Reviews

Mannix and Tobias enjoy a boxing match. A man with a rifle walks the catwalk of the auditorium and shoots one of the boxers, Al Ramon, Peggy's friend. Mannix and Tobias have front row seats. After the shooting we are in the locker room where the boxing manager Sloan nervously paces and he is approached for questioning by Mannix. Where is Tobias? Why is Mannix allowed to walk around freely and question the boxing manager? The whole place is a crime scene. Police should be swarming the building, conducting an investigation and closing off the area to the public, including Mannix.

Mannix interviews a boxing promotor who Sloan suspects was involved but the promotor put $100k down on Ramon and cannot collect because the fight was stopped before a winner could be declared.

Tobias lets Mannix review the fight footage. By slowing down the film they realize that Ramon lost his balance and got in the way of the intended target, Mannix. This is not difficult because Mannix soon receives a call from someone who threatens him.

I was hoping for an episode about fixing boxing matches. Once again Mannix must work for free this time to figure out who wants him dead. Peggy thinks it could be Emmett Trask who Mannix helped put behind bars. Mannix goes to find Trask. This turns out to be another dead end.

Mannix returns home at night to find Detective Gifford watching his place. Mannix invites Gifford in for a drink but he notices his door is opened. He hears someone taunt him and sees a dummy sitting in his chair that looks like him. A gunshot is fired through the window hitting the dummy and when it falls over you can see the tape recorder behind it. The voice starts laughing hysterically. Tobias comes to investigate and determines the killer is a professional.

Detective Gifford was of no use in preventing the bad guy from getting in the office and placing the dummy and recorder there.

Mannix refuses Gifford's help and no sooner have Tobias and Gifford left, Mannix receives a call from the man who wants to kill him. The crazed man agrees to meet Joe at lookout mountain in fifteen minutes. As Mannix starts his car a bomb goes off. The deranged killer calls him on the car phone and taunts him some more. It is at this point, the killer reveals his face to the audience.

Next scene, Mannix is looking at pictures of his old Korean war buddies. He knows the killer's voice because one of the guys he fought with sounded the same. But that man, Lyle Foster, played by Clu Gulager died in Korea so it is not possible he would be the guy. We get the burial flashback scene. As Mannix speaks, a Korean soldier hits him over the head.

Mannix tells Tobias it was Foster because of the way he tied his rope, and says "kay" all the time. Mannix thinks the funeral was now a phony. Mannix asks Tobias to help him get a positive identification on Foster. Peggy calls Mannix and tells him two of the men he served with died within the past few weeks and month. That's when Foster stupidly walks in and confronts Peggy with a gun. He takes the gun from Peggy and orders Mannix to return to the office alone or he will kill Peggy. "Kay?"

Mannix stupidly tells nothing to Tobias and returns to the office. His car is just fine now though it was damaged in the bombing the day before. Foster is watching as Mannix drives up. He's got Peggy gagged and tied up. Mannix enters from the upper apartment but when he walks down to the office and reception room, no one is there. If he had Tobias's help, the police would have probably seen Foster leave with Peggy and apprehended him.

Next scene, Tobias is with Mannix in the office. He gets another call from Foster who has Peggy tied up on the floor. Foster says he knows Mannix went to the police. I am not sure how Foster knows this. Mannix reveals he knows he is speaking with Foster who is shocked Mannix figured it out. Foster tells Mannix to meet him at yet another location. If he brings police, Foster says he will kill Peggy. Mannix tells Tobias he cannot help him because Foster said so. Tobias listens instead of acting and helping to resolve a hostage situation. Isn't that dereliction of duty by Tobias?

Mannix goes to meet Foster at a hotel which then leads him to a funeral home where Foster has another one of his goofy audio tapes mocking Mannix. Once the tape ends, Foster immediately calls Mannix from a pay phone. How did he know when the tape ended? Foster tells Mannix to meet him at the boxing arena.

When Mannix walks into the boxing arena he is a dead man. There is no way he comes out alive because Foster has the advantage because he is positioned in a box above. He is using a shot gun though. He wastes time blathering on and on to Mannix. Yet, this is the moment that boxer Ramon decides to walk in and startles Foster. Mannix takes a shot and makes a perfect shot which hits Foster and knocks him down. He lands in the boxing ring dead.

In the final scene, as Tobias leaves with Foster's corpse, Peggy, with no sign of trauma from being kidnapped and held hostage, indignantly, asks Ramon what he doing out of the hospital.

This episode insults the audience. It should have never made it to broadcast. It represents the worst, over the top cliches about the Mannix series:

• What is Foster's motive to kill Mannix? This is not clear.

• Why go after Mannix 20 years later?

• Why risk going to the office, setting up bombs, taunting Mannix and so on? Why not follow Mannix and kill him in a dark street with a silencer and then leave? Everyone thought he was dead anyway.

• Anyone who served with Mannix in Korea is trouble.

• This story line has been done and was done much better in season two episode 19, "End Game" which starred the late, great Steve Ihnat.

• Why would Tobias allow Mannix free run to question people at the boxing stadium after the shooting? This is a police scene. Why is Mannix getting involved at this point? He is a private investigator and not a police department employee. He has nothing to gain by investigating the case. Tobias should be there asking the questions and he should have politely asked Mannix to leave.

• Why did Tobias let Mannix go along to confront Foster? Tobias knew Foster had Peggy as a hostage. Why didn't the police department take over? Tobias is guilty of dereliction of duty. I wonder if Robert Reed who was known for throwing tantrums about the script had a tantrum during filming?

• There is violence in the office again, a gun shot through the window, a break in and kidnapping, a bomb exploding in a car. There is no way Mannix remains at Paseo Verde. The residents would scream for his eviction.

• Peggy is kidnapped and held hostage. There is no way Peggy would continue to work for Mannix because she is the sole support of her young son. She would not be calm right after she was freed. She calmly asks Ramon a question. This is not true to her character. The audience is not stupid enough to believe this.

• Clu Gulager was a terrible choice to play Foster. He was annoying. A more skilled actor would be frightening and menacing.

Truly, this episode deserves a ¼ star out of ten. This was a terrible and disgraceful episode which only served to insult the audience.

Typically, Mannix episodes featured good acting, good action scenes, plot holes and poor editing. "To Kill a Memory" falls in this category.

Mike Connors could act and he always delivered. I have been making my way through the Mannix episodes. There is not a single episode where Connors gave a subpar performance. Peggy, Malcolm and Tobias were always dependable. The guest stars were usually good actors. This episode is no exception. Martin Sheen, John Vernon, Tony Young, Ford Rainey and Ben Piazza all delivered.

The story is a bit far fetched. Sheen is Vietnam Veteran Alex Lachlan who never returned home from the conflict. He has been hanging out with John Vernon who plays John Thompson. Vernon is always the bad guy and has Sheen under his control. He needs Sheen to disarm the alarm system so he can steal jewelry. The show begins at the airport. Lachlan is supposed to get into a taxi cab but instead takes a bus to his hometown to see his Dad, wife and brother who all live there. The family enlists the help of Mannix.

Mannix snoops around asking questions. Thompson orders Tony Young's Duke to kill Mannix. Duke parks his car behind Mannix's regular parking spot and has his gun aimed and ready. Mannix pulls in and as he leaves his car Duke shoots. He misses Mannix but Mannix falls to the ground bumping his forehead. This scene ruins the entire episode. A trained killer is not going to miss Mannix. Further more, a trained killer is not going to attempt to shoot someone in broad daylight from his car. There are people in the area who would hear the gun shot and notice the car. Like Mannix, other folks could write down the license plate number. The police would be over to see Mannix in a heartbeat and file a report. As I have noted time and time again, the Paseo Verde Management would boot Mannix out of his apartment so fast he would not know what hit him. Mannix brings too much violence to the place.

Piazza who plays Lachlan's brother Harry was an interesting choice to cast. He looks nothing like Martin Sheen. They served in the same unit which seems odd to me. Harry has lived with his Dad, Bob, played by Ford Rainey and Jan Lachlan played by Pamela Shoop for at a few years. It seems an odd living arrangement. Harry betrayed Alex by tipping off Thompson as to his whereabouts. Then he helped Mannix at the end. His involvement in the theft ring needed more definition.

Lucie Arnaz shines in this episode. She poses as Lucy's Assistant Shoiley Shopenauer and gives Harry a hard time. Lucy does a good job and stays out of the way as Lucie and Harry deliver the laughs. Lucie is only 17 or 18 but she plays her role well. She is prototype of the Fran Drescher character in the Nanny and she is so darn cute!

