I was about to post a comment that Mannix hadn't smoked yet. In the first 4 seasons, he smoked a lot. Then, in one of the first episodes, some lady asked him for a cigarette and he said he hadn't smoked since July ('71).
So, are we to assume that Mike Connors quit smoking in real life? Interesting that cigarettes were banned from ads that same year as well.
After cigarette and cigar ads were banned on TV in 1970, the networks were "encouraged" to stop showing the lead characters smoking so as not to glamorize the habit. If you notice from that date on, the only characters who usually smoked were the main villains or those whose morality was not as high as it should be.
shareIt made sense to drop smoking from TV after the ads were dropped though it was still evident.. After all Johnny Carson smoked while doing The Tonight Show... towards the end of his run, I seem to remember him trying to hide it or just smoking during commercial breaks
Obviously not totally gone as evidenced by all the smoking on Battlestar Gallactica during its run in the 2000's.... But I agree that most of the smoking on TV was by bad guys, most famously by CSM on The X Files... Note that Kojak smoked small cigars not cigarettes..
D
I just finished disc 4 of season 1 and the funny thing in one is they open the show with some kind of physical training/endurance run and at some point along the way Mannix stops for a rest and lights up a cigarette. It's a funny way to catch your breath.
shareFunny thing movieman is that scene of catching breath by lighting up has been played out time to time.. I've seen it done before altho currently I cannot cite a reference to it.. Anyone ?? Bueller ?? Bueller ??
sharenothing specific.. though I'm sure one of the hourlong cop dramas in the post Hill Street era surely featured one of their "rebel" cops doing just that!
shareI just got a huge collection of vintage TV commercials .... a dvd set.
There is of course the cigarrete ads. They are great. Espescially the ones where the guys are out on water skies or doing other physical activities and then they light up. There are even a few with Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble lighting up Wnstons during yard work.
It was just the times.
"Fasten your seat belts!
It's going to be a bumpy night!"
Just to allay some of your curiosity - while in Army Basic Training, in mid 60s we would 'exercise', rather briskly, at least 3 times a day-multi mile runs with full gear, hundreds of situps and pushups etc........and when 'allowed' to take a break-most of us Lit up a Cigarette.
Obviously not healthy, even back then, but possibly a psychological boost...........
the current resident of Our White House has a liberal socialist agenda which is Killing Our Country
the economy numbers are much much higher than when the last idiot left the white house, so your idea of 'socialist agenda' is kind of confused. the fact is that most of the big money goes to a very small number of people, which is the opposite of socialist agenda. maybe a study of economics is in order.
shareWho cares about him smoking.
shareApparently, everyone else who posted on this thread does.
shareI'm with mactach on this one. It was just the era. Things were different then. When watching these old shows and movies one has to expect these things.
It's like when I was watching a marathon of 'The Thin Man' movies. They always had a drink in their hands. It was accepted then. And it's more accepted now than cigarettes.
Now there might be a time in the future when drinking in movies today will/might be frowned on in the future. But since cigarette smoking is something we have all seen and not as yet illegal, I myself was surprised by this tread.
I was just watching Season 7's "The Gangs All Here" and a scene begins just as Mannix is finishing a "last cigarette" (last since he's about to be shot by one of the gang). The pack and lighter are present but I don't believe you actually see him take a puff.
Guess it was still ok to smoke if you were about to die anyway.
Mike Connors is 89. I guess all that smoking didn't affect him much. Some people are just lucky.
shareI just finished a rewatch of season one (and just started season two) and I really wish I'd kept a tally of every time Joe Mannix smokes. I also wanted to keep track of the seemingly infinite number of times he is talking while an unlit cigarette bounces off of his yap.
Great show.
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I was only a child when the original series ran but watched it with my folks every week. I don't recall but it's possible the show was sponsored by a cigarette company up until the advertising ban went into effect on January 2, 1971. It was common for shows sponsored by tobacco companies to prominently feature smoking by the leads.
shareI quit smoking about 26 years ago, and thank the gods for that. When I see Mannix or other TV characters smoking constantly, it looks to my eye like something absurd and unbelievable. Paul Drake on Perry Mason is a particularly egregious chain smoker. But then when I smoked (~2 packs/day), I would been just as much a smokestack as Drake or Mannix.
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