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Mission: Impossible began as an American television series that chronicles the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). The leader of the team, other than in the first season, was Jim Phelps, most often played by Peter Graves.
A hallmark of the series shows Phelps receiving his instructions on a tape that then self destructs, accompanied by the theme music, composed by Lalo Schifrin, widely considered to be one of the most iconic television themes.
The series aired on the CBS network from September 1966 to March 1973.
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Encyclopedia
Mission: Impossible began as an American television series that chronicles the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). The leader of the team, other than in the first season, was Jim Phelps, most often played by Peter Graves.
A hallmark of the series shows Phelps receiving his instructions on a tape that then self destructs, accompanied by the theme music, composed by Lalo Schifrin, widely considered to be one of the most iconic television themes.
The series aired on the CBS network from September 1966 to March 1973. It returned to television, as a revival, for two seasons on ABC, from 1988 to 1990 and later inspired a popular trio of theatrical motion pictures starring Tom Cruise in the 1990s and 2000s, with the role of Phelps played by Jon Voight.
Series overview
The series, which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller, follows the missions of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), a team of secret agents employed by an unknown agency. The team is sent on covert missions to combat dictators, evil organizations, and (primarily in later episodes) crime lords. On occasion, the IMF is also shown conducting unsanctioned, private missions on behalf of its members. The exact branch of the whatever government, and nowhere is it stated which government it is, oversees the IMF is never identified, and in the 1980s revival, it was suggested the IMF is an independent agency (as the FBI is legally bound to operate only within the U.S. and the CIA is likewise bound to only conduct its business outside the country). (However, in the first film, it is depicted as part of the CIA.)
IMF leaders
The leader of the IMF was initially Dan Briggs (played by Steven Hill). Hill, an Orthodox Jew, had to leave on Fridays at 4:00 to be home before sundown and was not available until sundown the next day. Although his contract allowed for filming interruptions due to religious observances, the clause proved difficult to work around due to the production schedule, and as the season progressed, an increasing number of episodes featured little of Dan Briggs. Hill had other problems as well. After cooperatively crawling through dirt tunnels and repeatedly climbing a rope ladder in the episode "Snowball in Hell," the following week ("Action!") he balked at climbing a stairway with railings and locked himself in his dressing room. Unable to come to terms with Hill, the producers reshot the episode without him (another character, Cinnamon Carter, listened to the taped message, the selected operatives' photos were displayed in "limbo", and the team meeting was held in Rollin Hand's apartment), and reduced Briggs' presence in the five segments left to be filmed to the minimum. As far as Hill's religious requirements were concerned, line producer Joseph Gantman simply had not understood what had been agreed to. He told Patrick J. White, "'If someone understands your problems and says he understands them, you feel better about it. But if he doesn't care about your problems, then you begin to really resent him.'" White pointed out, "Steven Hill may have felt exactly the same way".
Hill was replaced (without explanation to the audience) after the first season by Jim Phelps (Peter Graves), who remained as the leader for the remainder of the original series and in the 1988-90 revival.
Briggs and Phelps are the only "full-time" members of the IMF. They form mission teams made up of "part-time" agents who come from a variety of professions, choosing their operatives based on the particular skills necessary to the mission. There is a core group of three or four agents who are regularly chosen, but the episodes do not always feature the same regulars, and many episodes feature one-time "guest star" agents who have unique abilities.
The regular agent line-up during the first season consists of Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), a top fashion model and actress; Barnard "Barney" Collier, (Greg Morris) a mechanical and electronics genius and owner of Collier Electronics; Willy Armitage, (Peter Lupus) a world record-holding weight lifter; and Rollin Hand, (Martin Landau) a noted actor, make-up artist, escape artist, magician and "master of disguise". As actors left the series over time, other agents became regulars; Barney and Willy are the only agents to remain throughout the full run of the original series. Morris also appears in two episodes of the revival series, in which the character's son, Grant Collier (played by Morris's real-life son, Phil Morris), is also an IMF agent. Replacements often incorporate the skills of their predecessors. For example, "The Great Paris" (Leonard Nimoy), Hand's replacement in the fourth and fifth seasons, is also an actor, make-up artist, magician and "master of disguise". Also seen in season 5 was the character of Dr. Doug Robert, played by Sam Elliott. Cinnamon's replacements in season 4 were played by "guest-stars" some making more than one appearance, most notably actress Lee Meriwether as Tracy. Season 5 saw the addition of Dana Lambert, played by noted stage and movie actress Lesley Ann Warren. In seasons six and seven, the female member of the team was cosmetologist Casey (Lynda Day George) (replaced during most of the actress' Season 7 maternity leave by Mimi Davis, played by Barbara Anderson, who had just come from the show Ironside), who in practical terms was another Cinnamon Carter replacement.
