1000+ images about MISSION IMPOSSIBLE on Pinterest | Seasons, Leonard nimoy and TVs Actress Barbara Bain turns 83 today - she was born 9-13 in 1931. Many a boomer watched her every week on the 60s TV show Mission Impossible in her character of Cinnamon Carter. She is still working today. See More 1000+ images about Mission: Impossible (1966 - 1973 & 1988) on Pinterest | Mission impossible, Peter graves and Tv series Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Mission: Impossible (1966 - 1973 & 1988) Mission: Impossible is an American television series created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicles the missions of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill; Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, takes charge for the remaining seasons. The series was filmed at Desilu Studios and aired on the CBS network from September 1966 to March 1973.

The series was reprised in 1988. 92 Pins346 Followers Dan Briggs | Mission Impossible | Fandom powered by Wikia Share Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected. Dan Briggs, as portrayed by the late Steven Hill . (Wikipedia) Dr. Daniel David Briggs, Ph.D., was a veteran of the United States Army's G-2 (Intelligence) section who had been honorably discharged with the grade of lieutenant colonel, and, during his Army service, the former Commanding Officer of a wartime unit, unofficiallly known as "Briggs's Squad," that performed complex missions for the United States armed forces. The team's other personnel were Barnard "Barney" Collier , William "Willy" Armitage , Rollin Hand , and several others who failed to make it into the TV series afterward.

After the war, Briggs rounded up members of his former team (some of whose personnel were believed to have turned to crime) and pulled them together to perform missions for the US Government. This new team became an independent covert-operations agency and was renamed the Impossible Mission Force , "IMF" for short, and Briggs was named as both its founding Director and the team captain of the mission team called "The Director's Own," for at least one year. (The pilot of Mission: Impossible had the voice giving him his mission stating, "I hope it's 'welcome back,' Dan. It's been a while." Plus, other characters in the first season referred to past exploits in which Briggs had involved them that predated the TV series, indicting that the IMF had been active for sometime before the "Pilot" both with, and without, Briggs in the leadership role.) Briggs, as stated above, had been a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, presumably at the time of the Korean War, and he had earned a Ph.D. in analytical psychology; indeed, he was a well-paid behavioral analyst outside his government service.

(This made him an expert in human beings and hence a top-notch "guesser.") It is commonly believed that he and James Phelps were two of the founders of the IMF. While Briggs had his choice of many different agents for his missions, he usually picked a specific group consisting of actor and theater-arts teacher Rollin Hand , fashion model and actress Cinnamon Carter , electronics company president and electronic engineer Barnard "Barney" Collier , and bodybuilder, heavy laborer and mechanical engineer William "Willy" Armitage . It was this team, the IMF's all-time most successful(especially after James Phelps became IMF Director), that pioneered the employment of grand-scale confidence games as the IMF's chief method of accomplishing missions. His primary role was as the mastermind behind the operation, but when a job required it he could act as a supporting character. The exact fate of Dan Briggs is a mystery. Presumably, whatever caused him to take his original leave from the team drove him back into inactivity as well, turning the leadership of the IMF over to Jim Phelps, who was, perhaps, in charge of the IMF during Briggs's initial absence as well.

Actor Steven Hill lost his role as Briggs partially because his Orthodox Judaism conflicted with the shooting schedules. He subsequently went on to act out the role of New York County District Attorney Adam Schiff in Law & Order . Mission: Impossible - Classic TV Database Mission: Impossible Added to the database on February 18, 2013 Rate Cast & Characters | Broadcast History | Theme Song | DVDs | Watch Episodes | Photos | Trivia | Comments Mission: Impossible aired on CBS from September 1966 to March 1973 and chronicled the adventures of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), a team of government spies and specialists who were offered "impossible missions" (should they decide to accept them) by the unseen "Secretary". Although the cast varied over the years, the main characters included The Team Leader (Dan Briggs the first season, then Jim Phelps the other six), The Techno-Wizard (Barney Collier), The Strongman (Willy Armitage), The Master of Disguise (first Rollin Hand, then The Amazing Paris), and The Femme Fatale (Cinnamon Carter, Dana Lambert, Casey, Mimi Davis).

The series is best known for its standard (but not invariable) opening mission contact (conducted by a pre-recorded message), the theme composed by Lalo Schifrin, the leader's selection of mission agents from a dossier, the opening briefing, the intricate use of disguises and a typical "mask pulloff" scene near the end of most episodes, and the relative lack of characterization of the characters. The series follows the exploits of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), a small team of secret agents used for covert missions against dictators, evil organizations and (primarily in later episodes) crime lords. On occasion, the IMF also mounts unsanctioned, private missions on behalf of its members. The identities of the organization that oversees the IMF and the government it works for are never revealed. Only rare cryptic bits of information are ever provided during the life of the series, such as in the third season mission "Nicole", where the IMF leader states that his instructions come from "Division Seven". In the 1980s revival, it is suggested the IMF is an independent agency (as the FBI can only legally operate within the United States and the CIA can only operate outside the country).

In the first motion picture, unlike the TV show, the IMF is depicted as part of the CIA.

Steven Hill as Daniel Briggs Peter Graves as Jim Phelps Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter Greg Morris as Barney Collier Peter Lupus as Willy Armitage Martin Landau as Rollin Hand Leonard Nimoy as Paris First Telecast: September 18, 1964 Last Telecast: March 30, 1973 Original Network: Saturday at 9:00-10:00 PM on CBS: September 17, 1966—January 7, 1967 Saturday at 8:30-9:30 PM on CBS: January 14—April 22, 1967 Sunday at 9:00-10:00 PM on CBS: September 10, 1967—March 29, 1970 Saturday at 7:30-8:30 PM on CBS: September 19, 1970—March 17, 1971 Saturday at 10:00-11:00 PM on CBS: September 18, 1971—December 9, 1972 Friday

 at 8:00-9:00 PM on CBS: December 22, 1972—March 30, 1973 Listen to theme song: {mp3}MissionImpossible{/mp3} Purchase theme song from Amazon.com: Mission: Impossible Trivia The Mission Impossible TV show was so popular that it attracted some of the biggest guest stars of the time!

