# "Mission: Impossible" -- the old TV series (long) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2009, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050 "2009-09-22T04:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/21 "2009-09-22T20:41:09Z")
> [@nivlac](#): > > In one episode you can literally see the strings holding up something that was supposed to be floating! Ah yes, the hoverdisc, from one of my favorite episodes, “The Bunker.” Barney flies a remote controlled hoverdisc down an elevator shaft to deliver a syringe that will give the captive scientist a fake heart attack. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/22 "2009-09-23T00:32:51Z")
Wasn’t there an episode in which Phelps gets his message in candy shop and has to eat the record? ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/23 "2009-09-23T01:20:43Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > Some people point out that it is implausible or far-fetched. I think they are missing the point. One reason I love the show so much is that _at no point_ did they ever let realism or plausibility interfere with a darn good yarn. It’s pure escapist hokum from start to finish, and that was part of its charm. If you want realism, watch the news. The other thing you have to remember is that this show was on when the whole espionage/spy thing was a strong genre in not only TV but movies and books as well. James Bond, The Man From UNCLE, I Spy, etc. not to mention spoofs like Get Smart. Even shows like Batman and The Monkees played off of it in some episodes. And that’s why you got an Austin Powers movie 20 years later. So, MI wasn’t just floating out there by itself. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/24 "2009-09-23T01:32:18Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > My favorite part was always trying to guess whether the mythical country was eastern European, Latin American or wherever by how the police cars were labled: > > Polizia > Policia > Polize > Polici > Poliza > > and so on. And all the stop signs said “Alt!” One of the many reasons why the first season was the best because it was almost exclusively international spying. It was only later that organized crime became the target. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/25 "2009-09-23T03:21:18Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > He was born in 1922. I’d be happy to still get big roles as an acter at age 68. I mean dang, what do you expect? My point there was only about the contrast between his older and younger selves. I have never seen Hill in anything else, between those two roles. Something that maybe would have prepared me. So it was a bit of a surprise when I first started watching MI, for the first time, a few months ago. “Hmmm, this guy’s familiar. Who is that? _Holy sh—_, it’s the boss man from Law & Order!” Then I had to go look him up on the IMDB to confirm it. A totally jaw-dropping moment. > [@randwill](#): > > Any “Mission:Impossible” thread should include the information that the team meeting scene, at the beginning of the episode, took place on a set decorated in blacks and whites and that the team always wore only black, gray and white clothing. I hadn’t noticed that. Does it have some cryptic significance? > [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Lalo Schifrin’s music was great: not only the title tune (the best in TV history, IMHO), but also a lot of the incidental music. Somewhere I read that the theme song was originally just going to be a bit of incidental music during a car chase scene. Then someone (Geller?) heard it and decided it was too good to be wasted on that. So it was flushed out to become the show’s theme, and went on to become the catchy earworm that infects all of our brains today. [QUOTE=ArchiveGuy] And while I think Barbara Bain always did a fine job as Cinnamon Carter, I’m always a bit flabbergasted that she won 3 consecutive Emmys for Lead Actress in a Drama! Maybe it was because she’d immerse herself in a variety of roles, showing her Range with a capital R, but I also wonder if the quality of writing for female characters on television at that time was just incredibly sparse. [/QUOTE] That’s a good theory. What other dramas were there at the time with a strong female character? I can’t think of any. (But then again, in those years, many prime-time dramas would have been past my bedtime.) > [@ouryL](#): > > Wasn’t there an episode in which Phelps gets his message in candy shop and has to eat the record? Haven’t seen that one yet, if it’s real. I have seen one episode where the message is on a record instead of a tape, but the record merely sizzles and smokes as usual. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/26 "2009-09-23T03:36:55Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > That’s a good theory. What other dramas were there at the time with a strong female character? I can’t think of any. (But then again, in those years, many prime-time dramas would have been past my bedtime.) Looking at the other nominees, she beat out Peggy Lipton in THE MOD SQUAD, Diana Rigg in THE AVENGERS, Barbara Stanwyck in THE BIG VALLEY, and Joan Blondell in HERE COME THE BRIDES. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/27 "2009-09-23T22:46:18Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Two points: > > 1. Steven Hill was a devout Jew who claimed he quit the show of his own volition because it required too much taping on the Sabbath. > > 2. I will NEVER forgive Tom Cruise for refusing to allow any cameos by the original TV cast AND for making Jim Phelps the bad guy in his movie. Steven Hill also butted heads because the stories were getting morally questionable. Michael Moriarty had similar qualms when he left Law and Order. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/28 "2009-09-23T23:56:42Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > 1. I will NEVER forgive Tom Cruise…for making Jim Phelps the bad guy in his movie. I post before I read the whole thread, but: Hear, hear! ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/29 "2009-09-24T01:37:56Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > 1. I will NEVER forgive Tom Cruise for refusing to allow any cameos by the original TV cast AND for making Jim Phelps the bad guy in his movie. Did Cruise actually have anything to do with that? I figured it was Brian De Palma to blame. