Mannix (TV Series) Race Against Time: Part 1 (1974) User Reviews

I am nearly 100% positive that this was originally intended as a "Mission: Impossible" episode.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 30 March 2016]

Bruce Geller was the creator of not just "Mannix" but "Mission: Impossible". Because of this and because "Mission: Impossible" stopped filming in 1973, I think it's very safe to assume this was actually originally intended to be an episode from that series and NOT "Mannix". The entire tone, location and case have NOTHING to do with "Mannix" and you could easily see Jim Phelps and the gang doing this stuff...and doing it much better.

The show begins with Mannix getting a mission...not from a tap recorder but from some odd man from an unnamed secret government agency! This NEVER happened on the show before...nor did anyone ever ask Mannix to go on a covert mission abroad. Perhaps all their spies were on sick leave or perhaps they were out on strike!! All I know is that having a California-based private eye involved made zero sense. After all, the mission is to sneak a world famous into a country where there is a totalitarian military dictatorship in order to do what seems to be a relatively simple heart operation on the head of the resistance. That is another huge problem...why sneak a Nobel Prize-winning doctor in to install a pacemaker?! That's NOT a super-specialized sort of heart surgery...even for 1974. Yet, they say that this doctor (John Colicos in a rare appearance as a good guy) is the ONLY one who can do it!! Is it starting to sound as if none of this makes sense?

Once in the country, the pair of undercover guys find that the place indeed sucks. There are secret police and military thugs (with very non-military haircuts) everywhere and by the end of the episode, Mannix and the Doc are with the resistance ('Libra') but they've just discovered that the pacemaker they brought in was destroyed by some unknown person...perhaps by someone with Libra!

Other than some tense chases, there really isn't a lot that is good about the show because it not only makes no sense but seems like you're not even watching "Mannix". I agree with the other reviewer...this is a bad episode and the next isn't any better.

I guess I will be the contrarion

[raypierce-48543 · 9/10 · 2 February 2022]

I have seen nearly every episode, but somehow had never seen this two parter. I almost skipped it because of the bad reviews, but went ahead anyway. I thought it was terrific. I will state the consensus positions of the other reviewers, and why I saw things differently.

1. Unrealistic. My response, so freaking what. Most of the show was unrealistic. Joe would have been killed a 100 times by now if realism mattered. Heck, he even rose from the dead once. And escaped an entire house of top tier hitmen after having been drugged. I could go on.

2. Poor acting. The others thought Joe looked disinterested and the doctor was too over the top. I thought they played their parts well. I saw Joe as being more under control and on alert than disinterested and the doctor's shifting emotions worked for me. I also thought the female buddy was terrific, but her husband the general was wrong for his part. And the actor playing Victor did not have the charismatic presence needed.

3. Not a typical Mannix. That is true, but I liked the change of direction. Much better than another small town with dark secrets and a crooked sheriff. I do agree with the reviewer that said they should have had a better backstory for using Joe. I also agree that the pacemaker angle was disappointing. It would have been better if Victor just needed some vaguely defined complicated surgery.

4. Continuity errors. You reviewers that get all worked up about them, have a drink, smoke a blunt, get laid more, something. They are just not worth obsessing over,

Has two major flaws right from the beginning

[pkfloydmh · 1/10 · 18 April 2015]

This one is about a rebel group who need a certain doctor (played by John Colicos) from the United States to come to their country to perform an operation on their leader, who has heart trouble. But there are two major flaws right from the start. The first one is why do they need this particular doctor to do the operation? Despite what they claim, he is certainly NOT the only doctor in the world who can install a pacemaker!! Why don't they get someone from their own country to do it? The second problem is why do they need Joe? This is never explained, because there is NO explanation. He isn't needed. They only need the doctor. Joe is simply along for the ride, which means there was no reason to make this episode. None. There's no mystery, no murder, no investigation, no nothing. It's about a doctor performing a heart operation on a third-world rebel leader. That's it. It doesn't even seem like a Mannix episode and should actually be on some other TV show, like Mission Impossible, since it involves a military dictatorship, spies, rebels, etc.

John Colicos doesn't help matters with his bad attitude and constant yelling and angry outbursts. He acts like he doesn't want to be there and he should have stuck with that inclination and REFUSED to be a part of this fiasco and then maybe it would have never been made.

I didn't think any episode could be as bad as The Gang's All Here from earlier this season but this one comes pretty close, and this is only part one of this atrocious debacle. It gets much, much worse in part two. There's absolutely nothing to recommend in this epic flop.

MANNIX'S MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?