Here's a few of them: Elizabeth Ashley, Ed Asner (Lou Grant), Tom Bosley (Happy Days), Lloyd Bridges (Sea Hunt), Jack Cassidy, Joan Collins, Robert Conrad (Baa Baa Black Sheep), Tyne Daly (Judging Amy), Will Geer (The Waltons), Robert Goulet, Fernando Lamas, Larry Linville (MASH), Roddy McDowall (Planet of the Apes), Darren McGavin, Lee Meriwether (Time Tunnel), Sal Mineo, Ricardo Montalban (Fantasy Island), Vic Morrow (Combat), Pernell Roberts (Bonanza), William Shatner (Star Trek), Martin Sheen (The West Wing), Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap), Loretta Swit (MASH), and Ray Walston (My Favorite Martian). Martin Landau was not originally hired as a regular cast member. He was a guest star in Mission Impossible's pilot episode and his character was so popular that he appeared (still as a guest star) in most of the first season's episodes.

He was hired as a regular (under contract) for the 2nd and 3rd seasons, but he had a dispute with Paramount Studios over the 4th season contract and left the show. Leonard Nimoy was brought in as the new "Master of Disguise" for the TV show. This was great for him as the Star Trek series, where he played "Mr. Spock", had just ended production. Nimoy became unhappy with his parts and left at the end of the fifth season. He was not replaced. The opening segment always included the tape-recorded mission objectives and went as follows: Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it ...... (Then came the details of each mission) ..... As always, should you or any member of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self destruct in five seconds. The Mission Impossible TV show won 3 Emmys and was nominated for a fourth. It also won 2 Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for another five! In 1968, it also won a Grammy for best original score for a movie or TV show.

Peter Graves is the brother of James Arness (Marshall Matt Dillon on the series, "Gunsmoke"). Barbara Bain was married to fellow cast member Martin Landau (till 1993). She was also the first actress to win three Emmys in a row (1967, 68 and 69) for her role on Mission Impossible. Two years after this series ended, Martin and Barbara also worked together on the series, "Space 1999". CBS Studios originally rejected Mission Impossible. Fortunately, Lucille Ball decided to produce it at Desilu Studios and eventually got it on the air at CBS. Lucy was a little concerned about the complicated plot-lines. Would the viewers sit "glued to their tvs" for an entire hour to keep track of what was going on? That actually turned out to be a "plus" for Mission Impossible! Viewers wouldn't channel surf for fear of missing even a few seconds of the show. That resulted in commercials being watched and increased advertising revenues!

Tagged under: Mission: Impossible (TV Series 1966–1973) - Plot Summary - IMDb - Written by Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au> The Impossible Missions Force is an elite group of agents chosen for their various abilities to infiltrate foreign governments as well as criminal organizations that are seen as threats to the security of the nation. Originally they were lead by Dan Briggs, but he was replaced by Jim Phelps after one year. Among its members are electronics executive Barney Collier, actor and master of disguise Rollin Hand, model Cinnamon Carter and strongman Willy Armitage. In later years Rollin leaves the team and is replaced by another master of disguise simply known as Paris and Cinnamon is replaced first by young Dana Lambert and then Lisa Casey. - Written by Brian Washington <Sargebri@att.net> Mission: Impossible was an Elite Force of agents who were given orders by tape and were asked to do jobs that were Impossible by any other known means. The art of the Con was used time and time again, and the agents used technology, drugs, and plain greed to achieve their goals.

Mission: Impossible (Series) - TV Tropes Jim in "Trapped." Shannon in "Church Bells in Bogota". And the Rest : The Hartford Repertory Players, a troupe of actors Phelps recruits when he needs background people for a con. (See also: the Globe Repertory Company.) Appease the Volcano God : In "Cargo Cult", a white man is posing as the son of the volcano god in order to use a native tribe as a slave labour force to work a gold mine. After capturing several members of the IMF, he orders his followers to sacrifice Nicholas and Max to the volcano. Applied Phlebotinum : Some of the IMF plots hinged on a gadget, chemical, or gimmick that was beyond the realm of conventional science. Examples included an odorless gas that almost immediately incapacitated a man, a gas-powered machine the size of a metal pipe that could heat a room to over 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and a camera that could beam flawlessly animated holographic images into another room.

Argentina Is Naziland : In "The Legend", Briggs and Cinammon impersonate a former Nazi and his daughter who are invited to attend a reunion of aged Nazi leaders at the South American home of Nazi fugitive Martin Bormann, who is planning the creation of the Fourth Reich. Aristocrats Are Evil : In "The Devils", the IMF stop a British lord who involves foreign and domestic officials in Satanic rituals and human sacrifice for blackmail purposes. Arms Dealer : In "The Cattle King", the IMF has to shut down an arms dealer who is supplying weapons to terrorists. and M-23 Volgas (M-21 with the M-13's V8 and transmission), which were only available to Soviet and KGB officials and not the common people, and definitely not Hollywood producers. The three cars look nothing alike. Artistic License ï¿½ Geography : In "Lover's Knot," the Big Bad lives outside London . Fair enough, except that there are mountains in the background - so either he lives way outside London (like, Wales or Yorkshire outside) or... As Long as It Sounds Foreign : Or looks like it on a sign.

Since the IMF was frequently hacking into electric, gas, telephone, and other infrastructure, the Ruritania settings always featured appropriate signage. One of the few humorous Running Gags on the show involved the writers coming up with increasingly ridiculous Ruritanian gibberish to put on the signs — like "machinawerke" for machine shop or "zona restrik" for restricted area. In some European countries there really are utility covers that say "Gaz", a frequent example of "Gellerese". Barney is quiet, careful, competent, but attack his family or his friends, and you'll discover just how dangerous a Gadgeteer Genius can be. (See "Cat's Paw," in which his brother is murdered.) Grant, his son, is the same way. This also applies to Rollin, who loses it when Dan is shot in "The Legacy" and almost strangles the main villain with his bare hands. And when the Big Bad guns down Nicole (from the episode of the same name) in front of Jim, who's fallen in love with her, Rollin actually kills the villain on the spot.

While the IMF basically arranges for the demise of many, many people at the hands of their fellow baddies throughout the series, this is one of the very few times that an IMF member does the job personally. Even Jim, in "The Fortune," shows a moment of being ready to strike the Dragon Lady Big Bad of the episode when she is shown with the proof she killed Casey Randall while Grant and Max aren't that far off. Bifauxnen : One episode of the 80's revival had the protagonists attempting to hunt down a female assassin in a ballroom, using a detector that identified her by scent. Only problem was, they were identifying only the women in the crowd, and the assassin was going undercover as a man. Big Store : Used in a good number of plots. To pick but one example, "The Execution" has an unused warehouse turned into a death row prison block and gas chamber. Bloodless Carnage Though less so in the 1980s version, which became more violent and bloody in the second season.

