History Series / MissionImpossible

* First, the team leader goes to a DeadDrop location to pick up a pre-recorded message, usually with a packet of one or more photos. The leader listens to the message, where his government contact gives him a quick rundown of who the target (or targets) are, what they've done, and what the government needs the team to do about it. Every time, this is followed by a warning that if the team is captured or unsuccessful, "the Secretary" [[note]]It's never specified exactly which Secretary that would be - one would assume either the Secretary of State (who is in charge of foreign relations) or the Secretary of Defense (who oversees the Defense Intelligence Agency) - or if Secretary is just a codename for whoever's in charge.[[/note]] will 'disavow' knowledge of their actions (implying they won't be rescued or ransomed) then a warning that [[ThisPageWillSelfDestruct this message will self-destruct.]] Which it does, seconds later, followed by one of the best {{theme tune}}s. "Good luck, Jim." . [[note]]Rarely, the contact will instead ask the leader to "destroy the tape in the usual manner." Someplace close by will be a place to safely burn the message.[[/note]]
* Second, the leader assembles his team and the viewer gets to see a selected but [[UnspokenPlanGuarantee mostly uninformative subset of their planning and briefing]]. [[note]]In the first two seasons, this was always immediately preceded by the leader going to his folder of possible personnel and choosing the right people for the job - which always consisted of picking out the series regulars, although occasionally an additional person would be chosen if some specialty skills were required. Starting in Season Three, this got phased out since most of the time, the same people kept getting picked, only coming back if there was a change in the usual lineup.[[/note]]
* Third, the mission -- usually a [[TheCaper caper]] or [[TheCon con]] -- is executed, sometimes with real or bogus crises along the way. This, of course, is what the bulk of the episode consists of.

** In "Old Man Out", Cardinal Vossek is based on Cardinal József Mindszenty, the leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary from 1945 to 1973. Imprisoned during the war by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party for his opposition to fascism, he then stood up to communism with the result he was arrested on trumped-up charges of treason, beaten until he signed an absurd confession and then sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1949 ShowTrial. He was released during the short-lived 1956 Hungarian Revolution and when the Soviet Union invaded, sought asylum in the US Embassy in Budapest. He would remain there for the next 15 years (so during the time this episode was made in 1966), unable to leave the grounds without being arrested. He would be allowed to leave Hungary in 1971 after a deal between the Vatican and Hungary, dying in exile in Vienna in 1975.

The show won ten UsefulNotes/{{Emmy|Award}}s (Two Outstanding Drama awards, one Outstanding Writing in a Drama award, ''three'' Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Drama awards for Barbara Bain, one Outstanding in Art Direction and Scenic Design award, one Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing award, one Outstanding Achievement in Makeup award, and one Individual Achievement in Film and Sound Editing award, plus ''thirty-eight'' other nominations in various categories), three UsefulNotes/{{Golden Globe|Award}}s (One Best Drama, and one Best Actor each for Peter Graves and Martin Landau) and one Edgar (One Best Episode).

There was a two-season ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]''-style continuation of the original series filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} in the [[TheEighties 1980s]]; Peter Graves returned as Jim Phelps, mentoring an all-new team (including Barney Collier's son, Grant, played by Greg Morris's real son, Creator/PhilMorris); originally conceived as a straight-out remake in order to fill a hole in Creator/{{ABC}}'s schedule created by a [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes Hollywood writer's strike]], the series ended up being a continuation of the original (though the strike still forced them to remake a couple of original series episodes), while Greg Morris and Lynda Day George made guest appearances as their original characters. The [[VideoGame/MissionImpossible1990 NES game]] and [[VideoGame/MissionImpossible1991 DOS game]] developed and/or published by Creator/{{Konami}} are based on this revival series.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: In "Lover's Knot," the BigBad lives outside UsefulNotes/{{London}}. Fair enough, except that there are [[TheMountainsOfIllinois mountains in the background]] - so either he lives ''way'' outside London (like, UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} or Yorkshire outside) or...

* PopCulturePunEpisodeTitle: The title of "A Spool There Was" is a double reference. It's taken from the famous [[UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood silent movie]] ''Film/AFoolThereWas'', which in turn is a quote from the Creator/RudyardKipling poem "The Vampire".

There was a two-season ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]''-style continuation of the original series filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} in the [[TheEighties 1980s]]; Peter Graves returned as Jim Phelps, mentoring an all-new team (including Barney Collier's son, Grant, played by Greg Morris's real son, Creator/PhilMorris); originally conceived as a straight-out remake in order to fill a hole in Creator/{{ABC}}'s schedule created by a [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes Hollywood writer's strike]], the series ended up being a continuation of the original (though the strike still forced them to remake a couple of original series episodes), while Greg Morris and Lynda Day George made guest appearances as their original characters. The [[VideoGame/MissionImpossible1990 NES game]] and [[VideoGame/MissionImpossibleDOS DOS game]] developed and/or published by Creator/{{Konami}} are based on this revival series.

* ActionizedAdaptation: Not unreasonably, the NES game wasn't about an elaborate sting operation, but is instead an action game with some stealth and puzzle elements.