Two mega-posts back-to-back. I wanted to save Mission: Impossible for "I-Wanna-Be-Black Week" because of Greg Morris's stealth-like contribution to the show, but I was over-ruled by Her Highness, which is fucked up in so many ways because it was my damned idea to post the show (which happened to be my favorite, along with Dragnet when I was a kid) in the first place. But she did all the fancy joining of VOB's, RipBot-ing and screen-capping while I sat on my ass and ate Bon-Bons, so here it is in easily downloadable x264. Will we ever get around to season two? Ask her.
From Stuart Galbraith IV at DVD talk:
Mission: Impossible was born of the James Bond craze of 1965-66. It's essentially a spy show ingeniously structured within the context of mini-caper / heist-type films of the sort popularized in movies like Jules Dassin's Rififi (1955) and, more contemporarily, his Topkapi (1965) and the Italian-made Grand Slam (1967). Though it would become tired and repetitive in later seasons - with various cast changes, the series lasted until 1973 - in every department these early shows are terrific.
In each episode, Dan Briggs (Steven Hill) leads the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) on a seemingly, well, impossible mission. Shows open with Briggs working his way through a folder of glossy photos, theater programs and the like, selecting the best talent to comprise each particular mission. In virtually every show, Briggs' team includes cool, curvy Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), whose specialty is diversion; electronics expert Barney Collier (Greg Morris); strongman Willy Armitage (Peter Lupus), for muscle; and master of disguise Rollin Hand (Martin Landau who, apparently for contractual reasons, isn't billed among the regulars, but rather gets a "Special Appearance by..." credit).
The series was originally designed to include guest stars brought in playing other agents with various specialties. Wally Cox, for instance, appears in the pilot as an expert safecracker, while Star Trek's George Takei guests in another show as a biochemist. This facet was retained somewhat in later seasons but deemphasized, especially after Landau, Bain, et. al. became stars in their own right.
The program was the creation of writer-producer Bruce Geller, who had previously written and/or produced such above average TV Westerns as Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, and Rawhide. Mission: Impossible secured his reputation, though none of his later shows quite matched its success. (He did make one exceptional feature however, Harry in Your Pocket, a very good, offbeat film about pickpockets starring James Coburn and Walter Pidgeon.) Geller's scripts, along with other series writers like Jerome Ross, Ellis Marcus, and Alan Balter & William Read Woodfield, are consistently ingenious. (Mild Spoilers): In the pilot, the IMF have to steal two atomic bombs from an impregnable safe; rather than try to break in, their solution is ingeniously simple: smuggle the team's safecracker (Cox) into the vault and have him break out of it instead. In "The Carriers," the IMF infiltrate a meticulously recreated American town where foreign agents are being trained to act like ordinary Americans and carry a plague back with them to the real U.S.A. Briggs' strategy is brilliant: neutralize the plague but then allow the team to be captured, making it appear that their attempt to reach the toxic viruses has failed. In "Operation Rogosh," terrorist and mass murderer Imry Rogosh (Fritz Weaver) is kidnapped by the IMF, drugged into a state of unconsciousness, awakening in what appears to be a maximum security prison in his Iron Curtain country - three years later! All of this is in fact an elaborate ruse to trick Rogosh into revealing his plans for an imminent bioterrorism plot in Los Angeles.
The strength of these clever scripts is backed up with outstanding production values for a '60s TV show. Production company Desilu (then concurrently shooting both Star Trek and The Lucy Show) spared no expense, hiring no less a talent than John Alton to shoot the pilot (it was, sadly, the great cinematographer's last credit) and Lalo Schifrin to write the sensational score, and rising talent Bernard L. Kowalski to direct it. (Editors John M. Foley and Axel Hubert, Sr. cut it, setting the standard for all that followed.) The number of set-ups, the elaborate sets and location work, and number of extras confirm this was no cheap show. Subsequent episodes lean heavily on the Desilu/RKO/Paramount backlots, but still look expensive. (They continued shooting on location, however. "The Carriers" opens with an exciting scene shot in the middle of Hollywood, around Yucca and Ivar.)
