Mannix: Fourth Season [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Good quality picture and sound.I bought two series of this as result of a lot of good reviews. Why I do not know, there is more talk than action.No where near as good as Hawaii Five-0, or Streets of San Francisco.. . Boring series

I can't get enough Mannix... all the Mannix dvds are excellent. They are full of action and suspense... never a dull moment. They keep you entertained for the entire show, unlike most of the lame shows on the television today. Also interesting to see many of the old, well-known stars when they were first starting out. I will continue to buy all the Mannix dvds that are available.Happy Customer

I confess to a love of this show that goes back to when I was six years old. Now, looking back over a lot of years, I realize how important this show has been to me, held largely in the background of my mind, for over forty years now. But, beyond my personal experience, there is case to be made that it was the greatest television show, ever.First, in order to achieve greatness a television show has to have themes that are great. This show had a collection of some of the most fundamental and great themes that are important to our American culture: anti-establishment individualism, selflessness, a focus on deeds over money, wit and charm, and, above all, heroism, and it did it all without anything to hide behind.Second, in order to achieve greatness, great themes must be presented in a pure form, without gimmicks, for gimmicks only serve to cheapen the themes and so when they are in the foreground, greatness cannot be achieved. If the hero has to hide behind something, then he cannot be great. This show had none of the gimmicks that were so characteristic of virtually all of the hero shows that came after. This was not a buddy show, nor a reluctant hero show, nor an overly clever crime solver in the raincoat show. This was a pure hero, portrayed beautifully by Mike Connors, who was ruggedly handsome and athletic, and yet seemed to have a natural way of fitting the range from extreme toughness to extreme gentleness, in the classic cynical yet gently humorous hero mold. He was just out there as the hero, trying to be as real as possible with it, but nothing held back and nothing to hide behind.Third, great television is about characters. Books and movies can tell great individual stories, but television is unique in that it can allow you to develop a relationship with a character, so that the stories and settings ultimately serve to give that soothing, almost musical overtone to the way you see the character respond and behave on the screen. Great television is like great music. You can receive it over and over again. Each time, through the soothing, welcome repetition, it changes you. The same happens with relationships to great characters through the repetitive media of television. Thus, great characters in television portray reality in the character's responses to situations and do not get bogged down in the details of the situations that drive the dilemmas. Much has been made about too many beatings, bullets and car chases in this show. But how else do you portray themes of greatness and heroism week after week, so that you can be infused by the character's response? The story need only be plausible, the character is what matters. Perhaps not coincidentally, Mannix had one of the great musical themes of all time. Far from being separate, the beauty of the music and opening credits was entirely consistent with the rest of the show. Violence blended with beauty. Rage blended with gentleness. Toughness blended with humor. One drove the other like notes in a musical score that you can listen to over and over again. After all, the beatings, bullets and violence only serve as metaphors for our own reactions to psychological things that happen to us in our own considerably more mundane lives. Our hero gives us a model, or perhaps even just an excuse, for our own heroic responses when the metaphorical bullets and beatings happen to us over and over again as we try to contribute, help others and stir things us. Will we respond with such grace? Will we risk ourselves for the sake of others?Fourth, great characters must be individuals. After all, our greatest challenge in life is, according to no less than Carl Jung, individuation. No other show has produced a hero with such focus on being an individual as this one - right in a modern-day setting, without government secrets or hidden access to larger organizations, and without pretense.Fifth, greatness in television requires that the actor fit the role. This was one of those pairings where the actor fit the role so well, that it is almost inconceivable that it can be recreated. Sadly for Mike Connors, after Mannix was finished you almost couldn't stand to see him on TV as anything but Joe Mannix - seeing him otherwise was actually upsetting. The mix of toughness, humor, cynicism and overall easygoing nature that he brought to the role made you feel as if you just watched the character over and over again that you, personally, could do better - that you should do better. You didn't just watch this show to pass the time - you wanted some of what the character had. It made you feel better about yourself to watch.Sixth, the time period of this show is, of course, the golden era of television. The dawn of great TV was when the movie studio resources and color first hit the small screen. This was also a highly creative period, during which there were no roadmaps, and little competition from a few networks. No less then Lucille Ball (Desilu) was involved with this series. Much like her TV series, this show was all about a character, only with a dramatic instead of comedic focus. At the same time, this was a unique time period in the US, the last of the post-WWII American optimism, fueled by the theme of the independent hero, which is perhaps the best kind of character America has to offer. The result is a great piece of Americana that should be enjoyed as such.Seventh, greatness often includes a contribution, over and above the bold portrayal of universal themes and types. This show had, I recently learned from PBS's Pioneers of Television, a unique take on the way the story was told - a faster pace, more "set-ups" as Mr. Connors explained on the PBS show on Crime Dramas. But, a major contribution that was left out of that PBS series discussion was the relationship between Mannix and his secretary, Peggy Fair. He was white, she was black (as