[tcchelsey · 8/10 · 28 October 2022]

Part I

True, possibly a proposed script for MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, which ended its run a year earlier.

I give it at least 8 Stars because it's still fun after all these years. The international background is a long shot, but if you're a true Mannix fan why not? I saw this episode when it originally premiered and it attracted a broad audience, especially for its Sunday night timeslot.

Harold Medford wrote this two part adventure, but did not write for MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. Director Paul Krasny did direct both shows, and his style is evident here.

Yes, there are a few questions, though. Joe has to sneak a distinguished doctor (well played by John Colicos) into another country to work exclusively on a dying patient, who needs a pacemaker. Question: Is he the only super great doctor in the world? Also Joe meets with an undercover agent to explain the secret mission. That has never happened in the series, and Joe Mannix is not the international type. Strictly Hollywood. Poetic license 101, but it is intriguing because it's an abrupt change of pace.

Paul Krasny does kick everything into high gear, and it has its moments, like a M. I. caper episode, PLUS check out the cast. Robert Colicos, who generally played short fuse mob bosses, interestingly, is cast as the heroic lead physician. Very similar switch in characters comparable to the previous episode, where Anthony Zerbe, who played killers, portrayed a preacher? For some European flavor, Italian actor Cesare Danova was added, always the polished gentleman, good or bad. He's fun to watch. Add Alan Bergman, who makes a tame villain.

Additionally, two distinguished female leads; Ina Balin (known for THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD) and former MGM star Rita Gam (also playing a doctor), known for the film classic, KING OF KINGS. She had returned to Hollywood from Europe in the early 1970s, so this was a well publicized tv appearance for her.

Enough adventure to keep you occupied, but you have to admit, a top cast you can't miss. It would have been a neat trick had Paramount cast Peter Graves in a bit role --for old time sake. Thats what all us kids said back in the day.

Worth a look, and Part II to follow. Stay tuned.

SEASON 7 EPISODE 15 remastered color CBS dvd box set. 6 dvd. Released 2012.

This Two-Parter Should Never Have Been Done

[ToryCorner · 1/10 · 5 August 2020]

Lorne Greene once quipped (and I paraphrase) that in all of Bonanza's fourteen years, he was proud of the number of very good episodes they did and then he added that in order to full a season there were, of course, scripts which should never have been filmed.

That's the case with this Mannix two-parter. One reviewer previously mentioned that he felt both the original Hawaii Five-0 and Mannix ran out of story concepts. I realize that it may seem so but (I'm a member of the Writers Guild) the real reason for these long-running detective shows losing story impact was the network trimming them to fit in more commercials and also trimming budgets. The format and storytelling style established in these programs suffered tremendously when CBS insisted on the reduction in their running time. Mannix, without it's pre-credit teaser doesn't have time to adequately establish a premise and resolutions are forced to be rushed---quite unsatisfactorily so. Even the end title music and credits are faster! It seems that five to ten pages of what would have comprised earlier scripts are chopped out of later scripts. It causes stories in the style of that day to suffer. If this had been the first or second season, this ridiculous premise would have fit into just one dreadful episode; instead we got two stinkers in a row.

The Mannix that wasn't there

[spwyner-569-31055 · 1/10 · 19 November 2020]

I've been binge watching Mannix for the last 3 months beginning with season 1 up to this disaster of a story. My first impulse, as with one of the other reviewers, was that this was a discarded Mission Impossible script, as it clearly resembles no Mannix episode to date and has all the hallmarks of a MI episode right down to the doofus banana republic soldiers who can't fight their way out of a paper bag and phony street scenes in a fictitious country that appears to be totally Americanized right down to American cars lining the streets, but then I looked at the writer's IMDB credits and discovered he never wrote for MI. So that is a mystery. With respect to Mannix, he could have easily stayed home and they could have used a guest protagonist in the same way the used other actors to do the remaining Perry Mason movies after Raymond Burr died. It seemed to work okay. But more importantly, notwithstanding being handed a louse script Mike Connors seemed to take advantage instead of trying to make the best of a rotten situation. In the scene of him in the front seat of the airplane waiting for the pilot to start the stalling engine he showed no tension, no suspense even though he knew the soldiers with machine guns were hot on their tail. He just seem to be not there or at best just starring into space, which gave us an opportunity to see how much he's aged by the 7 season. The rest of the Part 1 goes down hill from there. And John Colicos just like Anthony Zerbe (two very exacting actors) in every thing I've ever seen them both in was not at all convincing and it was if he was calling in his part. Sadly, I did not stick around for Part 2, sad because the episodes are now dwindling down and I feel cheated, but nonetheless moved on to the next episode after Part 2.