Good morning, Mr. Phelps...
Unique
Spy Drama based around a semi-ad hoc covert operations team employed by the US Government for dicey missions needing maximum deniability. With a few rare exceptions every episode followed the same outline: First, a prerecorded briefing informs the team leader, Jim Phelps, of the target, what needs to be done to him, and why. Second, Jim assembles his team and the viewer gets to see a selected but
mostly uninformative subset of their planning and briefing. Thirdly, the mission — usually a
caper or
con — is executed, sometimes with real or bogus crises along the way. Finally, the team reassembles in a convenient panel truck and drives off as the target confesses, turns state's evidence, or slowly cools in a spreading pool of blood.
The original cast:
- Steven Hill as Dan Briggs, a cold, cerebral strategist who would be given the mission, formulate a plan, select a team of agents (not always the same ones in early episodes), and put everything in motion.
- Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter, a glamorous Femme Fatale who could wrap men around her finger with a single raised eyberow.
- Greg Morris as Barney Collier, a mechanical genius and reverse Air Vent Escape artist — the casting of a black actor as this highly accomplished character in 1966 was revolutionary, although the producers insisted race had nothing to do with their decision.
- Former bodybuilder Peter Lupus as Willy Armitage, essentially a Gentle Giant.
Martin Landau played Rollin Hand, a
Master Of Disguise, sleight-of-hand, card sharping and many other skills, as a guest star in the pilot, but was so popular with audiences that he became the
Ensemble Darkhorse and was called back for virtually every subsequent episode, always billed as a "special guest star." He was made a series regular in season two.
When Hill became increasingly difficult to work with, he was gradually written out of the series; when he was replaced by Peter Graves as Jim Phelps in season two, the classic cast was set. Other cast changes followed, with Landau and Bain leaving at the end of season three, Landau replaced by Leonard Nimoy, fresh from the recently cancelled
Star Trek(which Landau turned down to do MI instead), and Bain by an assortment of leading ladies, none of whom had the same panache, culminating in a tragically miscast Lesley Warren as the waif-like Dana. An attempt was eventually made to invigorate the role by casting Lynda Day George as Casey, who was both the leading lady and the
Master Of Disguise, but by then the series was on its last legs.
Mission Impossible was a thinking man's espionage program. Gunplay was kept to a minimum, and the focus was always on outwitting and outmaneuvering the foe, who usually didn't know he was being targeted at all. The IMF were never dispatched for
ordinary tasks that a simple
James Bond type could handle with a couple of explosions and a chase scene — they were called upon to accomplish their goals by outplanning and outthinking their opposition, often by playing mind games with them on such a scale that more than one may have been driven into madness.
All but invented
Latex Perfection and the
Master Of Disguise, and originated many of its own unique tropes, not the least of which is its most famous and most parodied elements, "this tape will self-destruct in five seconds" and "if any of your IMF team are caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of their actions".
The show's distinctive use of what creator Bruce Geller called "a team of specialists" to carry out a complex plan inspired numerous imitators, most notably
The A Team, but also shows such as
Charlies Angels. None did it as well, though.
The Film Of The Series and sequels, starring Tom Cruise, have ignored or outright subverted virtually everything that made the show what it was.
This show provides examples of:
