in a movie theater to escort her to the airport but, later on, secretary Peggy Fair is mistaken and kidnapped by the henchmen. One of the hood falls in love with her and pretends to kill her in order to hide her in his secret concrete basement. It's derived from the season 5 "A Choice of Evils".· "A Small Favor for an Old Friend" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring Jim Antonio, Ben Hammer and Val Avery). Returning from a three weeks holiday at Twin Valley Lake, Mannix is framed by his old war buddy pilot Harry Endicott and bartender Art Butler in the stealing of a cash briefcase belonging to the San Francisco Syndicate. Mannix is stuck up between two sides: an obsessive Syndicate executive and an invading insurance investigator, but ends up in the island of Alcatraz.· "The Survivor Who Wasn't" (directed by Michael O'Herlihy and guest starring Paul Burke, Carol Lawrence, John Milford). After a business man survive the crash of a plane and he's found wandering in the desert, his wife hires Mannix because she suspects he is not her real husband. The case turns into an intricate federal undercover job related to the Syndicate big brass working in legitimate enterprises.· "A Word Called Courage" (directed by Bill Bixby and guest starring Anthony Zerbe, Joe Sirola, Brenda Benet). Mannix meets ex-con and Korean War veteran Sgt. Harry Elliott who traps him to the Syndicate as a revenge for his sentence to the Leavenworth prison as a traitor.· "Man in a Trap" (directed by Michael O'Herlihy and guest starring John McLiam, Paul Lambert, Madlyn Rhue, Erik Estrada, Pamela Bellwood, Peter Brocco). After his mentor in the profession got gunned down in a parking garage by a hood, Mannix decides to find the employer of the hit. In the course of his investigation, infamous Syndicate boss Tony Kordic got eliminated by the same hood so his younger brother Gilbert hires Mannix to find an evidence proving he didn't commission the assassination of his relative because a Syndicate council will soon take place in his house to clear the situation.· "A Ransom for Yesterday" (directed by Bill Bixby and guest starring Diane Hyland, Dabney Coleman, Alan Oppenheimer, Woodrow Parfrey). A wealthy woman receives a ransom note to get a young son back but after six years and a first failure attempt. She hires Mannix to help her but he gets caught up by the kidnappers leader who happens to be a big and respectable company manager.· "The Empty Tower" (directed by Bill Bixby and guest starring Bill Bixby, Pat Renella). Business man Anthony Elliott offers his friend Joe Mannix to go on a fishing trip. On the way to leave Los Angeles, Elliott asks Mannix to stop by his office at the Warren Tower to get some flies. Mannix wait for too long and decides to go check his friend when three robbers lock them up in a vault. Mannix and Elliott succeed in escaping from the vault but the criminals seal off all the exits and hunt them down!· "Search for a Dead Man" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring John Hillerman, Paul Mantee, Robert Symonds). After shooting down West Coast Syndicate boss Albert Coleman, hit man Norman Thompson can't find the body and his employer refuse to pay him so he hires Mannix to locate the vanishing victim. But things are not what they appear to be and, later on, every men related to the contract suddenly die.__________PATHOLOGICAL CASES NOTES"Walk on the Blind Side" shows us the erratic and sick behavior of disturbed henchman Lonnie Taggart (actor Lincoln Kilpatrick) who suffers from violent headhaches.__________ARMENIAN BACKGROUND NOTESNo episode.__________KOREAN WAR NOTESIn "A Small Favor for an Old Friend", Mannix is framed by his old war buddy pilot Harry Endicott (actor Jim Antonio) at San Francisco.In "Picture of a Shadow", Mannix meets his old friend Ray Jordan (actor Bing Russell) from the war and who sells yachts and ends up gunned down.In "Desert Sun", Mannix flies to Albuquerque to meet an old war buddy named Harry White Eagle (actor Joaquin Martinez) at Clayville in order to solve the murder of his friend by three thugs in an alley that is related to a $500,000 plane robbery.In "A Word Called Courage", Mannix faces an old army comrad: demolition expert Sgt. Harry Elliott (actor Joe Sirola) that has an old grudge against him. It's the last one of a Korean war revengist cycle started from season 2 ("End Game") to season 4 ("A Ticket to the Eclipse") and season 6 ("The Man Who Wasn't There").In "Search for a Dead Man", Mannix is hired by veteran sniper Corporal Norman Thompson (actor John Hillerman) with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart--turned hit man--to locate a corpse so that he gets paid by his employer and former Commanding Officer: Captain Robert W. Ingram (actor Robert Symonds).__________VIETNAM WAR NOTESIn "Picture of a Shadow", the man in charge of the photo lab named Jim Barnard (actor Eddie Ryder) from Newsworld is a veteran and used to meet photographer Carol Britton on the front.In "Chance Meeting", a war deserter and a drug dealer named Jesse Thompson (actor Felton Perry) corrupts a veteran because of his autist little girl.In "Edge of the Web", a college professor named Jim Duncan (actor Gerald McRaney) is a limping veteran carrying a stick.__________PHOTOGRAPHER NOTESIn "Picture of a Shadow", Mannix falls in love with female photographer Carol Britton (actress Rosemary Forsyth) in the tradition of the season 2 "The Girl Who Came In With The Tide".__________GRAPHIC DESIGN NOTESSame opening main titles except for the six pictures logo: the top left picture is from "The Green Man" (Mannix fistfights a Fed in front of an iron curtain) and the bottom right picture is from "Picture of a Shadow" (Mannix is dressed with a blue jean blouson jacket and carrying metal-framed Ray-Ban sunglasses on a yacht)__________FASHION NOTESMannix carries a pair of little metal-framed sunglasses in "The Green Man", "Death Has No Face" and "Design for Dying" and a pair of metal-framed Ray-Ban pilot in "Picture of a Shadow".__________SOUNDTRACK NOTESThe theme music is slightly modified with an additional percussion at the beginning but they also recycle the season 7 version in mid-season. Composer Lalo Schifrin writes one score for the two-parter "Bird of Prey" which has connections to film scores like "Kelly's Heroes", "The Wrath of God" and "Charley Varrick" and even foreshadows "Skyriders" and "Sudden Impact". Richard Hazard writes one score ("Picture of a Shadow") as well as Robert Drasnin with the Nippon-oriented "Enter Tami Okada". In "Portrait In Blues", two folk artists named Bruce Scott and Kim Milford perform four songs ("I've Imagined", "Give Me a Little More Sunshine", "Love Means", "Help Is on the Way Rozaa") in a club and a recording studio. In "The Green Man", Scatman Crothers performs the song "It"s You, It's You" while playing the guitar in a Ragtime club.__________CAPTION NOTESAs in the previous season 4 to season 7 sets, these season 8 discs feature English subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of hearing (English SDH).__________PICTURE QUALITY NOTESParamount/CBS delivers, as usual, well-restored crisp prints in living color. They follow the path of "Mission: Impossible" prints. Warning: "Walk on the Blind Side" is not restored. The end of Act 1 from "Death has No Face" is also not restored. Some of the end titles and opening split-screen Acts are not restored, moved or suffer from chromatic imbalance.-