Geller won two Emmys for the show's first season, as co-producer (with Joseph Gantman) of the year's "Outstanding Dramatic Series," and for his writing, while Barbara Bain won a Best Leading Actress in a Drama prize while her then real-life husband Martin Landau was nominated.
By spy show standards, the caliber of acting talent on Mission: Impossible is exceptional, with the ensemble giving extremely intelligent, low-key and subtle performances. Bain, who would be totally lifeless, like a department store mannequin, on her subsequent series with Landau, Space: 1999, is sexy and smart here; although she's an attractive woman, this sexiness comes from her performance as much as her outward beauty or her slinky wardrobe.
Lupus and especially Morris give strong supporting performances, but the show really belongs to Landau and Steven Hill, the latter quitting after the first season when he couldn't come to terms with a grueling production schedule that wouldn't accommodate his needs to observe the Jewish Sabbath. Hill, who later earned more acclaim as District Attorney Adam Schiff on ten seasons of Law & Order, was like Landau a product of The Actor's Studio, and his quiet amusement at capers pulled off was missed in subsequent seasons. (He was replaced by, of course, Peter Graves.) Incidentally, the show's famous "this tape will self-destruct in five seconds" is only gradually introduced. The pilot has Briggs playing a self-destructing record album, while some of the audio tapes Briggs destroys himself.
Other fine actors appearing in these first season shows include: Albert Paulsen, Oscar Beregi, Mary Ann Mobley, Nehemiah Persoff, Mark Lenard, Joe Mantell, Arthur Hill, Beatrice Straight, Lloyd Bridges, Sid Haig, Eric Braeden, Albert Dekker, Joe Maross, Simon Oakland, Carroll O'Connor, Gail Kobe, David Opatoshu, Woodrow Parfrey, Ricardo Montalban, William Windom, William Schallert, James Daly, Eartha Kitt, Barry Sullivan, and Paul Mantee.
Technical Information:
Show Title: Mission: Impossible
Season: 1
Year: 1966-1967
Country: USA
Source: DVD Retail
Video Codec: 480p-x264
Container: .mkv
Programs used: DVD Decrypter, ImgBurn, Womble, JoinVobFiles, RipBot
Resolution: 720x480
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: AVC H264 @ 2048 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97 fps
Audio: English- Dolby AC3 5.1 @ 448 kb/s
Subtitles: None
Episode: 01. Pilot
Original Airdate: September 16, 1966
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:16
Synopsis: The Impossible Missions Force (IMF) must retrieve two nuclear warheads being kept in a hotel vault by a Caribbean dictator. Martin Landau "guest stars" as both IMF agent Rollin Hand and the dictator.
Pilot Megaupload Link
Episode: 02. Memory
Original Airdate: September 24, 1966
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:16
Synopsis: An IMF agent with photographic memory allows himself to be captured in order to help discredit a politically connected mass murderer.
Memory Megaupload Link
Episode: 03. Operation Rogosh
Original Airdate: October 1, 1966
Size: 896 MB
Length: 0:50:13
Synopsis: When an Eastern European agent (Fritz Weaver) plans a biological attack on Los Angeles, the IMF must trick him into revealing the type and location of his devices.
Operation Rogosh Megaupload Link
Episode: 04. Old Man Out Pt. 1
Original Airdate: October 8, 1966
Size: 898 MB
Length: 0:50:18
Synopsis: While the rest of the IMF team pose as a traveling circus, Rollin Hand gets himself put into an "inescapable" prison to try to rescue an elderly dissident scheduled to be executed within days, Catholic Cardinal Anton Vossek. Vosseck is overtly based upon József Mindszenty, and his high-profile imprisonment by a totalitarian government in the Eastern Bloc.
Old Man Out Pt. 1 Megaupload Link
Episode: 05. Old Man Out Pt. 2
Original Airdate: October 15, 1966
Size: 901 MB
Length: 0:50:28
Synopsis: The plan hits a snag when Cardinal Vossek is transferred to another cell.