Cold War subtext
Although a Cold War subtext is present throughout the series, the actual "Cold War" between the United States and the Soviet Union is rarely mentioned over the course of the series. (See, for example, the mission objectives for "The Trial" and "The Confession" in Season 1.) However, in the early years, many of the targets appear to be leaders of Slavic or anonymous Baltic countries; major named enemy countries include the "European People's Republic" and the "Eastern European Republic". Additionally, fictitious, Slavic-sounding languages or even real Russian are used (in the Season 1 episode "The Carriers," one of the villains reads a book whose title is the Russian Na Voina (About war); police vehicles are often labelled as such with words such as "poliiçia", and "poIiia", and a gas line would be labelled "Gaz." (This "language," referred to by the production team as "Gellerese," was invented specifically to be readable by non-speakers of Slavic languages; their generous use of it was actually intended as a source of comic relief.) Uniforms of the target regime frequently include peaked caps, jackboots, and Sam Browne belts, hinting at connections with Nazi Germany or the Warsaw Pact.
Adversaries unrelated to the Cold War
The IMF is also assigned to bring down corrupt politicians and dictators of Third World countries unrelated to the Cold War, such as a particularly brutal practitioner of apartheid or corrupt Central or South American nations, as well as organized crime figures, corrupt businessmen and politicians in the U.S. In two different first season episodes, the mission was to stop the revival of the Nazi Party in Germany. In both episodes, Rollin Hand (played by Martin Landau, a Jewish actor) impersonated a leading Nazi figure (Martin Bormann in one case) in a successful effort to stop the revival. In Season Two, Landau would successfully impersonate Adolf Hitler himself in another mission to stop the revival of the Nazi Party in Germany.
As noted in the reference work The Complete "Mission: Impossible" Dossier by Patrick White, many IMF missions were essentially assassinations in disguise; in the first-season episode "Memory", it is established that the unspecified government agency behind the IMF has forbidden it to commit outright assassinations "as a matter of policy". To get around this restriction, many missions involve the IMF setting up its targets to be killed by their own people or other enemies. A notable example is the second season two-part story "The Council," later released to European movie houses under the title Mission Impossible vs. the Mob. This policy was not consistently followed; for example, the sadistic camp commander in "Snowball in Hell" is killed directly by the team. Gunplay is relatively rare on the part of the IMF as its methods are more sophisticated and subtle, like those used by con men to fleece the gullible, although several episodes in the early seasons (for example, the second season episode, "The Spy", as well as in the pilot episode) do show the agents shooting people when necessary (usually underlings or enemy soldiers).
Fifth season
During the fifth season, White notes, the producers began to phase out the international missions, deciding instead to task the IMF with battling organized crime (though there was still the occasional international foray). These gangland bosses are usually associated with the "Syndicate", a generic organization, or its franchises. Generally when describing such assignments, the tape message noted that the target was outside the reach of "conventional law enforcement." The objective of such missions was usually simply to obtain evidence admissible in court or to trick the mobsters into making a confession while being recorded.
Format
Mission: Impossible is noted for its format which rarely changes throughout the series. Indeed the opening scenes acquired a ritualistic feel, befitting the "quasi-official" aura the program sought for the clandestine operations it showcases.
Tape scene
Most episodes of the series begin with the team leader arriving at some public place -- a park, a penny arcade, a store, etc. where, invariably after sharing a few words with a clerk or attendant (using a code sentence to signal to them that he is after the recording), he will find a hidden recording. The most familiar format of this recording was reel to reel tape played on a small recorder, but in the first few seasons of the series, Briggs/Phelps would receive the briefing using any manner of playback device such as phonograph records and slide-tape projection machines, and in one early episode ("Memory"), Briggs receives his instructions on a supposed street photographer's business card (but as the card reads in part, "Proceed as per our previous instructions...," it cannot be assumed that there was not an audio message drop related to this operation). An envelope of photographs of the primary "targets" of the assignment usually accompanied the recording, and the team leader would be shown flipping through these while listening to the recorded message. These recordings were always placed in an inconspicuous place. The IMF Director answered to "the Secretary," who the mission voice said "would disavow any knowledge of your actions" in the event "you or any of your IM Force" were to get "caught or killed," but exactly which Secretary was never indicated. In one episode, Cinnamon is captured behind the Iron Curtain while on a mission and the team desperately tries to secure her release. In another episode, Phelps is held prisoner in a small American town and the team has to find and rescue him.