The Boxing Episode : "The Contender" is a two-part episode where the plot revolves around eliminating a mobster who was making his money by rigging matches, and Barney imitates a former champion who's making a comeback. The episode has a Special Guest in the form of champ Sugar Ray Robinson, who plays a former boxer who became a mob enforcer. Bullet Sparks : Copious bullet sparks are kicked during the Railing Kill in "The Pawn". Bullying The Dragon : On more than one occasion, a member of the team would fall afoul of a government totally by accident, bringing the entire IMF down on their heads. Buried Alive : Done twice in "The Cardinal". Barney and Willie use an underground tunnel to enter a monastery, but a cave-in traps them in front of a vault door that must be opened from the inside. Meanwhile, Rollin has allowed himself to be captured by the Big Bad , who plans to suffocate him in a sarcophagus sealed with a 600-pound lid. Cable-Car Action Sequence : In "The Tram" the IMF must infiltrate a Syndicate financial meeting - held at a mountain resort only accessible by aerial tramway - to discover the group's Swiss bank account number.

Naturaly the eponymous tram features heavily in the action. Camera Spoofing : Used a fair number of times, such as in "The Bank." The Caper : Many episodes involved stealing a cache of treasure from a secure location as part of the mission. Examples include "Charity" (with a cache of platinum bars hidden under a pool table) and "The Mercenaries" (a vault of gold in an African jungle). Caper Crew : one in every installment. The Captain : Dan Briggs, initially, and Jim Phelps thereafter. Cassandra Gambit : Used in "The Diplomat," when enemy spies have found the locations of four key US defense stations. Jim lets himself get discovered as an undercover US agent, so they will distrust their discovery when he confirms its accuracy. Cast as a Mask : When Nicholas, Paris or Rollin needed to totally disguise themselves to impersonate someone else, that person's actor was used to play them for that sequence. "Reprisal" had Peter Graves play an impostor who was killing former IMF agents and framing Jim for the crimes. He's replaced with someone else when the "mask" the imposter was using is peeled off by Lisa.

Most notably, in "Shock" (made when Steven Hill's days on the show were numbered), Dan is disguised as guest star James Daly (already playing two roles invoked before the plan goes into action) for most of the episode. "The Contender" has Special Guest Sugar Ray Robinson play both his own character, Wesley, and Barney wearing a latex mask disguised as him. In "The Cardinal," guest star Paul Stevens played three roles — as Cardinal Souchek, an actor in the employ of the Big Bad to impersonate him, and Rollin disguised as the Cardinal. Catch Phrase : Pretty much all the "boilerplate" language in the tape scenes, though some of the iconic phrases took some time to finalize. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it" was first used in the seventeenth episode, and was never the standard phrase in the original series (It was usually "Your mission, should you decide to accept it"). Cat Fight : Cinnamon and Crystal stage a prolonged cat fight as a distraction in "Old Man Out". Shannon and a female assassin character credited only as "Big Blonde" do a catfight in a pool of water in the revival episode "The Golden Serpent".

Compilation Movie : Although the series had several two-part stories (plus one three-parter, season four's "The Falcon"), there was only one such movie - Mission Impossible Versus The Mob (from "The Council"). The Con : The heart of the series. Con Man : An entire team of them. Conspicuously Public Assassination : In "Reprisal", a rogue IMF agent is attempting to frame Jim Phelps for murder. He disguises himself as Jim and garottes a woman in a crowded hotel lobby. He slips away from the shocked crowd long enough to strip off the Latex Perfection mask and, when Jim arrives at the hotel to try to stop him, he is immediately pursued by the police. Couch Gag : Bruce Geller originally wanted each mission to be given to Briggs and Phelps in a different manner every episode (via nickelodeon, phonograph record, a card handed to him from another agent, a Drive-In Theater speaker, etc.). One of these early methods was a self-destructing reel-to-reel tape. The varying methods were continued until the third season when the tape became the standard and a Mission trademark, though the fifth season attempted to do away with the sequence until popular demand reinstated it.

In the 1988 version, the spool tape is replaced with a self-destructing mini-CD player (the CD actually works like a DVD, playing audio and video, even though DVDs hadn't been introduced in real life yet). Early seasons also featured a ritual in which Briggs or Phelps were shown selecting the personnel for the mission. With the fifth season this was declared redundant (as he invariably chose the same people, some earlier season episodes also skipped that scene when Jim/Dan didn't need to pick anyone outside of the main cast)note Although it's been suggested by fans that it is possible that Briggs/Phelps DO use other people on missions that don't require our team's skills; we just don't see those adventures.and this sequence was dropped. It made a one-time return in the first episode of the 1988 revival (as a newly-returned Phelps was choosing who his new team would be). The "couch gag" elements were averted, however, on occasion in the early seasons when an occasional mission was given without the tape scene as it involved Phelps and his team working "off-book" in order to deal with a personal issue.

Nearly averted permanently in Season 5 when the production team decided to begin joining missions in progress, eliminating both the tape scene and the apartment briefing sequences. By the middle of Season 5, however, viewer demand led to these being restored. The team-choosing ritual was never reinstated, however. The opening credits of each episode feature random snippets of that episode. Couldn't Find a Pen : In "Command Performance", a thief dying in a church writes "1769" on the floor in his own blood as a clue to the location of his stolen loot. Counterfeit Cash : "The Money Machine", "Fool's Gold." Covert Group : The Impossible Mission Force routinely takes on covert operations while shielding Washington from culpability. "Should you or any of your I.M. Force be captured or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions." Cowboy Episode : In "Gunslinger", the IMF go undercover go undercover in an old west tourist attraction run by a villain with a cowboy fixation. Includes a gunfight between Jim Phelps and both the Big Bad and The Dragon . Crash Course Landing : In "Target Earth", Shannon has to be talked through landing a space shuttle.

Crazy-Prepared : The IMF team had a plan, a backup plan, a backup plan for the backup plan, and sometimes one more backup plan for good measure. Even when a mission went wrong, it went right. Creepy Crossdresser : The assassin is "The Princess" is a woman, thanks to Shannon recognizing "Camion" which is a French perfume said assassin wore. However, in the climactic sequence, she poses as a man with short slicked-back hair and a tux. Crossdresser : As part of the plan to rescue young King Victor in "Gitano," the boy has to dress up as a girl. A Day in the Limelight : Occasionally an episode will focus on one particular team member, such as Paris in "My Friend, My Enemy" and (most notably, given how little screen time he usually got) Willy in "Double Dead." Dead Drop : Jim Phelps received the information about his missions via this method. Dead Person Impersonation : Leona in the episode of the same name. In "The Heir Apparent," Cinnamon impersonates a long-lost princess to prevent a regent from taking over a small Baltic monarchy.

