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Mission: Impossible (1966 - 1973)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Sad, but true. Sad

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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Peter Graves Interview.

"The idea of Mission: Impossible was that our team would create an elaborate con in order to make the villain do what we wanted, when we wanted, and how we wanted and make them think it was all their idea."

As more and more people begin to protest the Vietnam War, they came to criticize M:I because our series premise was that we entered (enemy) foreign countries and interfered with them. They saw that as similar to what was happening in 'Nam.

CBS got very nervous and that's when our scripts went from the IMF dealing other nations to having their missions take on mobsters in America. And that's when the scripts begin to take a dive.

~ It always makes me shake my head when people protest a make believe TV show. It's fiction folks. Put your time, energy, and dough into fighting the real problems. Separate reality from fantasy.

~ Kinda like those soap opera stories you read about. Some soap star (sorry, daytime drama) is shopping someplace and people walk up and yell at 'em as though they really are the nasty character they portray on the show.

~ Some folks find these stories amusing. I get scared that some people are out there unable to differentiate between a pretend TV show and real life.
Do they own guns? Are they driving vehicles? Do they live next door? Frightening.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2021 11:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More Mission: Impossible Trivia.

M:I creator Bruce Geller acknowledged that his show was inspired by the feature films Rififi, and Topkapi.

But what Mission resembled most was an obscure TV show called 21 Beacon Street.

This intelligent half-hour series, produced by Filmways in 1959 for NBC centered around the Dennis Chase Detective Agency at the title address. Brilliant planner Chase (Dennis Morgan) is assisted by a beautiful Phi Betta Kappa (Joanna Barnes), a law school graduate and ex-Marine (Brian Kelly), and a dialectician and inventive genius (James Maloney).

Although he always urged his clients to go to the law, Chase took on cases the police couldn't or wouldn't solve, like proving that an accident was murder, and outswindling swindlers.

The team, which rarely used violence, operated as con artists, intercepted and replaced criminals as a means of infiltration, and were well prepared with hidden tape recorders, bugs, and a pair of radio-transmitter eyeglasses.

21 Beacon Street ran for thirteen weeks and was forgotten---until 1968, when Filmways brought suit against Mission.

Mission creator Bruce Geller claimed not to have ever known 21 Beacon Street ever existed or to have ever seen it.

The lawsuit was settled out of court for ''very little.''

The complete absence of characterization made the IMF more like machine parts than people, which was precisely what Geller wanted.
They are what they do. The IMF could more credibly be who they pretended to be because they weren't contrasted against any "real" personalities.

Nevertheless, audiences learned to like these ciphers, thanks to the charm of the actors portraying them and the show's underlying message of teamwork, loyalty, mutual respect, and absolute mutual dependency.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 01, 2021 4:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

M:I creator Bruce Geller considered serializing the show. The idea was to do a cliff-hanger each week. A story could take two episodes to tell, or three or four.

The idea was that no story would look like what it started out to be. Bruce's concept was to have the IMF get in there, establish the fact that one misstep and you're dead, and thereafter it's nothing but suspense.

Each episode would contain a random element to threaten the IMF plot and force them to find another solution, In other words there would always be a reverse twist, a switch, or a switch on a switch.

You could never be ahead of the story, you were always to be surprised, yet it would always be logical and ingenious.

~ Interesting approach by Bruce. So many TV shows are predictable and generally the audience sees the plots unfold in a pedestrian manner and they can easily predict the resolution. Bruce was attempting to create the unexpected with his show and keep the audience on their toes.

An inevitable consequence of such mechanical plots was Mission's ever-increasing reliance on electronic devices---a direction which surprised Geller.

Bruce felt that many writers were influenced by James Bond films and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and they go overboard on gimmicks. Little did Geller know that the writers for M:I would resort to elaborate gadgets more and more as the first season went on. In fact, M:I became famous for its utilization of contrivances.

Bruce made it very plain that any gadgets, gimmicks, or instruments to be used had to be already in use somewhere or on a drawing board somewhere. Mechanical feasibility would distinguish M:I from most TV spy shows.

"M:I was not 100 percent accurate in terms of gadgetry," said deForest Research's Peter Slowman, whose job was to verify such matters. "They wanted not so much a gadget that existed, but if the technology existed, if such a device could be built." If the principle was valid, we'd allow them to have it.

Since so many props had to be specially constructed, special effects played a much more important role than in most series. Heading the crew was the remarkable Jonnie Burke.
Burke's crew consisted of five to ten people during the first season.

All were experts in their field: One was a top gunsmith and a good all-around machinist; we had top plastics people, you name it.

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Krel
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 01, 2021 8:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Back then the production companies hated the idea of serialized shows. They figured that it would hurt syndication chances after the show ended. Stations buying the show couldn't just show the episodes, but would have to take extra care to keep it in order. They figured that the stations would pass on the show for shows that weren't serialized, because they took less effort.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
The idea was that no story would look like what it started out to be. Bruce's concept was to have the IMF get in there, establish the fact that one misstep and you're dead, and thereafter it's nothing but suspense.

