The recent auction of the Mannix '67 Toronado got me interested in the show (I was in grade school when the show was on originally and didn't watch it), so I bought the full series DVD set on Amazon, and my wife and I are setting out to watch all 194 episodes (8 seasons' worth) in one sitting. OK, not really, but we do plan to watch them steadily, and I thought I'd keep track of the Oldsmobiles spotted as well as any other interesting cars that strike my fancy. We've watched the first three episodes so far, and there are always interesting cars in the background and even in the foreground as Mannix spends LOTS of time outdoors and LOTS of time driving cars, sometimes his own and more often something he grabs from someone else.

Periodically, I'll come back to this thread and add new cars that I see. Here's what I have so far.

First, even though the customized '67 Toronado appears in the closing credits (first photo below), we don't actually see Mannix driving it until the third episode.


The Toronado in the upper left of the closing credits.





In the first two episodes, Mannix is actually driving this, a 1967 Mercury Cyclone convertible, I believe. Very nice car.





It isn't until the third episode that we actually see Mannix driving the Toro, and he drives it for only a few seconds at the very beginning of the show. We never see it again in this episode, although Mannix spends lots of time in cars, some of which were a '67 Mercury station wagon and his boss's (Lou Campinella's) mid-60s Lincoln with the suicide rear doors.

Here's a couple of scenes of Mannix driving the Toro. That looks to be something of late '50s vintage behind it.







In one street scene, a '64 Olds full-size is spotted. Green car on the left. It's a four-door hardtop, so I'm thinking Super 88 or Dynamic 88 Holiday Sedan? Both had a chrome trim strip running the length of the car just below the door handles. In the Super 88, the trim piece curved downward at the forward end whereas on the Dynamic 88 it did not. It's hard to tell for sure, but, to me, it looks like the trim piece in the car from the show does not turn downward, so I'm guessing Dynamic 88. The Jetstar 88 as also available as a four-door hardtop, but the Jetstar did not have the chrome trim strip, so that rules it out.




Super 88.




Dynamic 88.

 

Mannix was a good show. In my insomniac stage, which usually happens around 1:30am when our ancient dog (who can't see or hear) flaps her ears and signifies she needs to go outside for a head break, I turn on the TV for awhile which will eventually put me back to sleep. And it just so happens that on MeTV at 2am, Mannix comes on. They run the entire series from Season 1 through Season 6 and they are into the 5th season now. I've seen the Toro on the first season episodes, not knowing but suspecting it was a modified version of a Toronado. I think it looks pretty neat! Of other cars I've seen on Mannix, a blue 1971 Corvette t-top version shows up on some Season 4 episodes, not driven by Mannix but by some of the special guests and/or suspects. The episodes are fun to watch. And, if I'm still awake after Mannix is over, I get another full hour of Cannon in his Lincoln MK!!! and MK!V cars!

Randy C.

 

Not many cars featured in episode 4, but we did get a better view of the Toronado, and the one scene in which it appears turned up a few other beauties.

I noticed the Toro's passenger side rearview mirror. Is that right? It looks to be angled so low that I doubt the driver could see much through it, especially as it seems to be located right at the pillar, which would seem to block the driver's view. The driver's side mirror is just as low, but at least it looks like the driver can see it. But if the driver is something like 5-foot tall, would he be able to see the mirror over the door sill?

There's a good view of the spinner wheelcovers.

Note the other cars in the scene. That looks on the right to be a '63 Buick LeSabre or Wildcat convertible. Behind the stop sign looks to be a '65 Pontiac Bonneville convertible. The car in the left rear is maybe an early '60s ('63?) Rambler?

 

Thanks for sharing the pics. I've never watched Mannix (before my time), but I definitely like car spotting when watching older movies and TV.

 

Jeez, now I'm going to have to set the DVR to record Mannix on MeTV in the middle of the night! I remember watching it with rapt attention as a kid in grade school and junior high. After reading this thread and the one in the "Cars for Sale" section of the forum I can't get the "Mannix" theme song out of my head! I need to hear that bitchin' brass section blow those horns again!

 

The Rambler in the background is a '62 or older. The Classic and Ambassador series were completely new and 'modern' in 1963, and won Motor Trend's Car of The Year award!

