The Case of the Interested Boss: Lew Wickersham's Presence on Joe Mannix's Cases

Being a season 1 Mannix fan can get lonely, since most everyone and their dog prefer to ignore season 1 and Lew in favor of seasons 2-8 and Peggy. I love all of those elements too, but there's a special place in my heart for season 1 and Lew. Imagine my overjoyed state to discover a really awesome writer wrote a story set in pre-season 1, with tons of wonderful Lew!

The story, Slippery When Wet by BJ Thompson, is available at https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11599104/1/Slippery-When-Wet and can't be praised enough. I especially love her very human and three-dimensional characterizations of both Joe Mannix and Lew Wickersham. They are very fleshed-out in ways that ring true with the series and feel very real, from their dialogue to their motivations. They are friends as well as boss and employee and that comes through beautifully.

One interesting thing the author attempts to explain is why Lew is often with Joe on his cases in season 1, instead of just staying in his office and letting things play out without him. She proposes a backstory where Joe has lost his license due to trouble on a past case and the only way he can get it back is to work for Lew for two years, with Lew in sort of a probation officer role. When Joe is such a wild card in need of supervision, Lew definitely has his hands full.

While I find the idea intriguing, and definitely enjoy it in the context of the story, I'm not sure I can say it fits with the canon of season 1, either up front or behind the scenes. Let's examine why.

At various times during season 1, Joe threatens to leave Intertect. On one occasion, Joe speaks of it as approximately, "Someday, Lew, someday I'm going to leave here and open my own detective agency." Although I don't recall the exact wording or the episode, he definitely doesn't sound as though he has been on his own before. He sounds as though he has only ever worked under others.

While Joe is totally often in trouble and creates havoc at Intertect, there is no mention of there being a problem with him going out on his own. In fact, in You Can Get Killed Out There, Joe really does quit and leave. Lew doesn't tell him he can't go because he has to stay on probation, so to speak. Joe seems to be perfectly free to leave Intertect any time he wishes.

Of course, this could be explained as Joe deciding to stay on after the probation period is up, for some reason, and that by the later season 1 episodes there is no more probation. In any case, he clearly doesn't need to stay with Lew to finish getting his mandatory three years of working under someone before striking out on his own. Most likely, he did this under the Harry Forrest character introduced in season 8 as Joe's mentor.

For some mysterious reason, in spite of Joe's dislike of technology reliance, he keeps staying on at Intertect. Within the context of the series, this is never explained. Behind the scenes, the truth is that while season 1 was in production, the crew never intended for Joe to leave Intertect and not come back. He would threaten to leave because he was a free spirit and because it created some level of tension, but he was always supposed to return at the end of the episode. Considering that Joe thinks Intertect is more machine than man and that rules are meant to be broken, it seems very odd that he continually returns (other than because the script required it).

Since he is apparently free to leave any time he wishes, it would seem to me that the only likely reason he remains is because of Lew. He likes Lew and he knows he is Lew's best agent. He doesn't want to let Lew down. But he wouldn't stay entirely for selfless reasons; he obviously wants to stay more than he wants to go, in spite of his threats. Something at Intertect holds that level of value to him. What could that be, if not Lew? He certainly doesn't have anywhere the same closeness with anyone else at Intertect. And he is confident in his abilities; he isn't staying because he worries he won't find clients on his own.

Perhaps, if there is any other reason Joe stays, it is because he's concerned about the cases that might not get solved if he wasn't there to shake things up and take them. Cases such as the little girl's happiness in Make It Like It Never Happened would not have been solved had Joe not been there to hear about it and agree to look into it.

On the other side of the coin, why doesn't Lew fire him and mean it, especially when Joe takes on cases that Lew would rather he left alone? Joe is always rehired if he's fired. In spite of the stress Joe causes Lew, Lew knows Joe is his best agent. Lew has an immense respect and trust for Joe and will listen when Joe has concerns or ideas about a particular case. More than once, Lew has also encouraged others to listen as well. He may despise some of Joe's methods with all his heart, but even then, he is willing to stick it out because he knows that if Joe thinks he is onto something, he very likely is.