Aside from giving Briggs/Phelps the basics of the mission, the recording always indicated that the IMF leader had the option of refusing the mission ("Your mission, should you decide to accept it..."), and that should any team member be "caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions" (in the history of the series, this happened only once when an IMF agent died during the 1988 revival season). At this point the message needed to be destroyed in order to maintain secrecy; the most famous rendition of this is the recorded voice's advisory, "This tape will self-destruct in five seconds," at which time the tape would disintegrate in a cloud of smoke after the recorded voice usually says, "Good luck, Dan/Jim." Until this became standard, Briggs/Phelps would also often be requested to destroy the tape manually ("Please dispose of/destroy this...in the usual manner,") by tossing it into a nearby furnace or vat of acid, or even disposing of it in a large container of water which, because the tape was coated with special chemicals, would cause it to instantly decompose.
In the first season episode "Action!," due to the absence of actor Steven Hill, the taped message was received by agent Cinnamon Carter. This was the only time someone other than Briggs/Phelps received the briefing.
In the 1980s revival, the message arrived on miniature DVD-like discs, played on a disposable miniature video player with a built-in screen, which as usual would self-destruct after being played.
These briefings were read by voice actor Bob Johnson in the original series and the 1988 revival (the aforementioned episode "Memory" is the only regular-format episode in which Johnson was not heard), but the identity of the character was never revealed, nor was his face ever shown. (It is presumed that this is not the Secretary himself; whoever it is they evidence a familiarity with Briggs/Phelps, enough so to be on a first name basis with them, as the recordings usually end with "Good luck, Dan" or "Good luck, Jim"). The film Mission: Impossible revealed the name of the person behind the messages in the film as Eugene Kittridge, played by Henry Czerny. In the second film, the voice behind the messages was given the name Swanbeck and was played by Anthony Hopkins. The voice in the third film is that of IMF agent Ethan Hunt's superior, played by Billy Crudup. It is not known if any of the film characters correspond to the TV version.
There were a handful of exceptions to the "message from the Secretary". In the fifth season the producers experimented with the format by sometimes eliminating the taped briefing (and/or the team meeting in Phelps' apartment), starting the episode with the mission already underway. In a few other cases, a personal matter involving Briggs, Phelps or an IMF operative would result in an "off-book" mission being undertaken. After the first year, an entire season's worth of "tape scenes" were usually filmed all at once prior to production of the rest of the episodes, and the crew never knew which tape scene would appear with which episode until broadcast (White, p.12).
During the original run of the series, the "tape scene" was twice parodied on The Tonight Show by Johnny Carson, showing him as the "Improbable Missions Force" leader trapped with the self-exploding tape in a telephone booth and a men's room, both times staggering out afterward dazed and with his clothing scorched and tattered, and in the latter with the toilet seat hanging on his shoulder.
Dossier scene
Next would follow what White refers to as the "Dossier Scene". Briggs or Phelps would be shown in a high-class apartment (presumably his own or an IMF-sponsored safe house), retrieving an oversized, leather-bound dossier folder from a locked drawer. Inside this folder were plastic-wrapped dossiers (usually featuring standard 8x10 "glossies" of the respective actors) of the available IMF agents. Briggs/Phelps would be shown contemplating the various agents, putting some aside, and tossing the selected agents' dossiers onto a table (according to White, p. 14, most of the never-chosen dossiers were photographs of various series staffers and their wives, including Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Geller; a contemporary article in TV Guide claimed that many of the photos put aside in the "Dossier scene" were of studio and network executives—White makes no such statement—and that it was considered a measure of one's status in the studio and network hierarchies to appear there.)
In early seasons the agents selected often included guest stars playing agents with skills not present among the usual team. A doctor, particularly a specialist in a condition known to afflict the target, was a common sort of "guest agent". In numerous early episodes the IMF leader would choose only two or three team members, though at least one of the main credited cast members was always involved; one episode, "Elena," featured a team consisting of Rollin Hand and Dr. Carlos Enero (guest star Barry Atwater) (White, p. 79), so Landau's official status at that point as frequent guest star meant that technically none of the series' regular players was involved. Almost as often, however, Briggs would chose all the regulars plus one, two, or even three others. In later seasons the team was much more stable, consisting of the leader and the regular cast of the season, and the use of guest agents became markedly less frequent.
