MANNIX TV SERIES AND LALO SCHIFRIN'S MUSIC!

Michael Manning's idea of a TV detective series!

Today's television detective series are garbage. Sorry to be so blunt, but take a trip down memory lane with the opening from "You Tube" of the TV series "Manninx" starring Mike Connors and Gail Fisher as his secretary "Peggy". It ran from 1967-1975 and it was awesome! We'll talk after you watch the opening 50 second TV series opener below. The music is by Lalo Schifrin who scored the original TV series "Mission Impossible", and movies like "Bullitt" and was a jazz composer in his own right. He scored the "Theme for Maninx" in triple time (think waltz) with a snappy jazz opening using IBM "split screen" effects which was high tech at the time. Cue up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa0_K2bVA_M
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Pretty cool, huh? Mike Connors (given name: Krikor Ohanian) is an Armenian-American actor who was born in Fresno, California. In the 1970's his CBS TV detective series, "Mannix" was all the rage and ran for 8 years. Mike Connor's character of Joe Mannix was created by William Link and Richard Levinson, developed for television by Bruce Geller and produced by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Here's the scoop:

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Joe left a detective firm called "Intertect", to start his own detective agency. He owns a cool apartment at Paseo Verde Drive in Los Angeles and predominantly drove a yellow 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible (with a car phone!) while dating a stream of beautiful women in their late 20's and early 30's---all hotties! A Korean War veteran, this series was packed full of action with fist fights, high-speed car chases, having his brake lines cut, being shot at from other cars and often being knocked unconscious. The women come and go except Gail Fisher--as his faithful secretary, "Peggy Fair". Gail was one of the first black actresses to be cast in an American TV drama series. Peggy ran the background checks, and handled the office. She was widowed when her police officer husband was killed and left to raise Toby, her young son. She was kidnapped a couple of times in the series and Mike was wounded by gunfire about a dozen times during the 8 year run. This series opened the doors to the following detective series': "Longstreet": starring the late James Franciscus as a blind detective; "Cannon" starring the late William Conrad; "Barnaby Jones" starring elderly Buddy Ebsen, "The Rockford Files" starring James Garner and "Charlies Angels" with Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson.

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Mike Connors was nominated for 4 Golden Globe Awards, (winning once) and for 4 Emmy Awards. Gail Fisher was nominated for 4 Emmy Awards, (winning once) and for 3 Golden Globe Awards, (winning twice). The series itself was nominated for the Emmy as "Best Dramatic Series and 4 times for the Golden Globe Award, winning once. Here are some of the series' Guest Stars:

Pernell Roberts, Beverly Garland, Robert Reed had a reprising role as Police Lieutenant Adam Tobias (after his father role on "The Brady Bunch"), Loretta Swit , Neil Diamond, Lew Alcinodor, Bobby Troup, Lynda Day, Robert Conrad, Fritz Weaver, Rich Little, Dean Stockwell, Shelley Fabares, Milton Berle, Lou Rawls, Martin Sheen, Rip Torn, Eddie Egan, Adam West (yes, TV's "Batman" 1966-68) and Burgess Meredith ("The Penguin"), John Ritter, and would you believe, Diane Keaton? Let's close this out with one last "YOU TUBE" that's fun!

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THIS IS A BLAST (BELOW):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJbU0ssrvm4&NR=1
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WELCOME TO MARCH, 2008!