 

LOL, I also find myself watching both of those shows when I can't sleep!

 

The Rambler looks like a 1958, to me.

 

Episode 5 and 6 were uneventful. Episode 5 featured a few more shots of the Toronado, and episode 6 was actually the second episode filmed, so, like the first episode, it does not feature the Toro at all. Rather, Joe is driving a very conventional 1967 Ford Custom 500 4-door sedan. I didn't take a screenshot of it.

 

I always liked Mannix too, but I remember him mostly driving Mopars .

 

Those came in later seasons. We talked about his various cars here.

 

Episode 7 was relatively devoid of cars, too, and Mannix is still driving the '67 Ford Custom 500 sedan from the previous episode. I took a still of it this time. Not a bad car at all, but not very glamorous for a high-powered private-eye, and certainly not of the class of the Toronado that he must have back in the garage at home.





We did get one other car to look at, this one a very nice '67 (I'm guessing) Mustang convertible. I love how these cars were just everyday cars back then that few people gave a second thought about, and now they sell for crazy amounts at Mecum auctions.




You can't really see the license plate on Mannix's car, but you can definitely see the California black plate on the Mustang.

 

Episode 8 had one little surprise. Mannix is back to driving the Toronado, which we get some good views of, but we also got an unexpected bonus, a quick look at part of the engine compartment, which probably doesn't happen very often in the show.

Mannix was being shown by some bad guys how close he came to getting blown up by dynamite wired to the ignition system, so that's why there's those sticks of dynamite in the photo. They were probably not part of the Barris modifications. We do see what looks like a standard Toronado dual-snorkel air cleaner, but the "Toronado" badging on the air cleaner lid is not there. That's not surprising given the desire to keep this car from being obviously a Toronado. While Olds was I'm sure glad to have one of their cars used in the show, they probably didn't want viewers to notice that it was a Toronado convertible because Olds didn't offer a convertible version of the Toro.

Anyway, we can also see the alternator, upper radiator hose with what looks to be a factory-correct hose clamp, what's possibly a ventilation system vacuum servo in the right rear, one heater hose, and a portion of the air-conditioning system, if I'm not mistaken, in the left rear. What's that "KUT" on the sticker on the oil fill tube?

It always amazes me how easily the crooks in these shows can get hold of dynamite. Almost as easily as Wile E. Coyote could.

Another thing I never understood on these shows is how casually the good guys (Cannon, Mannix) leave their cars open when they drive into some unknown, possibly dangerous situation in some back alley somewhere, get out of the car, and walk away to investigate something. Cannon was famous for never rolling up the windows on his big Lincolns let alone locking the doors. I supposed the producers didn't want the characters constantly closing windows and locking doors and then fumbling with keys later to unlock them, but, and this is especially true for a convertible, by leaving the car unprotected, they leave open the possibility that the bad guys could get to the car when no one is around and do all sorts of damage, such as wiring up dynamite, hiding in the back seat, damaging the brakes or steering so he goes off the road the next time he rounds a curve, or who knows what. Although, in 1967, Olds had not yet introduced the inside-the-car hood release, so even if Mannix had put the top up and closed and locked the doors, someone could still get under the hood. But my point still stands. Lock your car! Take your keys!

Whenever Joe does come back to his car after being away from it, I find myself yelling at the TV "Joe, check the back seat before you get in and drive away!" Half the time there's some bad guy back there who makes himself known by putting a gun to Joe's head or back. If only Joe had taken a moment to check that back seat floor area before getting in!

Not that it's the greatest quality image in the world, but I've included first a picture of the '67 Toronado engine as shown in the '67 Olds brochure.








The only other car-worthy scene from the episode was this one, where we see a few cars in the background. On the far left looks to be possibly that same '65 Bonnevillle convertible we saw in an earlier episode and that I noted in post #3 above. I don't know what the car next to that is. The second from the right looks to be possibly a '60 Buick station wagon? Again, kind of hard to tell. I have no idea about the truck on the far right.

By the way, that's Mannix running out of the mental hospital and towards us and being chased by guys in white suits.

 

Okay, so much for the drama about the engine and wondering if we'd ever get to see it. I found a full shot of the engine compartment on the Worldwide Auctioneer's website. The car was sold by them last week for $101,000.