was proper reference in those days), and they were two individuals, sharing an awful lot of stuff and clearly displaying considerable affection, but of opposite gender. Has there even been a pairing on TV quite like that in the past four decades? And there were just the two of them, the only constants in the seven years of the series beyond season 1. While Peggy's race was often simply ignored, it did occasionally come up and was addressed - which is much more honest than simply ignoring it, as Robert Culp claimed was the premise in I Spy. Race was actually addressed in other ways in this series as well, and it was done so in such a way that it did not make a big deal out of it, did not take credit, it simply pushed forward. Beyond that, Gail Fisher was a great actress - it is worth going through the DVDs just looking for the scenes between Joe and Peggy. They fought with each other in a close, adult way, this white guy and black woman, with a platonic closeness that has been unequaled on TV. While the platonic closeness was forced by the lack of acceptance for an inter-racial relationship at that time (ironically, seven years after President Obama was born), the lack of being able to go any farther only served to fuel the closeness. These were people who were like each other, but of different races and genders, with a bond formed through by having common goals - and platonic relationships like that can be of the most intense kind we encounter in real life. And too, these were actors who could convey so much with their eyes. Don't believe me? Just get loaded up with the context of the characters by watching all of season 2 (in which Peggy first appears) and then make it to DVD #3 of season 3, which includes, "The Sound of Darkness." Enjoy them relating to each other in that show, and then get to the very, very end. When Joe's sight comes back, the communication is conveyed almost completely without any words at all. It is all done through the eyes and it is intense - and once you care about those characters you can watch that scene over and over again in the way great movie scenes can be watched.Finally, I will relate a personal story. Recently I started to watch seasons 1-4, after having collected the DVDs, but having to shelve them because of the need to deal with both personal and professional crises. And too, I was afraid to become re-invested in a series I know I once loved, in case there was some stoppage of the release of the DVDs. But, with half of the series in hand as of early January, I started to risk re-investing and watching during this past month. In so doing, I realized that I watched this show from the time I was six years old - before I could read or write, with season 1 literally overlapping first grade (in an era without kindergarten). I had a child's eye awareness of specific episodes of season 1, and progressive familiarity with subsequent seasons. Some of the scenes of season 1 were familiar as if viewed by another person held inside myself, and it was uncanny. Most likely my parents had it on while I was allowed to stay up late on a Saturday night. I now realize that I formed a relationship with the character, starting from then, and, as I grew, the show remained deeply important to both my internal fantasy life and external connection to the world around me until Paramount sadly ended it too soon in 1975.Overlapping the very end of the series and over the course of the many years that have followed, I've had to survive some pretty extreme kinds of things, in both my career and family life. In viewing these DVDs, I've come to realize that elements of this character, this show, have always been buried deep inside my head, and much to my surprise, even formed an excuse for the formation of some elements of my own character, elements for which I'd spent years wondering about the origins. I seem to always need to go against the system (I am a female in a profession dominated by men from all sorts of cultures), am very unconventional in my work (academic research), and I'd rather make a difference than make a lot of money. I try to be tough. I try to stand up for others. I take risks. I try to have a sense of humor about the stuff that does happen to me. Others in my family are not like this, and, believe me, I had no role models. But now, through a lens of 40 years, I can see how I formed my model of what great character was. And, I realize that some of the things I took away from this show formed the foundation of the best parts of myself. Now, I realize that this will sound strange to many, and some will try to label or psychoanalyze me from a distance - but why? Through all of recorded history, great stories can sustain us through a lifetime. Why not great characters?The too-long era of focus family values, greed and security has proved to be depressing for me. But, I watch these DVDs and I feel re-energized, as if there is still a time and place where heroism, rugged individualism, a quest to lead an interesting life, and more of a desire to take risks in order to help others mattered more. Why in the world would Joe and even Peggy repeatedly put their lives in danger all of the time? After all, they had to know the next danger was coming. Maybe they just wanted to lead interesting lives. Maybe they wanted to live in the moment. Mannix is about the American way of living in the moment, portrayed so perfectly sweetly that I can't wait to get back to the four seasons of DVDs I currently have in hand.I can only hope that CBS/Paramount releases the remaining four seasons. I've never understood why any form of art can be made unavailable to the public, either put in the public domain or made available for sale. Art is what defines us as a culture, and this series so uniquely captured American values that it is truly a piece of Americana. How can art be held from us? After over forty years of walking around, living a mildly interesting and challenging life, and now looking back, this particular form of art - this character, this television series - the way I connected so deeply, is likely the source of some of the best parts of me. I am so glad to have half of it back that words can't properly express it. Now, I just hope for the rest of it to appear on DVDs, so that I may be infused by the visual symphony that is Mannix over and over again, and feel just a little bit larger than life, just a little bit more on track, just a little bit better potential of what I can accomplish as a human being and how I respond to life's situations each time I watch.

