Television

The Los Angeles Times published a lengthy appreciation of MANNIX today:

Somewhere out there, in the weird, quivering underbelly of the American dream, "Mannix" still lives.

Somewhere, there’s a place where a sportcoat-clad private eye can whip
around L.A. in a convertible, get beaten down by goons, shake it off
with a scotch on the rocks, then solve the case of the week with an
assist from his leggy secretary.

Somewhere out there, but not on DVD.

"Mannix," one of the longest-running, most violent (for its time), most
popular television detective shows in the medium’s history, has been
left out of the DVD trade. It’s fading into the forgotten realm of old
television shows nobody remembers.

I do. What the reporter didn’t mention was that two decades after the show was canceled, Bill Rabkin and I brought MANNIX back in highest rated DIAGNOSIS MURDER episode ever. The LA Times was one of the many newspapers and magazines that wrote about it back in 1997:

Mike Connors acknowledges that it’s been "kind of strange" to step back into
private investigator Joe Mannix’s well-worn shoes after 22 years for Thursday’s
episode of CBS’ "Diagnosis Murder."

"I’m really enjoying it," says the very fit 71-year-old actor. "Once they
start calling you Mannix and Joe, of course, it becomes a little easier."

Connors played the strong and suave shamus on the CBS action series "Mannix"
from 1967 to 1975, receiving four Emmy nominations.

This unique episode of "Diagnosis Murder" cleverly teams Mannix with his old
friend Dr. Mark Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) to solve a murder case that the detective
was unable to crack on his own series 24 years ago.

Scenes from the 1973 "Mannix" episode "Little Girl Lost" are used in
flashback sequences. Pernell Roberts, Beverly Garland and Julie Adams, who were
guest stars on the original episode, also appear.

"It’s such a good idea," the jovial Van Dyke says between takes on the
"Diagnosis Murder" hospital set in Van Nuys. "We weave the old show in so well
with the flashbacks."

The program marks the first time these two TV icons have worked together. "I
have known Mike for a long time," Van Dyke says. "We are really having a good
time."

Watching the filming with great delight are supervising producers Lee
Goldberg and William Rabkin, who came up with the idea of weaving the two series
together over lunch one day.

"We talked about one of our favorite shows, which was ‘Mannix,’ and we
couldn’t believe no one had brought back the show," says Goldberg. "When we were
kids we used to pretend we were Mannix. He drove the coolest car. He never got
his hair mussed. I wanted to be as self-assured and as confident as he was."

After coming up with the idea of combining an old "Mannix" show with
"Diagnosis Murder," Goldberg and Rabkin, who describe themselves as "TV geeks,"
began their search for the perfect "Mannix" episode.

"I had a book called ‘Television Detective Shows of the 1970s,’ which lists
every episode of every single detective show of the 1970s," Goldberg says. "So
we started looking through eight seasons of ‘Mannix’ and making a list of
episodes where the guest stars were alive, affordable and the story sounded
interesting. We must have pulled 30 of them and watched them."

"Little Girl Lost," Goldberg says, "had enough emotional resonance that it
would carry over 20 years. What is great about this episode is that Mannix
promised this little girl he would find her father’s killer. In the episode, he
actually discovers this whole mob plot, but he never actually nails the killer."

Goldberg then had to get up enough nerve to call his idol. "We couldn’t write
the episode until we got him on board. So essentially I spent an hour on the
phone assuring him this wouldn’t be a ‘Naked Gun’ spoof. We wouldn’t be making
fun of him and this would be a genuine continuation and it would be a real meaty
part."

Though his hair is still perfect, time has caught up with Mannix after too
many years of hard living. While in the emergency room, Dr. Sloan discovers
Mannix has a potentially deadly heart condition. Being the ultimate tough guy,
the private eye refuses to listen to his old friend’s warnings.

"We knew we couldn’t have him be the man he was 20 years ago," Goldberg says.
"But we also had to be true to that man and we got a kick pairing him up with
Dr. Sloan, who is soft-spoken and tries to get answers out of people being
roundabout and clever, and Mannix is in your face."

