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Mission: Impossible (1966 - 1973)
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Krel
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
No shenanigans were intended on my part.

Pow, I didn't mean to infer that you were engaged in Shenanigans. I meant that I thought that the story was shenanigans. If I insulted you than I am very sorry. I have always enjoyed your posts and trivia.

This is the most times in my life that I have ever used shenanigans. Laughing

David.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 18, 2020 2:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No apologies needed my friend. I realized that you were suspect of the individual who made this first-hand account of this incident and not me.

I just wanted to use shenanigans in my post too.
Very Happy
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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 18, 2020 2:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Did you know that the M:I TV series resorted to actually performing a real life covert operation during the show's run starting in season two?

Learning from the first season of M:I, the producers created S&S Films.

As far as the studio was concerned this was a film library. In reality it was brought to life for an entirely different purpose.

It was a disguised second unit.

It was against union rule and if they were discovered they'd have been fined for this activity.

M:I creator Bruce Geller approved of S&S films (Saturday and Sunday), but the studio had no clue about what was really taking place.

The M:I crew just wanted to make the finest show that they could.

To that end, the S&S crew would spend the weekend filming sequences such as a car chase or traveling shots.

Had this been done with an official crew during weekday hours, it would have cost the studio ten thousand dollars. And with new owners Paramount/Gulf-Western now holding very tightly to the purse strings there was no way they would have authorized such expenditures.

Knowing that they'd never receive approval from the studio, the S&S Films charade was created.

The producers and crew felt that it was worth it all as it really opened up and greatly improved the visuals for the episodes.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 8:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"You got trouble, my friend, right here, I say, trouble right here in River City.''

Mission:Impossible, Third Season~1968-to-1969.

Mission:Impossible was a huge hit by its third season.

It also was going through serious growing pains at the same time.

Producer Douglas S. Cramer was newly assigned to the series to control costs. Cramer would discover that his 'Mission:Impossible' would be dealing with the show's creator Bruce Geller.

Cramer found that Geller paid absolutely no attention to the series weekly budget. Bruce also would want to do bigger shows than they could afford to do.

Bruce simply ignored Cramer from the start and later would conceive of ways to get around Cramer.

Pressure from the studio would only make Geller more furious and unwilling to compromise on anything.

Cramer was also in charge of overseeing Star Trek at the same time. He found that the ST people were open to discussing budget expenditures. Geller never was for his M:I.

The top-notch writers for M:I of William Read Woodfield & Allan Balter who understood the show's story structure better than most were made producers for the show's third season...and they proved to be awful in that position.

They were very dictatorial with the series crew and did not get on well at all with series creator Bruce Geller.

Finally, after numerous clashes with Bruce, Woodfield & Balter got into a roaring screaming match with Geller. Afterwards the highly regarded writing team walked off the show forever.

There were those on the staff who felt that Woodfield & Balter actually understood the series better than its creator, Bruce Geller.

At this stage, only eight episodes had been produced for season three's premiere. Now there was a desperate scramble to find writers who could script one of the most complex television series on the air.

In spite of the various issues going on with M:I, the cast did get along with one another quite well, and they also got on well with the crew.

Funny, isn't it? As a kid and teenager growing up we all have our favorite TV shows. We'd check it out in TV Guide so we'd be sure to see what night it was on, what time, and read the TVG plot synopsis.

Once a week a TV series we followed would come on with a new episode. Once a week we'd watch it and usually get a kick out of it.

Guess I was young and naive not to ever imagine that on particular TV series there could be all kinds of backstage feuds, fusses, fractures, and fights going on with casts and crew. As long as the overall quality of a show didn't suffer, one was apt to think it was operating like a well oiled machine.

Now I know different after reading a number of television series companion books about the making of certain shows.

Those books can be fascinating to read as they delve into the details of the production of a series.

The downside is that whenever I find myself enjoying a brand new television series, in the back of my mind I'm wondering how well things are going in the making of a show.

Are things running smoothly? Are there problems going on that will affect the show?
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 5:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Mission Impossible that Never Was.

In 1978 Paramount executives wanted to do a Mission "reunion" TV movie.
By introducing new, younger characters to the IMF, the movie would also act as a pilot.

The script for Mission: Impossible 1980 was a shocker.

In it, the law has caught up to the IMF, and the story opens with Phelps's release from a six-year prison sentence for conspiracy, burglary, wiretapping, and refusing to testify before a Congressional committee!

Phelps: It was different times. We did things for our country that, today, seem sort of radical. Everything I did...everything the IMF did...I believed was for the good of the country.

Newsman: But you were violating people's civil rights and intervening in the domestic affairs of other countries.

Phelps: I thought what I was doing had to be done...for the good of the country...If I was guilty of anything, it was of being naive and out of tune with the times.

Jim is surprised when John Victor, the taped voice himself, personally proposes a final mission: to retrieve a footlocker containing the remains of Peking man, the celebrated "missing link," which was stolen from the Smithsonian Institute by Rollin Hand & Cinnamon Carter!