In the pilot episode, it is stated the team leaders have unlimited resources and wide discretion in choosing their team. Presumably the actual plan is settled on based in part on the agents available, an evaluation of the goal, etc. Whether the leader arrives at the plan independently or has assistance in developing it is never made clear. These preparations and the logistics are never shown though are generally implied by the scenes that depict various steps of the process by which the team undertakes its mission. IMF protocol seems to be rapid deployment as it is implied only a short period of time lapses from the initial assignment until the team is in the field.
The first mission submitted by the Secretary that did not have the dossier scene was the last mission of the second season, The Recovery. By the third season, the dossier scene had been deemed somewhat disposable, appearing only when needed to introduce a guest agent, but was seen frequently the following year due to the lack of a regular female team member. It was dropped entirely as of Season Five.
Apartment scene
In the third segment of the opening act, called the "Apartment Scene" by White, the team would next be shown convening for their final briefing in the leader's apartment. Although the series was in color, the set and the costumes in this scene—everything in frame—was always black, white, or shades of gray. It was sometimes referred to off-camera as the black and white room. An exception was the briefing in the aforementioned first-season episode "Action!", which took place in a beauty salon and the briefings were picked up by Cinnamon Carter.
The "Apartment Scene" acted as a teaser; in discussing the plan to achieve the objective of the mission and their role in executing it the team members would make vague references to preparations necessary for its successful execution while leaving most details undisclosed. This scene also demonstrated—and thereby established credibility for—various gadgets or ploys that were key to the plan, such as a TV camera hidden in a brooch, a miniature radio-controlled hovercraft, a chess-playing computer, a "mentalist" or sleight-of-hand act, or even a trained animal. This scene in addition would establish, or at least hint at, the specialties and role in the plan of any "guest star" agents. Team members posing questions about aspects of the plan or why an alternative wasn't considered provided the writers an opportunity to offer explanations for what otherwise might have seemed plot holes. And often Phelps in summing up would stress the difficulties in the action they were about to undertake or some key element of the plan vital to its success, such as a deadline by which the mission was to be completed.
During the fifth season the producers decided to drop the dossier scene and phase out the tape and apartment scenes. By the end of the season, however, it had been decided to keep the tape and apartment scenes, but the dossier-choosing scene was eliminated for the rest of the series run. The 1980s revival reinstated the "dossier scene" in the first episode when Phelps selected his new team, but since he kept the same team in subsequent episodes no subsequent dossier scenes were made.
Plan
The episode then depicted the plan being put into action. This almost always involved very elaborate deceptions, usually several at one time. Facilitating this, certain team members had among their skills being masters of disguise able to enact a role to insert themselves onto the target's staff, impersonate/replace a member of the staff or sometimes even taking the place of the target themselves. This was accomplished by the donning of elaborate latex masks and makeup. Some impersonations were done with the explicit cooperation of the one being impersonated. Also bona fides would be arranged ("the letter from Chicago was sent Monday") to aid infiltrating the target organization. In some cases, the impersonation was facilitated for filming purposes by having the actor playing the IMF agent also cast as the person to be impersonated (this most frequently occurred during Martin Landau's tenure on the series, beginning in the pilot) or dubbing the voice of the person being impersonated throughout the episode; in other cases, a guest-starring actor would provide the physical performance to make Hand's, Paris' or Casey's impersonations perfect.
A few early episodes of the first season included a scene depicting the painstaking creation and application of these masks, usually by disguise and makeup expert Rollin Hand. This was later omitted as the series progressed and the audience presumably became familiar with the mechanics of the team's methods. In the 1980s revival, the mask-making process involved a digital camera and computer and was mostly automatic. Most episodes included a dramatic "reveal" (also referred to as the "peel-off") near the end of the episode in which the team member would remove the mask.
Various technological methods were commonly used as well. The team would often re-route telephone or radio calls so these could be answered by their own members. Faked radio or television broadcasts were common, as were elevators placed under the team's control. In some missions a very extensive simulated setting was created, such as a faked train journey, submarine voyage, aftermath of a major disaster, or even the taking over of the United States by a foreign government. A particularly elaborate ploy, used on more than one occasion, saw the IMF work to convince their target that several years had passed while the target was in a coma or similar condition. In one episode the IMF even convinced their target (an aging mobster played by William Shatner) that time had somehow been turned back more than thirty years and he was a young man again.
