Looking for tips on how to defend yourself? You could ask Joe Mannix for advice.
Well, okay, you can’t, because, unfortunately, Joe Mannix was a fictional character, and the actor who played him – Mike Connors – is no longer with us.
So The TV Professor has done the next best thing and examined a bunch of episodes from the TV series Mannix (1967-1975). If you're familiar with the show, you know that in just about every episode, Mannix would get into some big fight. He was hit, punched, kicked, attacked and often knocked unconscious. His doctor bills must have been something else.
Anyway, we here at The TV Professor are confident that if you ever were to get into a scrape, these self-defense tips would ensure that you come out on top.
Now, not so confident that we’re offering an iron-clad guarantee, of course. If you ever get into a scrape and use these Mannix-approved fighting tips, and you get beaten to a pulp, that was a risk you took. Also, pretend there’s some legalese here in this sentence, telling you to never start a fight. Also, The TV Professor doesn’t endorse violence in real life in any measure. Ever.
But, look, sometimes you have no choice but to be in a fight, and if you ever were to find yourself cornered by some bad guys, maybe these self-defense tips will help. You never know. So how should you defend yourself if you ever are in a fight for your life? Here are some ideas.
Today's "TV Lesson" Breakdown:
1. Summon your confidence
Joe Mannix may look dazed and a little frustrated during his brawls, but you never get the sense – at least in the episodes I’ve watched – that he thinks he is going to lose a battle. The Mannix episode, “Turn Every Stone” during the first season is a good example of that.
Joe Mannix has a brutal, classic fist fight with a burly guy in what looks like a hotel suite or somebody's home -- I was never quite clear on that. In any case, in the fight scene, we immediately see Mannix slugged, and he looks around dazed, clutching a door. The burly criminal heads toward Mannix, who then quickly opens the door, basically using it as a shield – so the guy’s fist hits the door.
From there, there’s a lot of right and left crosses, and Mannix even uses his feet a couple times, pushing the bad guy away with his feet. And later, after he is pushed into the wall and his body grabbed, Mannix, unable to use his arms, pushes his feet against the wall, using his body as a battering ram into the guy.
They both tumble to the floor, and Mannix starts to finally get the upper hand, slugging the bad guy a few times before he falls to the carpet.
Throughout, Mannix never looks too discouraged and more like a guy who simply recognizes he has a job to do. He needs to dispatch with this henchman, so he can keep on doing his investigatory work, and that’s exactly what he does.
So if there’s a lesson any of us mere mortals can learn – if you find yourself in a fist fight or scuffle – decide at the outset that you’re going to come through this just fine. That attitude worked for Joe Mannix. Maybe it’ll work for the rest of us.
2. Surprise the Bad Guy
Mannix is always doing this, in just about every episode. Somebody has a gun on him. Mannix is told to leave his office or an apartment he has snuck into, looking for closes, or whatever. Any other reasonable person would leave the room with their hands held up high.
Not Mannix.
Oh, he starts to. He seems like he’s going to comply. But then out of nowhere, he lunges at the bad guy, knocks the weapon out of his hand, and a fight ensues.
This is probably both smart and stupid. On the stupid side of the ledger, if a gun is trained on you, and you start to give the person a judo chop, chances are, you’re going to get shot. So in all seriousness, this may not be the best move, or your best first move. Still, as we know from watching the news, sometimes victims, when they feel have had no choice and their lives were in danger, have had to overpower a criminal with the element of surprise.
Anyway, surprising a bad guy with your sudden action hero moves is a classic Mannix move. If you think you’re in danger of being injured or worse, the best decision you can make is probably to pretend to go along with the bad guy – and then suddenly don’t.
3. Push their arms away
In “Game of Shadows,” an episode from season six, Mannix does this. He’s fighting with a bad guy – the details surrounding why don’t really matter – but Mannix pushes his nemesis’s arms away. So for a second or two, the crook has his arms sailing away from his body, and Mannix has a clear shot at socking him in the face.
In another earlier episode called "A Ticket to the Eclipse," Mannix does his best to stay behind the bad guy and grab his arms, so he can't get hit. Also a wise move.
Of course, if you do this, you have to hope it works the way the actors and stuntmen choreographed everything, but, still, pushing a guy’s arms away or pinning those arms down, so you can try to give them a knuckle sandwich, seems like a logical move.
And let’s mention here that Mike Connors (who was born in Fresno, California, as Krekor Ohanian, Jr., to Armenian parents) was an athletic guy. He played basketball in high school and, after serving in World War II, he attended the University of California at Los Angeles on a basketball scholarship and the G.I. Bill. So Connors, while acting out these fight scenes, was probably pretty capable of a lot of athleticism and bravado that Joe Mannix displayed.
4. Your environment can be a weapon
The 1974 episode, “The Girl from Nowhere,” has Mannix protecting a woman from a stalker named Tommy Ryker (Robert Yuro). Fairly early on in the episode, Mannix encounters Tommy, who has taken away his car keys. Mannix, meanwhile, is sitting in the driver’s seat. They have a conversation, in which Tommy makes it clear he doesn’t want to see Mannix around any more. Mannix asks for his car keys back, and Tommy drops them on the ground.