Lucie proved that she was talented and she earned that distinction with this episode. Gale Gordon is essential to the success of "Here's Lucy." His comedic timing is perfect. He really looked like he was in pain when the typewriter dropped on his foot.

This episode is a must watch and is barrel of laughs.

Dabney Coleman is usually going to be the bad guy and he is in this episode. Why is he flying the plane without wearing headphones? There would be too much noise. At the end of the show there were several bad guys involved in the drug ring.

The grenade in the elevator at the beginning would have killed both men. No one would survive it, yet one man does. That makes no sense. It also happened too quickly for the two men to say much to each other. But the man who died muttered out "Joyce." before he died to Mannix's friend Roy Elkins who survives but is in a coma for most of the show muttering "Joyce."

The grenade was overused in this episode. I disliked the scene where Joe is in a parking garage and someone tosses a grenade at him. Joe has super human reactions and manages to toss the grenade at a parked car before it explodes. This scene was not necessary. If you want to kill someone the last thing to do is attract attention. Get a silencer and shoot them in at night away from crowds. A grenade is going to attract the police and a crowd of people after it goes off. Good luck escaping the scene.

I got tired of hearing "Joyce" throughout the episode. The editing is sloppy. Joe captures Dabney Coleman's Ralph Stoner and his thug. Then suddenly, Joe is taking off in the small airplane. This is a bad transition.

Why would the police allow Joe to fly to meet the drug operatives? This is a police matter. Joe would not be cleared to take off. There was no need for him to go there because the Mexican police were there.

John Milford as Col. Edgar Ewing is a bright spot. I enjoyed his performance. I also liked the scene where he met with Mannix at a beach side bar and you could see several bikini clad women in the background.

The episode has a lot of good acting performances, lots of plot holes and lazy editing.

This is an average episode. Anjanette Comer was effective in her role. Other reviewers had issues with the private investigator cliches but I did not because the plot was still somewhat plausible. I did not like the editing.

Mannix goes to the cove by himself. He is surprised by two divers who pop out of the water and drag him in. This fight scene was expertly filmed but ineffective. Mannix is not going to beat the two divers because he was surprised and not equipped with an oxygen mask. Mannix puts up a herculean effort defeating both divers. Then we go to commercial. When we return Mannix is back at Wallace Hunter's mansion in his suit as if nothing happened at all. If you need to have the fight scene, maybe have someone come to help Mannix win it. After the fight ends, don't cut to commercial, have some closure about it and tie it in to the plot. Who were theys guys? Does Mannix get some information from them?

As a Catholic, I liked seeing David Renard wear the traditional cassock. Priests used to always wear the cassock.

It was laziness not to feature more of Jon Cypher as husband Wallace Hunter. He is completely forgotten. He does not appear at the end to be re united with his wife.

There was no need to have the evil twin sister die at the end. She did a good thing for her twin and could have had a happier ending. They made her too evil and should have made her more sympathetic.

The big room in Wallace Hunters mansion has been used on several Mannix episodes. The Wallpaper used to be blue instead of gray. They added more decorative trim to the fireplace.

Joseph Campanella returns to Mannix for the first time since the end of Season one. He plays Dr. Graham Aspinall. I am glad he returned at least once.

Joseph Campanella was a good actor. He was a victim of bad circumstances. His season one effort playing Lew Wickersham was excellent. The reason he was dropped from the show had nothing to do with his performance. Unfortunately, there was another character on season one that underperformed and needed to go. That character was Intertect, the corporate investigative agency with all the computers to find answers.

Intertect was a product of the late 1960s love affair with spy movies and technology. By 1967 the audience was tired of this. The traditional detective Mannix played well with them but not the technology aspect. The modernistic building filled with huge, soulless machines was a drag on the show. A few years later, the big machines were replaced by smaller machines. Today a lot of that technology is in our smartphones.

Wickersham was the head of Intertect and the two were inextricably linked together. If you get rid of one, you have to get rid of the other. Because of this, Campanella had to leave Mannix. I wish they had brought him back in season three as a new character. He could have been a police lieutenant.

Bringing back Campanella meant he could not be the bad guy or be someone who hates Mannix. As the episode played out, Campanella is prickly but is a good guy. His secretary is head over heels in love with him, but Aspinall is a man of integrity and only has eyes for his wife. I like the final scene where Mannix and Aspinall agree to play tennis together and part as friends.

I was surprised that his character was unfazed when a gunman entered his house in a failed attempt to kill him. It felt like Lew Wickersham was there. Most people would be startled, and his wife Gerda played by Carol Ohmart seemed more worried but not as worried as someone would be if there were gunfire in their house.

I was hoping for a Peggy scene with Aspinall, but it was not to be. Burgess Meredith was great in the episode. I dig the brown wig he wore. Overall, this was an ok episode. I agree with others that the shower scene was too much. Mannix keeps questioning Aspinall as he showers. Lew's been away for years, he lost his job and now you hound the naked man in the shower? Give Lew a break! Let him have some dignity.

Laraine Stephens was great as Charlene Talifer. Her part should have been bigger, and I would have liked to see Mannix hook up with her. Stephens was a stunning woman.

Fionnula Flanagan as secretary Gloria Paget was quite effective. I loved how she flirted with Mannix. Again, another woman who Mannix should have seduced like James Bond would have done to get information.

This episode is average, but it becomes above average with Campanella, Meredith, and Stephens in it. A better script would have made this a great episode. The producers tended to be lazy.

"Cry Silence" was a disappointing episode because the plot makes no sense. This insults an audience who deserve a plot. Ira Welch, played by Joe Maross is Catholic and he goes to confession with Fr. James Conway, played by Anthony Zerbe. Ira confesses that he played a role in a murder. He tells Fr. Conway he works with the handicapped and that he was wounded and almost lost his eyesight. He panics and fears Fr. Conway will make him go to the police. Ira abruptly abandons the confessional without receiving absolution. Fr. Conway had no clue who was behind the confessional screen.

In the next scene, Fr. Conway says goodbye to the pastor Fr. Frank Lawler, played by Stacy Keach Sr. Fr. Conway has decided to leave the priesthood. Suddenly, a car speeds up to run him over but Conway escapes. This also happened the week before.

Conway hires Joe Mannix to find out who is trying to kill him. Conway believes the man in the confessional is trying to kill him because he heard Conway left the priesthood. Conway thinks this man is afraid that former priests are no longer bound by the seal of the confessional and that Conway will tell police that he said he was involved in a murder. This is not correct because a priest whether he is in or out of the priesthood is bound to keep anything he hears in the confessional secret. Other than the scant information Ira provided in the confessional Conway has nothing else. Because Ira said he was wounded Mannix deduces he was wounded in the war. Mannix and Gail search for a wounded veteran working with the handicapped. With Lt. Malcolm's help, they get incredibly lucky and determine that it had to be Ira in the confessional.

Mannix learns that the married Ira was having an affair with Lucy Tilden and hired a hit man, Geoffrey Lewis to kill her because he decided to stay with his wife. Gee, what a nice guy! After Mannix interviews him, Ira becomes nervous and later on in the episode, he commits suicide.

The biggest plot hole is how the hitman knew that Ira went to confession. It makes no sense that Ira would tell him. That would be stupid, especially considering that the hitman was blackmailing Ira to the tune of $1k monthly after he was paid $20k for the hit. Ira was afraid of the hit man, telling about his confession would only provoke the hitman into killing Ira. There is no possibility the hitman knows anything about the confession. Thus, he has no reason to kill Conway. There is no plot, and this fact cannot be ignored.

Lewis the hit man only had one success and that was killing Lucy, otherwise he is incompetent. He failed three times attempting to run someone over with his car. The first two times he tried to run Conway over and Mannix, the third time. Why run over someone in broad daylight where witnesses can identify the vehicle, or his tire track might leave evidence? A hitman is good with a gun, so use the gun!

However, do not use the gun in a public place in the middle of the day. Lewis tries to assassinate Mannix from the top of a building as Mannix walks to his car with his back to Lewis. Why do this in broad daylight? It would be hard to escape from a public shooting. People would run out after hearing gunshots. Police would show up. Lewis would be trapped. Mannix would be a dead man in this situation. There is no way Mannix sees Lewis in his rear-view mirror and ducks in the nick of time. There is no chance Mannix can run to the building without being hit by Lewis. No police show up, no crowds gather, and Lewis escapes.

In another boneheaded move, Lewis is disguised as a delivery man and drops off a bomb disguised as a gift to Peggy at the office. Mannix quickly figures out it is a bomb. He tells Peggy to clear the building and diffuses the bomb himself. Lt. Malcolm expresses some irritation at Mannix for doing this. I don't blame him. Realistically, the police would be all over this and there would be witnesses who would see and place Lewis in his delivery driver disguise and describe the vehicle he drove. It is risky to drop off a bomb and the police have ways to find evidence. For example, did Lewis leave fingerprints on the gift box? Any bomb scare like this would be the top story on the 11 pm news and the community would be on high alert looking for the perpetrator. A smart hitman would not want this much attention.

