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CBS Press Release: Mission Impossible: The Original TV Series (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein

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Mission Impossible: 
The Original TV Series
Arriving on DVD 
Release Date: October 6, 2015

SYNOPSIS
The original TV action drama centering on the activities of The I.M.F. (Impossible Missions Force) was a sensation from the beginning.  The inspired cast, fast-moving plots, neat gadgets, pre-recorded tapes that self-destruct – all these elements made this brilliant show one of television’s crowning achievements.
 
The link below will take you directly to the product on Amazon.  If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.
 

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Walter Kittel

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Looks like whoever designed the package is a fan of Archer. :)


Based on amazon descriptions this is a 46 disc package that contains the original series.

The 'dynamite' package contains that content plus the revival series that ran for two seasons.


- Walter.
 

brynmill

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The original box set was great, with terrific picture quality, though the bonus disc was not playable as to them having glue on the disc. A blu ray release would have been better (and would have been nice to have seen something of the movie MISSION IMPOSSIBLE VS THE MOB (trailer or credits)
 

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The original Mission: Impossible TV series (1966-1973) was before my time, though I had some older relatives who raved about the show's excellence & quality. In the latter '80's, I did catch several episodes of this show on late-night network TV (with a sub-par picture), and liked what I saw. I was disappointed that these re-reruns weren't on more often, and hoped that at some point I could watch the whole series.

Circa 2011, I got re-interested in the show and discovered that all 7 seasons of the original series had been released on DVD in the previous decade. So, I watched all 7 seasons - back to back. This is an amazing show - excellent acting, writing, & production quality. The show is proof that you don't need flashy special effects & high-speed car chases to be entertaining. Also, it's worth noting that on these DVD sets, the picture quality is superb, and is certainly better than it was during it's original broadcast(s).

Some specific thoughts/comments:

- Prior to seeing these DVD sets, I was completely unaware that the late Steven Hill (who was later on the iconic crime series Law & Order in the '90's) was the leader in the first season. In any case, I thought Hill (as Dan Briggs) did a great job, and this season's episodes were just as good as the later ones. In fact, I don't remember the Briggs episodes ever being re-run.

Stand out episodes from S01 included:

-The one where Briggs' friend was being black-mailed by a local mobster, and the IM Force had to intervene.

-The episode where a villain had some valuable information he was unwilling to give up, so the IM force kidnapped him and he woke up in a "remote" castle/fortress where they could interrogate him/trick him into giving up what he knew.
 
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The Drifter

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Part 2 of my MI TV series review:

Peter Graves as Jim Phelps is the MI I remember, and it was great to see the opening sequence in each episode (from S2-on). "Your Mission Jim, should you decide to accept it..."

-Barbara Bain (Cinnamon) & Martin Landau (Rollin Hand) were excellent in the first three seasons. It was nice to see how the writers/producers of the show used Rollin's disguises to great effect; though the make-up they actually used was minimal, through trick photography, etc. the "disguises" were convincing. For what it's worth, Landau & Bain were married during this time.

- I was disappointed that Rollin & Cinnamon were absent after the third season (contractual issues?!), but Paris (Leonard Nimoy) was a good replacement for Rollin.

-Years ago, I remember talking to someone who felt that the later seasons (approximately 4-7) weren't as good as the earlier ones because they focused more on domestic missions against organized crime (i.e.,"The Syndicate") instead of on overseas missions. However, these domestic based episodes were excellent as well, and I enjoyed watching these just as much as the earlier episodes. There are too many great episodes to list here, but several stand-outs included:

- The episode where they convinced that old gangster (played by a young Bill Shatner) that he had traveled back in time by knocking him out and putting make-up on him so he looked younger; the IM force also had to recreate a neighborhood from the '40's to convince the gangster that he was in the past. Brilliant!

- The episode where they convinced the bad guy that he was in the future, after a devastating war had occurred - this was all so they could get valuable information from him.

- The episode where they convinced that gangster that he was in "Shangri-la" where no-one got sick, hurt, or aged because they all drank a "special" water.

I also enjoyed the episodes that were "off-the-cuff", and not official "Missions", i.e. the episode where Jim Phelps was on vacation in his old home town, and got unexpectedly pulled in to solve a crime.

Another good episode like this was the one when Jim & Barney were on vacation in an foreign country; Barney got involved with a local artist, and ended up being framed for the death of her jealous boyfriend -
Jim then called in the IM force to clear Barney's name & free him - Excellent!
 
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David Weicker

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So I’m watching some Mission Impossible - original TV series. The show always had some outrageous aspects - peel-off masks, tapes that self destructed. But the episode I watched tonight (S2 “The Seal”) had the most far fetched thing in the entire run of the series (or the films).

They trained a cat

to fetch

on command
 

Gary Seven

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I guess there is little chance of this coming out on Blu-Ray. First, the series was on Netflix, then it moved to Amazon, now it's on CBS Access. If this came out on Blu, I would not have to put up with this nonsense.
 

BobO'Link

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So I’m watching some Mission Impossible - original TV series. The show always had some outrageous aspects - peel-off masks, tapes that self destructed. But the episode I watched tonight (S2 “The Seal”) had the most far fetched thing in the entire run of the series (or the films).

They trained a cat

to fetch

on command
Well... It *is* called Mission *Impossible*...
 

The Drifter

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Despite any kind of "stretching of credulity" and/or "suspension of disbelief" that occurred in the original M:I TV show, I still find it excellent, and definitely one of my top 10 favorite TV series of all time.

To add to my previous post(s) about this, I also found it innovative that in the opening theme song/credits of the show, they would almost always show scenes of the forthcoming episode - without any real "spoilers". It was almost like watching a mini-trailer for the episode, all contained within the opening credits - very clever.
 

rjd0309

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So I’m watching some Mission Impossible - original TV series. The show always had some outrageous aspects - peel-off masks, tapes that self destructed. But the episode I watched tonight (S2 “The Seal”) had the most far fetched thing in the entire run of the series (or the films).

They trained a cat

to fetch

on command

A favorite guilty-pleasure episode of mine. I agree that it stretches credulity to think that a cat could be trained to do anything, much less fetch a valuable piece of jade.

Always wondered why Barney didn't just invent some sort of remote-controlled gadget to do the fetching.

Rusty the cat, AKA Rhubarb AKA Orangey, had a long career in films and television. This was one of his last performances, as he was something like 14 years old at the time.
 

bmasters9

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To add to my previous post(s) about this, I also found it innovative that in the opening theme song/credits of the show, they would almost always show scenes of the forthcoming episode - without any real "spoilers". It was almost like watching a mini-trailer for the episode, all contained within the opening credits - very clever.

It is, and I wonder how many others have employed that technique.
 

Lord Dalek

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I guess there is little chance of this coming out on Blu-Ray. First, the series was on Netflix, then it moved to Amazon, now it's on CBS Access. If this came out on Blu, I would not have to put up with this nonsense.
They had plenty of opportunities to. Show has a full set of 1080p masters just sitting on shelves.
 

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