Yes go ahead and sing it all the way through. You know it’s
there, you may even be humming it. When you’re done go ahead and read.
The television series MISSION IMPOSSIBLE premiered back in
1966 and ran for seven years before calling it quits. It picked up again in the
80s for two seasons before leaving the air again. Eventually Brian DePalma came
along and began the movie franchise for the series that continues to this day
and deserves to keep going.
But back to 1966. The world was a different place. Dictators
ran various countries, the Soviets and the US were not getting along,
self-proclaimed generals ran roughshod over their people and America did little
on the surface to counter all of them. Not always but for the most part. If you
bought into this series, which most of us did, we sent in a team of undercover
experts to save the day instead.
While most will think that actor Peter Graves as Mr. Phelps
was there from the start the fact is for the first two seasons the team was
brought together by the elusive Mr. Briggs played by Steven Hill. Each week
Briggs (and later Phelps) would go to some seemingly innocent location, pick up
or be given a device on which a message played for them offering them a mission
and then that device would self-destruct. This would be followed by him then
sitting down and tossing down dossiers on a table or desk as to who he chose to
help on this week’s mission.
For the most part the cast remained consistent through the
adventures. Barney Collier (Greg Morris) was the tech guy of the team. Willy
Armitage (Peter Lupus) was the muscle. Roland Hand (Martin Landau) was an
expert in disguise, a top actor. And rounding out the team was Cinnamon Carter
(Barbara Bain) the beauty who was used to distract many a bad man. Occasionally
another operative was tossed in with the group. Later in the series several
members would leave to be replaced by actors like Leonard Nimoy, Lynda Day
George and Lesley Ann Warren. But for most it was the initial team they
remember.
As I said the show had them take on various dictators and
rulers with world domination or destruction on their minds. Examples from the
first season included a South American general who possessed nuclear missiles,
trying to make the Soviets think one of their own turned traitor, rescuing an
elderly yet politically active cardinal, stopping a prince from starting a war
with a neighboring country, “unfixing” a corrupt election in another South
American country, stopping a bacterial attack on our country, taking on an
international drug dealer and more. And that’s just the first season!
The show continued on through 7 years and now that entire
series has been collected into one group. I don’t mean to sound like a late
night TV ad but this is a bargain for fans of the series. It’s been offered
before in a special box set that looks like a powder keg in the $200 price
range or just under. This new box set sells for far less, more near $80. For as
much as you get that is a tremendous bargain. It comes in a box that holds
three cases, two large and one smaller, holding the entire series of DVDs. If
you’ve already collected the separate years then this won’t provide you with
anything new. The same for those who bought the keg edition. But if you’ve held
off then now is a chance to get the whole set in one affordable box that is
well worth it.
I would have loved to have watched the entire series here
before writing but with 10,000 minutes’ worth of shows to watch that was my own
mission impossible. I know that this set will provide me with non-stop
entertainment from disc to disc, each year with its own special episodes and
enough enjoyment that time will move far too fast once I reach that last disc.
If you’ve never seen the show you’re missing one of the greats from the
sixties. If you loved the show this is the set to buy.
Click here to order.
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