Of course, this is what it looked like in 2019 when it had been cleaned up for auction. Back when the show was being produced, they probably kept the engine compartment reasonably clean, but probably not detailed to the extent the engine bay is now. It certainly doesn't appear that the air cleaner lid is the same. Or is it? In the photo from the show, it looks dusty, and the colors are a bit washed out as well compared to the colors in the 2019 photo.

 

Episode 9 had Mannix recovering from a gunshot wound to his right foot, so he was hobbling around in a cast and wasn't supposed to drive his car. So they had him take a bus to some small California town to obtain a signature on a document, and mayhem ensued for the next hour.

But we did get to see some other cars, including a couple of Oldsmobiles.

First off we have this scene. Mannix is riding into town on that bus. On the right is a white station wagon I can't identify, but next to it is a '60 Cadillac




In this scene we have a '60 Olds four-door. Perhaps a 98? I like the wide whitewalls.





These two are easy. On the left is a '57 Chevy 2-door, and on the right a '61 88 or 98 convertible. With that wide trim piece running the length of the car, maybe a Starfire?

Pay no attention to that burning rag in that barrel in the foreground. That's Mannix creating a diversion, and he had just exited the scene. It was nice of him to get out of the way so we could see the two cars.





Finally, we have this nice open-road shot, but I don't know what this car is. Can anyone help?

 

1965 Ford Fairlane

 

Thanks.

 

Three cars worth taking a snapshot of in episode 10. None were Oldsmobiles. We did get more good views of the Toronado, including, for the first time, someone (Joe's boss) riding as a passenger along with Joe. I didn't take a picture, though.

Very nice '54 Buick Special four-door sedan. Another, older vehicle that we only see a small part of is at the right. Any ideas what that is?

That's Mannix in the foreground.





We had a yellow Mustang in episode 7, but that was a convertible. This one's a coupe. At least, I think this one is yellow. Colors get a bit washed out in photographing the screen. It could be white.





Finally, we have this '67 (I believe) Lincoln.

 

Very nice '54 Buick Special four-door sedan. Another, older vehicle that we only see a small part of is at the right. Any ideas what that is?

Car in the pic with the '54 Buick is a 1950 Pontiac Chieftain

 

Thanks.

Nothing to report regarding episode 11. Only Mannix's Toronado was seen, and there was nothing we haven't already seen. We have yet to see it, in the show, with the top up.

Photos of it with the top up were shown at the auction site where it recently sold, and, in my opinion, it's not very attractive that way. Plus, with no side windows and a very small rear window, rearward visibility had to be horrendous with the top up. Those tiny, mounted-too-low exterior rearview mirrors would not likely have helped much, either.

 

Wow, not attractive at all.

 

That front end is hideous. It's hard to beat a stock '66 Toro nose

 

While they were similar, just to be clear, it was a '67 Toro that was modified for the show

 

Episode 12 was a cornucopia of cars, but Mannix's Toro was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was back to driving a '67 Ford four-door.

We had some car chases, and those are always good for spotting cars along the side of the road.

In this one, that's Joe's Ford making the turn. Behind it we have some late '50s Chrysler product and what looks like perhaps a late '50s finned Rambler behind it. Along the left side is a perhaps a '63 Buick, a Corvair, and a Lincoln, I believe. Is that a '61 Chevy bubble top on the right? Did Chevy offer a bubble top?





Same scene, but with the car chasing Joe making the turn. Looks like a '63 Dodge Dart. Isn't that what Spencer Tracy drove as he was trying to escape to Mexico with all the loot at the end of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?" (Had to count the Mads there to make sure there were enough.)





Close, but no. Spencer Tracy drove a '62 Dart. Has to be one of the ugliest automobile front ends ever made.





The action moves down the street, and we pick up a few more cars. Volkswagen Beetle of some indeterminate year on the lower left. Something small and foreign behind it. On the right, a nice two-tone '56 (I believe) Chevy convertible. Is that a Ford station wagon in front of it? Not sure what that is behind it. Might be a '64 Chevy full-size.




Another street scene with the chase car. Another Beetle with perhaps a Corvair behind it, and on the left, what looks like a '63 or so Cadillac with maybe a '64 Pontiac behind it.