Each episode would contain a random element to threaten the IMF plot and force them to find another solution, In other words there would always be a reverse twist, a switch, or a switch on a switch.

This is exactly what I loved about the series when it aired during the spy craze of the 1960s.

It celebrated intelligence and bravery, with bold men and women doing a dangerous job to correct an injustice.
Cool
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2021 4:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Commercial artist-sculptor John Chamber's was Hollywood's resident expert in appliances and prosthetic work, with credits including The Munsters, The Outer Limits, and The List of Adrian Messenger (1963).

Chambers did the pilot's preliminary lab work and called makeup man Dan Striepeke to assist him.

At the end of the first season, an exhausted Striepeke left to take over Twentieth Century-Fox's makeup department.

His replacement was Bob Dawn.

Mission creator Bruce Geller was proud of its rapid pace.
Editing gave Mission a sense of momentum unique to TV at the time, and the key to that momentum was intercutting. Simultaneously crosscutting two or more separate sequences would jump the story forward.

Unlike other shows. Mission never used fade-ins or fade-outs, and rarely used dissolves, montages, or any technique to show time lapses or slow down the episode's staccato rhythm.

The large amount of inserts made cutting the show an even bigger chore. Also requiring more time was that the opening credits would show scenes from that week's particular episode. No other series did that.

Boris "Lalo" Schifrin was born in Argentina and the son of the Buenos Aires Symphony Orchestra'a concert master.
It was Schifirn who composed the iconic score for the show.

What would become the popular theme music for the series was not originally intended to be used for it.

Geller was particularly taken with an oddly scored, compelling selection of music in 5/4 time which was originally written for the end chase in the pilot. Bruce found it so exciting that he made it the series' main title theme, the visuals of which were designed specifically for that music.
The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier by Patrick J. White
[/i]
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 05, 2021 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mission: Impossible came close to almost not being picked up by the CBS network and placed on their fall of 1966 schedule.

Because of Mission's creator Bruce Geller's endless tinkering and perfectionism, the pilot missed its delivery date to CBS.
The day came, the show was not turned in, and the network decided to buy another pilot. Nightwatch, a dark stylish hour about a Chicago cop (Carroll O'Connor), was the network's choice, and its sale seemed a certainty. Director Robert Altman said that "We were moving back to Chicago, we'd secured real estate there and had many scripts in the works."

Then Mission: Impossible was delivered to CBS.

When Mike Dann, the head of CBS programming first saw the pilot he went crazy. He thought it was smashing, a good, well-done Topkapi caper. He knew he had a winner.
Dann's enthusiastic support for the pilot was an enormous
boost for the show, as well as a surprise coming from Dann.

When the script for the pilot was first brought to Dann at CBS as part of the Desilu development deal, he said that they could shoot the pilot if they wanted to, he couldn't stop them. He also added that he would never put it on the air.

Now Dann was excited about the show's potential. He confidently screened the show for CBS's founder and chairman of the board, William Paley.

After the screening of the pilot, Dann asked Paley what did he think? He saw a look of depression on Paley's face, and he knew he was going to get bad news.

Dann asked Paley what was wrong with it? Paley said that nothing was wrong with it! But he felt that such a show like Mission couldn't be done every week because they'd never be able to keep up that kind of quality on the production.


Last edited by Pow on Fri Jan 26, 2024 12:44 am; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 3:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Stanley Kallis was CBS's liaison for Mission: Impossible.
He had seen the pilots for Mission & Robert Altman's Nightwatch and couldn't believe that Nightwatch lost.

In retrospect it was probably just as well that Nightwatch didn't go, Altman, of course, went on to become one of America's most admired filmmakers.

Mission creator Bruce Geller was in Las Vegas when he heard that the show was picked up by CBS as a weekly series. 'Jesus, am I in trouble!' was his reaction.

Bruce asked Stan Kallis if he would produce the show, but Kallis refused. "I thought Mission: Impossible was immoral." he explained, "that it would have dangerous consequences because it was basically a neo-Fascist concept. It's no different from an elitist CIA or worse, the SS." Ironically, Kallis eventually did produce the show later on, under less than pleasant circumstances.

~ I can understand Kallis's reasoning here. However, we are again talking about a fictional TV show and not actual covert activities. In other words, it's called pretend.
Certainly people have the right not to be associated with any TV series they feel goes against their beliefs, no one questions that freedom of choice.

~ Certainly we know from American history nowadays that our squeaky-clean big ole' Boy Scout of a nation image was just that, an image. The Gulf of Tonken incident, the Pentagon Papers, and many, many other documents did reveal that our politicians and military and spy agencies, the FBI, corporations, etc, have all conducted operations immoral and illegal throughout history.

~ But in 1966 the public at large still believed it was John Wayne's ideal America...although cracks were beginning to appear.

~ I think many citizens were of the mind that we really should have an IMF to stop the evildoers of the world.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 11:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More from Patrick J. White's M:I book.