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/30 "2009-09-24T02:08:02Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Did Cruise actually have anything to do with that? I figured it was Brian De Palma to blame. Well…Well, _Somebody_ did it, and they should be set on fire while we all listen to the MI theme and laugh in glee…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/31 "2009-09-24T02:09:55Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > . . . Then there’s (#2) — a traitorous nuclear physicist is knocked out, and when he awakes, is made to think he’s in the year 2000, living now as a prison laborer in the dismal aftermath of a nuclear war. He freaks out over this for quite a while (to pad the script, I think), but eventually tells where he’s hidden the nuclear fuel that he stole earlier, “back” in the year 1972. > > I think I like these episodes because it’s so implausible you could pull off such schemes. There would be a hundred things our heros might overlook in their otherwise meticulous planning, all of them giveaways. (“Hey, I didn’t have this scar when I was twenty!”) . . . This plot was stolen from [_36 Hours_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057809/) (1965), a taut little thriller starring James Garner and Eva Marie Saint (available on disc and recommended). The first time “M:I” used it was in the first season, episode 3, “[Operation Rogosh](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0649262/)” (1966). The scheme is even foiled by almost the same device. My favorite things about “M:I” were the fact that you could always tell who Martin Landau was gonna have to impersonate, because who’s that over there? In a mustache and funny nose? Why, that’s Martin Landau too! He never impersonated anyone except guys who already looked exactly like him . . . cuz they already \*were \*him. And the design: the efficiency of the studio and backlot shooting was such that all the interiors were set against the same flat drywall–with walls that always managed to be higher than the upper frame of the camera–and lit by the same banks and banks and banks of bright white lights; a room never looked like a room, it always looked like a television soundstage. And all the exterior looked like the dry scrub of the Hollywood Hills. Not that I’d expect them to shoot in Istanbul or a third world root cellar, but that homogeneous look added, I think, to the “let’s pretend!” element of the outlandishly fantastical plotlines. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/32 "2009-09-24T02:20:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Then there’s (#2) — a traitorous nuclear physicist is knocked out, and when he awakes, is made to think he’s in the year 2000, living now as a prison laborer in the dismal aftermath of a nuclear war. He freaks out over this for quite a while (to pad the script, I think), but eventually tells where he’s hidden the nuclear fuel that he stole earlier, “back” in the year 1972. > > I think I like these episodes because it’s so implausible you could pull off such schemes. There would be a hundred things our heros might overlook in their otherwise meticulous planning, all of them giveaways. (“Hey, I didn’t have this scar when I was twenty!”) . . . In all fairness, the marks in those cons were usually _ **pumped full of high-powered drugs** _ when the team was setting things up. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/33 "2009-09-24T02:27:11Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > My favorite things about “M:I” were the fact that you could always tell who Martin Landau was gonna have to impersonate, because who’s that over there? In a mustache and funny nose? Why, that’s Martin Landau too! He never impersonated anyone except guys who already looked exactly like him . . . cuz they already \*were \*him. Not always, but quite often, yeah. If there was really a makeup technology to make one person look like another, they’d choose someone with a small head, small chin, small nose, etc. Landau has a rather “bulging” face between his eyebrow ridges, nose, and chin. He’d be the last guy to try and build up a disguise from. The ideal person would in fact probably be someone who had been operated upon to have no nose and sanded down chin and cheek bones. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/34 "2009-09-24T02:43:25Z")
[music hijack] Props for one of the all-time great theme songs. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNC5P3-Dr2Y) Man there used to be some great themes… Hawaii Five-O: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w) Rockford Files: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px\_nrsFNgtI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px_nrsFNgtI) MTM: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiW3pyMdp3w&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiW3pyMdp3w&feature=related) But the best theme song of all time… [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4o29VoxtsFk/hqdefault.jpg "Spider-man Original Cartoon Theme Song") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o29VoxtsFk) [/music hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050/35 "2009-09-24T03:28:41Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > If there was really a makeup technology to make one person look like another, they’d choose someone with a small head, small chin, small nose, etc. […] The ideal person would in fact probably be someone who had been operated upon to have no nose and sanded down chin and cheek bones. Probably right, but such a character would have creeped out the audience, big time. Even more than Martin Landau does. And besides, how many nose-less actors are there around? Well maybe bunches of them, I don’t know. But then I bet the nose-less actors get tired of being typecast as “the disguise guy” or “the mask guy” all the time. \*Always with the disguises! And the glue just gets everywhere. Even a hot shower doesn’t take it off. I scrub and I scrub, and for days still I’m stuck with it. Can’t they give me Cyrano de Bergerac for once? Ah, heaven. That one’s just a prosthetic! \* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mission-impossible-the-old-tv-series-long/511050.md?page=1)