The Case of ‘Little Girl Lost’ : A Series Breakthrough

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.”

“We first met when we had the same tailor, Harry Cherry,” adds the charming Connors. “He did all the clothes for ‘Mannix.’ ”

This morning, Van Dyke, Connors and Barry Van Dyke, who plays Lt. Steve Sloan, are filming a scene in which Mannix has been brought into the emergency room after he was shot during his investigation of the murder case.

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.”

And the timing is right, too. There’s been a major resurgence in the popularity of “Mannix” since it joined the Nick at Nite TV Land lineup last fall.

“I go into a town and all of a sudden, these young people say, ‘We love the show!,’ ” Connors says. “I’m kind of shocked, and I have asked a few of them, ‘Do you feel it’s dated?’ And they say, ‘No. We love it.’ ”

Though “Mannix” was criticized for being excessively violent when it originally aired, Connors says the series is tame by today’s standards. “We did have car chases and fights, but when you compare them to shows that are on now, we were very, very low-keyed.”

Connors believes the series endured eight seasons because audiences identified with Joe Mannix. “I think in those days all private eye and detective shows were very cynical and hard-boiled. They never really got involved in what they are doing. We made the character vulnerable. We made him get involved with the people he was working with. He could be suckered in by a soft story or a pretty face. I think people thought he was a very normal kind of guy doing a job. That’s what I think caught people’s fancy.” These days, acting isn’t Connors’ top priority, though he definitely wouldn’t rule out doing a “Mannix” movie or two for TV.

“If I went a month without working I would go crazy,” Connors says of his younger days. “Now I really am enjoying my freedom. I work when something special comes along or if a friend calls me. So I work two or three times a year and that’s fine.”

“Diagnosis Murder” airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.; repeats of “Mannix” air weekdays at 11 a.m. and Mondays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. on TV Land cable channel.