In addition to the debut of "Star Trek," 1966 also saw the arrival of "MISSION: Impossible," which remains in a close second place behind "Trek" on my list of all time favorite classic TV Series. Season 1 of this series sometimes got left out of the rotation when the show was shown in reruns in syndication on local TV stations. Channel 13 of Indianapolis carried "Mission" for many years in my home state of Indiana, but I went several years without ever seeing a season 1 episode.Peter Graves (as Jim Phelps) was such an iconic star of the series, that the season anchored by his predecessor, Steven Hill (as Dan Briggs), can be relegated to trivia question status. This is kind of a shame since the season 1 episodes were on the whole, very good in spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact the "MISSION: Impossible" formula was not quite set in place yet.
One major difference in season 1 compared to the rest of the series is that most episodes do not open with a self-desctructing tape recording. "The Secretary" would instruct Dan Briggs to "dispose of this recording in the usual manner," which meant the tape would be removed from the player and deposited in a nearby incinerator, or in a barrel of acid that may have conveniently been located nearby. One of the earliest self-destructing recordings was an LP record that went up in smoke at a set interval of time after being peeled out of its sealed envelope. I recall there was another self-destructing record which seemed to go up when the needle reached the center close-out groove.
Here's where technology is not making our lives better. In the modern day, the mission would be delivered on an encrypted .mp3 file downloaded from a secure server onto an iPhone locked by thumbprint access. After being played, the iPod would write zeroes eight times over the data. (I'm sure there's an app for that.)
Now wouldn't that just be slightly more exciting to watch than drying paint?
In season 1, Martin Landau, who would later out-shine series star Peter Graves in many episodes of Seasons 2 and 3, made a "special appearance" in very nearly every episode. His character, Rollin Hand, even assumed a role very close to that of "team leader" in some cases near the end of the year as things got tense with Steven Hill and he was present on the set less and less. Hill, an devout jew, would leave the set at sundown on Friday regardless of the status of the shooting of that week's episode. In one particular episode, Barbara Bain received the recorded instructions (at a beauty salon, no less), selected the team, and carried out the mission (Episode #23, "Action!"). This seemed a clear sign that Hill was being pushed out of the picture. (Hill has been better known in recent years as District Attorney Adam Schiff on "Law & Order.")Not yet developed in the first season was the reliance on split second timing and the miraculous technology seen in later seasons. However, season 1 did have at least one prototype for most of the major types of story lines that would make up the rest of the series. Several of the episodes, (such as Episode 9, "A Spool There Was,") were more subtle, with little in the way of technological razzle-dazzle and which more closely resembled a modern day police procedural, only with spies in foreign lands instead of cops.
"MISSION: Impossible" Season 1 would not be the first season of this classic I would buy on DVD, but it would be in the top 3, trailing closely behind seasons 2 and 3, which is when the show really hit a solid stride (and which will be fodder for a later post).
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