6 DVDs of excellent acting ; plots that keep interest ; and excitement that keeps you wanting to watch all these shows in the fourth season....

"There's an old Armenian proverb: the man works best who works alone."--Private Eye Joe Mannix from "The Color of Murder".Los Angeles cop characters from the Homicide Division return:Lt. Ira Deegan (actor Dane Clark in "A Ticket to the Eclipse", "With Intent to Kill")Lt. Adam Tobias (actor Robert Reed in "One for the Lady", "Duet for Three", "The Crime That wasn't", "A Day Filled with Shadows", "Voices in the Dark")Lt. Art Malcom (actor Ward Wood in "Time Out of Mind", "Figures in the Landscape", "The Mouse That Died", "The Other Game in Town", "Sunburst", "To Cage a Seagull", "Déjà Vu", "With Intent to Kill" , "The Color of Murder", "Overkill")Lt. Mitch Webster (Jerry Douglas in "The World Between", "Round Trip to Nowhere")Lt. George Kramer (actor Larry Linville in "Bang, Bang, You're Dead")Lt. Maurie Strauss (actor Milton Selzer in "What Happened to Sunday?")One have a country cop as Chief of Police Carl Yaring (actor Robert Lansing in "The Judas Touch") or no guest cop as "The Lost Art of Dying", "A Gathering of Ghosts", "Shadow Play".A whole episode ("With Intent to Kill") is dedicated to the tough-as-nails Lt. Deegan in which Mannix is hired by his wife to spy on his activities related to a robbery and it even features Lt. Malcom.After the season 2 "End Game", find another fine plot about a Korean War veteran with a revenge: "A Ticket to the Eclipse", directed by John Moxey (see "Kolchak: The Night Stalker") and guest starring Darren McGavin (see "Kolchak: The Night Stalker") as long hair Karate teacher Mark training kids who behaves as weirdo Max Cady from "Cape Fear" (1962); pay attention to the hectic swimming pool fight that shows laughing Mark warning Mannix: "Hey Lieutenant! You blew it! You should've killed me! You're going to pay for it. You're going to pay for it." The second entry ("One for the Lady", directed again by John Moxey) is also good because Mannix poses as a framed turncoat working first as a bodyguard and then as a demolition expert for an Italian female gangster leader ordering her gang of "Mission: Impossible"-like con men (electronics expert, master of disguise/voice imitator, coordinator) to rob the safe of a naval air station. One of the best episode is an oddity: "A Gathering of Ghosts" (directed by Reza Badiyi) that is huit-clos taking place in a ghost town in the middle of the desert where Mannix is welcomed by a group of old friends who play a joke on him with bogus gunshots and a murder. The hoax quickly degenerates into real drama and then we follow a dark whodunit. The guest cast is fabulous: Robert Webber, Jason Evers, Charles Aidman, Alan Oppenheimer, Diana Muldaur and Marj Dusay.But the finest adventure is "The Mouse That Died"--a variation on the film noir "D.O.A." (1950)--: Mannix is poisoned with a nerve drug on his coffee by a third party who hides his illegal espionage activities about the stealing of a military project called "Fishnet" and Mannix has only 24 hours to nail him and to get the antidote. Director Sutton Roley's film-making is inspired by showing the symptoms of the main character, pale as a zombie, through three vivid hallucinations: the meeting with a satanist sect in a crummy building, the attack at the Puritan Laundry Service and the helicopter chase at the exit of a tunnel. Incidentally, one year later, Sutton Roley and composer Laurence Rosenthal will work again but on a supernatural pilot entitled "Sweet, Sweet Rachel". Another wild entry related to visions is "What Happened to Sunday?" (directed by Paul Krasny) in which Mannix looses the memory of the previous day after running away and being chased by two cars. It's filled with subliminal shots to emphasize the quick flashes of memory undergone by the leading man who investigates from place to place: The Monkey Bar, The Beauty Parlor, The Sea Breeze Dancing. "Voices in the Dark" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring Carol Lynley) is a tense thriller not to miss about a former swimmer for the Olympics who becomes disabled after a car accident (notice the quick subliminal montage during the prologue), lives reclused in her apartment and is threatened by a mysterious man but everything indicates it's all in her imagination when Mannix takes the case. One episode ("Déjà Vu") makes a loose reference to the "Twilight Zone" segment "Spur of the Moment": a young woman witnesses twice the death of Mannix (in dream and for real) while going horse-riding in the countryside. The