That holds true for the cases Lew would ordinarily set aside, as well. Even if Lew is not initially interested in a case or feels it doesn't hold up to Intertect standards, he doesn't want any injustice to be done if they can prevent it. So he allows Joe a certain amount of latitude. If he is forced to fire Joe for straying too far from what he feels he can allow, he will rehire him after the case unfolds.

Lew would not let it govern everything he says and does, but it's also true that they are far more than boss and employee. It wouldn't be necessary to say it aloud for it to be known loud and clear, but in case the audience had any doubts, Lew and Joe both say in certain episodes that they are friends. In addition to worrying about what Joe's getting into because he's reckless and daring and could damage Intertect's reputation, Lew wouldn't want a friend to be hurt.

Lew really cares about the employees of Intertect. The thought that any of them would turn traitor is something he has a hard time accepting, as shown in Deadfall. His bad reaction to steroids makes the problem far, far worse, but judging from his scenes with Joe, the pills are bringing out his true feelings and twisting them and blowing them out of proportion. The things he screams at Joe are just more extreme versions of the things he says in other episodes. Therefore, even in his normal frame of mind, it is likely that he would find it difficult to accept an employee going rogue. With such deep-rooted caring for the people under his command, it isn't hard to fathom that he would come to the aid of any employee in a tough spot the same as he does many times for Joe. Therefore, although we only see him come to help Joe, it doesn't mean Joe is the only one he would go to bat for like that. It just means Joe is the main one who needs his help.

BJ Thompson feels that Lew would not be out in the field since he owns Intertect. This is a logical argument, but may not necessarily hold true in the fictional private eye world. Paul Drake on Perry Mason owns an apparently large detective agency with many operatives, yet he is not always chilling at his desk while they do all the work. He is usually in the field himself, on cases for Perry or others. Why not Lew as well? In at least one episode, You Can Get Killed Out There, Lew is in the field investigating when it isn't even an official Joe case anymore due to Joe quitting. And in Turn Every Stone, Lew joins an investigation at the request of the friend who needs Intertect's help.

So why does Lew often end up in the field with Joe? There doesn't seem to be just one answer, even in canon. He apparently still does field work, despite being the owner of the agency. He worries about the reckless, dangerous things Joe is getting into. He worries that Joe may create a huge mess and stick Intertect in the middle. He worries that his friend and employee will get himself hurt or killed.

Slippery When Wet is an amazing read and should not be ignored by any Mannix fan. But canon definitely seems to offer other reasons for Lew's interest in Joe's cases other than what Slippery When Wet suggests. Either way, however, both in season 1 and in Slippery When Wet, there is a treasure trove of material for the fans to enjoy. Perhaps another writer will even come up with yet another possible answer to these mysteries. That's what fanfiction is all about, anyway: exploring all possibilities, probable and improbable equally. I'm thrilled that there are Mannix writers eager to unravel the mysteries of the series and tell new stories about the characters. And even though I don't agree with BJ Thompson's explanation for why Lew often becomes involved in Joe's cases, I would read other stories by her about Lew in a heartbeat. She has set up a fascinating verse that I would love to see her play in some more. There just aren't enough Lew stories out there! It's a supreme treat to get one by such a master storyteller.

Season Overview - Intertect: Mannix, Season 1

And Now, Back to Mannix by JoAnn M. Paul is a great resource for fans of Mannix seasons 2-8. The author loves Joe Mannix and Peggy Fair and clearly delights and thrives on writing about them and their complex relationship. It’s a truly fascinating read.

Still, I have to admit that I was thoroughly disappointed that she omitted any discussion of one of the other most intriguing relationships on the series: that of Joe Mannix and Lew Wickersham in season 1. Upon reading the book last Autumn and discovering the lack of season 1 information, I determined to write a book myself on season 1, detailing the elements, the characters, and the episodes. I still plan to do that. But for now, let’s have a brief look at what makes season 1 so special.

I should start off by saying that I was a skeptic at first. I loved seasons 2-8 and I did not like what I’d heard about season 1: mainly, that the format was different, Peggy wasn’t there yet, and Joe was working at Intertect for a boss he often clashed with. I figured it would be the same old clichés that populate shows such as McCloud. And honestly, that sounded quite tiresome to me. Sometimes employer and employee arguing is amusing, but sometimes I just get bored of it and wonder why they can’t just get along.