The team would usually arrange for some situation to arise with which the target would have to deal in a predictable way, and the team would then arrange the circumstances to guide the outcome to the desired end. Often the plans turned on elaborate psychology, such as exploiting rivalries or an interest in the supernatural. Many plans simply caused the target to become confused or erratic or irrational, lose self-assurance, lose trust in subordinates or partners, etc., so that either the target would do what the team wanted (by falling back on predictable acts of desperation), or else the target's subordinates would replace the target and then act according to the team's predictions.
These various ploys would usually result in either information being revealed to the team, or the target's disgrace and discreditation, or both.
In many early episodes the mission was to "neutralize" the target and it was made clear that the target was ultimately shot by his superiors, staff, or rivals, though this was usually not shown on screen. In later seasons where the targets were usually organized crime figures or similar, the goal of the mission was often simply to collect incriminating evidence not obtainable by "conventional law-enforcement agencies." The team wasn't above falsifying evidence if authentic evidence couldn't be obtained.
Dramatic tension was provided by situations in which team members appeared in danger of being discovered (especially before commercial breaks). Sometimes unexpected events occurred that forced the team to improvise. On occasion an outside party or one of the targets realized what was happening and put the success of the plan at risk.
According to White, William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter, who served as story consultants for the first two seasons and became producers of the third season, relied heavily on The Big Con, written by David W. Maurer, for their inspiration. Hence Briggs/Phelps became the "grifter-in-charge;" Rollin Hand and Cinnamon Carter were highly effective "ropers," and Barney Collier and Willy Armitage were experts at building and/or equipping "big stores."
Filming locations
The original series was filmed almost exclusively around Hollywood and the Los Angeles Basin as were many other series during that period. Pasadena and the Caltech campus were common locations. Another noted location was the Bradbury Building used in other films and series (from The Outer Limits to Blade Runner).
The later revival was shot primarily in Australia.
Variations
Several times the series deviated from the standard format. In one episode of the original series, a gangster kidnapped the daughter of a friend of Dan Briggs and forced him to kidnap a witness against him. In another, one mistake caused Cinnamon Carter to be exposed and captured by the villains, and Jim Phelps prepared a plan to rescue her. Another episode had Willy caught by the bad guys at the beginning and the episode revolved around his rescue. Other episodes featured Phelps on personal missions when he returned to his small hometown for a visit, involving a series of murders among his childhood acquaintances, which the local law enforcement chief was unqualified to cope with; on two occasions he was captured and the team had to rescue him. In the 1980s series, former IMF agent Barney Collier was framed for a crime he didn't commit and the IMF team had to rescue him, leading to a reuniting of Barney with his son and IMF agent Grant Collier (in real life played by father-and-son Greg and Phil Morris).
Conclusion
The last element of the M:I format was the conclusion of each episode. Very rarely did any sort of epilogue occur; in most cases, the action lasted right up to the final seconds, with the episode often ending in a freeze frame as the IMF team made their escape, another successful mission concluded. Most often they left in a nondescript panel truck, although at least once they left in a station wagon, once in a Mercedes Benz sedan and another time in a red Aston Martin. A dramatic device frequently used at the end of the episode was the sound of a gunshot or a scream in the distance as the target was killed by his former accomplices as the IMF team makes their getaway. In the 1980s revival, this format was altered with the addition of a tag scene showing the IMF team regrouping (often still in disguise) and walking away from the site of their concluded mission, often accompanied by a quip uttered by Jim Phelps.
Music
Aside from the now iconic main theme, the background music would incorporate minimalist innovations of percussion such as simply a snare drum and cymbals to build tension during the more "sneaky" moments of the episodes. Sometimes accompanied by a low level flute. These quieter passages would greatly contrast the more bombastic fanfares when a mission member is at risk of getting caught just prior to a commercial break.
