Mission: Impossible
Adding the complete series to my collection, some 1960's vintage edgy television that while it is campy by today's standards, is really comfort food for this Gen X consumer
On September 17, 1966 a momentous event happened, the pilot for Mission: Impossible was broadcast. And while I was a mere 1.5 years old at that time, one of the first TV shows I remember watching was Mission: Impossible on our old black & white TV set. At the time I recall being entertained, but the hook was set, and at various times throughout the next few decades I would stumble on re-broadcasts and just tune in.
Fun.
In the early 2010’s when Netflix was pretty much the only game in streaming, and they had pretty much everything in their catalog, I watched a few of the seasons of MI, and enjoyed them. I never did finish the series, 7 seasons with 23+ episodes per season is a big commitment.
And to be frank, in the 2010’s it was a bit campy where in the 1960’s it was more in line with the times.
The Times
Many of the people who read this probably weren’t alive in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the rough time frame of the stories, so much of the scenarios that are portrayed may seem trite. But, at the time of its inception, one must remember that we were in a full on cold war with the USSR, that we were actively involved in the Vietnam war, the draft was on, tens of thousands of conscripted soldiers went to south-east Asia to battle communism there rather than in the US.
Heady times indeed, so a TV show about a team of elite operatives going behind the Iron Curtain to achieve a goal was both believable and entertaining.
The Show
The formula is pretty simple. There is a mission that the team leader (first it was Steven Hill, who much later played the DA on early Law and Order episodes, followed by Peter Graves) is informed of by some clever subterfuge and a disintegrating message. He chooses his team from a portfolio (mostly the same characters, but with guest appearances) to execute the mission, they plan the mission, and then of course, during the mission, as in life, there needs to be some adjustments, and finally, they complete their mission, escape by the seat of their pants, and all is well.
Compact, fun, and 50 minutes of entertainment.
Of course, they weren’t filming in situ behind the iron curtain, instead using various sets constructed in Southern California. And it was mighty convenient that many of the “props” had markings that weren’t the language (Cyrillic for Russia and the eastern bloc sites) but instead could be interpreted by English speakers. So somewhat corny.
Also, the scenarios 40 or 50 years on are ridiculous, but that doesn’t hamper the enjoyment.
Nope, 7 seasons, 161 episodes, and good on camera chemistry combine to make good comfort TV.
Why am I writing this?
Good question. As I began with, in the early 2010’s Netflix had shows like this in their catalog, and it was easy to dive in and binge as much as desired. But since then, the balkanization of streaming services has made it difficult to find what is tickling your fancy, and frankly, when you have 7 subscriptions and still can’t find what you want to watch, then you go back to buying the media.
So, Amazon had the complete set of episodes on DVD for $57, I mashed that Buy Now button, and three days later, a box set with 46 DVD’s arrived.
About 3 days later, the DVD’s are all ripped, and set up on my Plex server, and I can watch it whenever and wherever I want.
I will say that the transfers are quite good, about as good as late 60’s and early 70’s video tape (I presume 1.5 or 2” masters from some archive) can get. Crisp, clean, and no frills. Each disk had 3 or 4 episodes, each season had between 22 and 28 episodes (this was from an era where TV shows typically had more than 20 episodes per season, what a grueling schedule that was!)
Pardon me, I am headed back to my living room to watch the rest of season one. I need my fix of Rollin Hand, and Cinnamon Carter on this weekend day!