But I was fresh out of Mannix to watch and I decided that what the heck, we should really check out season 1 too. So I rented the first disc from Netflix.

I knew right from the first episode that I had been seriously misinformed. Joe’s first scene with Lew has Lew sighing and bemoaning Joe getting into a fight and asks, “Did you have to hit him?” Joe shrugs and says, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Despite Lew’s displeasure over the fight, he actually isn’t angry. There’s an undercurrent of both resignation and amusement. He knows Joe is his best agent and puts up with his behavior because of that. At the end of the episode, when Joe peeks into a meeting to tell Lew that he solved the case, the other people in the meeting are puzzled. “Who’s that?” one of them asks. Lew smiles as he replies, “The name is Mannix.”

Not only had I been misinformed, I knew then that Lew, and his relationship was Joe, was something special. As I watched the other episodes on the disc, those realizations only came to light all the more.

One of my most favorite season 1 episodes is Nothing Ever Works Twice, where Joe is framed for the murder of his old girlfriend’s husband. Normally I’m not a big fan of plots where one of the good guys is framed (which is odd coming from a Perry Mason fan, I know). This episode, however, will forever be an exception. Lew bends over backwards to try to help Joe clear himself, running all over town to keep up with him and be there for his phone calls. And he does all this while dealing with a splitting headache.

Lew certainly didn’t have to become so involved. He could have either called the police and explained the mess or washed his hands of the whole deal. He wanted to call the police, feeling that was in Joe’s best interest, but when Joe wanted to solve the case himself and not be behind bars while the police and Intertect tried to clear him, Lew threw himself full-force into helping Joe every step of the way.

One aspect that a lot of people don’t seem to seriously think about is that out of all of Joe’s friends throughout the series, it’s Lew who believes in and trusts Joe the most. How many times has Art or Adam scoffed at Joe’s theories and told him he’s crazy? Even Peggy gets into that act sometimes. They all truly care about Joe and believe in him to varying extents, yet oddly enough, after all this time they still don’t trust many of Joe’s ideas and hunches.

We don’t know how long Joe and Lew have known each other. IMDB says they fought in the war together, but there’s nothing in any of the episodes that says that. But regardless of the length of time they’ve known each other, Lew has a belief in Joe that’s really quite unshakable. Oh, there are times when he is alarmed and horrified over some of Joe’s methods, and sometimes he can’t permit Joe to pursue a particular investigation on company time, but he knows Joe is his best agent and he knows why. When Joe has an idea, Lew listens to it and encourages others to listen as well. He doesn’t tell Joe he’s crazy for his ideas, but gives serious consideration to the concept that Joe might be right, because he knows Joe often is right. He gives his support to Joe and many times, he becomes personally involved in solving the case right alongside Joe. One time they even concoct a bizarre scheme where they pretend to fight and Lew pretends to fire Joe, just to make a scene for the bad guys to see. In reality, they’re continuing to work together on the case. Lew has saved Joe’s life at least twice, and according to Joe, there have been other times when they’ve saved each other.

Lew is definitely more than just Joe’s boss. It’s obvious without actually acknowledging it, but they do, several times in the scripts. Both The Cost of a Vacation and Deadfall, Part 2 have them come right out and admit they’re friends.

This isn’t to say the characters don’t ever have conflicts. They do, many times. Often they disagree on the proper method of detective work. Joe favors old-fashioned methods like interviewing witnesses, using the telephone, and getting into fistfights if he has to. Lew prefers letting the high-tech supercomputers handle much of the work, which saves time and, he hopes, eliminates the human error. However, many of their arguments about these things are handled as though it’s friendly banter. They don’t stand there and scream at and insult each other very often.

The Deadfall two-part saga is one exception to that. It’s one of the most intense and heartbreaking Mannix adventures and one of only three two-part episodes throughout the entire series run. In it, Lew is suffering from an infection and is taking prescribed steroids to try to deal with it. But he has a bad reaction to them and becomes angry and delusional, snapping at Joe in ways he doesn’t ordinarily and seeing hallucinations of a supposedly dead agent wherever he goes. Joe, meanwhile, is highly occupied with the case of the dead agent and what he’s learning that points to the idea that the man is both alive and a traitor. He’s so focused on that, that he doesn’t realize what’s happening to Lew and that Lew isn’t himself. Instead, he becomes furious when he thinks Lew deliberately abandons him to a fight. The conflict eventually culminates in a knockdown, drag-out fight between them in a darkened Intertect office.

