Mannix (TV Series) A Step in Time (1971) User Reviews

Very good but one of the main story points really makes no sense if you think about it.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 21 November 2014]

Sometimes you enjoy a program even though you'll easily admit that it's quite flawed. That is clearly how I felt as I watched "A Step in Time". While a bit of the story made no sense, it does have a few interesting twists and features two talented special guests-- Shelly Fabares and Dean Stockwell.

The show begins with Joe going for a jog along the beach. Suddenly he sees a woman being attacked by two men on a fancy home on the cliff. He quickly scampers there only to find the place is padlocked shut! And, when the police arrive, his description of the event PERFECTLY matches that of a murder that took place there a year earlier!! Are there ghosts? Hardly...but this entire portion of the program, though cool, is 100% unnecessary and when you learn exactly what's going on you'll realize that the first 10 minutes of the show are meaningless!!!

However, what follows is very good, as the dead woman left a shattered husband (Stockwell) whose mental and physical health snapped when the murder occurred. And, the man's sister is worried, as he is about to be released from the sanitarium and she's worried that the two men that murdered her sister-in-law will now come looking for him, as they might think that as the husband regains his mind, he might finally be able to identify the killers.

What's best about the show, apart from the acting, is the obligatory 'let's murder Mannix scene' at the end. What happens then is pretty cool! Worth seeing.

Decent outing, just don't think about it too much

[Guad42 · 7/10 · 10 August 2022]

An entertaining episode that has a faulty main premise. Planktonrules gives a nice summary of the first half of the story. Why did the bad guys put on a show for Joe? No idea. The stunt attracted the attention of Joe and the police and the sister Gwen Townsend (Shelley Fabares). Gwen ends up hiring Joe to protect her brother Chris (Dean Stockwell) as he is the lone witness to the killing of his wife by two men and is now getting out of the sanitarium. Chris agrees to it although he has an orderly from the sanitarium watching over him. Since the husband and the orderly are bad guys, there is no reason to want Joe around but here we are.

Joe sets out to find the two men and one woman who put on the show for him and try to solve the original crime. He talks to a neighbor Charlotte Benson (Hildy Brooks) and learns the backstory on the murder of the wife a year prior. Peggy ends up putting herself under cover and Joe has to save her from hippies. This leads to finding out one of the hippies was a recovering addict who knew the neighbor Charlotte. This guy died of an overdose despite being clean for a year. Kind of suspicious. Joe ends up shooting the former family gardener who was snooping around the Townsend house. The solution ends up being that Chris and Charlotte were having an affair and Chris had the wife killed by the addict and gardener under the guise of a jewel robbery and then faked his catatonic condition for a year. The chase scene staged for Joe at the episode's beginning was the neighbor in a blonde wig being chased by the orderly and gardener. Joe shows up at the neighbor house and catches Chris and Charlotte but gets knocked out by the orderly. He gets put into his car and is almost pushed over a cliff but revives. He fights the orderly and then an errant shoot by Chris kills Charlotte. Chris does go into a real catatonic state. The end.

The acting is well done with Dean Stockwell setting the pace. Shelley Fabares is underused. Bing Russell has more lines in other Mannix episodes.

Not a bad outing but not sure why the bad guys needed Joe around. I bet they regret it now. Peggy snooping around the hippie hangout is another head scratcher. Of course, character have strange motivations is not new to Mannix so we can overlook it now. Joe would have to charge the sister to get paid. Not sure he did that. He is knocked out and shot at so a typical day at the office.

Good acting beats out plot weaknesses

[george_cherucheril · 8/10 · 8 April 2024]

This is a good Mannix episode because of the great acting. You do have to suspend belief at some points because of the typical Mannix elements. Mannix usually is not paid but this time it appears that Gwen Townsend, played by Shelley Fabares is paying him. Gwen is about twenty years younger than Mannix so as usual, Mannix fails to get the girl. The season five opening credits replaced a shot of Mannix spinning the blond woman whose skirt rides up with an action scene. They might as well, because Mannix never gets the girl.