Victor explains that the artifact was sold to a Chinese tycoon and is hidden in San Francisco's Chinatown. Feeling partially responsible because of Rollin & Cinnamon, Jim reluctantly accepts the mission.

Barney is recruited from his teaching job, but Willy, now a gymnasium entrepreneur & star of his own TV show, Workin' It Out with Willy(please hold the jokes), refuses to go. A beautiful Amerasian IMFer & a Barney Collier protege skulk through the secret passageways of Chinatown and recover Peking man, which is delivered to Victor.

When Jim learns from Cinnamon & Rollin that they had nothing to do with the theft, he realizes he's been deceived by Victor, who ransoms the treasure & threatens to destroy it, thus endangering Sinno-American relations.

Phelps hastily prepares a counterplot to undo Victor.

"Hospitalized" after a "car crash," Victor panics when told he's been unconscious for a week, fearing that his automated time device has already destroyed the invaluable fossil. He sees through the IMF ploy and rushes to Peking man's hideout---which is just what Jim had in mind. Peking man is delivered to the president, who returns it to Beijing.

The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier by Patrick J. White.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 6:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
Pow wrote:
No shenanigans were intended on my part.

Pow, I didn't mean to infer that you were engaged in Shenanigans. I meant that I thought that the story was shenanigans. If I insulted you than I am very sorry. I have always enjoyed your posts and trivia.

This is the most times in my life that I have ever used shenanigans. Laughing

As site admin of All Sci-Fi I feel an obligation to clarify the mean of that word for all interested members
__________________________________________

she·nan·i·gans

~ secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering.

Example: "widespread financial shenanigans had ruined the fortunes of many"

~ silly or high-spirited behavior; mischief.
__________________________________________

Frankly, guys, the member of this board who seems to fit this definition is . . . ME! Shocked

Okay . . . I apologized. Heck, I just can't help it!

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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 4:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NBC wisely rejected M:I 1980 and asked the producers to develop a more traditional Mission script. Oddly, none of the Mission's best writers (William Read Woodfield & Allan Balter, Lawrence Heath, Paul Playdon) were approached.

~ Welcome to the unfathomable mind of the network execs.

Writer Harold Livingston (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) who had written some of Mission's most obvious plots was brought in to write the script.

Synopsis: In Mission: Impossible 1981 we learn that the IMF has been transformed into what Phelps contemptuously calls a "ponderous think tank" loaded with "accountants and attorneys and PhD candidates."

Luckily, Phelps and Barney have been quietly training a new team reminiscent of the old squad.

They are called into action when billionaire D. W. Snow threatens to explode a neutron bomb in an unknown location unless the president accedes to his extremist, politically dangerous demands.

Jim calls on Willy (again, a health magnate), Cinnamon (now a physician), and Rollin (an antique dealer), plus four new IMFers, younger versions of the prototypes.

En route to Las Vegas, Snow watches IMF news bulletins of impending international trouble. Gazing out his train window, Snow sees "Vegas" (an IMF movie) blown to bits, and is rendered unconscious. He awakens "ten months later" as a prisoner of war, bearded and crippled (thanks to Cinnamon, who has inserted a surgical needle in the man's spine). The Russians have invaded the United States! Snow and fellow prisoner Barney escape to join the American resistance movement in a zoned-off area of Vegas which looks atomically devastated.

A "Russian" attack led by Phelps "kills" Barney and others, and Snow, desperate to stay alive, reveals where his bomb is hidden just before it is set to detonate.

Livingston's script was certainly more traditional than the Mission: Impossible 1980 one.

In fact, HL's script is a remake of two episodes of the series, "Invasion" (November 13, 1971), and "Ultimatum" (November 18, 1972) — neither of which Livingston originated — and his own scripted episode "Two Thousand" (September 23, 1972)

NBC was happy with the script, but the studio (Paramount) was not, because they thought the production would cost a fortune.

New management moved into NBC and, as is often the case, jettisoned many of the old regime's deals — including Mission: Impossible. The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier by Patrick J. White.

~ Perhaps for the best. The M:I 1980 script was a depressing one. Jim Phelps has served time, Willy refuses to help out, and the tapped voice who provided a synopsis of all the fantastic M: I plots is the villain!?!

That's sure not my M: I, not by a long shot!

Mission: Impossible 1981 is closer to the theme of the series . . . but it is too close for comfort. The Livingston script is merely rehashing his own story he did for the TV series, and "borrowing" script ideas from two episodes he was not involved in!

I sure didn't wish to see a M: I TV-movie that simply updated old plot lines from the 1966~1973 show. Where's the fun in that? Part of the joy of the series was the unexpected twists and turns they would introduce along the way on an exciting episode. The Livingston script was gonna be a playbook following a formula.

His idea of Phelps & Barney training a brand new IMF team is certainly a good one, as well as involving old team players Cinnamon, Rollin, and Willy.