One more scene, and it's another big Lincoln. We seem to see a lot of those, but they're not all the same car. This is the first time we've seen a light-colored one.

That's Mannix with the white shirt and tie coming out of the motel office. He's ignoring the motel manager, who doubles as the guy you rent boats from at the marina, as he (Mannix) is about to steal a boat and go chase a bad guy on the lake. Mannix is always engaging the bad guys in major league fist fights while dressed in his Sunday best, and there's never a mark on him when he's done, even though he's been socked in the face about five times and has crashed into at least four pieces of furniture. He's like James Bond. Gets up, brushes himself off, straightens his tie, and goes about his business as though nothing happened.

 

Looks like a DeSoto to me, and the one behind looks like a Mercury Comet.

 

First pic with Ford turning has parked behind it a '59 Desoto Fireflite .Behind that is a '61 Mercury Comet. Next to the Ford is a '61 Chevy Impala. Parked on the left side of the pic actually the right side of the street is a '64 Lincoln conv. Behind that the Corvair is to obscured to get an exact year, and behind the Corvair is What looks like a '64 Buick Lesabre.

The next pic with the same street scene has a 1961 Dodge Lancer making the same turn as the Mannix Ford.
Next pic down shows an M.G. B. GT (M.G. Stands for Morris Garage) and everyone here knows what a VW looks like in front of the M.G.
On the opposite side of the street Looks like a '63 Nova behind a '56 Bel-Air conv. Behind what looks like a '56 Ford Ranchwagon.

 

The first Corvair is a 62, determined by the wide grille bar. If the Lincoln wasn't there we'd see that the grille bar is split. The VW in front of the MG, while I can't tell for sure what year it is, is at least a 62 or earlier, as you can see the Wolfsburg crest below the spear on the bonnet. Also it looks like another VW right in front of it. The car behind the 56 Chevy looks to me like a Chevy II.

 

The car behind the '56 Chevy is a Chevy II ....Look closer and you will see it's a two door hardtop which means it's top of the line Nova. If it was a cheaper trim level it would be a two door sedan.

 

Episode 13 was a little light on cars, but we did have a nice wagon. Mannix was trying to travel incognito, so he was back to another plain-color Ford four-door sedan. That looks to be a '64 or '65 Pontiac coming toward us. We've seen what looks like the same car, or a very similar one, before, and I noted it in the second-last photo in post #24 above..





A few minutes later, Mannix is being chased by bad guys in this wagon, which appears to be a '66 Mercury Colony Park.




We had another instance in this episode with Mannix, who is apparently being tailed by bad guys, and he suspects it, leaving his car totally exposed when he goes inside a building. Windows down and unlocked. When he comes back to the car, at night, with no one around, I'm screaming at him to check the back seat and all. He gets in the car with the person he was supposed to retrieve, but before starting the car, he notices fingerprints on the front of the hood. He opens the hood, and, sure enough, there are more sticks of dynamite like we saw earlier in post #13 above. In fact, it looked like the SAME dynamite. A prop's a prop, after all. I know that, in 1967, cars didn't yet have inside hood releases, so the bad guys could get under the hood even with the car locked up tight, but STILL, simple precautions should always be in order.

We did get to see the Toronado once, briefly, when Mannix is off the case for a short while and is pulling into his driveway for the night. He leaves the car, for the night apparently, with the top down outdoors in the driveway. I know this is southern California, where Albert Hammond told us it never rains, but, again, STILL, it does rain some times, and even if it doesn't, a guy like Mannix does make enemies over the course of his career, and he should take simple precautions. Put the car in the garage and lock the garage. Or put the top up and lock the car, not that a canvas top would stop anyone bent on doing harm. But STILL, some people just invite trouble!

 

Pontiac is a'64

 

You know, you could just reply without quoting the entire message. Doing so just clogs up the thread with the same photos repeated over again. Just a suggestion. Thanks for your response.

 

Episode 14 had Mannix working undercover at an alcoholic rehab sanatorium just over the border in Mexico, so he did not have his Toronado, and we did not see it at all in the episode. There were a number of scenes with glimpses of many interesting old cars at scenes where he or others were crossing the border, which happened a few times during the show (and much more quickly than it would now!). But nothing was ever a good enough scene to take a photo.

