Welcome Colorblindness

My wife and I had a 36-hour bout with the flu last week during which we didn’t want to do anything but sit in the living room and watch television — the only activity we had energy for besides running to the bathroom.

There happened to be a Mannix marathon on Cloo, a network I never had watched. Mannix was one of a plethora of private detective shows on during my youth, a series I hadn’t seen in decades. The program lasted eight seasons on CBS and still was in the top 20 Nielsen ratings when it went off the air in 1975. After watching a few episodes I had to ask why.

The scripts contained nearly identical element in each show: a group of thugs would beat up the hero detective, often sending him to a doctor; there would an obligatory car chase on a largely deserted highway, even though it was supposed to be Los Angeles; there would be a shootout, with a frightful number of people biting the dust; the police would seem like idiots, oblivious to clues in front of their noses. Story lines frequently were convoluted and improbable, the dialogue hackneyed. Many outdoor scenes obviously were shot on the Desilu lot.

So why did so many people watch this series? Well, the jazzy theme song for one thing, written by Lalo Schifrin, the same composer of the catchy Mission: Impossible TV signature tune.

But I think it came down to one basic element: the likeability of the two main characters and their interplay. Joe Mannix (Mike Connors) had every confidence in his dutiful secretary Peggy Fair (Gail Fisher). Mannix was one of the first TV series to not treat a black character as subservient or superfluous. As portrayed by Fisher (who won an Emmy as outstanding support actress in a drama series in 1970), Peggy Fair was competent, compassionate and classy. Writers gave her good lines, even allowing her to help her boss solve cases once in a while. In the days before sexual harassment went amok, Joe and Peggy touched each other as friends, embracing in joy or relief over certain situations. For a white man and black women to show tender concern for each other in 1967 in this country was radical — and most welcome.

Mannix on CBS was one of three series on network TV in the late 1960s to show African Americans in positive career roles. Julia (NBC, 1968-71) starred Diahann Carroll as the title-role nurse. I Spy (NBC, 1965-68) began the trend, with Bill Cosby as the equally billed co-star with Robert Culp as a black and white American agent team.

These programs didn't pretend that black people didn't have problems or that they didn't sometimes have unhealthy attitudes. Yet by showing characters with intelligence and a range of emotions, these shows illustrated something new to TV audiences: black people are equally worthy of human dignity.