Lewis stupidly returns to the office when Mannix is out. Realistically, after the bomb scare, the police would likely be keeping close tabs on Mannix's office. It would be insane for Lewis to go there. He ties Peggy up and takes Conway hostage. Mannix had hidden Conway in his office. Why not just kill Conway and Peggy at the office? Why even go to the office? Now Lewis has a loose end because Peggy can describe him to the police.

Lewis holds Conway hostage at some tower on a remote site. He arranges for Mannix to meet him there. As Mannix is driving up to the remote site Lewis attempts to shoot him but misses because Conway who is tied up next to him manages to bump him. A professional hitman would make sure the hostage was not able to do something like that. Even if that happened, Conway in this case, would be shot dead by the hitman.

Although Lewis missed Mannix he still has a rifle with a scope pointed at Mannix who is very much exposed. Mannix can only hope to duck under the car or behind a door. There is no chance that Mannix can run and avoid being shot by Lewis who amazingly does not land a single shot. Incredibly, he loses track of Mannix who manages to run around to a position behind Lewis. Mannix aims his little pistol at Lewis some 30 feet away on a tower and manages to hit him, making him fall to his death below. Conway and Mannix rush over to Lewis who utters a few words before he dies. Conway, the former priest blesses him. This whole shooting scene is offensive to the intelligence of the audience.

In a better plot, Ira writes down his confession and tells Fr. Conway everything in detail. He receives absolution and does his penance. As a Catholic who goes to confession, I write down my confession because it is important to make a good examination of conscience and tell the priest every sin, leaving nothing out. So, writing down a confession is not unusual. You destroy it afterward.

In this case, Ira is in a hurry to meet Lewis and pay the $1k blackmail money and does not immediately destroy his written confession. Lewis happens to find the written confession but somehow Ira warns Fr. Conway who goes to Mannix for help but can offer only limited information because he cannot break the seal of the confessional. Now you have a show. There is no need to have Fr. Conway leave the priesthood. It adds nothing to the plot.

Fay Spain played Mrs. Welch and was effective in her role. I wish she had been given more to do. Maross was good as Ira Welch. Lewis was miscast as the hitman. Zerbe was ok but not given much to work with. Again, he would be more effective as the hit man given his track record of playing bad guys. Stacy Keach Sr. Had a limited role, but he could have played Fr. Conway.

The show papers over issues relating to Peggy's character. Working for Mannix is a dangerous job. Peggy almost lost her life twice in this episode. She is a widow raising her only son who is in grade school. Her husband was killed in the line of duty, and she is all he has in life. The producers overdid the violence at the office and should have toned it down.

Another issue with office violence is that Paseo Verde management would evict Mannix because his private eye business brings a lot of crime to the area. The building was nearly blown up. Every week, there is a shooting, or someone is held at gunpoint. No landlord would tolerate this.

Watch closely in this episode and you may notice that Ira Welch's office first belonged to one Roger Wade memorably played by Simon Scott in Season 2 Episode 1 "Silent Cry."

Jason Evers shoots the hapless Roger Wade dead in his office. Evers played a professional assassin and lives by the rule that no one ever gets to see his face. Wade had seen his face and thus was a loose end. Watching Evers deliver his line about loose ends was funny. This is a great scene which you must see. Evers then pulls the bullet from the wall. I wonder if the bullet hole was still there when the office belonged to Ira.

I liked this episode a lot. Was it perfect? No, it was not perfect, but it works. I like the plot device of Viv needing glasses to see and without them, she is completely blind. I would have liked some explanation of how Lucy and Mary Jane were able to steal the Lawrence Welk mannequin, but I can live without one.

I would have also liked to see Lucy improvise more when pretending to be Welk. Lucy just says "wonderful" over and over as Welk would.

When the real Welk walks in and the kids put the mannequin away, the look on Lucy's face is priceless. I liked the episode but agree it could have been a 10 with a little more added to the script.

This episode did not feature Gale Gordon. He was instrumental in so many episodes.

While this is a commercial for the Air Force Academy, there is still value to this episode. I was born in 1969 and my first exposure to Lucy was "Here's Lucy." I had no clue about "I Love Lucy" or "The Lucy Show" as a young kid. Lucy seemed to be an old woman from the perspective of a four-year-old in 1973. However, I am now 54 years old and just a few years younger than Lucy was in 1969. She is a remarkably attractive woman. In the scene where she leaves the RV to stretch out in the morning in her pajamas, she looks stunning. I just wanted to point out that at age 58 Lucy still had it!

This was filmed on location, and it is worth viewing just for getting a look at the Academy in 1969. The officers at the Academy would not put up with Lucy and her antics. She would not make it there on campus more than one hour. I gave seven stars because of the beauty of the location.

I have always loved the beautiful Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. The two were close friends. Carol returns after a horrible season one, episode 17 outing which was a musical instead of a situation comedy and failed miserably. This episode is everything one would expect from a Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett partnership.

Carol plays the fictional Carol Krausmeyer and not herself. Carol plays Lucy's friend, having met in secretarial school. Carol is feisty and funny. Lucy and she are competing in a secretarial beauty pageant.

The show opens with Carol walking in a cafeteria and the theme music from her show playing, nice touch! Lucy sees her and both women start conversing with an unfortunate man, Buddy Lewis, in line between them. Carol tells Lucy she is in a beauty contest right as the bell on the cash register dings. Carol yells at the cashier scaring her to death.

As Lucy and Carol lift their legs they debate who has better legs. They inadvertently trip Lewis.

Gale Gordon is reliable for laughs as always. He tells Lucy he directed all his college musicals. He shows Lucy how to walk gracefully as if floating through a sea of whip cream. He prances around the office just as Carol walks in. Carol says "You've got my vote baby!"

Lucy introduces her to Harry and Carol says, "Sure kid, we've all got our problems. The important thing is be happy." With the perfect set up Carol takes aim questioning Harry's manhood.

An uncomfortable Harry excuses himself and as he is going through the door, Carol nails him with a final zinger, "Oh sweetie, don't look now but your seams are crooked." Harry's indignant and humiliated reaction is priceless.

Lucy learns that Carol is going undercover to find out what type of woman judge Robert Alda, Alan's Dad, likes. She dresses up like a Janis Joplin flower child. Lucy shows up after Carol disguised as an old woman with a mop saluting Carol's own cartoon caricature featured on her show. Alda says he has to leave and the ensuing dialogue between Lucy and Carol busted my gut:

Carol: "Old lady, why don't you take a detergent break!"

Carol: "Where did you every dream up a goofy outfit like that?"

Lucy: "From some dame on TV."

Carol: "She must be some kind of nut!"

Lucy's funniest line to Carol was "I have seen you in a bathing suit. You look like a spider on a hunger strike!"

The pageant brings a lot of laughs. Carol hogs the stage, mugs for the audience, and makes unwanted advances to Alda.

The pageant ends with Alda announcing there is a tie. Carol and Lucy believe they were selected but Alda announces two other names.

This episode shows Lucy and Carol at their best. Carol is still with us today and just as beautiful as ever. Lucy is dearly missed. Both women have my undying affection because they had it all. Their intelligence, humor, grace, humility, and compassion made them physically irresistible. We understand what Desi Arnaz Sr. Said about Lucy before he died. "I Love Lucy was more than a title."

I love Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. Both women were extraordinarily talented entertainers. They respected each other. Carol being the younger of the two would have done anything for Lucy. It was a wonderful relationship that always showed through. I expected a top-notch episode, but it turned out to be a clunker.

Lucy put situation comedy on the map with a huge exclamation point! Her 1951 "I Love Lucy" debut rocketed her to not just stardom but earned her the love and affection of fans for generations. Desi Arnaz deserves mention because he was also a big part of the success of "I Love Lucy." By 1969 when this episode aired, Lucy had a sitcom on air every year starting in 1951 with the exception of two years. During those two years, Lucy only took off because she was going through a painful divorce from Desi and had to take over leadership of their studio Desilu productions. Lucy followed up with the successful "The Lucy Show" in 1962 which ran for six seasons.

By 1969, when this episode aired, Lucy had two sitcoms in the can both of which were picked up for syndication. She no longer had to run Desilu having sold it the year before. She ended "Here's Lucy" after six seasons when it qualified for syndication. Lucy was thinking about retirement. "Here's Lucy" was her final sitcom.

