Mannix is an American detective television series that originally aired for eight seasons on CBS from September 16, 1967 to March 13, 1975.

During the first season of the series, Joe Mannix works for a large Los Angeles detective agency called Intertect, which was the planned original title of the show.

[2] As opposed to the other employees, Mannix belonged to the classic American detective archetype, thus usually ignoring the computers' solutions, disobeying his boss's orders, and setting out to do things his own way.

Unlike the other Intertect operatives, Mannix attempts to block the camera with a coat rack and questions Lew, comparing him to Big Brother.

Ball thought stories featuring computers were too high-tech and beyond the comprehension of the average viewer of the time, so the focus of the show changed.

From the second season on, Mannix worked on his own, with the assistance of his loyal secretary Peggy Fair, a police officer's widow played by Gail Fisher, one of the first black actresses featured in a regular series role.

The first of these to have a featured role was Lieutenant George Kramer, portrayed by Larry Linville, who had been partnered with Peggy's late husband.

Another semiregular guest, although not as frequent, was Robert Reed, whose appearances as Lieutenant Adam Tobias coincided with his tenure on The Brady Bunch, which also was produced by Paramount Television.

What demons he has mostly come from having fought in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, where as an Airborne Ranger Lieutenant he led a twelve-man team operating behind enemy lines for three months before being captured by the Chinese Communists;[18][19] he was initially listed as MIA[20] while interned as a prisoner of war in a brutal POW camp, until he escaped.

[18] Over the length of the series, a sizable percentage of his old Army comrades turn out to have homicidal impulses against him,[18][21][22][23][24][25] as does his fellow running back from his college football days.

While making the television pilot "The Name Is Mannix", Connors dislocated his shoulder running away during a From Russia with Love–type helicopter pursuit,[1][6] and broke his left wrist punching a stuntman who happened to be wearing a steel plate on his back.

[29] Following military service in the Korean War, Mannix attended Western Pacific University on the GI Bill, graduated in 1955, and obtained his private investigator's license in 1956.

Gary Morton, Lucille Ball's second husband and head of Desilu Studios, noticed a 1937 Bentley convertible being driven by Mike Connors.

The series featured a dynamic split-screen opening credits sequence set to theme music from noted composer Lalo Schifrin.

Over the life of the series, several famous entertainers were featured in one-time roles, including Neil Diamond and Buffalo Springfield as themselves and Lou Rawls as a club singer, Rich Little as an impressionist, and Milton Berle as a stand-up comedian.

Essay humorist Art Buchwald also had a cameo role unrelated to journalism, and in another episode, Rona Barrett played herself.

The reason for the cancellation was, that competing Network ABC, looking to improve its ratings, began contacting production companies in an attempt to purchase rebroadcast rights for various series.

ABC took advantage of that and approached Paramount with an offer to purchase the rights to rebroadcast older episodes of Mannix as part of their late-night lineup, which they agreed to do.

In further tracing the car's history, the 1968 Dart was reportedly sold to a secretary at Paramount Studios and then was lost for decades until being discovered near a ranger station in the Southern California mountains.

An article in the New York Times (July 22, 2012) included information on the 1968 Mannix Dart and a recent photo of Mike Connors with the car.

In October 2016, the car magazine Power & Performance News [2] published an article on the 1968 "Mannix" Dart, written by C. Van Tune.

[40] In May 2011, Connors filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Paramount and CBS Television Studios, claiming that he was never paid royalties from the Mannix series.