My last post (far too long ago) was on Season 1 of the classic espionage series "Mission: Impossible." Today, I have sad occasion to follow up on that post.
I opined that Steven Hill's performance in season 1 of this series is rather underrated, and it is not Hill's fault that the actor who succeeded him, based not only on acting skill but also looks and presence, upstaged Hill in almost every way possible . . . and impossible. Hill looks positively bookish compared to Graves, who strode on to the M:I set in 1967 with no explanation as to why the original series star had been replaced. He brought with him rugged good looks, unmistakeable stature (both in terms of physical height and impressive manner), and a shock of hair that seemed spun from brushed aluminum. As was common up until the late 60's, Grave's hair was treated with the customary greasy kid stuff early on, but morphed into "the dry look" sometime in the early '70's.
While "Mission: Impossible" was an Emmy Award magnet, Graves himself never won the award until his turn as host of A&E's "Biography."As William Shatner would learn to do later in Priceline.com commercials and the series "Boston Legal," Graves would take the risk of stepping away from his hero-icon roots to make some serious fun of himself in the "Airplane!" movies. As loosely closeted pedophile Captain Clarence Oveur ("Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?"), Graves was able to step out of the grimness and determination of Jim Phelps and create a great deal of ridiculous and memorable comedy.
After "Airplane!", Graves returned to the Phelps role in the 1988 re-make of the "Mission: Impossible" series. This new version had it's moments, but never captured the essence of the original series. Unfortunately, that show's best episodes were probably the ones directly re-made from the original series scripts during the writers' strike that occurred that year. The only way to make "new" television during the strike was to work from existing scripts, which is what was done with classic 60's episodes such as "The Legacy,""The Condemned," and "The Killer." (Here are links to imdb.com pages for the 1988 versions of "The Legacy,""The Condemned," and "The Killer.")
As Jim Phelps, Peter Graves always accepted the mission, and was only rarely caught and never killed. He died (no, I'm not going to say "self-destructed") following an apparent heart attack at his home on March 14, 2010. He will be missed.
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