One episode featured a man who pretended to be the Mouth of Sauron for Nazi leader Martin Bormann through use of a dummy he took care to not allow anyone else to get too close to and pre-recorded speeches. The team took him down by having Rollin impersonate a Bormann who had recovered enough from his injuries to leave his quarters and mingle with his officers for the evening and started undermining his lieutenant's authority, who couldn't prove that Rollin wasn't the real Bormann without admitting that he knew this because there was no real Bormann. Dirty Business : The team explicitly has permission to do absolutely anything they see necessary to complete their mission, so long as they don't get caught. Though they do try to ensure that if the plan involves doing bad things to good people, they will help said people get back out of trouble before they leave. Do Not Adjust Your Set : In "Target Earth", the terrorists who have stolen the space shuttle hijack a communications satellite to broadcast their demands to earth. Drive-In Theater : Where Briggs receives his assignment at the beginning of "The Psychic".

Early Installment Weirdness : The first season contains several oddities that did not appear in later seasons, including missions that focused on a single agent, and one episode ("Zubrovnik's Ghost") that featured genuine supernatural activity . Empathy Doll Shot : In "The Wall", a family attempting to escape East Berlin in caught in no mans land. The little girl drops her rag doll. The East German officer casually steps on it and grinds it into the mud. Empty Quiver : In "Countdown", the IMF has to locate a nuclear warhead stolen from a French test site and smuggled into the centre of a major city by religious fanatics. Endangered Soufflï¿½ : In one episode, Barney (in his cover as the villain's cook) used this as an excuse to explain why the guards could not search the kitchen at this time (thus granting him, Willy and Cinnamon time to hide their equipment before the search). Engineered Public Confession : If the IMF isn't getting the villain killing themselves one way or another, it's getting the villain to confess their crimes to a higher power. Enhance Button : Done without a computer, amazingly enough.

In "The Bank", Barney is playing back a video recording of a bank vault on a black-and-white cathode ray screen. With the tape paused at a critical juncture, Jim Phelps uses a pocket telescope to zoom in on the CRT(!) and read the number of a safe-deposit box. The 1988 update introduced an IMF device that could recover erased images from a VCR tape, which is a bit more realistic. Even Evil Has Standards : Usually averted to underscore how nasty the IMF's opponents are, but "The Train" has Pavel, the deputy who'll take over command of his country when the leader succumbs to heart disease, regret the necessity to execute jailed enemies and wish there was some other way. Significantly, Pavel is one of the few villains who doesn't set out to kill anyone to get his way. Everybody Laughs Ending : "The Princess" has the men of the IMF team in Shannon's hospital room, and she's surrounded by "get well flowers." Shannon: Did you guys buy me all these? (The guys go "um" "er" and "well" as she shakes her head in a bemused way) Jim: Well, now, just how many boyfriends do you need?

Shannon: (humming as she thinks) Well, I suppose four are enough. (She smiles as the others laugh. This was one time they don't all leave the scene.) Everybody Lives : Happens surprisingly often, such as the (comparatively) Lighter and Softer episode "Charity." Evil Cripple : Jake Morgan in "Bayou". He is a Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit who runs a white slavery ring and has a wooden leg because a gator bit his leg off. Exactly What It Says on the Tin : With only a very few exceptions the episode titles are only one (ex. "Execution", "Kidnap", "Break!") or two words long (ex. "The Code", "The Legacy", "Time Bomb") describing the plan of attack or object of interest. Arguably What It Doesn't Say On The Tin, since episode titles weren't shown on screen. While not unheard of for a 1960s-70s-era series, it was somewhat unusual for a program of this nature not to display episode titles on screen. Failsafe Failure : The season two finale involved the retrieval of a defective failsafe device that didn't self-destruct when it was supposed to.

They needed to secure it intact so that the builders could take it apart to figure out why it didn't work and ensure that the rest of their production run didn't suffer a similar defect. Fake Charity : In "Charity", the IMF have to shut down a pair of charity scammers and recover the millions they have ripped off from donors. Fake Defector Fake Guest Star : It wasn't until the second season to that Martin Landau name appeared in the show's titles. This was Landau's choice. He was impressed with Geller's pilot script, but wanted to make sure the series would be of the same high quality before committing himself to a multi-year contract. Even at that he insisted on only one-year contracts instead of the customary five-year ones. Faked Rip Van Winkle : Frequently used in later seasons, sometimes combined with Fauxtastic Voyage as one of the excuses given to a mark was that the mark was involved in an accident and was unconscious for a long time. An example of an Faked Rip Van Winkle - Fauxtastic Voyage combination is the episode "The Train" in which the mark was told that he had been unconscious for several weeks after a train crash during a simulated train journey.

In "The Execution," a hitman is tricked into believing that he's forgotten the last two years of his life, with him awakening on Death Row awaiting execution later that evening for the murder of two people. Fakeout Escape : "The Crane" Fanservice : Usually averted, but in "Illusion" such a thing is part of Cinnamon's act as a nightclub singer. Dana also supplies several examples in season five (sometimes as an unintentional side effect of Lesley (Ann) Warren not wanting to wear a bra, much to the disgust of the producers - they compromised that she could go braless when it suited the mission). A Father to His Team: Jim to the 80's IMF team (though more "uncle" to Grant as Barney Collier was still alive). When Casey died, he said right out, "She was like a daughter to me." Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit : Jake Morgan, the villain in "Bayou", is a fat, sweaty southern in a white suit who runs a white slavery ring. Fauxtastic Voyage : "The Train", "Submarine"... practically an M.I. staple.

A frequent variation was to fake a disaster of some sort. "The Photographer" features a staged nuclear war, and "The Survivors" has a faux earthquake. Five-Man Band Frame-Up : Many episodes had the team frame the villain of the week of some misdeed, causing him or her to be dealt with by his 'betrayed' colleagues. On one episode, Briggs framed himself, while Rollin framed the villain for framing him. Framing the Guilty Party : There are also cases where they forge evidence of a villain's guilt, and then arrange for the police to find it in such a way that the villain can't dispute its provenance. Freeze-Frame Bonus : If you freeze the "Pilot" at the point when guest star Wally Cox yells in pain as the door slams on his hands (in universe, breaking them), you can see the actor is holding a fake pair of hands. Fright Deathtrap : In "The Killer" - the first episode of the 80s revival - Drake does this to Tom Copperfield; shooting him with a hallucinogenic drug that causes him to think that he is on fire. In panic, he throws himself off the balcony of the penthouse.

