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Will comfort women no moreMannix, sfarring Armenian acter Mike Connors., has been consoling, such as, from lefl, Christina Sinatra^ Joan Van dropped by CBS, Among those that wsfl miss the violence- Ark and Janis Paige, packed drama series will be fhose women'-fie was always-Alannix dead, but in good healthBy BOB THOMAS : ',l*OS ANOBpES (AP) — Autopsy report: Joseph Mahnix, age about 45. Occupation: private investigator. Deceased: April 29* 175. Cause of death: read on.: .O'■ The death was not unexpected. Reports ;Kad;circti^ within the television indjistry ihat CBS was not going to' renew “Mannix11-for a ninth season.'■.'The' trade was unbelieving. Whywould a network.pull the plug on a series that-had placed in the topdO rated shows twice in Ihe. past moutliV /“You-can'say the'patient died of good health,” ^marked coproducer Ivan Goff with a touch of irony.Fred\Silverman, the CBS programming vice president, said ‘ftlannix” was* yanked for three reasons:“One, the ratings were just fair. Two, we had good program development/ and it seemed wiser to replace it wilii a new show. Three, there were contractual problems. We would have had only one more year, then the series was going into syndication.4‘So it seemed better to seed the schedule.”Goff suspects the continuing antivio-lenee campaign of the networks may have fonlrihuled to the decision. “Mannix” placed second to “Hawaii Five-0” in a critics’ poll of television's most violent series.“In the first place, the poll-was unfair, because there was no assurance the critics saw the shows they rated,” said Coff. “At any rate, Mannix1 was actionful, but certainly not violent in the way that •Five-0’ is.“As a matter of fact, we were subject to a double standard. We could rareCOLUMBO”helped topple Monnixly get away with a damu’ or 'liclT while 'Five-01 used much worse language and move violence.'• “Every time-I saw their show,. I sent an angry letter to CBS.” ; .CBS's sdvermari Mew down the anti-viol eriee angle: ‘“Ihe show/that is replacing- 'Mahnix’tBronk’. with Jack Balance —is basically the same.form, i t is neither more''violent nor- less/*Goff disputed Silverman’s'Glairh that tW ratings were; only “fair.V/ The prcv-ducer admitted --Wat 'fMaiinix’’ had a slow start'wilh the i74-75 season 'because we had three pre-emptions out of lle four weeks at the. end and beginningof the season • — and ABC tlirew “The • Poseidon Adventure7. movie at us in the second week. -“But after six or seven weeks'ABC ran out of big films and we beat them. We also beat NBC's “Mystery Theater” except on ‘Coluriibo1 nights and were getting a '35 per cent share of audience on the toughest-night of the week (Sunday).”The drawing power of .“Mannix. is impressive since CBS gave it five different time slots in eight years.Goff said the principal cause of the show's, death was “studio bungling.” Paramount Television “made loud noises” about syndication of the show for September 1075 and that scared CBS off, claimed the coproducer.Star Mike Connors takes the wholething philosophically:“I knew it had to come eventually. Whul tte hell, we had a good ride. Now it's time for me to gel off my dead butt and get my career rolling after eight years in one job. •“i want to do pictures and then 'get ready to do another series. But not for another year.”Connors doubted Ihat the anti violence campaign killed “Mannix,”■'They'- kept bn a lot ~of violent ’ shows ” he reasoned; “and they replaced us with a show that has the. same.:kind of action.” * . .Mannix” made Connors a million-‘ aire, but the same didn^t’happenJo Goff and Ben Roberts, who'Turned Uie:i3?iow around 'after 'a faltering first season/' “Ben. and I changed 'every thing :tAit the title,” Goff, lamented* “If .we had changed that; we would have gbtten,residuals.”
Newspaper Details
Lowell Sun
Lowell, Massachusetts, US
Sun, May 18, 1975
Page 74
Full Page
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Free L.
PA, USA 19 Mar 2023
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