Let's give 'em all a brand new and challenging mission and not repeat of what they had done earlier.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Mike, that is one truly awesome analysis of the recent efforts to reboot Mission: Impossible. I really enjoyed reading it. Very Happy

I love the M:I movies, and I feel like they captured the flavor of the series. I even accept the twist in the first one, which turned Phelps into a bad guy. It was done so well that I enjoyed it. Very Happy

All your comments about the flaws in the way the networks approached a reboot to the series were extremely well written.

In short, thanks! Cool

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Krel
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember that Johnny Carson used to make fun of the MI openings, with Phelps being trapped in a small space as the recording self-destructs.

David.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 11:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're most welcome, Bud, glad to always make contributions to this fun & interesting site which you have managed to keep a goin' for we grateful fans/members in spite of difficult challenges over the years.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another proposed Mission: Impossible Movie

Good Morning, Mr. Phelps (Mission Impossible: The Movie)

This time the mission is to rescue a kidnapped scientist and his family from the hands of Middle eastern terrorists and prevent them from building enough reactors to melt the polar ice caps and raise the sea level, thus ruining every coastal city in the world.

~Sounds more like a plot for one of Irwin Allen's TV shows.

Jim chooses Willy, Barney, Rollin, and Cinnamon, plus a new crew: a handsome mimic, ; gorgeous expert on nuclear reactors; black strongman; and electronics genius.

The action ranges from Istanbul, where the IMF liberate the scientist and his family from an underwater installation; to the jungles of Bangkok, where they destroy a reactor assembly camp; to the palace of the South American country of Montequiera where, from a guarded, full swimming pool, the IMF steal nuclear fuel canisters from a vault!

Distinguishing the script was an emphasis on witty dialogue among the team, a playful rivalry between Rollin and the younger mimic, a romance between the mimic and the female operative, and a series of action-packed IMF escapes.

Once again, the proposed budget and plans to shoot the project in England brought winces from the Paramount Studio executives. This, plus the usual change of studio heads and policy (and an indecision over bringing back the original stars or hiring a younger, all new cast) sent Good Morning, Mr. Phelps into 'development hell.'

A real pity, this idea had real merit to it. Wonder why there was indecision behind bringing back the original cast?

Is it because the studio can pay a new cast less money? Is its Hollywood's obsession on youth? Is it that new studio execs don't respect what came from the past?

Incredibly, does the studio think that by introducing a brand new IMF team that, somehow, the studio will reap all the credit for the concept because audiences won't remember the 1966~'73 TV show from the past?

I believe that all of that kind of thinking went on with the studio execs.

I love the idea of having the original IMFers working in concert with the next generation and having respect between the teams.

"Witty dialogue" between the team members was never an element on the '66 TV show, but perhaps employing it for a new iteration could be welcome and refreshing.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 11:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Is it because the studio can pay a new cast less money? Is its Hollywood's obsession on youth? Is it that new studio execs don't respect what came from the past?

Part of it is costs. Part of it is wanting younger viewers who are considered easier to convince to buy more products. Older viewers are considered more set in their way, and not easily convinced to buy as much as younger viewers.

In most cases the studio execs, producers, screen writers, and directors have ZERO respect for the past.

David.
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I found this interesting (and very sad) item from the Patrick J. White book The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier.

By 1978 Bruce Geller Unit productions was headquartered at Twentieth Century-Fox where he was considering producing a pilot (written by William Read Woodfield) based on the Fox film Fantastic Voyage (1966).

On a foggy Sunday, May 21, 1978, Bruce and ABC's top programmer, Steve Gentry, took a pleasure trip from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara in a twin engine, dual propeller Cessna 237 Skymaster. About five miles from Santa Barbara the plane crashed into Buena Vista canyon, in the suburb of Montecito. Both men were killed instantly; Bruce was forty-seven, Gentry thirty seven.

If this tragedy had never occurred, would Bruce have decided to produce the pilot for Fantastic Voyage? Would he have continued with it had it been picked up as a weekly series?

I cannot really think that the level of visual/special effects back in 1978 for a weekly FV TV show would have been of a high caliber. Not to mention doing it on a television budget.

Still it is fascinating to wonder what the immensely talented Bruce Geller and William Read Woodfield would have brought to science fiction fans with such a series?

Had it gone to series we would likely find the effects dated in 2021. However, the writing would probably be top notch.

Nowadays a FV TV series would be superbly supported by the state of the art visuals we have available to us. We could only hope that the writing would be as great as the effects for such a show.

And isn't that the case for all sci-fi TV shows?
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 4:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

On the one hand, the possible story ideas for a Fantastic Voyage series would be varied and exciting.

But on the other hand (as you pointed out) the limited FX abilities in 1978 for a TV series (especially one being shown on those old low-definition televisions) certainly wouldn't measure up to the movie. Sad

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 11:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Even if the television production could have managed to secure the sets for the interior of the human body, along with the Proteus (life-size exterior & interior), they still would have been faced with creating new sets and visuals for a weekly show.

Sure, they might have managed to utilize stock footage from the '66 film, but you can only do that so many times before audiences become bored.

The visual effects technology just wasn't sophisticated enough in 1978 to create an impressive looking production each week.


Last edited by Pow on Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:44 pm; edited 1 time in total
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