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Mike Connors found out that Mannix was cancelled from a reporter
Connors was just as shocked by the cancellation of his series as the viewers were.
Breakups are hard in general, but there's probably nothing worse than finding out that you're getting dumped secondhand... except maybe that you're getting dumped by your television network.
Unfortunately, that's how the cookie crumbled for Mike Connors, who had to find out that his show Mannix had been canceled, not from an agent or a network executive, but from a reporter looking to get a reaction quote.
In an interview with The Reporter, Connors said that, at the time of the show's cancellation, he was still incredibly confident in the success of the series.
"We had just finished the eighth season," Connors said. "We were still very high in the ratings."
However, the real point of contention wasn't between the series and viewers, it was between the show's network and studio.
"At that time, there was a disagreement between CBS and our studio, Paramount, over the syndication of Mannix," Connors said. "Paramount wanted to start syndicating the show right away, but CBS wanted to wait until the first run on the network was over."
The growing dispute was stressful enough that Connors began to worry about the future of Mannix, and even reached out to Fred Silverman, the head of CBS, to allay those fears.
"I asked Fred Silverman if we were in any danger of being dropped," Connors said. "And Fred said to me — and I remember his exact words — 'There is no way we're going to drop this show. We'll work it out with Paramount."
But Connors' contentment was short-lived, as he was in for a rude awakening — literally when a reporter called him to get his opinion on the cancellation of Mannix.
"He [the reporter] woke me up with the news of our cancellation," Connors said.
Luckily, Connors' career would go on after the series cancellation, and while Mannix was well-loved, his future looked bright.
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