Awards
Emmy
Golden Globe
- Television Series -Drama, 1968
- Actor in a Television Series - Drama - Martin Landau, 1968
- Actor in a Television Series - Drama - Peter Graves, 1971
Edgar
Inspirations and innovations
A key inspiration for Geller in creating the series was the 1964 Jules Dassin film Topkapi, innovative for its coolly existential depiction of an elaborate heist. Geller switched the story away from the criminals of Topkapi to the good guys of the IMF, but kept Dassin's style of minimal dialogue, prominent music scoring and clockwork-precision plots executed by a team of diverse specialists. Several episodes in fact show close-up shots of an agent's wristwatch to convey the suspense of working on a deadline.
One of the more controversial points of Geller's was his insistence on minimizing character development. This was done intentionally both because he felt that seeing the characters as tabula rasas would make them more convincing in undercover work, and because he wanted to keep the focus on the caper and off the characters themselves. Geller would even veto the writers' attempts to develop the characters in the episodes. This is why, at least until Geller's departure from the show (and actually afterwards as well), the IMF agents would only have one scene at Jim's apartment where they interacted, and they were rarely if ever seen in their "real" lives.
As a side effect of this, cast turnover was never once explained on the show. None of the main characters ever died or were disavowed in the original series, but a character could disappear in an interval of one episode without mention or acknowledgment. The 1980s revival, however, did kill off a main character on screen; Bruce Geller died on 27 May, 1978 in a plane crash in Santa Barbara, CA, so was unable to potentially veto the decision. The Mimi Davis character is the only one shown on screen being recruited as an IMF agent.
The producers of Mission: Impossible were sued for plagiarism by the creators of a show called 21 Beacon Street. The suit was settled out of court. Geller claimed never to have seen the earlier show (Beacon Streets story editor and pilot scripter, Laurence Heath, would later write several episodes of M:I). (White, pp. 8-9)
Writer William Read Woodfield was a fan of David Maurer's nonfiction book about con artists, The Big Con (also an unofficial inspiration for The Sting), and many episodes are strikingly similar to cons described in the book.
Part of each episode's title sequence was highly unusual, as it was composed of a number of very short clips of key scenes from the subject episode. This was, and remains, very rare for series television. However, it was already being done as of the previous season on I Spy, which like Mission had the lighting of a fuse leading to it. Several British teleseries produced by Gerry Anderson and his then wife Sylvia Anderson, the contemporaneous Thunderbirds and the mid-1970s Space: 1999 among them, also did this. The reimagined Battlestar Galactica TV series also uses this device.
Mission: Impossible is still recognized for its innovative use of music. Composer Lalo Schifrin wrote several distinctive pieces for the series. The visual cuts in the main title sequence were timed to the beats and measures of the theme tune—written in (unusual) 5/4 time—while an animated burning fuse moved across the screen. Most episodes included fairly long dialogue-free sequences showing the team members—particularly electronics expert Barney Collier—making technical preparations for the mission, usually to the accompaniment of another easily–recognizable tune called "The Plot." Lalo Schifrin also wrote a theme piece for each main character and the sound track for each episode incorporated variations of these throughout. Even when an episode's score is credited to some other composer, Desilu's music supervisor Jack Hunsacker would re-edit it, adding Schifrin melodies from the library. (White, p. 50) The series had great impact on film and TV music. Before Mission: Impossible, a common compliment was along the lines of "the score worked very well but never got in the way or called attention to itself." By contrast, Mission: Impossible was praised for the prominence of its music.
At 171 episodes, the original version of Mission: Impossible currently holds the record for having the most episodes of any English-language espionage television series (about 10 more episodes than its nearest rival, the UK-produced The Avengers).
Reruns of Mission: Impossible are still shown daily on some TV stations and the cable service AmericanLife TV.
Revivals
In 1980, media reports indicated that a reunion of the original cast was in the planning stages, for a project to be called Mission: Impossible 1980. Ultimately this project was delayed into 1983 (with the working title suitably updated repeatedly) before being cancelled altogether due to one plot after another being deemed inappropriate and unacceptable. (White, pp. 429-431)
In 1984, another proposed M:I reunion was to have been a theatrical film, titled Good Morning, Mr. Phelps (Mission: Impossible The Movie). Ultimately, the proposed large budget sank this project. (White, pp. 431-432)
In 1988, the American fall television season was hampered by a writers' strike that prevented the commissioning of new scripts. Producers, anxious to provide new product for viewers but with the prospect of a lengthy strike, went into the vaults for previously written material. Star Trek: The Next Generation, for example, used scripts written for an aborted Star Trek series proposed for the 1970s. The ABC network decided to launch a new Mission: Impossible series, with a mostly new cast (except for Peter Graves, who would return as Phelps), but using scripts from the original series, suitably updated. To save even more on production costs, the series was filmed in Australia; the first season in Queensland, and the second in Melbourne. Costs were, at that time, some 20 percent lower in Australia than in Hollywood. The new Mission: Impossible was one of the first American commercial network programs to be filmed in Australia.