As I write this review I'm in the middle of watching the episode "Hardball" which not only is the final episode of the season, but puts a seal on the entire series as well. This is it-unless you count "Hard boiled murder" but that's really part of the "Diagnosis Murder" series. At the end of every review for this show I used to request Paramount to release the next season--regrettably this time that's not possible, unless, of course, in a rather very unlikely event we can convince a now 87-year-old Mike Connors to revive the show for a 9th season (don't count on that!)this is it. John Ritter makes a guest appearance in this last episode. Most of the action takes place at a court house w/ several folks held hostage,a wounded Art Malcom among them. Gail Fisher is not in this one, in fact no scenes at 17 Paseo Verde either. Other familiar faces are guests here. Rue Maclanahan plays the mother of a kidnapped daughter in "Game Plan". Pamela Franklin plays the victim of a hit & run, coming out of a coma in "A Fine Day For Dying". In "Portrait of the Blues" Larry Storch (remember him from F-Troop)plays a crooked manager for a folk duo. In "Green Men" Mannix searches for a counterfeiter & Russell Johnson plays one of the hoods in this one. Oh, & here's a nasty one! "A Word Called Courage" & another one of Mannix's fellow Korean War vets is at it again--this time locking him up & torturing him. Some of those guys who served in Korea with Joe are exactly the reason vets need to be treated for PTSD. Bill Bixby appears in the "Empty Tower". Another cool one is the 2-part "Bird Of Prey" where Mannix is is in South America & almost framed for a presidential assassination. That episode by the way was based on a Victor Canning novel "Birds Of Prey". And just only moments ago I finished watching season 8 & guess what-I put season 1 back in (Intertect) showing the 1st episode "The Name Is Mannix" with a somewhat younger looking Mike Connors-that's right I'm starting to watch the series all over again. Few episodes from season 8 I ever saw before but most I've never seen until now, as everything from the first 7 seasons I've seen multiple times. Now I sure hope Paramount moves on to releasing later seasons of "Cannon" & "Barnaby Jones".

I purchased every season as it come out, and with the hundreds of DVDs I have, I still managed to watch every episode before the next season was released.The story lines (generally) continued to be very good, and there are some outstanding episodes in this final season.The only bad thing -- it is the final season.A terrific private detective show that still stands the test of time.Buy it!

Never watched this series when working, never had the time, but watched a few episodes and really enjoyed ithence buy as many episodes to really get a good look at this popular series of time gone by. It gives a lot ofaction and mystery in a less than a hour episode.

All seasons are well done . Glad I purchased this . Great clarity and well constructed episodes . l wish TV was this good today.Don't miss this last season of episodes .

ENJOYED THE ENTIRE MANNIX SERIES - ANOTHER SERIES WITH RUN-OF-THE-MILL PLOTS, BUT STILL ENJOYED WATCHING THE SERIES AGAIN

THe is the last season of Mannix. As always it was great. The quality of the image is really good.