Mannix (TV Series) Game Plan (1974) User Reviews

Next time, just be honest with your old pal Mannix!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 16 April 2017]

The previous episode of "Mannix", "Portrait in Blues" is among the very worst episodes ever made for the series...so it's very nice to see it's back on track for this second episode of season eight.

George Lassiter (James Olson) calls Mannix for help after he finds a ransom note for his daughter. However, after Mannix drops everything and flies to Albuequerque to help his old friend George, George responds that it was all a big misunderstanding and Mannix should go back to L.A.! Well, Mannix isn't fooled and he decides to investigate...and finds that George is hiding something. So he stays in New Mexico...and soon has folks breathing down his neck, ready to pulverize him! Clearly SOMETHING is going on here!!

This kidnapping episode isn't great but it is good...offering some nice twists and surprises here and there. Worth seeing. Plus, it's worth seeing so you can see George's ex-wife, as Rue McClanahan was quite the dish at that time.

Another lying client but with a twist

[Guad42 · 8/10 · 22 May 2021]

Joe goes to New Mexico to help an old friend (James Olson) who has lost his daughter. Upon arrival, Joe learns it was all a big mistake. Suspicious, Joe talks to the separated wife (Rue McClanahan) and gets different story on where the daughter is. Joe goes into full investigation mode. Bad guys notice and beat him up in his motel room. When they fails, they take him to see the kidnapped daughter. Through good detective work, Joe figures out where the girl is. He finds her and she wasn't even aware she was kidnapped. She was just hanging out with her boyfriend. A chase in dune buggies occurs and Joe get the girl out. The father was suppose to lose the ransom to Norm Alden in a card game but now Dad can clean him out. Joe gets all the bad guys. The family is reunited. It's all good.

The guests stars all get the job done. Nice casting with Olson. He made a career out of playing sleazy, semi-crazy bad guys but pulls off the victim role here nicely. Rue McClanahan is TV veteran. Norm Alden was everywhere back then.

At least James Olson wasn't an old army buddy from Korea! Maybe Joe got paid. He did get beaten up but got to help his friend and family. A good episode.

Good Episode

[zombiemockingbird · 9/10 · 8 July 2023]

Finally! A really good episode. The story was good and made sense for a change. It was a different twist on a kidnapping scheme. It wasn't overly complicated or ridiculous and it all worked together. There was also some beautiful and different scenery and a dune buggy chase.

The acting was pretty decent; some of the bad guys were a little shaky, but Norman Alden did a fine job as the sleazy card shark. James Olson was good; seems like I remember him usually being a bad guy. It was a treat to see Rue McClanahan playing a normal person instead of the over-sexed and overly dramatic Blanche Devereaux; not that I didn't love Blanche, it's just nice to know she has a wider range. Overall a really good story.

BACK TO THE DESERT, AND BUCKLE UP!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 16 November 2022]

I always thought of this as a neat twist story, with characters not always who they seem to be. It's no surprise the writer was Merwin Gerard, behind the cult mystery series ONE STEP BEYOND . And there's plenty to go around; Mannix has to fly out to New Mexico to help a friend whose daughter presumably has been kidnapped.

Once there, it's all an "embarrassing" mistake, thank you and Ba Bye? Joe naturally hangs on, stuck in the desert and with a lot of strange folks. James Olson plays George, Mannix's old pal, in a change of pace role for him as he generally played very offbeat characters. Rue McClanahan has a more dramatic part and was co-starring on the sitcom MAUDE at the time. This was her only appearance in the series, and that's a shame. She was the type of actress who could do just about any part. Rue had a bit role in the action thriller BLADE prior to this episode.

Look for Norman Alden who majored in tough guy roles for years, but was a cartoon hero(!) playing Aqua Man in the animated 1970s tv series. He also had a semi regular role on MY THREE SONS.

This will keep your attention, a tale that has some tricks up its sleeve and, to tell you the truth, should have been the season opener.

I agree with the last reviewer, the premier episode was out of place, more in the tradition of MOD SQUAD. The opener MAY actually have been an unfinished script. When MOD SQUAD ended in 1973 many of the show's writers headed to MANNIX and CANNON.

There are no notes where this was filmed, though my guess would be the High Desert, near Lancaster, CA, pretending to be New Mexico. It's been done many times, and the area looks familiar and way HOT.

SEASON 8 EPISODE 2 remastered color CBS/Parmaount dvd box set. Released 2012.

a first?

[pwgilmartin · 9/10 · 11 August 2021]

FYI This appears to be the first episode of the series filmed on location and not (except for Mannix's office) at Paramount studio.