This was also her first time working with her children, Lucie and Desi Jr. This was Lucy's last chance to help her kids launch their own careers. Both kids were musically talented. They inherited this talent from Desi Sr. Lucie could sing and dance. Desi Jr. Played the drums.

This explains why the Carol Burnett episode was not a situational comedy but a musical performance. Lucy had a lot of credibility with fans and was one of the few entertainers who could get away with this bait-and-switch. This might have worked in 1969. Watching this episode more than 50 years later, it is painfully obvious that it does pass the test of time.

Lucie and Desi Jr. Want to help accelerate fundraising for their high school to build a new gym. The school is holding a musical to raise funds with both Lucie and Desi Jr. Participating. Lucy gets the idea to convince Carol Burnett to appear in the musical.

Carol plays herself. Lucy is in the audience as Carol starts her show off with her usual question-and-answer session with the studio audience. This was not filmed in Carol's studio. This segment was funny as Lucy is ignored whenever she raises her hand to ask Carol a question. She finally gets her question in at the end of the session. Carol does not want to do the musical probably because she had scheduling constraints. Carol is a nice person. Her audience eggs her into agreeing to Lucy's request.

The next scene is the musical at the high school. Lucie and Desi Jr. Are performing in a forgettable number. They are singing about how they want a new gym. The other students look too old to be in high school. Then Lucy and Carol perform with Gale Gordon. This episode is a total loss.

"Here's Lucy" is a sitcom and not a musical variety show for them to perform song and dance numbers. Lucie and Desi Jr. Were both musically talented and there was no harm for them to display their talents elsewhere. Lucy should have booked her kids to do a number on Carol's show. Carol would have done anything for Lucy. Also, the kids could have picked a type of musical performance popular with young people and not the stodgy musical score used.

Carol Burnett was a great comedian, and it was a loss that she was not utilized for her comedic abilities in this episode. I would have loved to see Carol play a fictional character instead of playing herself. There are too many "Here's Lucy" episodes where Lucy runs into real-life stars.

There were two other season one episodes which were musicals and not sitcoms. Those episodes were episode 9 featuring Wayne Newton and episode 23 featuring Tennessee Ernie Ford.

This episode features a good plot and acting from all the actors for the most part. McGarrett and Duke are disappointing.

Ed Asner plays a rich businessman, August March who believes he can buy his way through anything even if it involves murder. The name August is likely a parody of August Busch founder of beer giant Anheuser-Busch. This is a nice departure for Asner from Lou Grant. March is nothing like Mr. Grant which is a compliment to Asner's acting abilities.

Richard McKenzie entertains as Gustave Lupin the hapless art curator for both March and McGarrett who has a small collection of statutes managed by Lupin.

Thee native semi regulars provide solid support. This episode features the tantalizingly beautiful Josie Over, Kwan Hi Lim and John Fujioka. Glenn Cannon and Harry Endo appear as District Attorney John Manicote and Che Fong respectively. Al Eben also shows up as Doc Bergman. At this point in the series, Cannon, Endo and Eben were getting close to the end of their runs on the show. All of them would be gone after season nine to the detriment of the show.

Jack Lord's skin appears to be ashen colored and his eyes are tired. I do not know what was going on with his makeup but he looks terrible. There is a plot twist where March frames McGarrett by getting McKenzie to switch one of McGarrett's collection with a priceless piece from his collection. McGarrett is under suspicion and Manicote is conducting an investigation under immense political pressure to do something about McGarrett. Incredibly, McGarrett is allowed to continue supervising the case! Any police department would put McGarrett on at least suspension with pay. Although Dano conducted active interviews instead of McGarrett, he still reported to McGarrett. Right up until the end before McGarrett is able to prove his innocence he calls Manicote and dictates when he will surrender to him without any push back.

Herman Wedemeyer is dead weight as Sgt. Duke Lukela. He adds nothing and symbolizes the rot setting into this aging series. The last three seasons were almost all unwatchable. Duke is boring with his gray hair, ugly glasses and bland suits.

Zulu as Kono and later Al Harrington as Ben Kokura were much better in their roles as the third cop reporting to McGarrett. Zulu's departure was unavoidable because he offended a sponsor with a racial epithet. Harrington was not given a chance to succeed at least by Jack Lord. Executive producer Leonard Freeman supported Harrington. When Freeman died in January of 1974, Lord's influence grew. Harrington was featured for half of the 1974-1975 season before being let go.

During Harrington's run as Ben, Wedemeyer lurked around in the shadows, stealing valuable airtime that belonged to Harrington. For some reason, Lord did not like Harrington's performance but he seemed to love Wedemeyer. It was Lord's influence that led to Harrington being given little to do and eventually being dismissed. I liked Jack Lord but disagree with his decisions.

Deadweight Wedemeyer also drained valuable air time in this episode. The wasted air time should have been given to Dano and Chin Ho who were better than Duke. Hawaii 5-0 would be a stronger show if they dropped Wedemeyer entirely.

The spoof of "Mission Impossible" works. It makes sense for Lucy to tackle this because she green-lighted "Mission Impossible" as the studio head of Desilu. At the time of this episode, Lucy had sold off Desilu the year before.

The plot is a bit zany but the comedy works. This is not about presenting realistic plots but good comedy. The costumes and dances were crazy and fun to watch. Lucy still looks good. I have always loved her.

Gale Gordon provides support and is funny as always. My only complaint is the miscasting of Richard Derr as Agent Geller. Derr shouts his lines. I did not understand why he felt the need to shout. Derr was not a good actor. I wish they could have borrowed Peter Graves for the role. Graves' presence would have raised the quality of this episode.

Despite Richard Derr, this was an enjoyable episode to watch. The extra benefit of viewing it 50-plus years later is traveling back to a different period and appreciating the quality of the production and people.

I loved this episode because it has it all. I enjoyed traveling back to 1968 and watching Lucille Ball with her real life kids, Lucie, 17 and Desi Jr., age 15. These kids were good in their roles. They are likable and innocent. I recognize both Mom Lucy and Dad Desi in each of them. This was only their second episode together. The only thing we never got was Desi Sr. Think of how awesome it would have been if Desi Sr. Could have played Dad on the show. But of course Lucy and Desi's divorce in 1960 forever ended this possibility.

The sets were bright and fun in 1968. Lucy favored orange carpets in the same style I remember we had in our house when I was a child. As the episode opens we see Lucy and the kids packing up for a nice trip. Lucy has found a place with inexpensive rates in a nice part of town. Harry decides to come along. It all seems innocent but it's well worth it to continue watching.

Lucy and party land at Jack Benny's house. It turns out Jack has been renting out his place to make some extra bucks, because he likes money. Right in line with Jack's character, he starts to nickel and dime Lucy and Harry. Jack's got a great view of Raquel Welch's place and one can see her in her bikini laying out in all her glory. He gets Harry excited about this and then charges him to rent his binoculars to see close up.

Fun is the operative word here. I loved spending time with Lucy, Jack, Harry and the kids and seeing how nice they were and getting to experience some of the innocence, civility and warmth that we no longer have today.

The ending makes this one of the best Lucy episodes. Some tourists show up and Jack serves them hamburgers and hot dogs for a price. The bus tour guide announces that the bus driver is hungry and would like some food. The great one, Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden walks on and grabs a hamburger. This is the greatest walk on! I was caught off guard and felt a sense of awe. I treasure this episode.

Gale Gordon suffers several comedic misfortunes. My belly became sore from laughing so hard. This episode executes the premise well. Harry's temp agency is asked to find a private place for a famous writer to stay and write her book. She also needs a secretary.

The opening scenes feature Lucy getting caught by Harry at work, reading a racy book "Valley of the Puppets", written by one Eva Von Gronyitz, played by Eva Gabor. This was a play on "Valley of the Dolls", a popular 1967 movie based on the book written by Jacqueline Susann in 1966. Lucy calls out Harry because it seems he read the book that he is complaining about so much. Lucy and Harry's execute their scenes perfectly.

Harry is offered $500 a week to house Eva. Of course he offers Lucy a fraction and raises it by a few bucks to appear generous. At the end of the episode this backfires on him when Lucy finds out.

Much of the episode is Lucy assisting Eva and instead of keeping the whole affair private, Lucy has loose lips and many of her friends keep interrupting them. I loved the scene where two reporters knock on the door pretending to deliver a life size cake and a photographer pops out and snaps a picture. All of this is entertaining.