Old Man Out Pt. 2 Megaupload Link
Episode: 06. Odds on Evil
Original Airdate: October 22, 1966
Size: 891 MB
Length: 0:49:56
Synopsis: The autocratic prince (Nehemiah Persoff) of a small principality with a casino must be bankrupted before he can use his funds to buy weapons to attack a neighboring state. This episode shares many similarities with Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.
Odds on Evil Megauplod Link
Episode: 07. Wheels
Original Airdate: October 29, 1966
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:15
Synopsis: The IMF must "un-rig" an election in order to prevent a corrupt government from taking power. This episode guest stars Mark Lenard of Star Trek fame as an unscrupulous bureaucrat.
Wheels Megaupload Link
Episode: 08. The Ransom
Original Airdate: November 5, 1966
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:14
Synopsis: When a friend's daughter is kidnapped by a crime lord, Briggs calls in his IMF team to rescue her. This is the first of several episodes in which the IM Force conduct "off-book" missions, and the only one that Dan Briggs led.
The Ransom Megaupload Link
Episode: 09. A Spool There Was
Original Airdate: November 12, 1966
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:16
Synopsis: Rollin and Cinnamon pose as reunited ex-lovers in an unfriendly country in order to retrieve a spool of recording wire hidden by a dead agent.
A Spool There Was Megaupload Link
Episode: 10. The Carriers
Original Airdate: November 19, 1966
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:17
Synopsis: The IMF infiltrates an artificial American town located behind the Iron Curtain where enemy agents are trained to act and think like Americans for an unknown mission. Guest stars George Takei.
The Carriers Megaupload Link
Episode: 11. Zubrovnik's Ghost
Original Airdate: November 26, 1966
Size: 896 MB
Length: 0:50:12
Synopsis: In this "haunted house" episode, Rollin, Barney, and Ariana Domi (Martine Bartlett) pose as investigators of the supernatural in order to find out why a scientist believes the ghost of her dead husband is telling her to go behind the Iron Curtain.
Zubrovnik's Ghost Megaupload Link
Episode: 12. Fakeout
Original Airdate: December 3, 1966
Size: 888 MB
Length: 0:49:44
Synopsis: Cinnamon romances the ill-mannered leader of an international narcotics syndicate (Lloyd Bridges) in order to fool him into crossing the border into a country where American authorities can finally arrest him.
Fakeout Megaupload Link
Episode: 13. Elena
Original Airdate: December 10, 1966
Size: 896 MB
Length: 0:50:13
Synopsis: In a South American country, a female IMF agent named Elena (Barbara Luna) begins exhibiting paranoid behavior, and Rollin is assigned to find out why before she is assassinated as a precaution.
Elena Megaupload Link
Episode: 14. The Short Tail Spy
Original Airdate: December 17, 1966
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:14
Synopsis: Briggs, Cinnamon, and Barney are tasked with protecting a Cold War scientist from two rival assassination bureaus determined to liquidate him before an important conference. When Cinnamon is assigned to seduce one of the assassins to prevent the killing, he claims that he wants to defect; Briggs becomes worried that she might be falling in love with her target.
The Short Tail Spy Megaupload Link
Episode: 15. The Legacy
Original Airdate: January 7, 1967
Size: 899 MB
Length: 0:50:20
Synopsis: In this "treasure hunt" episode, the sons of Adolf Hitler's most trusted Nazi officers gather in Zurich, Switzerland, to locate Hitler's "lost fortune." Rollin infiltrates the Neo-Nazi cell whose members plan to uncover and use the latter $300 million legacy to launch the Fourth Reich.
The Legacy Megaupload Link
Episode: 16. The Reluctant Dragon
Original Airdate: January 14, 1967
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:17
Synopsis: Rollin and Barney must convince a scientist to defect to the West and join his wife in the United States. This episode guest stars John Colicos of Star Trek fame as a ruthless security official.
