Mannix
Hardball
TV Flash files “Hardball” as a desk essential hour — Mannix (1967–1975) on CBS, season 8, episode 24, aired 1975-04-13, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S08E24: listed hour 194 of 194 in the Mannix guide, last listed hour of season 8. It aired 1975-04-13 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Search for a Dead Man” (S08E23). No later hour is listed in this guide.
Essential hour: “Hardball”. Hardball closes eight CBS seasons of fire-escape stubbornness — catalog tail of a detective who treated the body as plot.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Mannix and the police bust up a drug ring, but a dealer escapes and takes six people hostage to force the authorities to hand over the man who betrayed them to the cops.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Hardball sit in the Mannix guide?
S08E24 is listed hour 194 of 194 — last listed hour of season 8, season 8 episode 24.
When did Mannix S08E24 air?
Hardball aired 1975-04-13 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Independent-practice Mannix hours — Connors taking the punch, Fisher as Peggy Fair — are the classic brand. The early corporate-detective setup is a different on-ramp if you want to see the format shed its first skin.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Joe Mannix took punches, climbed fire escapes, and ignored doctor's orders — Bruce Geller's private-eye engine of pure physical stubbornness. Mike Connors made the bruised P.I. a weekly ritual; Gail Fisher's Peggy Fair was a landmark Black woman regular in detective drama. No whisper-soft neo-noir — just motion.
The body is the plot. Joe Mannix took punches, climbed fire escapes, and ignored doctor's orders on CBS's *Mannix* (1967–1975; 194 episodes), Bruce Geller's private-eye engine of pure physical stubbornness. Mike Connors made the bruised P.I. a weekly ritual. Gail Fisher as Peggy Fair was a groundbreaking Black woman in a major dramatic supporting role, with Emmy recognition to match. Early corporate-detective framing gave way to freer solo ops. Eight seasons of fistfights later, the suit was torn but the brand…
Filed against
- Mike Connors as Joe Mannix
Mike Connors’s Joe Mannix took punches, climbed fire escapes, and ignored doctor’s orders — Bruce Geller’s 1960s private-eye engine of physical stubbornness, Gail Fisher’s Peggy Fair as a landmark Black woman regular in detective drama.…
- Gail Fisher as Peggy Fair
Gail Fisher made Peggy Fair a landmark regular on Mannix — Bruce Geller's bruised private-eye engine, Mike Connors ignoring doctor's orders, a Black woman at the detective-drama desk when the form still pretended otherwise. No white-glove…