According to Patrick White's book, the original plan was for the series to be an actual remake/reimaginging of the original series, with the new cast playing the same characters from the original series: Rollin Hand, Cinnamon Carter, et al. Just before filming began, White writes, the decision was made to rework the characters so that they were now original creations, albeit still patterned after the originals, with only Jim Phelps remaining unchanged.
The new series was not a hit, but it was produced cheaply enough to keep it on the ABC schedule. The new M:I ultimately lasted for two years; the writers' strike was resolved quickly enough that only a few episodes were actual remakes, which, along with the decision to change the character names and backgrounds, resulted in the series being considered a continuation of the original series, rather than simply a remake.
The original series formula described above was largely repeated in the second Mission: Impossible series of the 1980s, though the writers took some liberties and tried to stretch the rules somewhat. Most notably, by the time of the revival series, the Impossible Mission Force was no longer a small, clandestine operation, but larger in scale, with references now made to IMF divisions and additional teams similar to the one run by Phelps. One episode of the later series featured the only occasion in which a regular IMF agent was killed on a mission and subsequently disavowed. The 1980s series also had IMF agents using technology that nearly pushed the series into the realm of science fiction, such as one gadget that could record dreams.
The revived series included special appearances by several 1960s–1970s IMF veterans, including appearances by Lynda Day George and by Greg Morris as Barney; Morris's son, Phil Morris, played Barney's son in the new series. Four guest stars from the original run all played targets here, Alex Cord, James Shigeta, and in the same episode, Barbara Luna and Australian Michael Pate.
In 1997, Barbara Bain reprised the role of Cinnamon Carter for an episode of Diagnosis Murder entitled "Discards". She appeared in the episode alongside Phil Morris (not playing Grant Collier, although Cinnamon mentions having worked with his father), as well as 1960s spy series veterans Robert Culp (I Spy), Robert Vaughn (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and Patrick Macnee (The Avengers), and was the only member of this ensemble to play her original character here.
Series cast
Guest stars
Revival cast
Episodes
Original novels
A number of original novels based upon the series were published in the late 1960s.
Popular Library published the following between 1967 and 1969:
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Mission: Impossible by John Tiger (1967) Code Name: Judas by Max Walker (1968) Code Name: Rapier by Walker (1968) Code Name: Little Ivan by Tiger (1969)
In addition, two hardback novels for young readers were published by Whitman Books, both by Talmage Powell:
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The Priceless Particle (1969) The Money Explosion (1970)
Of the above, only the 1967 John Tiger novel featured the team as led by Dan Briggs; the rest all featured the Jim Phelps-era IMF.
Related items
Dell Comics published a comic book on a sporadic schedule that lasted from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, although only 5 issues were actually published. (There were actually only four original publications, as the fifth issue was a reprint of the first).
In 1968, the GAF Corporation of Portland Oregon/Paramount Films released a View Master (21 stereo pictures in 3 round discs) with a 16 page story booklet..."Good morning Mr Phelps. The man you are looking at is Dr. Erich Rojak, the nuclear physist who has been missing.....
In 1979, Scott Adams released Mission Impossible, a text adventure game that placed the player in the role of a secret agent trying to save the world. Evidently Adams had failed to acquire the rights to use the name as the game was quickly reissued under the modified name Impossible Mission and later Secret Mission. Beyond the title and the name of "Mr. Phelps" which is mentioned on the tape recording at the very beginning of the game, it had no overt connection to the TV series.
In 1991, video game designer Palcom created a Nintendo Entertainment System game called Mission: Impossible, based on the revived series. The game is considered quite well-crafted and challenging. After the 1996 movie, several other games bearing the series name have also appeared, but the general consensus is that their quality is somewhat low, as if the games were made to quickly capitalize on the renewed franchise without delving into scenario possibilities presented by the series. For all the games, see Mission: Impossible (video game).