The summer of 1966 was chaotic for Desilu. After years of relative inactivity as a production company, the lot had suddenly two intensely difficult, innovative, and costly series: Mission & Star Trek.
The Star Trek people related to the Mission people.
The atmosphere created was a warm, close-knit feeling.

~ These two series are often referred to as sister shows or series due to their uniqueness. No espionage show on TV was like Mission, while no science fiction series was ever like Star Trek.

Joseph Gantman signed on as producer for Mission.

Most shows prepare a "bible," a description of the series concept and characters for scriptwriters commonly known as the writer's guide.
For whatever reasons, Bruce Geller never prepared such a bible, nor ever satisfactorily explained to Gantman why Geller never had anything on paper about these characters.

~ This revelation stunned me! How could there NOT be a writer's bible for such an intricate show? Nowadays, no TV series would get off the ground without having one. It's unheard of for a show not to have a guide prepared by the creator.
Back in the 1960s though, not every TV show did have a writer's bible for the production. Incredibly enough I've read that The Invaders lacked such a bible!

~The problem of not having a prepared guide for a show is that critical time is wasted during shooting. If a writer doesn't have a grasp of both the premise of a series and its characters, then precious time is wasted having to figure things out during filming.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 10, 2021 10:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In time, Mission producer Joseph Gantman realized that the show's creator, Bruce Geller, had no intention of working on Mission in anything but a supervisory way.

Bruce contributed heavily to the post-production process of editing and music and would rewrite scripts, but never initiate them.

Once Gantman was on the show and there was trouble with the production, Bruce stayed out. He did not participate. When it came to story, he was at arm's length. Gantman acted as producer and story editor. Patrick J. White

~This amazed me as I had always assumed that the creator of a TV series also was deeply involved in every facet of their own show.

~ Gene Roddenberry also heavily rewrote scripts for Star Trek that were submitted by different writers...many times to the annoyance of the scriptwriter.
Like Geller though, once Trek was on the air he never wrote a script for it, that job went to others such as the invaluable Gene Coon.
Scripts such as "The Omega Glory" which was by Roddenberry was originally written by him as one of the stories that could be used for the Trek pilot.
"Assignment: Earth" was a script by Gene & Art Wallace but was really a backdoor pilot for a spin-off series.

~I don't know if that was common practice back then, or even these days, for someone to create a show but rarely write a script for it once that series is up and running. Perhaps their many other duties prevent their writing more scripts.

J. Michael Straczynski who created Babylon 5 wrote something like 95% of the scripts for his series, while being heavily involved in its many other operations. H e said that doing all of it damned near killed him.
Perhaps that is why creators of shows are unable to contribute original scripts.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 10, 2021 11:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great research Pow!
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 12, 2021 12:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Gord!

Joseph Gantman who would produce the first two seasons of Mission was unhappy with the writers and stories coming in, he quickly called on a couple of friends, writers William Read Woodfield and Alan Balter.

Balter had been a World War II paratrooper. At Daystar Productions he was an associate producer on The Outer Limits (1963-65), and where he co-wrote two episodes: "The Hundred Days of the Dragon," and "The Mutant."
Later on, he & Gantman were associate producers on Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Woodfield rose to prominence in the late fifties and sixties as a film and magazine photographer. His credits include the famous nudes of Marilyn Monroe from her last, unfinished film. Tiring of photography he turned to writing.
He coauthored a book on death row prisoner Caryl Chessman & got Jack Ruby's autobiography by smuggling a secret tape recorder into Ruby's jail cell.

Balter talked Woodfield into writing a Voyage episode, which he claims he wrote in a day. Irwin Allen gave him a contract for multiple episodes, and after the show's first season, Woodfield & Balter became writing partners.

Physically at least, they were an odd couple; Balter was soft-spoken and smiling, Woodfield outspoken & boisterous.

Woodfield was considered a Renaissance man around Hollywood, known for his wide range of knowledge & expertise in varied fields (he was, among other things, a magician).

Free-lancers Balter & Woodfield saw three pilots in one day: The Big Valley, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek.

The only one they were not interested in was Mission.

"Oh it was a joke," says Woodfield, guys in trunks and all that." Gantman suggested they write a Mission anyway, using a gambling theme (another Woodfield specialty). Woodfield was so disappointed with the result, "Odds on Evil," that he was reluctant to send it in. He was persuaded otherwise, and as he recalls, "Joe called with the highest praise he ever gives anything:

'I think it will work. We wanna shoot it and give you a multiple.'

"Odds on Evil" was fast, sophisticated, different, and above all, promising---it was the first story to portray the IMF as classic confidence artists. Without knowing it, Woodfield & Balter had set the mold for the series.
Patrick J. White.
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 12, 2021 1:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
. . . The large amount of inserts made cutting the show an even bigger chore. Also requiring more time was that the opening credits would show scenes from that week's particular episode. No other series did that.

I can think of at least two other contemporary shows that previewed scenes from the current episode in the opening title sequence: I Spy and Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds. (Don't know if puppets count, though.)
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 12, 2021 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's also "Space: 1999", with it's "This Episode" opening. In the first season, "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." used photos from the episode during the end credits.

David
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