Mannix gets hit in the head again and knocked out. As usual, he excels at fighting other people but has no sense of who is behind him. Unlike a normal human being Mannix manages to wake up with 100 percent strength and no effects of grogginess just in the nick of time before the bad guys can kill him.

Chris Townsend, played by Dean Stockwell, and his accomplice, Ted Hanlon played by Laurence Haddon are attempting to role Mannix in his car over a cliff. Mannix shifts the gear to park abruptly stopping the car. He slams open the door knocking Ted over the cliff. Mannix chases him and beats him up. It's not Mannix but a stuntman. The stuntman's hairpiece is longer than Mannix's hair.

Peggy inexplicably decides to go to a shady, hippy bar to do some undercover work and almost gets killed. Why Peggy would take this risk or continue to work for Mannix confuses me when you consider her situation. Her husband was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty leaving her alone to raise their young son. I get that Mannix made a nice gesture to help her out by hiring her. However, Mannix is in a dangerous line of work. Even his office is not safe as it has been riddled with bullets several times and it is quite a common occurrence for the bad guys to snoop around and break in.

The plot seems a bit contrived to me. Mannix is out for a jog on the beach and witnesses a woman being accosted by two men at the house on the top of the hill. He runs up the hill to try and help the woman. As he gets close to the house the neighbor, Charlotte Benson, played by Hildy Brooks asks him what he is doing and he tells her a woman is being attacked and to call the Sheriff. When Mannix reaches the house no one is there. The Sheriff tells Mannix he described a murder of a woman who lived at the house from a year ago.

Later Mannix interviews Charlotte who tells him she ran to the house when the woman screamed for help. The two perpetrators had fled and the husband, Chris fell into a catatonic state and has been institutionalized since then.

As Mannix digs into the case he meets Gwen, Chris' sister who is interested in helping out her brother. I love the scene towards the end when Gwen and Mannix realize Chris faked being in the catatonic state.

Mannix puts the pieces together and catches Charlotte and Chris making out on Charlotte's couch. How Mannix just walked in the house I am not sure. Mannix deduces that the scene he witnessed at the opening of the episode was staged by Charlotte and Chris so they could get Mannix involved and later put Mannix in a situation where he would kill an eyewitness to the murder. This person was the gardener whom Chris paid off but still wanted to be silenced.

Chris shoots at Mannix as he is running up the hill but hits Charlotte and kills her. This puts Chris into a catatonic state and is not staged. The episode ends with Gwen and Mannix watching him in his room shaking their heads and walking away. It is a stretch that Chris would end up in a catatonic state when he killed Charlotte whom he truly loved right after pretending to be in a catatonic state after he murdered his wife.

What makes the episode worth watching is the great acting typical of guests and supporting actors in a Mannix episode. Dean Stockwell shines as Chris Townsend. I love his overgrown curly hair and flowery shirt and tie. Stockwell looks like a neanderthal.

Hildy Brooks is attractive and creepy as Charlotte. Shelley Fabares is the woman every man wishes would stand next to him. I would travel back in time to meet her in her prime. Henry Olek is scary and sinister as the second hippie.

RIP Dean

[CherCee · 10/10 · 10 November 2021]

Just reading today about the passing of Dean Stockwell, and here he is in the Mannix episode A Step In Time. You will be very missed, thank you for all the entertainment you gave us over the years.

Excellent storyline and sharing love for the AMAZING Dean Stockwell

[glitterrose · 10/10 · 10 November 2021]

It's funny when you compare the episode before this one and this one. I thought the other episode was a dud and the guest star was a dud that honestly couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag. She had one tone of voice during the entire episode. One truly wonders who she knew on the set to get the job.

This episode isn't a dud. It's entertaining, exciting and the main reason I'm doing this review is because of Dean Stockwell. I also heard about his passing and it's quite a coincidence that this episode just played on MeTV minutes ago. Dean was an excellent actor. He was one of those dependable actors that you KNEW you'd get a terrific performance in anything he did. I enjoyed him on this episode, during all of Quantum Leap and he truly shone in his appearances on "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour". The man truly did so much throughout his career and I'm sure a lot of people will be chiming in on various sites about their favorite Dean Stockwell projects.