However, Harry provides the real gut busting humor. Harry has ordered Lucy to not let anyone in no matter what it takes. Eva and Lucy go to the back yard and Lucy starts watering her flowers with the sprinkler gun. Eva takes over while Lucy goes inside. Harry wants to see how his client is doing and decides to peer over the fence. Eva does not know him and douses him with water. Harry is startled and falls off the fence. Lucy returns and you can hear dogs attacking a man. It is Harry and he peers up again and gets doused some more. Lucy lets him in the backyard and of course Harry gets more water dousing. His expensive suit is in ruins. Gale is perfect as the pompous boss who gets his come uppance.

Later Lucy has buckets of paint set to fall on anyone who enters the front door. Harry and Martin Phillips, Eva's agent played by Robert Carson knock on the door. Harry orders Lucy to let them in and they are showered in different colors of paint! Again, Gale's reactions make it fun to see another one of Harry's expensive suits get destroyed.

Without Harry, the episode is solid but not great, like a cake without frosting. Harry is the frosting that makes the episode great. Gale had Harry's character down pat. Harry is always thinking about money, that is keeping all off it for himself and screwing Lucy out of it. Watching Harry lose control with Lucy when she messes up is watching a real life arrogant boss lose it. Harry's reaction when suffering his many comedic misfortunes is right in line with what you would expect from his character.

This is an excellent and enjoyable Mannix episode. Mannix finally kisses the girl, not once but three times. The lovely Joanna Pettet is stunning as Cindy Warren a Reno lounge singer whom a mob enforcer named Victor Jory falls for and convinces her to come with him to Los Angeles where he has booked her at a bigger club.

They stay at her Aunt's beautiful house. Conveniently, the aunt is out of town. Jory plans to pick up $100,000 of mob money from a courier named Monty Dawes, Mannix's friend. Monty double-crosses the mob and comes up with a story that someone attacked him and took the money. The mob does not believe his story. Jory pays Cindy to lure Monty to her Aunt's house where he will kill him. The plans go awry and Monty kills Jory. He holds Cindy hostage. This episode begins with this standoff. Mannix is driving up to the house because Lt. Art Malcolm called asking him to come.

Mannix is allowed to run into the house and confront Monty who is highly agitated and holding a gun to Cindy. When Mannix attempts to take Monty's gun away from him, Monty drops the gun. They get into a fight and tumble down the stairs. Usually, Mannix wins the fight but this time he falls back and goes down the steps giving Monty a chance to run up the stairs and attempt to take the gun from Cindy. Mannix tells Cindy to get rid of the gun and throw it away, but Monty is attacking her, so she shoots him in self-defense. Monty falls to the first floor and is dying. Before he dies, he mumbles something unintelligible about a General D to Mannix.

Malcolm, the police team, and Monty's Mom, Sara, played by Irene Tedrow rush in. Malcolm does not ask Mannix what happened, instead, he asks "...did he tell you anything, give you any reason?"

At least he tells Sara and Mannix that he needs statements from them at the station. Malcolm seems fine letting Mannix take over and does not appear to follow police procedures.

Mannix has poor taste in friends. Usually, something bad happens to them. This is an ideal setup for Mannix to get involved in the case. The problem is that this is the third episode in a row where he will not be paid. Later on, David Sheiner who excels as mob leader Sanford, offers Mannix $10,000 as a finder's fee to help him recover the $100,00 that Monty stole from him. Of course, the ever-ethical Mannix refuses the offer. Mannix would have been a better show if we could see him earning money and getting paid for his work!

At this point, Mannix does not know Cindy was paid to set up Monty. He believes she needs protection. He has the gall to ask Sara if Cindy can stay at her ranch. Sara of course has no problem helping out and states she likes Cindy. This is nonsense. In reality, Sara would be outraged at Mannix for making this request. Sara just lost her son Monty and is in mourning. Sara most likely knows what went down and that Cindy shot and killed Monty. Even though Cindy acted in self-defense, Sara would likely be upset with Cindy. The last person Mannix should ask to help hide Cindy would be Sara. This is not a believable plot line.

Mannix locates the key to Monty's lock box where he hid a briefcase containing a book of historical letters at the YMCA. A thug named Krebs confronts him at gunpoint. Unknown to Mannix, his office is bugged which is how Krebs knew he was going there. They had Cindy plant the bug. Mannix throws a stool at Krebs disrupting him and allowing Mannix to get away. There is no chance Mannix could pull this off because Krebs would have shot him dead when he threw the stool. It makes no sense for Krebs to confront Mannix in a public place. Better if he tailed him afterward and got him somewhere private. Why would Krebs be dumb enough to point a gun at Mannix in a public place?

There is an obligatory chase scene which adds nothing to the plot. A thug in a red sports car chases Mannix after he leaves the YMCA but loses control. The car goes off a cliff, tumbles down, bursts into flames, and kills him.

Hallelujah! Mannix finally gets some action. It turns out Cindy likes Mannix. She gives him a huge kiss. In total, they kiss three times! Knowing Mannix, there is no way he would make the first move. Joanna Pettet was a beautiful young blonde in 1971. I am glad our hero finally got some love. I would travel back in time to meet Joanna Pettet!

The next day Mannix visits a nutty bank manager who asks him if she could bum a cigarette from him. Because Monty is dead, she tells Mannix the loan was for Monty to purchase a round-trip airline ticket for $188. This lead helps Mannix determine that Monty flew to Houston and traded the $100,000 cash with a book publisher to purchase a valuable letter signed by a revolutionary general and ties into what Monty was trying to tell Mannix before he died. Monty had the letter hidden in a book of letters.

In the previous episode, Peggy was kidnapped, held hostage for several days, and nearly killed. She is back and acts like nothing happened. Peggy is not worried in the least bit when Mannix and she arrive at the office to find it ransacked. Peggy needs to work for Lt. Malcolm in the safety of the police station. There is no way Mannix and Peggy would stand having Peggy in harm's way all the time. I guess the Paseo Verde landlord was not aware of this incident but realistically should have evicted Mannix a long time ago because of the weekly gunshots and violence taking place there.

Mannix decides to go visit Monty's grave to dig up some evidence. Krebs confronts Mannix at gunpoint and tells him to dig. I love that Krebs discloses to Manix that he is allergic to the dust. Periodically he has to close his eyes and blow his nose. This gives Mannix the perfect opportunity to fight Krebs off and escape!

Sanford who has been listening to the wiretaps becomes more active. He threatens Cindy. He is smart and instead of working against Mannix, he offers to work with Mannix offering him $10,000 as a finder's fee to help him locate the money. Mannix refuses the offer, but Sanford tells Mannix he has 24 hours to find the money, or he will be killed.

Mannix finds the bug and sets up Sanford and Krebbs to confront Cindy and him at her Aunt's house. The show opened with Monty and Jory's death at the Aunt's house. I am sure police procedure requires contacting the Aunt about this. I do not think the Aunt would allow Cindy to keep using her house. She would probably be back in town!

Mannix has figured out everything including Cindy's involvement. When he tells Cindy he knows Krebbs is at the house because he sees Krebb's tissue on the table, both Sanford and Krebbs come out. When Mannix refuses to tell Sanford where the money is located, he orders Krebbs to kill Mannix. Krebbs has a nice line. He tells Mannix he is being paid $2,000 to kill him. An altercation ensues after Mannix announces that the police have the place staked out. Unfortunately, Cindy stupidly rushes the armed Krebbs and gets shot. Mannix clobbers both men and as usual, gets no help from the police who only arrive after he has laid them out.

There is a nice scene where Mannix and the injured Cindy talk as she is loaded into the ambulance. However, later on, Mannix gets called and informed that she died.

I loved this episode's great acting and overall solid plot. Mannix was not hit on the head.

The writers used a plot device to explain how Mannix found the bug under his desktop. He is going through his mail and sniffs perfume on one of the envelopes. This is presumably from a girlfriend. He drops it on the floor and while picking it up locates the bug. This is a subtle hint that Mannix does go out with the women. It's a cute scene but easily missed if one is not paying attention. The writers should have broadcast Mannix as a lady's man on the screen featuring him in love scenes with the beautiful guest star.

Most of all, I loved seeing Mannix finally connect with a beautiful woman. There was no reason to kill Cindy off! They should have ended the episode with Mannix and Cindy having some fun. Later episodes could feature Cindy as Mannix's girlfriend or if Joanna Pettet was unavailable, references to her could be made. Joanna could have been written out at the end of season five. A new girlfriend could be introduced in season six. A character like Mannix who plays hard in life would have several girlfriends in his life. Because he is surrounded by danger all the time, it makes sense that none of his relationships would last. Mannix is an attractive guy and someone who loves women. He is not some celibate loner.

This is a great episode where Peggy was kidnapped, held hostage for days and nearly lost her life before Mannix rescued her. The problem though is that Peggy's experience leads to only one conclusion, that Peggy must quit her job. Of course this was overlooked and Peggy continues in her job in subsequent episodes. The trauma of what she experienced is forgotten. This cheapens the characters.

