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Maurice Starship Navigator

Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 536 Location: 3rd Rock
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Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2023 6:53 am Post subject: |
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Pow wrote: | Mission: Impossible and Star Trek: TOS, were considered "sister shows" when both debuted in 1966. Both series were produced by Desilu, both filmed on the Desilu 40 Acres backlot. And both shows were imaginative and unlike any previous television series.
There was a difference between the two shows. Gene Roddenberry was known to sit down with NBC and discuss the ongoing budget challenges for Trek. Bruce Geller was known for refusing to ever discuss the budget issues for Mission. |
Indeed, Geller didn't care about cost overruns. He wouldn't cut corners for any reason, and, mind you, CBS paid more per episode of Mission than NBC paid for Trek. CBS loved Mission once its ratings took off and Geller wouldn't do a thing to not go over budget on virtually every episode. Star Trek was much closer to on-budget overall, largely thanks to Bob Justman.
The main budget issue was with Desilu, not NBC. In the first season of Star Trek NBC's per episode license fee was $140K out of the initial $192K budget, which Desilu dropped to $185K near the end of the first season. As per the contract, NBC's fee increased every year, even as Paramount (after absorbing Desilu) slashed the budget. NBC was never the villain as far as money goes.
The issue Bird (Roddenberry) had with NBC re the budget is that science fiction is expensive to stage, especially at a second-tier studio with high overhead. But he'd sold them the series on a "strange new worlds" concept, and the network (through Stan Robertson) held his feet to the fire on delivering on that promised format, though it was cheaper to set stories on the Enterprise standing sets. There were a lot of fights over plot element repetition. (For instance, Robertson really put his foot down during the first season after seeing duplicate/fake characters in 3 episodes — "The Man Trap","The Enemy Within", "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", and a parallel universe Kirk was suggested in "The Alternative Factor" — and said NBC would not approve any further scripts for that season with copies of characters.
Last edited by Maurice on Sun Dec 01, 2024 1:23 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3737 Location: New York
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Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2024 6:35 pm Post subject: |
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I always thought that it'd be exciting to have seen the IMF go into a much more chaotic mission than they're used to tackling. Usually they enter into the stable world of a foe and then attempt to pull off their fantastic chicanery to pull off their capers.
What if the IMF had to enter into the middle of a war with all sorts of unpredictable events flying their way? Some they could plan for, some would be out of left field. Being in such a tumultuous environment would pose great jeopardy for our IMF, and surprises along the way.
Last edited by Pow on Wed Sep 04, 2024 6:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3737 Location: New York
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Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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Profile of Mission: Impossible in the 1966 Fall Preview Issue of the TV Guide.
Mission: Impossible is exactly what it sounds like: An elite team of undercover agents hop from one hot spot to another, performing incredible feats. One week they're south of the border swiping two nuclear warheads from an impenetrable vault. Another week they're behind the Iron Curtain breaking into and out of a maximum-security prison.
The brains of the outfit is Dan Briggs (Steven Hill), who calls on specialists to help pull off the stunts. His accomplices include an electronics expert (Greg Morris), a strongman (Peter Lupus) and, when he's needed, an actor with a genius for makeup and impersonations (Martin Landau). Rounding out the squad is a tasty dish named Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), who comes in handy whenever its necessary to distract enemy operatives from the swift completion of their appointed rounds----or skeptical viewers from way out scripts.
Debut: CBS, Saturday, September 17.
Last edited by Pow on Wed Sep 04, 2024 7:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)

Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17637 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 2:02 pm Post subject: |
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______________________________________________
Through the magic of YouTube, here's the original promo for M:I. from 1966.
_____ Mission: Impossible (1966) - "Series Promos"
___________ _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun May 26, 2024 12:00 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3737 Location: New York
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Posted: Sat May 25, 2024 8:07 pm Post subject: |
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In a recent interview with Barbara Bain, she echoed what many M:I fans feel regarding the feature films. She did not care for them and felt they did not properly carry on the legacy of the television series. The series was about intellectual capers about how to outwit the enemy by staging elaborate operations. Not about intense action and deaths. The IMF was a team, in the movies, they focus primarily on one character, Ethan Hunt, and everyone else is in the background.
Bain's points are all valid. I've thought them myself. Still, I do get a kick out of the films even if they strayed from the TV show's concept. The movies are wildly action packed with complex plotting and fantastical espionage gear.
Bain also disliked the 1988~1990 M: I series that was entirely filmed in Australia due to the scripts.
I enjoyed the reboot series very much. Peter Graves was back as IMF team leader Jim Phelps and that gave it a nice anchor to the 1966 show. The new cast members did a fine job, and the location shooting provided marvelous
fresh vistas for the production. Gone were the all too familiar studio backlot scenes that were stale. The show had an array of dazzling looking gadgets, gizmos, and contrivances. I was quite letdown when this excellent reboot was not renewed for many more season.
Last edited by Pow on Wed Sep 04, 2024 6:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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scotpens Space Sector Commander