Gadgeteer Genius : Barney is building weapons and technology sometimes vastly ahead of the time. The 80's revival would have Grant do the same and twice both Collier men would work together for a mission. Gaslighting : A frequent tactic of the IMF is to convince the mark that he is going insane. Often involving visions of someone the mark knows to be dead. The Generalissimo : The IMF would occasionally be tasked with dealing with these (or just to undertake a mission in a country ruled by one). In the pilot episode, the team has to retrieve nuclear warheads being held in the hotel the Generalissimo uses as his party headquarters. Genius Ditz : King Nicolae in "The Falcon". He was an expert on clocks — history, building and repairing them — and focused on this work to the extent that he could be manipulated to pay attention to matters of state (i.e. sign things without reading them) by withholding vital tools and parts. Gentleman Thief : In "For Art's Sake", the IMF have to shut down a murderous gentleman thief and recover his store of stolen art. Hard Work Montage : Complete with a signature tune called " The Plot ". Heroic B.S.O.D.

: Occurs in the 1988 revival episode "The Fortune" to several IMF members when they learn of the death of their colleague, Casey Randall, with one agent, Max, even questioning his ability to continue with the mission. Also happens to Grant Collier in the 1988 two-parter "The Golden Serpent" when he thinks his father has been killed. Hollywood Encryption : "The Photographer" featured an encryption technique that would actually work, which involved a fixed substitution, the date of transmission, and a phone book. The team was only able to crack the code by tricking the titular photographer into decrypting a message sent by this cipher while Rollin was in a position to watch him do it. The season four premiere involved a real (If executed in an improbably short period of time) cryptanalysis method. Tasked with intercepting and decrypting a coded transmission containing the battle plans for a major offensive, the team first tricked the people who were expecting that transmission to send a message of their own devising using the same encryption method, giving the team a clue on how the encryption worked. This is referred to as a 'known cleartext' attack.

Hollywood Satanism : In "The Devils", the team investigates a member of the English gentry who involves foreign and domestic officials in Satanic rituals and human sacrifice for blackmail purposes. Hollywood Voodoo : The IMF indulge in some Hollywood Voodoo as part of their plan to cause a falling out among the bad guys in "Bayou". Their voodoo is meant to be fake, of course, but their ritual does convince someone who is supposed to be a genuine believer. Hologram : The IMF has had hologram projectors since the 60s ("Phantoms", "A Ghost Story"). The 80s revival even had a episode named after the trope ("Holograms") and improved the tech to the point where it works underwater ("The Golden Serpent, Part 2", which also featured a Holographic Terminal ). Honey Trap : Cinnamon is one in a first season episode which pits her against a male one. He's trying to manipulate her into revealing the location of a man he's trying to kill, while she's trying to manipulate him into a trap in which he will be caught trying to kill his target red-handed so that the IMF can utterly discredit him and his faction of the intelligence service that he works for.

The IMF succeeds in their mission, but Cinnamon's last lines leave it ambiguous as to who had seduced who. Max is a male one in "The Fortune." Though with Casey's death, he doesn't know if he can go through with it, knowing she died at the hands of Amelia, the woman he's to seduce. Until Grant points out Max is the best one they have to get the taped proof that Casey died at Amelia's hand (as he'll be the only one free enough to move around the place to where it would most likely be). Hot Gypsy Woman : The IMF employed hot gypsy acrobat Crystal Walker in the two-parter "Old Man Out". How Unscientific! : In an instance of Early Installment Weirdness , "Zubrovnik's Ghost" featured genuine supernatural activity and a woman with real Psychic Powers . Human Sacrifice : In "The Devils", the IMF stop a British lord who involves foreign and domestic officials in Satanic rituals and human sacrifice for blackmail purposes. Hypno Fool : A number of plots involved hypnotizing the mark into behaving in certain manners in addition to the usual Batman Gambit .

These episodes tended to weaker than average, due to the team being able to reprogram people's minds at will coming out of nowhere. I Am Not Left-Handed : In one episode Willy plays a Judo expert, but since he hadn't actually studied Judo before the start of the mission, it's all he can do to keep from losing against his host's champion until the rest of the team finishes what they needed to do while the household was watching the match. Later on he gets into another fight with his opponent, and since it's not a formal match, Willy sees no reason to restrict himself to unfamiliar Judo techniques. He quickly defeats the man using Jujitsu. I Have Your Wife : A recurring aspect of many episodes, where the villain uses a loved one to coerce a victim into doing his bidding. In "The Wall", the villain kidnaps the daughter of a key negotiator in order to sabotage a set of diplomatic talks. In "The Bunker," a missile scientist works for an enemy state because they have captured his wife. I Know You Know I Know : Often occurs when the IMF goes up against an enemy intelligence agency.

It usually goes something like this: Enemy Spymaster: I know that <Person portrayed by Phelps> is really an American agent, so I will disregard the data he gave me and any duplicate versions provided by my own agents as fakes that the Americans want me to believe is true. Phelps: I know that they know that I'm really an American agent, so I gave them the real data. Now they'll never believe it. Impersonating an Officer : IMF members frequently impersonate police officers, as well as soldiers, security personnel and other officials. I Never Said It Was Poison : "Elena". It's Personal : A handful of episodes have Briggs or Phelps plotting a plan to right a wrong affecting someone close to them instead of a mission given to them by the Secretary. In one episode Phelps is kidnapped and the team members are blackmailed into helping his kidnapper commit a crime. Arguably the most "personal" of these comes in the '80s version, when Casey, the new version's initial Femme Fatale , becomes the only regular in either version to be killed off. Note: not to be confused with Lynda Day George's Casey character from the original series.

The "it's personal" aspect of the storylines is usually emphasized by there being no tape scene shown. The '80s revival series notably opened with a personal mission - Jim is forced out of retirement when his protegé is murdered, but getting to the killer, his boss and his boss's employee is still an official IMF mission... at least as official as those missions got. The disc's voice in a variant of it's usual opening, said sympathetically, "Welcome Back Jim, though I wish it weren't under these circumstances." "The Condemned" is also personal in this run as Barney's falsely imprisoned in Istanbul and the team must not only free Barney, but find out why he was set up. "The Fortune" is also very personal for the team. Casey Randall gets murdered by the Big Bad , Amelia, and the team, now with Shannon Reed taking Casey's spot, is intent on make sure Amelia doesn't get away with Casey's death. When they find out Casey's dead, Jim himself said "She was like a daughter to me." As well as returning the fortune Amelia, an Expy of the late Imelda Marcos, stole from her people.