Peggy's character is a loving Mom to her son. There is no way she would take a risk that her son Toby could be orphaned. After all her late husband and Toby's Dad, a policeman, was killed in the line of duty. Peggy is all Toby has in the world.

In fact to be honest, both the characters of Peggy and Mannix would agree that Peggy should quit her job. I would have liked to see the episode end with Peggy and Mannix agreeing she needs to quit. The final shot would show Peggy and Toby walking away from us on the beach barefoot holding hands and smiling. The next episode would have Peggy working as Lt. Malcolm's secretary within the safer confines of the police department.

It is almost a weekly occurrence on Mannix for someone to shoot bullets into his office. The writers were out of control with the office violence. It was too much. Even without the kidnapping episode there is no way Mannix and Peggy would continue their working relationship for her own good. Besides the Peggy problem, there is another consequence. Mannix lives in a nice neighborhood and his landlord would not put up with the weekly shootings at his apartment/office. Mannix would be moving to another residence. The best solution would have been to minimize the violence at his apartment/office.

Stephen McNally is excellent as Lawrence Powers who is intelligent and ruthless with Mannix. I loved how he kept Mannix at bay and kept changing the terms of their agreement. He used his leverage fully. It was smart for him to continue to hold Peggy until the body of the traitor washed up on shore. This put a nick in the setup Mannix had with the agent to make it look like a real shooting. In the end Powers was vicious and ordered Peggy's execution, also quite realistic.

Georg Stanford Brown as Sam has wonderful chemistry with Peggy. He made me wonder about the balance between his attraction for her and his professionalism as a killer. At the end when Mannix shot him and he lay dying in Peggy's arms he really seemed more happy that he did not kill Peggy and accepting that he was going to die.

Mannix should have been able to confide in Lt. Malcolm. They have a trusting relationship. Mannix should have come clean to Malcolm about how Powers had Peggy kidnapped and was blackmailing him to find the undercover agent. The producers could not resist giving Mannix a reason to deck Malcolm!

As noted by other reviewers there is a lot of laziness in recycling footage of the older Dodge car which is clearly not the same as the model Mannix was driving in season five. They should have shot some street video of the season five model and not used old footage for driving scenes.

All the other guest actors are excellent and help make this episode a powerful one. I like how Peggy had sense to communicate the address in Malibu in the hostage pictures with the number of fingers she raised. Mannix figured this out in the nick of time to arrive in Malibu and save Peggy.

Overall, this is a nice Mannix episode. The story line is reasonably strong enough to stand on it's own despite some plot holes. Ultimately, the acting makes this episode work. Despite the flaws in Mannix episodes, overall the acting is usually good.

Another, Mannix practice is that he usually works cases for free. In this episode it is unclear if he is being paid for his services. The writers were lazy about this point and should have written it clearly to show Mannix is being paid to make the story more believable.

Leo Kollligian, played by Booth Colman has asked Mannix to come home to the small town of Summer Grove and help clear Juan Esparza whom he believes is innocent. This was Colman's final Mannix appearance. Here his role is to give Mannix the reason to return home and be someone who Mannix could speak to in Armenian. It's sad that Mannix only came home to do work but not for vacation to spend time with his poor Dad!

It's nice to see Mannix's Dad Stefan back again for his second and final time. Victor Jory is much better this time displaying depth and compassion. I like that his relationship with Mannix has improved. It's too bad they did not have him return in a recurring role and visit Mannix in Los Angeles. "The Rockford Files" did a great job using the father son relationship in its stories. This was a lost opportunity. Jory really looks like the farmer he plays and someone who could be Mannix's Dad.

"Happy Days" Mamma, Marion Ross is back in a minor supporting role as Jean Broderick. What is ironic, is that Ross played Lurene Warenski when Mannix made his first visit back home in the 1969, season three, episode three. Lurene and Mannix knew each other well. They went to high school together and Lurene dated his best friend Troy. One difference between Lurene and Jean is that Jean did not live in Summer Grove. Mannix had to leave Summer Grove to question her in Fresno. It's surprising that Mannix did not realize he was talking to Lurene! When Mannix aired there was no way to record the episode and watch it again so many people probably missed this irony.

Anthony Caruso excels as Charlie Apellini who is actually quite nice to Mannix despite being under heavy suspicion for murder because of his power and influence. Mannix really has his guard up with Charlie. At the end, Charlie is one of the good guys.

Fabian Gregory gives a fine performance as Jose Alonzo. He is sympathetic and is not annoying as some child actors tend to be. Frank Ramirez and Harry Nelson are adequate in their roles though they do not excel.

Francine York is the eye candy who flirts with Mannix but she is Helen Apellini the wife of Charlie so we know there will be no hanky-panky with Mannix. Shoot, this does not matter. Mannix never ends up with the woman!

When Mannix visits his Dad at home someone decides to send him a message and shoots out one of the windows and his windshield. I don't know how Mannix can afford car insurance because his car is always being damaged. He has to borrow his Dad's' truck and later Sheriff Cisco Madeiros' personal car. Perry Lopez was good in his role as the Sheriff who believes in Mannix. He assumed the role from Valentin de Vargas who played it in the 1969 episode when Mannix went home. De Vargas was also good in the role. Because it was a supporting role, viewers probably did not notice the change.

When Mannix gets out of Sheriff Cisco's car to confront Harry a shot is fired at him but misses. Harry was hiding out and well positioned to hit Mannix. In typical Mannix fashion he misses! This allows Mannix to run and hide. Mannix is then able to outsmart Harry and take his gun.

I love catching up on the Mannix episodes because they were broadcast around the time I was born. I was born in June 1969 after the second season of Mannix had aired. It's so fun to see how the world looked back then before the stagnation of the mid 1970s set it. Besides Mike Connors there were many good actors. I wish the writers would have treated Joe Mannix better. Each episode has him in impossible situations, lucky the gun shot which should have hit him missed, waking up at 100 percent strength after being drugged, knocked out or hit in the head just before someone attempts to kill him, being able to keep his business going despite hardly ever being paid, avoiding eviction from his apartment/office despite the violence he brings in and keeping his car insurance despite the many claims he has had to file. The number one mistreatment of Joe Mannix was constantly keeping him in action fighting off nearly fatal situations but never having any down time to enjoy the company of a nice woman! I am amazed that Joe did not suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome of suffer the effects of being hit the head one times too many!

This is a change of pace episode featuring Mannix on vacation at a ski resort. I am not sure how Mannix can afford this trip because he never earns any money for his work. In this episode he befriends two attractive women. Just before the trip ends, one of the women is murdered. Mannix quickly determines the culprits murdered the wrong woman because the women traded the ski jackets they had been wearing on the last day of the trip!

Marie Fenlon played by Heidi Vaughn is the woman they intended to kill. Vaughn is a beautiful woman but she is not a good actress and maintains one tone. Though she could not act she was great eye candy. No surprise, Mannix is again unlucky in love and the two do not connect romantically.

Patricia Medina played Mrs. Corot. As another reviewer correctly noted, she has this weird make up on her face which is distracting. If you look at her head shot on IMDB she is actually a good looking woman. She was married to Joseph Cotton.'

I like George Voskovec as Niles. My first encounter with Voskovec was in the 1957 movie "12 Angry Men." Voskovec had good range as an actor and could play a variety of characters. His ability to act helps make this episode better.

Paul Mantee is usually a bad guy in many Mannix episodes but this time he gets to play one of the good guys. It was a refreshing change of pace.

As it turns out, it was a team of Russian agents trying to verify that Marie is the daughter of a Russian spy who defected to the United States. They wanted to use her to find her Dad and kill him.

They send a car with two hoods, to chase Mannix and Marie as they drive down the hill from the ski lodge. The hoods start shooting at Mannix's tire but like most shooters on Mannix have horrible aim and fail to hit the tire. Mannix simply hams on the breaks and the driver behind him is not trained well enough to react to the maneuver and his cars flies of the cliff and explodes killing both men.

Gilbert Douglas played by Nicholas Cortland shows up. Marie says he can be trusted. He drives Mannix and her to meet with Mrs. Corot whom we met earlier and Niles. They all have drinks. Mannix and Marie started becoming sleepy and pass out. This is the moment we find out that Gilbert, Marie and Niles are the bad folks. They quickly get ready to vacate the house with Marie in hand. Niles tells Gilbert to kill Mannix.