We did have a good sequence involving a '67 Thunderbird, which Mannix stole from the sanatorium to chase a guy. It's a four-door with suicide doors.

The guy Mannix was chasing was driving a---you guessed it---big Lincoln like we've seen a number of times in this show. I didn't see the need to take more photos of it.





At one point, Mannix is watching his speed to avoid the police, and we get a nice view of the speedometer. He's going 71 in a 55 zone and will soon be pulled over (see photo above). Note the car's mileage. Only 1,930. The car is practically brand new.





We had a decent view of what turns out to be another '67 Thunderbird. But this one's a two-door, and it's got a big CB or whatever antenna on the rear bumper. But it's otherwise very similar, being yellow with a black vinyl roof. We never see this car move or any other scenes of it. It's just a prop, but at least we can see it.

Both of the T-Birds have California black plates.

 

Post #29...My '50 Fod had a factory inside hood release!

 

I did not know birds ever had the suicide doors.

 

 

4500 pounds, wow.

 

Episode 15 did not feature any cars at all.

Episode 16 didn't have much either, but we did get to see one nice Ford station wagon, and we got to see, for the first time, the Mannix Toronado in the evening, meaning the headlights were on and the brake lights lit up.


Toronado with the headlights on. Not the greatest image, but they are on in the usual way in TV shows like this---deliberately set to be dimmer than they would really be so the light doesn't bother the camera.




Here's the same scene a few seconds later as he's pulling to a stop. The brake lights are on.




Now, just to show that they really were on, here's the scene about three seconds later, when Mannix has parked the car and is getting out. The brake lights are off. Note the courtesy light on the driver's door that's lit up.





Finally, we have this nice, full view of a '61 Ford wagon. Unfortunately, we could only get a full view of it when Mannix is walking in front of it. Gosh but he was a handsome dude. His "girls kissed per episode" quotient is always high, as it was in this episode. It's a good thing he doesn't give in every time, or he'd never get any work done.





I didn't take a photo of it because there wasn't anything decent to take a picture of, but we did have a reversal of the "don't leave your car unattended" problem. In this case, as Mannix was escaping two guys who were chasing him (who later turned out to be police in an unmarked car), he disabled THEIR car by pulling off the distributor cap and spark plug cables.

 

I didn't figure this out until I was first stationed in Long Beach, CA, in 1973, but the bridge that Mannix is running across where the sign says "Metal gratings slippery when wet" in the opening credits is actually the bridge at the south end of the Terminal Island freeway that crosses the channel to Terminal Island. Mannix is running south towards Terminal Island. You can see the old rail/car bridge (black in color) off to the right. That old bridge has since been removed. It was fun being stationed in Southern California. I ran into a lot of spots where filming occurred and one of the Coast Guard cutters I was stationed on there in 1989 was actually used to get some footage of a cutter underway for the movie "Hunt for Red October", out by Angels Gate, just off of Terminal Island. Unfortunately, that footage hit the cutting room floor but some of the cutter crew were used as crewmembers from the Soviet submarine as they were being rescued. Fun stuff!

I'm enjoying the Mannix updates! Keep us posted!

Randy C.

 

There's an interesting story behind this sequence in the opening credits. I have the full series DVD set, and there's often "extras" on each DVD. On the very first DVD is an interview with Mike Connors and Joe Campanella done in about 2008 (they're both dead now), and they just reminisced about the first season of the show, which was the only season that Campanella was on it.

Anyway, Connors talked about that opening. He said that it was filmed by having him run toward the bridge with a vehicle with a camera on it coming up behind him quickly. The idea was the he would jump to the side at the last minute so that the vehicle could be going fast until it was almost right on top of him. Well, Connors said that he didn't realize it would happen at the time, but as he was running toward the bridge, the surface he was running on changed from pavement to the metal grid on the bridge, and it would have been easy for him to get his foot caught in the gridwork. If that had happened, and the vehicle was close to him, it probably would not have been able to stop or swerve in time, and it might have hit him. He said that, if he had it to do over, he would not have agreed to having that sequence filmed that way.

 

You should catch ThisTV network for Broderick Crawford on Highway Patrol. Its Dayum nice to see 54-55-56 Olds 88's, Buicks and Merc's, all with full wheel hubcaps and blackwall tires.