It's also the only time in the whole series we see an agent get "Disavowed" by the Secretary (the team pictures are). The Tear Jerker closing has a picture of Casey, Max, Grant and Nicholas with Jim as a slow, somber reprise of the opening theme plays "Reprisal" is also the most personal for Jim in the '80s revival: Jim himself is framed for the murder of several former IMF agents. It also has the disc's voice go in a second rare variant of its usual opening to Jim: "Your mission, which I feel you must accept, will be to find the person who is framing you, and stop him." The recording is also so upsetting to Jim that he actually rewinds it halfway through just to make sure he heard everything clearly. "The Princess" also applies as to save Jim, Shannon pushes him aside and ends up Taking the Bullet for Jim. She says "Camion"—and it shows she knew there was someone there due to "Camion" being French Perfume, and the assassin is really a woman. Jailbird of Panama : Strange variation - both the jailbird and the rescuing team were in the IMF.

Janitor Impersonation Infiltration : A standard tactic. Often, one of the IMF members would get into the target's location, then fake some sort of utility outage. Other members of the team would then pose as repairmen or technicians arriving to fix the problem. Joker Jury : A fake one in "The Flight". Justice by Other Legal Means : At the end of "The Counterfeiter", the titular villain claims that even with a recording of his Engineered Public Confession , the IMF still can't do anything more than slap him with a fine. Then Phelps points out that he didn't just confess to his criminal operations, he also confessed the scope of said operations, which is large enough to sick the IRS on him for tax evasion. Killed Off for Real : Casey Randall in the 1988 series. Latex Perfection : A staple of the series; many episodes involved Rollin (or, later, Paris) using latex masks and makeup to imitate someone else. "The Bunker" has an enemy agent who is a Master of Disguise ; he has a portable kit that allows him to cast and make latex masks in a matter of minutes. Law Enforcement, Inc.

: Series creator Bruce Geller originally intended that the IMF would be a private group that the good guys would turn to when they couldn't handle a particular bad guy (Virtually every anti-Syndicate episode in the last two seasons included the phrase 'conventional law enforcement agencies have been unable to...' in the briefing tape, reinforcing this interpretation). The movies changed the IMF to an official (though secret) branch of the Central Intelligence Agency . The Mark Master of Disguise : Rollin Hand, Paris, Casey and Nicholas Black, though with the assistance of one of these four, any IMF member qualifies. Casey was unusual for this trope in that she usually just made disguises for the rest of the team rather than for herself. In the season seven episodes where she didn't appear due to her actresses' pregnancy, Casey still managed to make and ship masks to the team offscreen. Inverted by Phelps, Willy, Barney, etc. Barney in particular - The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier notes that Barney's apparent ability to blend in, even in countries where a black man would stand out, was occasionally criticized. The series took that criticism seriously: later seasons feature Barney mostly out of view or in situations where he'd blend in.

(Although in the episode "Hunted," set in Africa, Barney is disguised as a white man, as the nation he was in practiced strict apartheid and he needed to enter a whites-only area.) The 80s revival had cases where Max might be already having been seen as he usually is as well, having had to stall for time or play up close to the mark. If still another person was needed, Grant filled that role. Sometimes, though, situations would force the other IMF members to "play themselves" as there was no time to do a mask, at best do the voice of those they needed to impersonate (as Nicholas and Casey had to do in "The Killer"). Memory Gambit : In "The Spy" (one of the weaker episodes), Jim Phelps has himself hypnotised to forget his actions immediately after he's done them until a specific cue is given, allowing himself to be captured by the enemy without risk of divulging the I.M. Force's plan. Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All : In "Reprisal", a inmate masterminds a scheme to take revenge of Jim Phelps from inside a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane.

"Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop : The Trope Namer . In "Doomsday," Barney used a cable drop to steal the plutonium from a nuclear warhead that was surrounded by photoelectric sensors and so could only be approached from above. In "The Lions", Grant gets lowered into the temple and is suspended above the altar so he can tamper with the eponymous lions. Mistaken for an Imposter : In "The Glass Cage", the team rescues a resistance leader from a maximum security prison by convincing the guards that he had already escaped and had been replaced with a double. Then Cinnamon, in her persona as a security officer, offered to take the 'imposter' back to headquarters for interrogation. Obstacle Exposition Oh Crap! : The Mark's standard expression when they realize they have been had and the plan is shot/there's a visit to the clink in the offing/they're meeting The Grim Reaper . Would also be used in almost every episode by our heroes before a Commercial Break Cliffhanger when something seemingly goes wrong or it looks like someone has discovered them.

After we'd come back from the commercial we'd find it was a just part of the plan and the fake 'Oh Crap' just acting to fool the bad guys, or a deus-ex machina comes in to distract the mark. At worst we see the heroes quickly resolve it through Xanatos Speed Chess . One example is in ï¿½The Craneï¿½. Junta leader General Yuri Kozani agrees to execute his second in command, Colonel Alex Strabo. He is then deceived into further explaining Straboï¿½s treachery and unreliable character traits to a disguised Strabo (Strabo is wearing the mask of the rebel leader). Strabo removes his mask and Kozani is barely able to speak before Strabo kills him. This is also an example of Hoist by His Own Petard since Strabo quotes Kozaniï¿½s earlier words on the need to execute enemies of the state. [1] Office Golf : In "The Killer", Drake (the eponymous killer) does this while waiting to find out who his target is. It is later shown that his golf balls are actually disguised plastic explosive. Oireland : "Banshee".

While it did manage to establish that there Protestants in Ireland, it managed to tick most of the other boxes by being set in a tiny village, have Irishmen who willing to start fighting at the drop of a hat, and the IMF's plan relied on the superstitious nature of one of the main villains. Ominous Latin Chanting : Done by the evil Satanic cult in "The Devils". Once per Episode : "This tape will self-destruct in five seconds." (At least, that is the stereotype. In fact there are many episodes in which this is not actually heard, especially in early seasons when another method of messaging is used, or in episodes in which Briggs or Phelps are instructed to destroy the tape themselves.) The 80's revival would have "This disc will self-destruct in five seconds." Also seen above, when the mark appears to be close to discovering The Masquerade or something appears to have went wrong, right before a major commercial break. Only One Name : Paris and Casey in the original series; however, due to the presence (and recent death) of another character named Casey in the revival series, when Lynda Day George guest starred as Casey, her character was belatedly given a first name, Lisa.

Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping : The Irish accent Casey adopts as, and in, "The Bride" wavers but at least it's supposed to come and go as per the script. The episode's Big Bad Joe Corvin has no such excuse... Passed-Over Promotion : In "The Glass Cage", Cinnamon plays an enemy official and tells the lieutenant of the Villain of the Week that he hadn't been recommended for promotion to the villain's job when he was due to be promoted. This caused the lieutenant to betray his superior. People's Republic of Tyranny : All the time. Pick any episode at random and there's about a one in three chance that at least one of the villains will be an official of a Ruritanian government with the word "People's" in its name. Persona Non Grata : Invoked in a strange way in "The Amateur". In order to get out of a East Bloc country with a disassembled secret weapon, the team disguises themselves as representatives of a group that had been PNG'ed trying to get in to the country.

They promptly get caught, and are told to reboard their airplane and leave the country - and since the guards believed that they were trying to get in rather than out, they didn't bother searching their luggage. Plot Tailored to the Party : Justified. Briggs and Phelps choose their teams to match the things that need to be done to accomplish the mission, though in some cases one member is just an extra pair of hands to help with the tasks that another member needs to perform. This often happens with Willy, as his official skill is his strength, and they don't usually need to move something heavy. Phony Psychic : Cinnamon poses as a psychic to convince a tycoon that his life is in danger, leading to a high-stakes poker game against Rollin in "The Psychic". Pretty in Mink : Casey wears a mink coat while vamping the evil regent in "The Lions". Railing Kill : Happens in The Teaser to "The Pawn". A dissident is shot by the authorities and pitches forward over a fire escape railing. Happens again in The Teaser to "The Golden Serpent (Part 1)". The leader of another IMF is hit in the back by a shuriken.

He someone manages to twist in such a way that he falls over the railing and plunges into the river below. Real Life Writes the Plot : Barbara Bain shared Cinnamon's one weakness: Claustrophobia. Used in "The Exchange" where an enemy psychologist induces it to try and break her will. Recycled Soundtrack : Particularly in the final season, where very few episodes had original scores. In addition, some literal examples when pieces which Lalo Schifrin wrote specially for the show's first soundtrack album were tracked into the show. Red Scare : Many episodes pitted the team against agents of Russia or some Eastern Bloc expy. But the team was never called to escalate the Cold War, only prevent the other side from gaining an advantage or escalating the war on their end. On at least one mission they had to stop an American attempt to heat up the Cold War. Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves : In "Reprisal", an orderly has been helping the villain escape the maximum security mental hospital to commit murders. When the orderly gets cold feet and demands more money, the villain promises him "a big payout" when he makes his final escape. The "payout" is being murdered.

In "The Princess", a traitor provides details of the princess' security procedures to a terrorist group. The terrorist leader provides him with a briefcase fill of cash which he handcuffs to his wrist. However, the case also contains a bomb. Royal Brat : One episode centered around an attempt to assassinate one that Phelps & Co. must thwart. Rule of Three : The 'Tape Scene/Dossier Scene/Meeting Scene' format. Averted permanently as of Season 5 when the dossier scene is retired. The 80s revival had 'Codephrase Conversation Scene/Disc Scene/Meeting Scene' as it's format, though "The Killer" added 'Team Choosing Scene' in between the first two. Run for the Border : Inverted in one season one episode: A drug dealer had already made it to a country with no extradition treaty with the US, so the team had to trick him into crossing the border into one that did. Shoe Phone Shoot the Builder : In "The Legacy", when the IMF discover the underground chamber containing Hitler's gold, they also find the bodies of the workmen who dug the chamber; killed so they could not tell anyone its location.

Shout-Out : The rejected IM Force photos were often cast and crew of the show, as well as one of show creator Bruce Geller (wearing Sinister Shades ) that is frequently seen in the early episodes. In "Live Bait," a building called Hagmann Haus (after that episode's director Stuart Hagmann) is seen. "TOD-5" is set in a town called Woodfield, a belated tribute to one of the show's primary writers William Read Woodfield (he and his partner Allan Balter worked on the series until season three). Showdown at High Noon : "Gunslinger" ends with Jim Phelps holding showdowns with The Dragon and then the Big Bad . Jim's gun was loaded with tranquillizer bullets. Showgirl Skirt : Casey wears one while posing a magician's assistant in "The Pawn". Shown Their Work : When the US cable channel F/X aired Mission in the mid-90s, hosts would provide episode specific trivia at commercial breaks, all of which were gleaned from the book The Complete Mission Impossible Dossier, sometimes read directly from the book.

Staged Shooting Strategy Schmategy : In "The Killer", the target was a hitman who chose the method of assassination at the last moment, making him impossible to anticipate. Strapped to an Operating Table : Happens to Barney when he is tortured in "The Golden Serpent (Part 1)". Suddenly Always Knew That : The team are often revealed to be skilled in something in an episode where they need that skill, after which said skill is never used or brought up again (This generally tended to happen in later episodes - in the early seasons, if the team needed a specialist in some skill the cast regulars didn't have, they'd introduce a guest star who played a specialist in that skill for the episode). Examples include Barney being revealed to have boxed in the Navy when they need to take down a crooked boxing promoter, Willy knowing martial arts when they are up against a man who sponsors martial arts tournaments (Where he still has problems because he's trained in Jujitsu and he has to compete in a Judo match) and Jim being an expert pool player in an episode where they go up against a Syndicate boss who owns a pool parlor.

The episode where it makes the most sense is halfway through season six when Willy plays a crooked card dealer in a casino owned by their target - by that point Willy had spent five years working alongside former entertainers Rollin and Paris, and could have easily learned sleight of hand tricks from them. Suspiciously Similar Substitute : There were changes to the team almost every season (Along with Willy being repeated switched off with Sam Elliot's character in Season 5), with the exception of between Seasons 2 and 3 where stability was maintained. Swiss Bank Account : In "The Council," the mobsters are using a Swiss bank account. Take That : When Briggs pulls into the Drive-In Theater in the first season episode "The Psychic", the marquee reads, "Geller and Solow in Spend the Money". This was an in-joke reference to the producers' tendency to go over-budget as seen by Desilu/Paramount. Tap on the Head : This is done to guards and the like regularly. Unfortunately, the typical implementation of this trope makes it look like the team can knock people out by slapping them between the shoulder blades.