Of course Mannix manages to wake up at the right moment at 100 percent strength and no sign of grogginess from being drugged. Mannix manages to convince Gilbert that he is being used as a patsy. Mannix points out that the house is rented in Gilbert's name that Niles and Mrs. Corot plan on using him to kill Mannix and throw him under the bus as he will surely face a murder charge. Gilbert buys what Mannix sold him and fires off his gun twice into the furniture allowing Mannix to live.

Unfortunately for Gilbert as he walks out of the room, Niles confronts him and asks if he killed Mannix which he states he did. Then Niles says thank you for your service and goodbye. He shoots and kills Gilbert. He wants to make it look like Mannix and Gilbert killed each other in a shootout. He is smart enough to check the room and sees Mannix on the floor apparently dead. He would have been smarter to take Gilbert's gun and plug a few more bullets into Mannix.

There is a scene where Mannix opens his office door at night and sees a shadow. He locks the door and runs back in pushing Peggy into his office. He tells her to call the police and runs out of the window. After Mannix leaves, this man somehow manages to walk in anyway. How did the man get in the office when the door was locked? Why did Mannix leave Peggy alone without making sure the man was gone? Why does Peggy continue to work for Mannix? His office is not safe and she cannot afford to be killed as she is a widow and has a young son who needs her.

My problem with the episode is that once Mannix and Marie were drugged there would be no escape in real life. A professional team would ensure that Mannix was dead before he had any chance to wake up. They would have had Gilbert immediately kill Mannix and would then kill Gilbert.

This is a good Mannix episode because of the great acting. You do have to suspend belief at some points because of the typical Mannix elements. Mannix usually is not paid but this time it appears that Gwen Townsend, played by Shelley Fabares is paying him. Gwen is about twenty years younger than Mannix so as usual, Mannix fails to get the girl. The season five opening credits replaced a shot of Mannix spinning the blond woman whose skirt rides up with an action scene. They might as well, because Mannix never gets the girl.

Mannix gets hit in the head again and knocked out. As usual, he excels at fighting other people but has no sense of who is behind him. Unlike a normal human being Mannix manages to wake up with 100 percent strength and no effects of grogginess just in the nick of time before the bad guys can kill him.

Chris Townsend, played by Dean Stockwell, and his accomplice, Ted Hanlon played by Laurence Haddon are attempting to role Mannix in his car over a cliff. Mannix shifts the gear to park abruptly stopping the car. He slams open the door knocking Ted over the cliff. Mannix chases him and beats him up. It's not Mannix but a stuntman. The stuntman's hairpiece is longer than Mannix's hair.

Peggy inexplicably decides to go to a shady, hippy bar to do some undercover work and almost gets killed. Why Peggy would take this risk or continue to work for Mannix confuses me when you consider her situation. Her husband was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty leaving her alone to raise their young son. I get that Mannix made a nice gesture to help her out by hiring her. However, Mannix is in a dangerous line of work. Even his office is not safe as it has been riddled with bullets several times and it is quite a common occurrence for the bad guys to snoop around and break in.

The plot seems a bit contrived to me. Mannix is out for a jog on the beach and witnesses a woman being accosted by two men at the house on the top of the hill. He runs up the hill to try and help the woman. As he gets close to the house the neighbor, Charlotte Benson, played by Hildy Brooks asks him what he is doing and he tells her a woman is being attacked and to call the Sheriff. When Mannix reaches the house no one is there. The Sheriff tells Mannix he described a murder of a woman who lived at the house from a year ago.

Later Mannix interviews Charlotte who tells him she ran to the house when the woman screamed for help. The two perpetrators had fled and the husband, Chris fell into a catatonic state and has been institutionalized since then.

As Mannix digs into the case he meets Gwen, Chris' sister who is interested in helping out her brother. I love the scene towards the end when Gwen and Mannix realize Chris faked being in the catatonic state.

Mannix puts the pieces together and catches Charlotte and Chris making out on Charlotte's couch. How Mannix just walked in the house I am not sure. Mannix deduces that the scene he witnessed at the opening of the episode was staged by Charlotte and Chris so they could get Mannix involved and later put Mannix in a situation where he would kill an eyewitness to the murder. This person was the gardener whom Chris paid off but still wanted to be silenced.

Chris shoots at Mannix as he is running up the hill but hits Charlotte and kills her. This puts Chris into a catatonic state and is not staged. The episode ends with Gwen and Mannix watching him in his room shaking their heads and walking away. It is a stretch that Chris would end up in a catatonic state when he killed Charlotte whom he truly loved right after pretending to be in a catatonic state after he murdered his wife.

What makes the episode worth watching is the great acting typical of guests and supporting actors in a Mannix episode. Dean Stockwell shines as Chris Townsend. I love his overgrown curly hair and flowery shirt and tie. Stockwell looks like a neanderthal.

Hildy Brooks is attractive and creepy as Charlotte. Shelley Fabares is the woman every man wishes would stand next to him. I would travel back in time to meet her in her prime. Henry Olek is scary and sinister as the second hippie.

This episode features the usual Mannix elements. Mannix is in an impossible situation but defying the odds manages to take away a gun from a thug. A trained shooter misses hitting Mannix. The guest stars and supporting actors are good. Mannix is hit over the head. Someone shoots a couple of bullets into Mannix's office window. Mannix works the case for free yet has to pay rent, pay insurance, make car payments, pay for food, pay Peggy's salary and his salary. Somehow his finances magically work out. As usual, Mannix gets no action from the pretty lady. He might as well be a monk. There is a pretty woman in the episode, but she is way too young for Mannix.

Lawrence Dane as Lassiter proves to be one of the smartest villains on Mannix at least for most of the episode. He plans a brilliant strategy to cover up two murders he committed to make it look like they were committed by crazy serial killer Overkill played by Jay Robinson who excelled playing evil characters. Despite the plot weaknesses in this episode, I give it an eight out of 10 because Lassiter was smart for most of it.

Lassiter murders Red Bailey a security guard and friend of Mannix as the show opens. He plays into a situation where Overkill is about to call Paul Sorenson played by Jeff Corey who is live with his television show just begging Overkill to call him. Overkill's call comes just after Lassiter murders Red.

Lassiter has Red's apartment bugged and bugs Mannix's office. He is able to listen on conversations between Mannix and Lt. Malcolm which keeps him one step ahead of them. Unfortunately for him Mannix shows up at Red's apartment while Lassiter is there trying to remove the bug he planted. So guess what? He knocks Mannix out and later when Lt. Malcolm wakes Mannix up the first thing Mannix notices is that the finial is missing from the lamp shade. This scene was weak. Mannix wakes up with a nasty headache after being clubbed in the head but has sense enough to notice the missing finial? As a result he then deduces there was a listening device. Anyone else would be groggy, take medication and get more rest. Mannix is able to recover from a head wound like flipping a light switch. Maybe Lt. Malcolm should have been the one to notice the finial was missing. Lassiter should have left the apartment and returned after Mannix was gone.

Mannix finally figures out that Red knew one of the supposed victims of Overkill was not murdered by Overkill and was investigating this. This is why he was killed by Lassiter who is working for imprisoned mob boss Ty Webber played by Marc Lawrence. Webber is released from prison and he ordered the murder of Red. Mannix figures out the wire tape and sets up a listening Lassiter when he calls Lt. Malcolm telling him to back off. Lassiter falls for it and immediately calls Mannix to set up a meeting at a Japanese restaurant/water park with seals and fish. He says it is a good meeting place because it will be closed the next day.

Webber gets stupid at this point and insists on being there so he can personally kill Mannix. He should have listened to Lassiter and been somewhere else so he would have an alibi. Mannix shows up the next day and is surrounded and captured by Lassiter and the thug with him. Webber is stationed at an upper deck with a powerful rifle aimed at Mannix. Just before the shooting begins Lassiter brings out a bound Sorenson and then Mannix figures out his plan stating that Lassiter wants to make it look like he confronted Sorenson who he initially suspected, they fought and killed each other. Turns out it was Sorenson's pretty secretary who was the insider.

Just before Webber is able to get his shot off, Mannix is somehow able to take the gun away from Lassiter's hired hand which apparently surprised Webber and of course he misses. There is no way Mannix is getting a gun away from a trained mob hit man.

Mannix and Sorenson run away with Mannix telling Sorenson to stay put. Mannix wins the shootout and only then do the police show up to make the arrest. Why the police did not have the place staked out I'll never know.

Red and Mannix were good friends but Boyd Morgan was not the right actor for the role. It just seemed contrived that they were friends. Morgan looked like a middle aged slouch and not someone who Mannix would hang out with.

Jeff Corey added some color to this episode as Sorenson. Jay Robinson was memorable and entertaining as the nutty Overkill. However, I do understand how the police let him hang himself in custody. Lawrence as Webber is perfect casting. Lawrence had a deep, grovely, commanding voice and sinister looks. He makes a perfect mob boss type.

