Mannix (TV Series) Warning: Live Blueberries (1967) User Reviews

Worth seeing just for a glimpse of Buffalo Springfield and a couple guys from CSNY.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 12 April 2013]

Earlier in season one, Neil Diamond was featured in "Mannix". Now, just a few episodes later, Buffalo Springfield (featuring Steven Stills and Neil Young) is featured in "Live Blueberries". For this reasons alone, fans of their music (particularly Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) will likely want to see this one. As far as the rest of the show goes, it's a pretty average episode of the show.

The show begins with a young lady in an odd religious cult finding that her friend has been killed. I say strange because the guru in charge is one of the last actors I EVER would have seen as a religious leader--Phil Leads. You just have to see the guy to understand what I mean.

In the next scene, the girl's family come to Mannix. Apparently they haven't seen her in some time and are worried. When the trail leads to the religious commune, she isn't there and Mannix begins to worry. How all this relates to a college sports team is something you'll just need to see for yourself.

Overall, the plot is reasonably interesting, Mannix beats up his usual number of people and you hear some nice music. Not bad.

Decent episode with topical theme

[Guad42 · 6/10 · 1 July 2021]

Most Mannix shows deal with universal themes so hold up well even 50 odd years later. This outing is deep in the sixties so is dated, through no fault of its own. Fortunately, as the episode unfolds, it becomes less groovy. Joe has to find the daughter, Jill Bonnett, of a client who has joined a cult led by Professor Wilson (Phil Leeds). The episode's teaser showed us a man, Jerry Robles, who "jumped off" a cliff while at the retreat and the daughter was present. Tom Skerritt tells Joe about Leeds' retreat. Joe goes on up for a visit and learns from the professor-guru we can search for truth but will never find it. Heavy. A basketball teammate friend of Jerry's shows up to shoot Leeds and Joe talks him out of it. The police pick up Joe and tell him to butt out. Jill visits Joe and tells him everything is fine but Joe isn't buying. He ends up back at the guru's retreat where he is knocked out and captured. He gets free and shows up at a house traced through a phone number. It belongs to the guy who owns the land the retreat is on and he is a big time bookie who may have had the kid in the beginning killed as he was a basketball player who wouldn't throw games. Joe almost gets captured there but is rescued by a lovely woman who is Jill's friend. She tells him that Jill is at the retreat and it is about to be raided by the cops. How she knows that I have no idea. Joe rescues Jill and the basketball teammate friend just before the police close in. Joe goes back to the bookie's house to grab him but barely gets away when the guy's henchmen close in. Joe goes back to Tom Skerritt and accuses him of the murder of the kid. He spins the story that Skerritt had put a big bet on the basketball game and had to kill the kid to cover the bet. A bit of a reach with no evidence. Very Perry Mason like. Skerritt tries to run but gets only a step away before the basketball friend is there to hit him. Police show up out of nowhere and Mannix issues a bunch of orders on what is to be done. Why would the cops would listen to him? Because he is Joe Mannix!

Cast is good in a fast paced script. The solution comes out of nowhere but a Mannix hunch is worth a roomful of evidence anytime. Buffalo Springfield sing their hit "For what its worth".

Joe smokes a lot in these early episodes. The trend of Joe getting knocked out all the time is getting well established in the early going of the series. This is an episode where Joe and Lew don't have an argument. A rare event. Joe uses several of Intertech resources to solve the case. No complaining about computers in this outing. Not quite as good as the few earlier episodes already shown but it is worth viewing.

Buffalo Springfield!

[rosieplichta · 7/10 · 2 November 2022]

At first, while watching this episode, I thought it was weird that Mannix would have a cover band playing, "Bluebird." But then I realized it really was Buffalo Springfield! They are in the background of the scene in the hippie bar, but so fun to see them. It makes this such a classic. The story is kind of run-of-the-mill a la Dragnet: hippies and sitar music, drug trips, blissed out teenagers, Mod Squad hair styles, but the music is great. It is also one of the early ones, where Joe works for Intertech. Those are fun too, even though there is no Peggy, there are a lot of scenes with old IBM punch cards running through a computer, and some old, huge printouts with the perforations--- which had to be top of the line at the time.

THOSE BLUEBERRIES MAY BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 27 December 2022]

Well directed by Vincent McEveety, one of those old timer, all purpose directors who had a hand in everything. His claim to fame though, were dozens of classic episodes from GUNSMOKE.

I agree with the last reviewers that this is a neat time capsule episode too. Truly MANNIX was divided into two eras. You had the early Mannix episodes of the late 1960s with the suits and ties, elaborate dresses and gowns and the hairdos. And the introduction of hippies! Next, came the cool 1970s episodes with all the colors, longer hair and muscle cars.

LIVE BLUEBERRIES (and is that a neat title or what?) is a combo of both eras, in a way, and may have partly inspired THE MOD SQUAD. Certainly, the generational music is there with a guest appearance of the rock group BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD.

If you are a music completist and/or a Los Angeleno, you'll recall the group's big hit (the year this episode came out) STOP! HEY WHATS THAT SOUND. The song was all about the protests surrounding one of Hollywood's most beloved nightclubs, called Pandora's Box, due to all the traffic and noise and the subsequent LA riots. Many disc jockeys have said it was all about the Vietnam war. Wrong. It was a true Hollywood song.

You can see how the music group's appearance ties into this episode, all about a commune of young runaway kids and Joe's attempt to find one of them. Brooke Bundy, one of the most popular young actresses at the time, and also a regular on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, plays a runaway. She's very good in this role. Phil Leeds (best in comedy roles), plays the commune leader?? Leeds next big role was as a doctor in the cult film, ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968).

Also veteran Robert Emhardt is on board, playing a rich, sarcastic gentleman with sinister glances. He was a favorite on Alfred Hitchcock's tv show for years.

By the way, a prelude to the "independent" Joe Mannix as he goes to work on his own, at least in this story. An episode to watch for music and tv buffs combined. RECOMMENDED.

SEASON 1 EPISODE 7 remastered CBS dvd box set.