Beverly Garland, who is reprising her role as a tough cookie named Stella,
quips that doing this show was like "coming back from the grave!"

"It was the best," says Garland, who first worked with Connors in the
low-budget 1955 Roger Corman flick "Swamp Women." "It’s going to be fun to see
all of us the way we were. It’s going to be an interesting show. It works."

 

I just watched TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES and it’s one of the most entertaining pilots I have ever seen. It totally captures the feel of the first two movies on a dramatically lower budget. It picks up where TERMINATOR 2 left off and goes in a new direction that’s consistent with the dramatic line of the movies. It was a fun hour — everything BIONIC WOMAN wants to be and isn’t — but I don’t kn0w what they are going to do week-to-week. I’ll certainly be tuning in to see.

As much as I enjoyed it, there was one false, truly unbearable cliche: apparently Sarah and her son are going to be relentlessly pursued by the FBI agent obsessed with their capture (yet another rehash of Inspector Gerard. Why is it TV can’t resist ripping off THE FUGITIVE again and again and again and again???)

I’ve been so busy over the last few months that I’ve missed a lot of    TV crime shows. Today I indulged myself and caught up on the first four episodes of DEXTER. Wow. What a great series. It’s wonderfully directed, well-written, and pitch-perfect in tone.

That’s not to say there aren’t problems (the mean, overly political lieutenant, the angry black cop, and the Asian lab guy are drawn way too broadly, past cliche and into caricature), but the pluses far outweigh the minuses. Michael Hall is amazing in the role, walking a very delicate balance and pulling it off every time.

I’ve read DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER, the book that inspired the series, and I admire showrunner Clyde Phillips’ shrewd decision to stretch the novel’s central plot over the entire first season while still doing nearly standalone episodes. You’ll notice I said nearly. Although there’s a strong, narrative arc, the individual episodes are still satisfying on their own, while still largely open-ended story-wise. (The series is very loyal to the book and yet its one of the rare cases in which the TV series is far better than the original work that inspired it).

Although DEXTER is on Showtime, it could easily be mistaken for a USA Network series..if it wasn’t so bloody and dark. It’s got the quirky, socially-awkward, single-lead detective with psychological problems and a keen eye for detail (MONK, PSYCH) who had a strange childhood (MONK, PSYCH) that strongly shaped who he is…memories of which are revealed in flashbacks with his father (PSYCH). It’s also got a sunny, beachy locale (MONK, PSYCH, BURN NOTICE).

I hope the rest of the episodes are as great as the first four. If the first season ends the way the book did, I’ll be curious to see if they can find their creative footing again in the second season. 

TELL ME YOU LOVE ME is supposed to be oh-so-racy, raw and edgy…but the show is so ponderously dull and heavy-handed that even the sex scenes are boring. A very clever friend of mine had the best comment about the sex scenes:

They’re so bad I can watch them with my wife.

I am ashamed to admit it, but my favorite new show of the season is Gordon Ramsey’s KITCHEN NIGHTMARES (though I was already a fan of the BBC version). Every episode of the American version is the same — a loud-mouthed, arrogant imbecile is running a failing restaurant with an incompetent staff serving lousy food. Gordon Ramsey comes in and, using as many expletives as possible and rubbing his chin constantly, tells the loud-mouthed arrogant imbecile that he is running a failing restaurant with an incompetent staff serving lousy food. The arrogant imbecile gets offended and yells at his staff some more. Gordon Ramsey redecorates the restaurant, comes up with a new menu, and teaches the chefs how to make good food. The restaurant pulls in a crowd and succeeds…at least for the few days that the film crew is there. The arrogant imbecile promises to be less arrogant and a lot smarter and thanks Gordon for changing his life. And yet, as formulaic and repetitive as this show is, I find it addictive and ridiculously entertaining…more so than his HELL’S KITCHEN gameshow, which I got tired of after one full season and one episode of season two, and any episode of THE BIONIC WOMAN.