Tue 25 Sep 2018
A TV PI Mystery Review: MICHAEL AVALLONE – Mannix.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV musicals[14] Comments
MICHAEL AVALLONE – Mannix. Mannix #1. Popular Library, paperback original; 1968.
From what I have read on the Internet, it was too early for Avallone to have seen any episodes of the TV show Mannix when he wrote this book. It’s an original novel, not based on any of the episodes that aired, but definitely based on the first season’s characters and premise.
To wit: As an investigator for Intertect Limited, Mannix is the odd man out. Intertect is all about computers, punch cards and efficiency, Mannix is strictly a non-conformist in that regard. He works on instinct and knowing people, and his is the most cluttered desk in the Intertect office.
This of course leads to a lot of conflict between him and his boss, Lou Wickersham (he was Lew in the series itself). The only reason he keeps his job is that he is Intertect’s best operative, a fact that Mannix keeps reminding Wickersham of.
The book is only 128 pages long, so the story itself is a throwaway. A young woman, impossibly beautiful and prone to sunbathing in the nude, is also impossibly rich — three billion dollars worth. She is also bored, and when she is offered a chance (she thinks) to work for the CIS, she jumps for it without a second thought.
Little does she know that her contact works for the other side, and it is up to Mannix to rescue her from the trap she falls into. That she also falls in love with Mannix is a given.
The four other books in the series (see below) are based, I believe, on actual episodes of the TV series. Under the circumstances, you cannot fault Michael Avallone for not having a very good grasp if the character, only the surface elements.
And viewers at home must have liked Mannix the character a lot more than the computer world premise, since the latter had been dumped by the time the second season began, and the series went on for a total of eight seasons.
The remaining Mannix novels —
Mannix #1: The Faces of Murder (1975, by J.T. MacCargo)
Mannix #2: A Fine Day For Dying (1975, by J.T. MacCargo [Peter Rabe])
Mannix #3: A Walk on the Blind Side (1975, by J.T. MacCargo)
Mannix #4: Round Trip to Nowhere (1975, by J.T. MacCargo [Peter Rabe])
September 25th, 2018 at 6:08 am
I’m shocked, I tell you.
At least Mannix wasn’t reading an Ed Noon book, like Avallone had Keith Partridge do in another of his novelizations. At least, I assume he wasn’t.
September 25th, 2018 at 6:11 am
The four later Mannix novels are indeed based on episodes of the series, and an oddly-selected set they are too. The Faces of Murder and Round Trip to Nowhere are both good, but A Fine Day for Dying is mediocre and A Walk on the Blind Side melodramatic: at least the original episodes are, though I suppose the novels may have been an improvement.
September 25th, 2018 at 8:32 am
I was a fan of the TV series, and I read everything by Avallone I could get my hands on in those days, so I grabbed this one as soon as I saw it on the spinner rack at the drugstore. I remember enjoying it, but I haven’t reread it in the intervening 50 years. It was common practice in those days to write the first tie-in novel before the series ever aired. The same thing happened with Avallone’s Man From U.N.C.L.E. novel, leading some fans of that show to dislike the book for its “inaccuracies”, an unfair assessment in my opinion.
September 25th, 2018 at 9:15 am
The Mannix series is on in my area on MeTV at 2:00 am.
September 25th, 2018 at 11:36 am
Was Peter McCurtin perhaps responsible for the other two novels? I read somewhere that he also wrote under the J.T.MacCargo name.
September 25th, 2018 at 3:38 pm
Not a far fetched idea, Dozy, but I did a quick search with Google and didn’t find anything to back it up. Not yet anyway!
September 25th, 2018 at 4:36 pm
Chuck. Comment #4. I still don’t get MeTV through my cable company. It’s very frustrating to know all the good stuff people are watching and I’m not!
September 25th, 2018 at 4:44 pm
I actually preferred the dynamic of the first season, but Gail Fisher as Peggy was a big plus. I’ve happily watched some episodes on YouTube recently and I am happy to say that ubiquitous car chase on that same scenic road doesn’t happen half as often as I recall it happening.
Whether thay are “pure” or not almost any Avallone novelization is likely to offer something entertaining, if not always plot.
September 25th, 2018 at 5:44 pm
Mannix was created by William Link and Richard Levinson (Columbo,etc). There is a DVD of the pilot episode with commentary by Link. It had been on youtube for awhile and the comments hated Link’s stories, they wanted him to shut up. But it was very interesting.
There is an interview with him at the Academy Emmy legends site. Here is a piece where he talks about Mannix. MCA he mentions was Universal studios that produced the show.
Things changed quickly as Link and Levinson left and Bruce Geller (Mission Impossible) took over and changed things.
TV scripts are not written – it is often said – but rewritten. The constant changes can make it hard for any book adaptations to keep up especially before the pilot is filmed or even written.
Lee Goldberg has edited a book called TIED IN -THE BUSINESS, CRAFT, AND HISTORY OF MEDIA TIE-IN WRITING (2010) that is worth reading for any fan interested in the tie-in book genre.
September 25th, 2018 at 7:22 pm
Steve here is tonight’s line up on MeTV. Sorry that you are unable to see these shows.
Mannix
Cannon
77 Sunset Strip
Peter Gunn
September 25th, 2018 at 8:56 pm
Sure, rub it in.
September 26th, 2018 at 12:46 am
#9:
The MCA that Link is referring to is the overall Music Corporation of America, which at that time was the largest talent agency in the business.
MCA had long since also gone into TV production (Revue, which ultimately acquired Universal Studios), and thus attracted the interest of the antitrust section of the Department of Justice, but that’s another story.
As Link mentions clearly in the clip, he and Levinson sold their idea to Desilu (later acquired by Paramount, which is another story), which assigned the property to Bruce Geller, and you know the rest …
Irony Dept.:
After Levinson & Link ‘ankled’ Desilu, they wound up at Universal/MCA, working for Lew Wasserman (who sort-of gave his name to Intertect’s ‘Lew Wickersham’).
Life’s funny, ain’t it?
September 26th, 2018 at 2:16 pm
Get Mike Nevins to put together a fresh list of “Avallone-isms” sometime. A lot like Bill Pronzini’s _Gun in Cheek._
The first book by Avallone I ever read was _Run, Spy, Run_, the first of the Nick Carter, Killmaster series and I once had a signed copy. It’s now in the Cox Collection at the University of Minnesota.
September 27th, 2018 at 9:06 pm
Randy
I’m not sure I’m ready for another column’s worth of Avallon-eisms. The last time Mike did one, Avallone’s son and a couple of other people took offense and really let me know about it.
But in case anyone was wondering, I wouldn’t have let that stop me if I’d found any in this book, but I didn’t.