I have said this before and I'll say it again, if I was Mannix's landlord I would evict him. There is too much violence at the apartment!

Diane Keaton is a poor casting choice in this episode. She plays ditzi heiress Cindy Conrad who sets up her buddy Roger to drive by Mannix's office at night while she is walking with Mannix. Roger fires some shots at them with blanks to make Mannix believe Cindy's stories. Later on when Mannix discovers the truth he says that Roger is a terrible shot and something like he could not hit the side of a barn. I found this to be hilarious. How many times have the "professional" hit men taken a shot at Joe Mannix and missed?

Getting back to Keaton. She has always been whiny and unattractive. I never liked her. Surprisingly though she is the most attractive I have seen her in this episode. She ruins this episode with her over acting and hysterics. Keaton found fame on the Godfather but she was a product of the time. Any other time period and she would be a flop.

The plot is complicated and hard to understand. I will not get into it.

Besides Roger shooting blanks at the beginning of the show there is another incident where the bad guys drive up to Mannix's office but are intercepted by police. At some point you would think Mannix's landlord would evict him because of all the violence occurring at his office/apartment! No landlord wants gun fire on their property.

Virginia Gregg as Jenny Loman is a bright light and makes this episode interesting. She is in her early fifties here and is solid as Jenny. Unfortunately, she is quickly murdered which is unfortunate. I wish they kept her alive to follow through on solving the case together with Mannix. This would have made the episode better.

I also liked John Lupton as bad guy R. B. Thompson. He was solid.

Shadow Play is an another Mannix episode featuring good actors, a pretty woman who Mannix fails to hook up with and a ridiculous plot. I give this five out of 10 stars.

The late Julie Gregg is perfect as Janet Kirby. In 1971 Gregg was a total knockout and a good actress. For me she falls under the woman for whom I would travel back in time to meet. She lived to an old age dying in 2016. While hiding out in a house from the bad guys, Mannix stands in front of the lovely Janet covering her with his arms, lucky Mike Connors!

John Vernon and Jan Murray are good actors who provide great support in their roles. Paul Mantee is also good as the resident bad guy.

The plot is crazy. Janet is trying to get to the bottom of her sister's accidental death which she believes was murder stemming from some shady mob business dealings of her husband Tony Sargent played by Murray. She asks Mannix to fly into town and meet her at the airport. When he arrives she is wearing a blonde wig and hands Mannix a package and a check for $1,000 forging her dead sister's name. She flees when two thugs armed with guns approach. They get into a fist fight with Mannix and then run off when the police arrive. Of course the police fail to chase them. The police take Mannix in for questioning.

I would have preferred Mannix and Janet being able to meet somewhere safe for their first meeting. Mannix had every right to be bad at Janet for setting him up with the check and package. Maybe back in 1971 you could carry a gun into the airport but even then it is stupid to grab someone in a public place because it attracts too much attention. The police chief later opens the package to find a bunch of cut up blank paper.

Mannix and Janet decide to go to her dead sister's empty house to find evidence. This is stupid because they are walking into a trap. After being accosted at the airport, Mannix should know the bad guys will follow him to the house. This house is secluded in the country. The thugs steel Janet's car and have Mannix and Janet cornered in the house. They should have planted another thug in the house before Mannix and Janet arrived. Either way, there is no way Mannix could escape from that situation.

Of course Mannix is able to sneak outside and come up from behind the thug without a gun in his hand, tackle the thug, knock him out and take his gun. Later, when the John Vernon who is the corrupt Chief Belden shows up he takes charge and regains control of the situation. The two thugs have Mannix and Janet covered with guns. Vernon walks to his patrol car to bring the car closer to the house. Just then a helicopter flies over and of course the two thugs are stupid enough to look up and be distracted giving Mannix enough time to slug them, take their guns and disappear into the house with Janet. Belden should have shot the two thugs for being incompetent.

As it turns out Sargent pretends to be on Belden's side. He is calling the shots and gets in with one of the thugs who Mannix ends up knocking out again with heavy piece of furniture down the staircase which knocks him out. At this point Sargent reveals he loved his wife and did not want her killed. He believes she was killed but wants to find the killer. He admits to his shady business dealings with the mob but never wanted his wife killed. He hatches a plan with Mannix.

He calls Belden and thug two into the house. Mannix starts talking and lays out how Belden is the killer. Incredibly Belden confesses to being the killer. Sargent is enraged and takes a shot at Belden but misses and kills thug 2. Belden escapes from the house and Mannix once again without a gun is able to tackle Belden from behind, knock him out and get his gun. This is unrealistic and stupid. Mannix and Janet were sitting ducks in that house and would have no chance for escape. This is why Mannix should have known better than to go to the house.

The episode ends with Janet escorting her injured, now good guy brother-in-law Sargent out of the house and walking up to Mannix. Once again, Mannix risked life and limb to save the day but he fails to win the girl's heart!

Carol Lynley, oh lovely Carol Lynley makes this episode worthwhile. I first discovered Carol as a child watching her guest star on Fantasy Island and have had a crush on her ever since. Yes, Carol is a woman I would travel back in time to meet. I was sad to hear she died in 2019.

This is a good Mannix episode. Carol's acting is good. She is believable as a young woman, Dorothy Kinman whose athletic prime was cut short by a tragic car accident. She is in a wheel chair and confines herself to her apartment. She is getting creepy phone calls from someone who says he will kill her. The killer is able to control the situation so that whenever Dorothy seeks help it looks like she made it up. Mannix is the only one who believes her but at some points he has doubts.

A policeman is stationed to guard Dorothy's door. During a shift change the killer, Roger Stack played by Paul Picerni knocks out the policeman starting the shift before he can get to Dorothy's floor. The officer is locked in a supply closet and never heard from again. Stack then poses as a police officer and assumes duty for the "shift."

The problem is as Mannix leaves Dorothy's apartment he gets a look at Stack as the policeman. Shortly after, he is speaking to Adam Tobias who has bugged the phone and is at the apartment. They share notes and realize that Stack is impersonating an officer. As they rush to save Dorothy, they attempt to use the elevator but it is too slow so they run up the 10 or 12 flights of stairs to run in, kick the door and save Dorothy just before Stack is able to push her off of the balcony.

The episode ends once again with Mannix being the nice guy he is, talking Dorothy into leaving the apartment so he can take her to the park and push her wheel chair for her. Despite Dorothy's disability, there was an opportunity for Mannix and her to have a relationship and this would have been good for the show. But in typical Mannix fashion, he heroically saves the girl but loses her at the end.

As a foonote, Byron Morrow played Dorothy's Dad George. He has a line where he tells Mannix he has a heart condition and could drop dead any day. In real life though, Morrow was about 60 years old at the time and lived to the age of 95!

My main purpose in reviewing this episode is the appearance of Ruth Roman as Victoria Parish, the selfish and immoral mother of the under fire police officer Paul Parish played by Robert Ritchie. I was watching this episode and cleaning the kitchen. When Roman appears on the screen I did not recognize her and wondered who is this crazy looking middle aged woman with the obvious wig on her head?

After watching the show and looking it up on IMDB I realized Ruth Roman played this part. Victoria Parish is a middle aged woman who will shack up with any man she meets. She sits at home all day drinking and smoking. Her son Paul sends her money each month so she can pay her bills. She seems more interested in using her son for the money than being a loving mother.

I went back and reviewed Ruth Roman's performance again. She was only 49 years old at the time. She definitely looked her age if not older. Ruth's performance is the best part of this episode.

Ruth's deep voice and mannerisms remind me of the late Martin Balsam. They would have made a perfect middle aged Jewish couple. I searched to see if they were in any movie together and sure enough they both appeared in the 1970 movie, The Old Man who Cried Wolf. Unfortunately, they did not star as husband and wife but the movie was released a year this Mannix episode. Although It features Edward G. Robinson as the top billed star.

Brenda Benet has no impact as Helen Parish and could have been played by another actress. Other reviewers have correctly pointed out the plot holes. Going back to 1970 when this was likely filmed and getting to enjoy the solid acting makes it bearable to watch despite the plot holes. So despite the weak plot, I give this episode a 7.

Mannix gets bashed in the head again and of course suffers no effects. For all the times he has been bashed in the head up until this episode, he would either be dead or severely mentally impaired. He would have diminished eye sight and wear thick glasses. Peggy would have to drive him around. Mannix would no longer speak in complete sentences. He would utter his words like the Incredible Hulk. A Mannix in this state, I jokingly refer to as "Frannix." The name just came to me from the image conjured up in my mind of Connors appearance in this type of state of mind.