The Reluctant Dragon Megaupload Link
Episode: 17. The Frame
Original Airdate: January 21, 1967
Size: 896 MB
Length: 0:50:13
Synopsis: The IMF team pose as caterers at a lavish get-together of crime kingpins, in an effort to discredit a gangster (Simon Oakland) who has been having anti-crime elected officials killed in "accidents" and replaced with mob puppets.
The Frame Megaupload Link
Episode: 18. The Trial
Original Airdate: January 28, 1967
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:17
Synopsis: Briggs poses as a would-be saboteur in order to orchestrate the downfall of an Eastern European secret police chief who plans to discredit the United States by convicting a US citizen of espionage at a show trial.
The Trial Megaupload Link
Episode: 19. The Diamond
Original Airdate: February 4, 1967
Size: 896 MB
Length: 0:50:11
Synopsis: When the dictator of an African nation announces plans to sell the world's largest uncut diamond in order to expand his dictatorship, the IM Force is sent to destroy him.
The Diamond Megaupload Link
Episode: 20. The Legend
Original Airdate: February 11, 1967
Size: 898 MB
Length: 0:50:19
Synopsis: Briggs and Cinammon impersonate a former Nazi and his daughter who are invited to attend a reunion of aged Nazi leaders at the home of Nazi fugitive Martin Bormann, who is planning the creation of the Fourth Reich. This episode shares many similarities with Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious.
The Legend Megaupload Link
Episode: 21. Snowball in Hell
Original Airdate: February 18, 1967
Size: 896 MB
Length: 0:50:10
Synopsis: The IMF must recover or destroy a vital component for a nuclear weapon that is in the hands of an evil prison warden (Ricardo Montalbán), and make sure that the warden does not give the formula to anyone else.
Snowball in Hell Megaupload Link
Episode: 22. The Confession
Original Airdate: February 25, 1967
Size: 898 MB
Length: 0:50:20
Synopsis: When the assassination of a U.S. senator by a Communist Bloc agent threatens to lead to war between America and the Communist Bloc, Briggs and the IMF set out to prove the killing was actually orchestrated by the senator's principal backer.
The Confession Megaupload Link
Episode: 23. Action!
Original Airdate: March 4, 1967
Size: 898 MB
Length: 0:50:18
Synopsis: An Eastern European filmmaker plans to release a film he created to falsely allege an American war crime in Vietnam; the IMF must prove the film to be a fake.
Action! Megaupload Link
Episode: 24. The Train
Original Airdate: March 18, 1967
Size: 896 MB
Length: 0:50:13
Synopsis: The IMF team must simulate a train ride carrying a dying prime minister to a Swiss hospital, in order to convince the leader that his chosen successor would become an oppressive dictator upon his ascension.
The Train Megaupload Link
Episode: 25. Shock
Original Airdate: March 25, 1967
Size: 888 MB
Length: 0:49:46
Synopsis: When an American envoy is kidnapped and replaced by a disguised agent planning to assassinate a U.S. diplomat, the IMF must stop the assassination and elicit the whereabouts of the real envoy out of the enemy agent.
Shock Megaupload Link
Episode: 26. A Cube of Sugar
Original Airdate: April 1, 1967
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:14
Synopsis: The IMF meets drug culture as Rollin and Cinammon infiltrate a prison to recover a kidnapped agent as well as a microchip hidden within an LSD-laced sugar cube.
A Cube of Sugar Megaupload Link
Episode: 27. The Traitor
Original Airdate: April 15, 1967
Size: 897 MB
Length: 0:50:14
Synopsis: Eartha Kitt guest stars as a contortionist recruited by Briggs to help discredit an agent who has defected to the enemy.
The Traitor Megaupload Link
Episode: 28. The Psychic
Original Airdate: April 22, 1967
Size: 898 MB
Length: 0:50:18
Synopsis: Cinnamon poses as a psychic in order to convince a tycoon that his life is in danger, leading to a high-stakes poker game against Rollin.
The Psychic Megaupload Link
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Complete Season 1 Megaupload Links