Tommy, who doesn't strike one as a Mensa candidate, is evidently thinking something like, “Ha, I’m going to make you get out of the car and pick up your car keys.” Joe Mannix is clearly thinking, “You moron..."
Because in the next ten seconds or so, Mannix uses his surroundings as a weapon.
- Mannix opens the car door, without warning, knocking Tommy to the ground.
- Mannix springs out of the car, and Tommy, who is back on his feet, starts to swing his fist at him. But Mannix grabs Tommy’s arm, so that it can’t go anywhere – then slugs him.
- Mannix pushes the guy down a grassy hill.
Granted, it’s always going to be easier for TV characters to use whatever is near them as a weapon of sorts (in this case, a car door, a guy’s arm, a grassy hill), since they have a location scout, prop master and screenwriter on their side, but if you are ever are fighting for your life, remember that you may have all sorts of tools nearby, to defend yourself with.
5. Look for Your Opponent's Allies
In "Picture of a Shadow,' a 1974 episode, Joe Mannix is investigating three murders. At some point, he's in a room when a guy comes out of nowhere and attacks Mannix.
Mannix reacts quickly, as he tends to do, full of that confidence. He doesn't stop to ask what's going on or if maybe they can talk things out. He just starts hitting the guy, fast and furious with his fists. Unfortunately for Mannix, another guy steps out of the shadows, clocks him, and knocks out the detective.
Otherwise Mannix surely would’ve won the fight. So, yeah, if at all possible, as you're pushing the bad guy's arms away or pushing him down a hill, look around wildly for other henchmen who might be lurking about.
6. Keep Your Fight Brief
That’s not always possible, of course. But the longer a fight, the better the odds that you’re going to get hurt.
In the Mannix episode, “Chance Meeting,” in which Mannix tries to solve the killing of a Vietnam War veteran, gets into two fights – and has a couple encounters with a motorcycle gang. It’s quite an episode, with a lot of tension.
Clint Williams (kind of a bad guy, trying to go straight): Look, I haven't seen Bill Rogell in two, three years.
Joe Mannix: You saw him yesterday, didn't you?
Clint Williams: Well, yeah, but just for a minute or two. So what?
Joe Mannix: Why didn't you say so?
Clint Williams: Because it wasn't important.
Joe Mannix: Look, Mr. Williams, anything that happens to a man just before he's murdered is important.
Clint Williams: Look, I haven't seen Bill Rogell in two, three years.
Joe Mannix: You saw him yesterday, didn't you?
Clint Williams: Well, yeah, but just for a minute or two. So what?
Joe Mannix: Why didn't you say so?
Clint Williams: Because it wasn't important.
Joe Mannix: Look, Mr. Williams, anything that happens to a man just before he's murdered is important.
But we digress. Anyway, Mannix kept his fist fights brief in this episode, and it served him well. In the first fist fight of this episode, he’s in a car, and he went with his go-to technique of opening the door to knock the bad guy off his feet. Then Mannix rushes for him and punches the bad guy in the stomach. Before the crook can recover, the athletic detective gives him a right cross (or maybe it was a left), sending the guy flying and unconscious.
Later in the episode, Mannix is in a warehouse, and he jumps onto a guy from another level of the building, and then he immediately decks him in the jaw. And the bad guy is suddenly taking an unplanned nap on the floor.
So if there’s anything we can learn from all of this, it’s that if you must fight, try to keep things short.
7. When in Doubt, Run
This is the method of fighting I would recommend, frankly.
And Joe Mannix just might recommend that, too.
Joe Mannix has a lot of courage, as anyone who watches the show knows, but he’s no dummy. For instance, if somebody is shooting at him, he runs. He may pull out his gun later and fire back, but he will flee if he has to. I’m thinking of “Trap for a Pigeon,” in which Mannix goes looking for an attorney’s stolen briefcase.
At first, Mannix doesn’t want to because the attorney represents a slimeball named Vince Adante – and what’s in the briefcase might clear Adante of criminal charges.
But the attorney, Mark Prentiss, is persuasive.
“Mr. Mannix, my client is facing a 20-year sentence. Suppose a year from now, two years, five -- that missing evidence turns up? How responsible would you fell for Adante's false conviction? The law judges a man's guilt on a particular charge. It acquits a man on the basis of evidence, and that evidence was in my briefcase in my safe deposit box at the Bedford Hotel, and I must have that briefcase back. It is worth $5,000 to me.”
“But not to me,” Mannix says. “Now I have a great deal of respect for you, counselor, but I don't like Vince Adante, guilty or innocent. Now, you'd be wasting your money. Besides, that briefcase is probably in a sewer by now.”
“All right, Mr. Mannix,” Prentiss says. “Find me that sewer.”
Because Mannix apparently appreciates some good television banter, he agrees, and his pursuit for this briefcase later leads him into a warehouse, where he is shot at. And Mannix runs. As one should in these situations. In fact, when there are bullets involved, Mannix is no dummy. He runs.
But if you’re in a fist fight, you don’t have to use your fists. You can use your feet – and run for your life. There’s no shame in that. Most of us aren’t Joe Mannix.
Where to watch Mannix (at the time of this writing): Mannix (the entire series) doesn't seem to be on any streaming service, but the cable channel FETV airs Mannix every night at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., EST. And then if you wanted to, you could stay up another hour and catch Mannix on MeTV at 1 a.m., EST.
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