intriguing political-oriented "To Cage a Seagull" (directed by Paul Krasny) features two noteworthy scenes: a treacherous and militant secretary leading Mannix to an ambush and the escape of Mannix from the high cell with crude rock walls.You can also appreciate two engrossing Syndicate in the countryside episodes: "Sunburst" (directed by John Moxey)--that starts as a season 2 "Mission: Impossible" holiday episode entitled "The Town"--in which Mannix stops at a gas station held by a mobster (played by Barry Atwater) and his two henchmen on their way to eliminate a big brass (played by Brad Dexter) willing to testify against his people; "Shadow Play" (directed by Paul Krasny) tells the story of crooked chief of police Belden (played by John Vernon) and investment broker Sargent on the payroll for the Syndicate and run the operations in a small country town when Mannix steps in to solve the murder of a woman.Secretary Peggy Fair has an entire episode to her: "The World Between" (directed by Paul Krasny and guest starring Hari Rhodes and Albert Popwell) in which she ends up in the hospital after getting a missing bullet in the Paseo Verde office and falls in love with the Premier of an African nation.Graphic design-wise: each prologue starts now with the MANNIX logo. The opening titles remains unchanged except the footages from "Time Out of Mind" recycled for the credits of actress Gail Fisher, wearing a yellow dress. Same previous configuration for the end titles which now gains yellow fonts instead of the white ones. Season 4 is yellow all the way.Fashion-wise: Mannix carries his usual Italian Persol sunglasses in "Round Trip to Nowhere", changes them to some huge fancy plastic Ray-Ban in "Sunburst", "Déjà Vu", "What Happened to Sunday?" and also a pair of metal framed orange shades in "The Judas Touch".SOUNDTRACK NOTESFor the music lovers, the orchestration tends to contrast with the past of the series by the introduction of two music supervisors: Leith Stevens (see "A Ticket to the Eclipse", "One for the Lady", "Time Out of Mind", "Round Trip to Nowhere") and Kenyon Hopkins (from "Figures in the Landscape"). Lalo Schifrin makes his comeback after a season of absence and the first sign of change is the opener score ("A Ticket to the Eclipse" with its dissonant organ music a la "THX 1138" that prefigures the theme of "Scorpio" from "Dirty Harry" combined with the "Mannix" theme rearranged a la "Bullitt", a drop of "Charley Varrick" and some harpsichord use from "The Beguiled") which paves the way for the rough Seventies leaning to come. For his last score ("One for the Lady") on the series, Jerry Fielding lets a strong imprint due to his big band trade mark, tense martial drumbeats a la "Hunters Are for Killing/McMillan&Wife" combined with some moody cimbaloms, the stings of "Kolchak" and some soft romantic music for the Italian female leader foreshadowing "Susan's Apartment" and "The Aircraft" from "Scorpio"; the score is well-tracked in "To Cage a Seagull" when Mannix meets leader Leonard Brix in his headquarters. Other composers contribute: Richard Hazard ("Time Out of Mind", the dissonant and hip ethnic "Shadow Play" that foreshadows his music scores for "Mission: Impossible" between "Kitara" and "The Bride"), Fred Steiner ("Figures in the Landscape" is made in the same cloth as the season 3 "The Playground"), Lawrence Rosenthal (the weird score "The Mouse That Died" that features an action-packed cue that is a proto-version of The Sandmen Theme from "Logan's Run: The Series"; it's well-highlit in "What Happened to Sunday?"), Joseph Mullendore (the retro 50's crime jazz score "The Lost Art of Dying"), Lyn Murray (the sentimental and martial ethnic score "The World Between"), Duane Tatro ("The Invaders" type of lowkey score "Round Trip to Nowhere").AUDIO NOTESUnlike previous season sets, these season 4 discs feature English subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of hearing (English SDH) instead of closed captions (CC).PICTURE QUALITY NOTESThe transfers oversaturate reds to such a degree that interlaced artifacts rear their ugly heads constantly when something which is colored richly red starts moving.

In season IIII...Some of the episodes toward the end of the season would be going along fine, then suddenly freeze, and skip to the next break in the same episode. I would have to get back to the spot by scanning backward, being careful not to go back to the point it would skip ahead again.It's not a "show stopper", because I can see the entire episode. It's an annoyance to have to let it skip ahead then scan back to see the missing footage.