Part 2 has Joe telling the Intertect doctor about the fight while the doctor treats Joe’s battle wounds. The doctor realizes what’s wrong and tells Joe, who immediately becomes stricken with guilt that he didn’t realize and actually physically fought with Lew in his ill state. Lew ends up abducted by the traitorous agent and his wife, but manages to escape once the pills wear off and he can think clearly again. Joe comes to the docks looking for Lew and ends up nearly being killed by the traitor. Lew staggers upon the scene just in time and fires, killing the traitor and saving Joe. The saga ends with the girlfriend of the episode leaving Joe after Joe angrily and suspiciously questions her motives in shouting his name and drawing the bad guys’ attention to him. Lew, meanwhile, is at the point of collapse and tells Joe he’s sorry for everything he did. Joe welcomes him back and catches him as he swoons. The episode ends there. Girls may come and go, but it’s the friendship that lasts, even when hurtful things happen.

Joe stays with Intertect throughout season 1. The last scenes of the final season 1 episode, The Girl in the Frame, have Joe and Lew once again teamed to solve a case. Although Joe quits Intertect in an earlier episode, he comes back by the end. They always intended for him to come back. They never thought of having Joe really strike out on his own, despite his threats to do so, until the show was in danger of cancellation and they decided they wanted to overhaul it.

So the question remains, why does Joe come back, aside from the fact that the script called for it? He isn’t a team player. He doesn’t like working with most of the other agents or relying so heavily on computers. Apparently he already has his mandatory three years of working under someone else; he could go off and get his independent license if he really wanted to.

He stays because of Lew. He knows he’s Lew’s best agent and doesn’t want to let him down. And he just plain likes Lew and likes working with him, even though he doesn’t agree with everything Lew says and does. That’s really the only answer that makes sense, all things considered. And although it is a natural progression of the character to have him finally decide to leave anyway, part of me feels that it makes him look out-of-character since it goes against all the original intentions for him.

Sometimes I like to picture an alternate version of the series where Joe doesn’t leave, but Peggy comes to work there, since I don’t like Joe leaving Intertect but I love the dynamic between him and Peggy. Still, then I miss Joe’s combination office and home, which is really almost a character in and of itself in seasons 2-8. When following the actual series, I insist on believing that Joe and Lew remain friends after Joe’s departure. Joe doesn’t forget his friends; he certainly wouldn’t forget Lew.

The early season 2 episode Pressure Point makes it sound like Joe’s parting from Intertect was not pleasant and that bitter feelings remain on both sides. That’s more or less in keeping with the situation in the season 1 episode where he temporarily quits under not-so-pleasant circumstances. But it’s too sad to imagine that such a scenario continues for the rest of the series. If Joe and Lew finally parted because of ill feelings, I insist on believing that they soon mended their problems and renewed their friendship. They’re too close to allow something so ridiculous to split them apart, especially after Deadfall.

The actors themselves had a beautiful rapport, which carried over to the characters and is certainly one reason why they’re such a joy to watch. The two-part interview with Mike Connors and Joseph Campanella on the first two season 1 discs is glorious and shows their continuing friendliness in the present-day. They also provide commentary on an episode from disc 5, and although normally I don’t care for commentary on episodes, I was overjoyed by that venture.

In season 6 they brought Joseph back for a guest-spot in the episode The Crimson Halo. He didn’t play Lew, but the purpose of the episode was very clearly to celebrate the interaction between him and Mike Connors. Throughout the episode, the mystery takes a back seat to how Joe Mannix and Dr. Graham Aspinall go from mutual dislike of each other to a healthy respect and even the beginnings of a friendship. And even though I regret that we didn’t get to see Lew again, I love that episode for its profound message of two very different people slowly coming together in a growing bond of friendship and love.

For all we know, maybe that’s also the basic story of how Joe and Lew met, too.