A Taste of the Lash : In "Bayou", white slaver Jake Morgan whips any girl who attempts to escape. Technobabble : In addition to some of the gadgets used on the show, team members would sometimes use technobabble in universe as part of their plan. (Usually as a distraction or way to fool the target into going along with a plan.) Temporary Blindness : Barney in "The Falcon", Cinnamon in "The Heir Apparent" and Jim in, appropriately enough, "Blind." In the latter two episodes, the person in question deliberately arranged to be temporarily blinded so that he/she could impersonate someone who was blind (Barney's run-in with blindness was the result of a head injury). Theme Tune : arguably one of the most recognizable TV spy themes ever. They Have the Scent : "Bayou" opens with a girl who has escaped from a white slavery ring being chased through a swamp by a hunters with a pair of dogs. Throwing the Fight : "The Contender" had the team take down a crooked promoter by having Barney impersonate an up and coming boxer whose career had been put on hold by a tour of duty in Vietnam.

The person Barney impersonated (Who had ruined his hands during an act of heroism in the war and could never box again) only gave the team permission to impersonate him if they promised that they wouldn't stain his professional reputation by having Barney cheat in an official match. This Page Will Self-Destruct : Most probably the Trope Maker , though in some episodes the briefing tape had to be destroyed manually. The villain of "Reprisal," a rogue IMF agent, leaves a recording in which he chortles at Phelps that "This room will self-destruct in five seconds." Oh Crap! indeed. Those Wacky Nazis : The team thwarted numerous plans to establish a Fourth Reich. Examples include "The Legacy", "Echo of Yesterday", and "The Legend" in the original version and "The Fuehrer's Children" and a remake of "The Legacy" in the 80's update. Rollin impersonates Adolf Hitler in "Echo of Yesterday" and Martin Bormann in "The Legend". Thou Shalt Not Kill : In theory, from about Season 2 onwards. In Season 1 the IMF were occasionally seen using direct deadly force.

"In theory" because while the IMF rarely kills anyone directly, their actions often result in the Big Bad being killed by a third party. One episode from the early seasons unambiguously states that the team is undertaking a form of assassination. The revival series tended to follow this "in theory" pattern too, though the season 2 two-parter "The Golden Serpent" averts the trope by having an IMF member kill a thug, and the fact the team orchestrates the assassination of a villain is made non-ambiguous; lastly, the team actually consciously leaves the Big Bad to die rather than attempt to rescue him from an exploding cave. Time Marches On : Amounts of money that were undoubtedly quite substantial when the episodes were originally aired often seem quite paltry from the perspective of a watcher in the 2010s, thanks to fifty years of inflation. We Do the Impossible : Rather appropriately. Where the Hell Is Springfield? : in the series the team was often sent to the vaguely named People's Republic of Tyranny . Other locations included the nation of "San X" in South America or the Caribbean Sea. Whenever the mission was in the United States , the city or state was rarely named beyond "Western" or "Central".

Any named nation, used for a mission in Africa, was never a real nation. Finally, Western Europe was referred to as a friendly or neutral nation. Averted several times in the revival when Australia unambiguously appears as Australia. Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? : How the team survives being captured. On several occasions the plan depended on the villain disposing of a captured team member in a specific way . Subverted in one episode of the 1988 remake when one of the regular agents IS killed to help allow a casting change. The team ends up doing this themselves. As a rule, when the team wants somebody dead, they never just shoot them, they manipulate events until their target kills themselves or does something which gets them killed by one of their own associates. The only time they ever tried to do a straight assassination was in "The Legend", and they had to abandon that plan when Dan realized that the target was Dead All Along - The Dragon was using a dummy and prerecorded speeches to convince his followers of his authority. World's Strongest Man : Willy, who had set a world weightlifting record before joining the IMF.

Worthy Opponent : In "The Mind of Stefan Miklos", Miklos remarks that he views his unknown opponent (Jim Phelps) to be this. Tellingly, he says it when he thinks Jim's plan has failed to fool him, when it's actually succeeded in tricking him completely. Written-In Absence : When Lynda Day George had to miss several episodes in the final season due to her being pregnant, Casey was said to be on assignment in Europe. The schedule issues which resulted in Dan Briggs not being in many season one episodes after the team briefing scene occasionally had him justify his absence by claiming that the mission would involve investigating someone who knew him personally, and thus would realize that there was an op going on if he was with the team. Averted, however in one episode in which Cinnamon receives the recorded message, and meets with the others minus Briggs. In that case no mention is made of why Briggs isn't there. Xanatos Speed Chess : One of the ways used by the writers to resolve a Commercial Break Cliffhanger .

The episode "The Killer" (which was made by both the original series and the revival) entirely revolved around this, because the mark was an assassin (played by Robert Conrad in the original and John de Lancie in the remake) who had completely random patterns. He'd choose a cab at random from the airport (IMF had multiple cab drivers set up) to a hotel selected randomly (IMF took the name he chose and very quickly applied the label to a blank hotel they controlled), with a room selected randomly (they had to renumber the doors quickly to ensure he got the room they'd put a surveillance camera in) had random contact arrangements (which they intercepted) from a random phone (they had to use a directional microphone because he chose one they hadn't bugged) and random assassination methods chosen at the last second (fortunately, they escaped the bomb he created out of C4 disguised as golf balls). The assassin was never directly aware he was being manipulated, but his habit of pulling a swerve on IMF at every turn made it a subconscious battle of wills between him and the team that usually needed to carefully plan out everything.

In the first season episode "The Ransom", the IMF team has to kidnap a mob witness because the gangster he's about to testify against has kidnapped and threatened to kill the daughter of one of Briggs' friends. The plan is to poison the tap water in the hotel room he's been put up in, send him to the hospital, and fake his death so that he can be sneaked out. A quick change of plans is needed when he takes two sleeping pills and swallows them dry. Then in the hospital, the detective guarding the witness recognizes that the dead body isn't him. Finally, the fact that the gangster intends to kill the daughter either way isn't a surprise, but it does require some fancy footwork. Zeerust : The ersatz future in "The Freeze"; also, the slide rule in Barney's publicity photo from "Collier Electronics". Lampshaded in the pilot of the remake. Phelps takes a moment to marvel at the mini optical disc player that replaced the trademark tape recorder of the original series, remarking to himself "Time does march on". A few moments later he is similarly impressed when he uses a computer instead of the traditional printed dossier to choose his agents. Both Main Logo typefaces ....

A typewriter style font for the 60s series, and a blocky computer style font for the 80s. One first season episode, "A Spool There Was", featured a recording method that was pretty much already on the way of becoming zeerust even at the first broadcast. As always , should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, The Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions.

Question: Which 1966/1973 US TV series featured the characters Jim Phelps, Cinnamon Carter and Rollin Hand?
Answer: Mission Impossible