Home video
In North America, Mission: Impossible received limited VHS format release in the waning days of video cassettes: There was a subscription through Columbia House; GoodTimes Home Video issued a sell-through version of Episode 3, "Memory" (under the multipli-erroneous title "Butcher of Balkens"); and Paramount Home Video released twelve two-episode volumes of "The Best of Mission: Impossible," six tapes at a time, in 1996 and 2000. Twelve episodes were also released on Laserdisc. DVD release was rumored several times to tie in with the release of the first two Tom Cruise films, but this never occurred. Finally, Paramount Pictures announced in 2004 that it planned to release the TV series on DVD in North America in conjunction with the release of the third feature film, but this was ultimately delayed. Paramount later announced that the first season would be released on September 12, 2006 but this was pushed back. The first season was finally released on Region 1 DVD on December 5, 2006 by CBS Home Entertainment (which has the rights to the Paramount TV library), with distribution by Paramount.
CBS Home Entertainment has subsequently released seasons 2-5 on DVD in Region 1. Season 6 will be released on April 28, 2009.
It has not been announced whether the 1980s revival will also see a DVD release.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|
| The Complete 1st Season | 28 | December 5, 2006 | | The Complete 2nd Season | 25 | June 5, 2007 | | The Complete 3rd Season | 25 | October 29, 2007 | | The Complete 4th Season | 26 | May 13, 2008 | | The Complete 5th Season | 23 | October 7, 2008 | | The Complete 6th Season | 22 | April 28, 2009 | | The Complete 7th Season | 22 | TBA |
Feature films
Plans for a feature film based upon the TV series was first announced in the 1980s, but no production eventuated. Finally, in the 1990s and 2000s, three feature films, starring Tom Cruise, were produced, with a fourth one in pre-production.
In popular culture
Freakazoid in Episode has a spoof of Mission: Impossible entitled "Mission:Freakazoid".Both Mad Magazine and Cracked magazine had spoof episodes of "Mission Impossible". MAD's was entitled Mission: Ridiculous! and was consistent with the show in terms of characters, situations and typical storyline.The Star Trek: Voyager episode "Future's End" includes a reference to Mission: Impossible, a series that once shared studios and producers with the original Star Trek.The Get Smart episode, "The Impossible Mission" was a spoof of the series, opening with a "tape scene" ("should you decide not to accept this mission, you're fired!"), and a dossier scene (in which Maxwell Smart tears up one of the photographs). In the movie versions, the phrase "This mission, should you choose to accept it..." was used instead of the TV series' "Your mission, should you decide to accept it...". The hand that holds the match that lights the fuse in the title sequence of the first five and half seasons of the original series is Bruce Geller's hand. Another hand was used from mid-season six to the end of the original series. In the 1980s revival, Peter Graves' face is shown, and it's his hand. In Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2, both versions of the Mission: Impossible theme was used in both movies. In Wayne's World, the 1988 MI theme was used in a scene where Garth and his buddies head to the TV studio to get their TV equipment to put the show back on the air. And in Wayne's World 2, the old theme was used in a scene where Wayne, Garth and the others were spying on Cassandra and her producer "friend", Bobby. The Carol Burnett Show did a parody off of this TV series entitled "Mission:Improbable." Carol Burnett played blonde acting the role of "Cinnamon." Inside O.U.T. was a 1971 unsold comedy television pilot about an elite government team that performed secret missions using specially trained agents and high-tech gadgetry in a manner reminiscent of Mission: Impossible. The show starred Bill Daily, Farrah Fawcett (pre-Charlie’s Angels) and Alan Oppenheimer. In every episode of Inspector Gadget, Gadget meets Chief Quimby in the most obscure location (in a flock of sheep, in a trash bin, in a tree, etc.) and the instructions to Gadget's mission always finish with "this message will self-destruct" (in homage to the exploding messages in Mission: Impossible), after which Gadget lets the message blow up in Quimby's face. At the beginning of the Muppet Babies episode "Pigerella," after Scooter and Skeeter get the idea to sneak some snacks to the gang one hour before lunch (through the use of an impossible mission), Scooter types "Muppet: Impossible" on his computer and goes over to the chest of drawers, where Gonzo is hiding. Gonzo then gives instructions to Scooter, while imitating the instructions of the recorded messages from Mission: Impossible, and finishes it with "This nose will self-destruct in two seconds" followed by a sneeze. After Scooter mentions "impossible mission," music from the show is heard from the moment Scooter types on his computer to the point where Scooter and Skeeter sneak past Nanny on the way to the kitchen.
Bibliography
The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier. New York: Avon Books, 1991.
External links
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