Blu-ray Review: Mission Impossible: The Original TV Series

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When Mission: Impossible arrived in the Fall of 1966, the TV show proved revolutionary in the spy genre. Quite a few of the shows that were hoping to cash in on the James Bond duplicated the 007 formula when it came to the workload breakdown. There were the field agents that did the hard work of espionage as they lurked around foreign cites, seducing international lovelies and killing other spies with crazy super spy gadgets. Back at the lab were the crew that wore lab coats and came up with those deadly devices. Their paths would cross when the science nerds had to explain to the cool agents how to use these spy gadgets that would be a part of the mission. Mission: Impossible blew this division of power away with the arrival of Barney Collier (Vega$‘s Greg Morris). And now you can see Collier’s work more clearly with the upgrade to Blu-ray on Mission Impossible: The Original TV Series.

When the leader of the Impossible Mission Force would flip through his dossier of available agents, he’d pull out Barney’s file 168 of the 171 missions. Barney was the president of Collier Electronics so he was a man who knew how to put together the spy gadgets. But he didn’t lurk around his workshop and send his dangerous toys off with Daniel Briggs (Steven Hill) and James Phelps (Peter Graves). Barney came along for the adventure and he was cool as any agent. For a show that was set up to have a revolving set of experts, you always wanted his brochure placed on the agent pile. Barney was the original STEM super agent on the coolest spy show around that did keep changing as you’ll see over the seven seasons contained in the boxset.

Season one had Daniel Briggs (Law & Order‘s Steven Hill) accepting the missions, concocting a plan and assembling his team. His favorites included Collier, Rollin Hand (Ed Wood‘s Martin Landau), Cinnamon Carter (Space: 1999‘s Barbara Bain) and Willy Armitage (Muscle Beach Party & Police Squad‘s Peter Lupus). There were a couple one shot agents this first season including Wally Cox (Mr. Peepers) as a safe cracker, Nico Minardos and even Star Trek‘s George Takei. Their missions take them to Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and odd parts of the USA. Seeing how the US was fighting Vietnam, Asia seemed a place the producers wanted to avoid. The second season had a major change with the unexpected arrival as James Phelps (Graves) as the new head. What happened to Briggs? Turns out actor Steven Hill wouldn’t work on the Sabbath and the production couldn’t make it work for him. The show had a rather long shoot schedule because of the camera work. They were making half of a spy feature film in a week. Fans didn’t seem to mind the change since it was a show where all the agents were replaceable. Graves worked out fine since he lasted six seasons and a two season revival of the show in the late ’80s. The show won the Emmy for Best Drama for the first two seasons. The third season had the same crew, but big changes were brewing. Turns out Landau was not happy with his contract and split. His wife Bain also took her photograph out of Phelps’ IMF dossier. The Desilu producers replaced Landau with Leonard Nimoy because they had Spock still under contract for 2 more years on his Star Trek deal. He became Paris, a magician that was a master of impersonation. For the female agent, they rotated through different actresses with Lee Meriwether (Catwoman in the original Batman movie) playing Tracey in six of the episodes. “Gitano” is my favorite from this time simply because Barry Williams (Greg Brady from The Brady Bunch) plays a teenage king. This is cooler than Johnny Bravo.

Season Five has Lesley Anne Warren (Clue) as Dana Lambert, the female member of the team. Even more groundbreaking was the arrival of Sam Elliott (The Big Lebowski as Dr. Doug Robert. He’s the medical mind on the missions. The Sixth season had cast and direction changes. Warren was replaced by Lynda Day George (Pieces) as Casey. Elliott only ended up in one episode. Most importantly was in order to save on the budget, IMF missions focuses on American mobsters that were part of The Syndicate. No longer did they have to decorate a set with an international flavor or wardrobe of odd military uniforms. Now they could use the same sets and clothes that worked for Mannix. The seventh and final season was a continuation of the attitude and cast of the previous year. The only change is Barbara Anderson (Ironside) filling in for Linda Day George while she was out for pregnancy leave. “Cocaine” has William Shatner (Star Trek) being part of the mobsters that import cocaine into the country.

Barney Collier remained the steady hand and secret brains of IMF over the course of the seven seasons. Even after all these years, he should be a role model for kids who want to be smart and stealthy. There’s a reason why it’s his hand that lights the fuse in the opening credits and his face on the front of the boxset.Mission Impossible: The Original TV Series is his legacy.

The video is 1.33:1 full frame. The 1080p transfers brings out the details in the missions. You will get to see much more. It should be noted that when Mission: Impossible ran on a digital substation a few years ago, the transfers were digitally sped up during the non-talking scenes to create herky jerky action. There’s not messing with the speed here. You’ll get to just get lost in the espionage action. The audio is DTS-HD MA Mono. The levels are fine so you can enjoy the ticking of bombs and Lalo Schifrin’s theme song.

No bonus features.

CBS DVD presents Mission Impossible: The Original TV Series. Starring: Greg Morris, Steven Hill, Barbara Bain, Peter Lupus, Peter Graves, Martin Landau & Leonard Nimoy. Boxset Contents: 171 episodes on 46 Blu-ray discs. Released: December 1, 2020.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.