MANNIX - "Death Is The Fifth Gear" (1972)

 

Here's a true WTF!? Wednesday feature for you, the 24th episode from Season 5 of the amazing TV show "Mannix." 

Mike (Voodoo Woman) Connors is Joe Mannix.

 

"Mannix" was on for 194 episodes from 1967 to 1975. This insane episode was titled "Death Is The Fifth Gear."

Mannix is driving a race car!

Then he starts seeing these fireballs coming at him!

He's hallucinating like crazy and ends up crashing the car.

This is the way that he's seeing things!

Mannix is usually 100% on top of his game so to see him this messed up and vulnerable is unsettling!

Even his assistant Peggy Fair thinks so!

 Gail Fisher won an Emmy award for her role as Peggy, and was the first black actress to do so.

Mannix wants out of the hospital badly!

I keep thinking about what Grandma and Grandpa must have thought when they sat down to watch this episode!

Mannix can no longer distinguish the hallucinations from reality!

Seeking help wherever he can find it, Mannix makes his way into this strange room with Elsa (The Bride Of Frankenstein) Lanchester as Edna Barrington in it.

Even as he's pursued by the attendants Mannix continues to have the hallucinations!

Mannix dies and the show is over prematurely. Well, at least he thinks he does!

Mariette (Marnie) Hartley as Nurse Cara Guild tries to help Mike out, or is she part of the problem?

Very early in her career, Mariette was in "The Twilight Zone" episode known as "The Long Morrow."

Despite all the treatment in the world, the hallucinations just keep on happening!

Mike is so paranoid, he doesn't even trust Gail any more!

Is it still considered paranoia when it's true that somebody is really after you?

When nothing else works, how about a little carbon monoxide?

Finally after some days time, or almost an hour of drooling onscreen time, Mannix is his old self again.