Joined: 19 Sep 2014 Posts: 919 Location: The Left Coast
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Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2024 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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Profh0011 wrote: | . . . I also remember reading about how Bruce Geller created the show, and the problems he had after Paramount bought Desilu from Lucille Ball. HOO boy. |
Strictly speaking, Paramount didn't buy Desilu; Gulf+Western did. The conglomerate acquired Paramount in late 1966 and purchased Desilu in 1967, renaming the studio as Paramount Television. |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3737 Location: New York
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Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2024 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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Pilot episode taped briefing scene.
Good morning, Mr. Briggs. General Rio Dominguez, the dictator of Santa Costa, makes his headquarters in the Hotel Nacionale. We've learned that two nuclear warheads furnished to Santa Costa by an enemy power are contained in the hotel vault. Their use is imminent. Mr. Briggs, your mission, should you decide to accept it, would be to remove both nuclear devices from Santa Costa. As always, you have carte blanche as to method and personnel, but of course should you or any member of your IMF Force be caught or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. As usual, this recording will decompose one minute after the breaking of the seal. I hope it's welcome back, Dan. It's been a while. |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3737 Location: New York
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Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2024 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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'Mission' Returns Home by Lawrence Laurent, The Washington Star, 1972.
"Mission: Impossible" is one of those evolving television series. The players keep changing and this season the Impossible Missions Force has stopped fighting terrorists overseas and turned to domestic corruption.
No matter how the series changes, however, it has been able for the past six seasons to draw enough viewers to justify the $220,000 per-episode cost.
It was considered a fresh, new kind of series when it first arrived. Stoney-faced Stephen Hill headed the team and passed on assignments to a fine group of performers that included Martin Landau and his wife, Barbara Bain, Greg Morris and Peter Lupus.
Each week an impossible task was assigned. A detailed plan was put into effect, followed by a series of imperiling events (each designed to hold a viewer through a set of commercials) and, finally, the trap door of the deceit was sprung.
Through the first two seasons creator-executive producer Bruce Geller boasted that the show ran far above its budget. Some episodes cost as much as $500,000 and the expense showed in lustrous production and costly crowd scenes. The Paramount Studios executives grew leary of the cost overruns and brought over Douglas Cramer for the specific job of holding the show to its budget. Cramer succeeded and the economy — like the splurging — showed in the repeated use of backlot scenery and in the shabbiness of the setting.
Actor Stephen Hill was the first to leave "Mission: Impossible." He is a devout orthodox Jew and he refused — adamantly — to work after sundown, Fridays. This is usually the day when an episode is completed, frequently when mistakes are corrected and needed "recoverage" footage is shot.
(Hill, a most disciplined and thoroughly professional actor, moved on to make motion pictures and is seen these days on TV doing commercials for headache remedy.)
Hill left quietly. Miss Bain left noisily and in the midst of law suits. She picked up a second "Emmy" award for her work in the show and publicly denounced "certain executives" in her acceptance speech.
Landau quit when he didn't get a raise he expected. Lesley Warren was hired to replace Miss Bain, but never did supply the kind of glamor that the series requires. This season, Lynda Day George became the third woman to star on the series.
Leonard Nimoy, famous as the pointed-ear Mr. Spock in "Star Trek," took off the ears and joined "Mission: Impossible." Now, he's gone.
Still, the show continued in middle range popularity with Peter Graves as James Phelps, commander of the group. Continuing also has been Greg Morris as electronics-explosives expert Barney Collier and Peter Lupus as strong man Willie Armitage.
For the first five years, the program was nearly always set in foreign locales, most often in Latin American and in Eastern Europe. The network ordered this to be changed in 1971, personally by Robert D. Wood, president of CBS. Wood told Geller: "I don't want anymore shows set in small Latin American countries. We have plenty of problems in the U.S. Solve some of those."
This season, something vaguely known as "organized crime" has been the target of the I.M.F. Care is taken to explain the problems are the sort that cannot be handled by national, state, or municipal police forces.
Producer Geller, who also heads the "Mission" series, has a special fondness for "Mission: Impossible," and, while he's not an actor, Geller has found a role that he can play in every single episode of the series.
Every program opens with a pair of hands striking a match and lighting a long fuse. The hands belong to Bruce Geller. |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)

Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17637 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2024 4:26 pm Post subject: |
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_____________________________________________
Pow, your great posts in All Sci-Fi over the years have raised my awareness and fanned my enthusiasm for several vintage TV series.
For that, you have my endless gratitude!
For example, I have my DVR set to record episodes of Adam-12, and I've been enjoying it for months! In fact, I suspect I've been through the whole series twice — but I'm still enjoying them.
That said, if I discover that one of the channels I get which offer classic TV series — like MeTV, FETV, Comet, GRIT, TVLand, Comet, IFC, and Lifetime — offer episodes of Mission Impossible, I will definitely set my DVR to record this great series! _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3737 Location: New York
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Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2024 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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You are more than welcome amigo.
There have been various reasons given as to why the president of CBS ordered the plots of Mission must now focus on organized crime in the US, instead of following their usual formula of tackling autocrats in foreign nations.
It could have been that after so many seasons that the foreign espionage storylines were becoming old hat.
It was a cost saving measure to the budget by setting the stories in America. No need for an episode to require unique looking uniforms, buildings, and so forth that represent another country.
Also, the unrest and demonstrations at home over America's unpopular involvement in Vietnam caused viewers to question why the IMF was always becoming involved in other nations affairs.
Perhaps all of these explanations contributed to the IMF now battling against the forces of evil within our own nation. |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)

Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17637 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2024 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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_____________________________________________
I wonder if perhaps the switch from European-based stories to domestic stories might have something to do with the public's waning interesting in globe-hoping James Bond movies.
By 1971, Diamonds Are Forever was set mostly in Los Vegas — a Bond film which was very different from the all the earlier ones set in foreign lands.
So, I suspect that the MI episodes set in America were done, in part, because the public was ready for home-grown dramas instead of foreign intrigue. _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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