“Who are you …‘Mannix’”? —Mike Connors and Gail Fisher had it down!

Mike Connors was an actor and producer, known for Mannix, Tightrope, and The Ten Commandments.

Connors, who died of leukemia in 2017 (only one week after he was diagnosed), played private-detective Joe Mannix on what became one of the longest-running police crime dramas in TV history and stood out because it was the first to feature an Armenian male lead.

Along with NBC’s Star Trek (with Nichelle Nichols as communications officer Lt. Uhura) and that same network’s Julia sitcom (starring Diahann Carrol as a nurse), Mannix was also one of the first shows to feature an African-American actress on a weekly basis; as Gail Fisher played Joe’s trusted and loyal secretary and friend Peggy Fair (a role for which Nichols had auditioned).

Additionally, Mannix and Trek happened to be owned and operated by Lucille Ball’s Desilu Productions, which also supervised her Here’s Lucy CBS comedy, on which Connors made a guest-appearance as Joe Mannix.

Decades later, Mannix proved just how popular it remained when his name was referenced in an episode of the 1990’s no-sitcom Seinfeld. At one point, Jerry (played by Jerry Seinfeld) is wondering how best friend George (Jason Alexander) would be so nimble to think that he could open a car door while the vehicle is in motion…