I'd heard he was in poor health the last few years of his life so I'm glad he's no longer suffering. He truly left behind a vault of terrific performances that will continue to live on. RIP Dean.

THE NEXT TIME YOU GO JOGGING --DON'T!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 6 May 2023]

Mann Rubin, who began his lengthy career writing strange tales for DC Comics, and even wrote for Alfred Hitchcock, put together this 10 STAR whodunit.

Joe is jogging along the beach and witnesses what appears to be a woman being killed. He's right --except it happened one YEAR earlier? If that doesn't sound like a Mann Rubin idea! The only debit is that he put Peggy in danger, where she does some investigating on her own, and nearly gets killed. You have to admit, that is over the top.

Two great guest stars; Shelley Fabares, who at the time co-starred in BRIAN'S SONG. She holds the record of co-starring in three Elvis Presley movies. And we all thought she would eventually marry Elvis, right? Also Dean Stockwell (who we lost a few years ago), one of the few child stars to successfully become a terrific adult actor.

Sutton Roley directed, also known for MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. Among his credits, RAT PATROL and COMBAT, also a writer for Warner Brothers.

Lots of talent to go around here. The opening beach scene was filmed at Flat Rock Point, Palos Verdes, near Long Beach. Beautiful area, about 32 miles south from LA. The only question: Joe actually drove from Hollywood to jog on the beach? Note: Writer Mann Rubin taught screenwriting at USC for 10 years.

SEASON 5 EPISODE 3 remastered color CBS/Paramount dvd box set.

The plot is idiotic and so is Peggy but at least the fighting has returned

[pkfloydmh · 5/10 · 25 August 2021]

This one is about Joe believing he saw a woman being assaulted while he's out jogging.

This is the most lamebrained and absurd plot I've seen on this show yet. The plot holes and unanswered questions are endless. The obvious question right off the bat is why would the conspirators want to get Joe involved in their plot? I mean, how stupid can you be?? Why would they want a private detective to come in and start snooping around when they've already committed a murder? It's just absolutely ludicrous. The LAST PERSON you'd want to bring in would be a PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR!!! They HAD TO KNOW Joe was going to figure everything out and sure enough he did. It's no wonder the leader of the conspirators was in a sanitarium for a year. He's obviously STILL INSANE and needs to be put back there immediately and the writers of this episode need to join him there.

As she's done a couple times before, dim-witted Peggy inexplicably decides to act as a private investigator on her own (without a license) and goes to a hippie hangout to try to find Mingo and proceeds to get harassed by some spaced-out junkies there. Luckily for her, but unluckily for us, Joe comes to her rescue just in time before one of the junkies chokes her to death.

Lots of cliches in this one. Joe gets thumped in the head again and gets shot at but never hit, the police show up at the most opportune time when they had no way of knowing what was going on or where, and someone stands over someone else and declares them dead when they have no way of knowing that since they're not a doctor. We also see the same old stock footage once again of the ambulance driving past the Safeway and turning into Memorial Hospital, a clip that has been used countless times on an endless number of TV shows.

The bodies pile up in this one, with a total body count of three. The writers of this episode should have been part of that count and the hippies should have seen to it that Peggy was part of that count too, considering her mind-boggling stupidity.

One bright spot in all of this madness is that thankfully the fight scenes have finally returned after two straight episodes without any, so this is welcome news. In fact, to make up for lost time, there are two fight scenes and both of them are really good. In the first one, Joe takes on a couple of hippies in an alley and nearly gets his head crushed by a wooden crate, but he's eventually able to fend them off and they scamper off like a couple of wimps with their tails between their legs. In the second one, Joe gets into a brawl with Hanlon on a hillside and knocks him out with a left hook. It's really great to see punches thrown for the first time in season five. Let's hope this continues because the show just isn't the same without the fighting and brawling.

There are some good actions scenes too, and in one of them, Joe does a somersault to avoid the gunfire. He also nearly gets run over by a car again. We've seen a lot of that lately.

So the action scenes and fight scenes combined are worth five points to me. Unfortunately, everything else is lunacy, so the end result is a mediocre episode.