page_title: Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)
section_title: IMF agents
hierarchical_section_title: Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series) / Overview / IMF agents
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Barbara Bain and Alf Kjellin from the television program Mission: Impossible.
context_page_description: Mission: Impossible is an American television series created and initially produced by Bruce Geller, chronicling the exploits of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill; Jim Phelps takes charge for the remaining seasons, played by Peter Graves. Each episode opens with a fast-paced montage of shots from that episode, which unfolds as the series' theme music plays, composed by Lalo Schifrin, after which Briggs or Phelps receives his instructions from a voice delivered on a recording, which then destroys itself.
  The series was financed and filmed by Desilu Productions and aired on CBS from September 1966 to March 1973. It was revived in 1988 for two seasons on ABC, retaining only Graves in the cast. It also inspired a series of theatrical motion pictures starring Tom Cruise beginning in 1996.
context_section_description: The leader of the IMF is initially Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill. As an Orthodox Jew, Hill had to leave on Fridays at 4 pm to be home before sundown and was not available until after dark the next day. Although his contract allowed for filming interruptions due to religious observances, the clause proved difficult to work around due to the production schedule, and as the season progressed, an increasing number of episodes featured little of Briggs. Hill had other problems, as well. After cooperatively crawling through dirt tunnels and repeatedly climbing a rope ladder in the episode "Snowball in Hell", in the following episode ("Action!") he balked at climbing to the rafters via a 20-foot soundstage staircase and locked himself in his dressing room. Unable to come to terms with Hill, the producers reshot the episode without him (another character, Cinnamon Carter, listened to the taped message, the selected operatives' photos were displayed in "limbo", and the team meeting was held in another apartment), and reduced Briggs' presence in the five episodes left to be filmed to a minimum. As far as Hill's religious requirements were concerned, line producer Joseph Gantman simply had not understood what had been agreed to. He told author Patrick J. White, "'If someone understands your problems and says he understands them, you feel better about it. But if he doesn't care about your problems, then you begin to really resent him. Steven Hill may have felt exactly the same way."
  Hill was replaced without explanation to the audience after the first season by Peter Graves, playing the role of Jim Phelps, who remained the leader for the remainder of the original series and in the 1988–1990 revival.
  In theory, Briggs and Phelps are the only full-time members of the IMF. As the series was originally conceived, they would form teams made up of part-time agents who came from a variety of professions, choosing their operatives based on the particular skills necessary for the mission. In practice, however (especially after the first season), Briggs and especially Phelps would choose the same core group of three or four agents for every mission.  Still, many episodes also feature guest stars playing one-time additional agents who have special skills.
  The regular agent line-up during the first season consisted of:
  Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), a top fashion model and actress
  Barnard "Barney" Collier (Greg Morris), a mechanical and electronics genius and owner of Collier Electronics
  William "Willy" Armitage (Peter Lupus), a world record-holding weight lifter
  Rollin Hand (Martin Landau), a noted actor, makeup artist, escape artist, magician, and "man of a million faces"
  Landau was billed as a "special guest star" during the first season; he had been cast as a guest star for the pilot with the understanding that he would be one of four or five rotating guest-star agents. His contract gave producers an option to have him "render services for (three or four) additional episodes". To fill the void left by Hill's Sabbath absences, producers wound up using Landau for more episodes, always as a "guest star". He eventually struck a deal to appear in all the first season's remaining episodes, but always billed as a "guest star" so  he could have the option to give notice to work on a feature film. Landau contractually became a series regular in season two.
  As actors left the series over time, others became regulars. Replacements often possessed the same skills as their predecessors. For example, "The Great Paris" (Nimoy), Hand's replacement in the fourth and fifth seasons, is also an actor, makeup artist, magician, and "master of disguise", Also seen in seasons five and six is Dr. Doug Robert, played by Sam Elliott (according to White, the character was introduced as a replacement for Willy, but the idea was dropped once the producers realized how popular Willy was with viewers).
  Cinnamon's "replacement" in season four was a series of guest stars, only one making more than one appearance: Lee Meriwether as Tracey. Season five had the addition o
caption: Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter, 1969
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