194 replies to this topic

[Brian Flagg]

Lately I find that I prefer "The Syndicate" seasons more than the international intrigue ones! I'm sure its just my current mood or my slavish devotion to the early-1970s, perhaps its just nice not to have to hear so many dodogy accents! Larry Linville as an East Bloc officer stretches anyone's suspension of disbelief! Of course, Barbara Bain is a big draw for me, so when I "need" to see Cinnamon Carter again, I'll take the opposite view, and prefer those episodes.

I've never seen the seventh season, but thus far it's the third and sixth that are my favorites.

[Turn]

I have something strange going on close to that. I only have the third and fourth seasons on DVD. I got the third for Xmas a couple years ago after having seen little of the show previously and dove right in.

The thing about watching a lot of series of that era is reptition and I saw that set in quite a bit. I was excited about the Nimoy Paris episodes and bought those the day they came out. I got Blu-ray not long after and pushed MI to the back burner and only watched them every now and then.

I did that just the other night, not having watched one in months. I watched The Brothers and it was a serious case of deja vu. It had all the hallmarks of MI -- the switches, distractions and all that. But it wasn't anything different. They are in a Middle Eastern country with a deceiving type and dicator wannabe colonel; Phelps is a doctor type with a secret; Paris is changing faces; the guest female is seducing the enemy and planting doubt in his mind; Barney and Willie are sweating in basements and drilling holes.

I don't want to feel this way, but I am not real encouraged to watch more MI anytime soon. I look forward more to getting The Prisoner on Blu-ray.

[Brian Flagg]

I agree with a lot of what you say, and believe it or not, I take long breaks from M:I as well. When the fourth season was released last Summer, I bought it out of obligation and in staying with my promise years ago that if M:I ever came to DVD, I would support it unconditionally. However, too much of anything all at once can be mind numbing. I spread out my viewing of it, and then take time off for other shows, as well as interests outside of the Bond/1960s/70s arena.

These episodes were not meant to be seen one after the other, so repetition will be evident. I'll bet that a Lost marathon would drive anyone insane.

Of course, all shows adhere to a storytelling formula, and in M:I's case the formula is essential to its success. When they tweaked it during season five, ratings went down (though IIRC it was higher than S4), so what is uniform about the show is what makes it work. It also helps to have a fascination for the era(mid-sixties-mid-seventies as I do, plus it's one of my favorite shows of all time.

As for The Prisoner--small doses are all I can handle--and I have the soundtrack box set!

[Brian Flagg]

Film Score Monthly has a series of interesting and informative blog articles on Mission: Impossible's music also functions as a handy-dandy score-centric episode guide.

Two weeks until the seventh and final season hits DVD.

[Brisco]

Film Score Monthly has a series of interesting and informative blog articles on Mission: Impossible's music also functions as a handy-dandy score-centric episode guide.

Two weeks until the seventh and final season hits DVD.

Thanks for that link! That's a great article! I wish FSM would release all that music in a series of definitive Mission: Impossible soundtracks to match their excellent releases of I Spy and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.!

Brisco

[Brian Flagg]

Got my seventh season DVDs today and I'll have to adjust to yet another variation to the M:I theme! It's better than the stiff, Teutonic-sounding version from the fifth season, but it still pales to the vibrant original.

Thanks for that link! That's a great article! I wish FSM would release all that music in a series of definitive Mission: Impossible soundtracks to match their excellent releases of I Spy and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.!

Brisco

The blog's author has written seven or so parts just on the fifth season's scores. Mission boasted a great group of composers: Lalo Schifrin, Walter Scharf, Jerry Fielding, Robert Drasnin, Richard Markowitz, Gerald Fried, and Benny Golson--to name several! Many of these guys scored Man From U.N.C.L.E. and did a fine job on both series.

I'm pleased to have the complete original run on DVD now, but I'll miss that Mission "fix" every five months or so. Still, I vowed to support this series if it ever made it to disc, and I have to wonder if the 1988-90 version of M:I will someday emerge, too.

[Brian Flagg]

On the seventh season front, I have to say I enjoyed "Movie" quite a bit! Barney as auteur and enfant terrible Tony Saunders is just plain brilliant and had me grinning ear to ear...

...However, Barney as the convict Claney in "Hit" was even better! Especially when he's kicking Willy's while holding a cigar in his mouth!

Funny that Dane Clark is in this one, as I just saw him in Five-O's seventh season episode, "The Hostage." His Hollywood days were long gone, but he managed to find work in television.

We're also seeing an abundance of bad hair and bad toupees; I'm not sure which is worse!

And speaking of bad toupees, my compliments to William Shatner for not overdoing things with his potentially scenery-chewing performance in "Cocaine."

Yes, season seven is proving to be quite a romp!

[Brian Flagg]

While the plots have familiar touches from previous years, the seventh season makes good use of Greg Morris--the heart of M:I--and Peter Lupus, with both getting more lines. Morris in particular is impressive, showing off some bad assery on a number of occasions. Peter Lupus should've had more screentime and lines long before this, because he's not the acting liability some people thought he was.

The Puppet--another fun episode with what I thought was a plothole, but rewinding to the apartment scene corrected that.

We also get a DIRTY HARRY cast meet up, with John Larch (the chief in the first film) and Richard Devon (Carmine Ricca in "Magnum Force") both appearing.

Plus, there's the welcome return of Joseph Ruskin who can play any ethnicity needed!

Incarnate was essentially a waste. I wouldn't say it was bad, but it's the most disappointing episode since S3's Nitro. However, seeing Barney done up like the 1070s Marvel character "Brother Voodoo" was worth a chuckle. Kim Hunter was quite good as the hard- Mrs. O'Connel. The look she gives Phelps at the end is deadly! Too bad her total immersion in that character wasn't put to use in a better episode.

Compared to The Fountain, the above-mentioned shows are masterpieces! "The Fountain" is the single-worst episode of Mission: Impossible! Where do I start? The hackneyed premise of a gullible, vain "Syndicate" man falling for the "fountain of youth" con, Jim's classically-feathered hair as head of a spiritual retreat, the wretched makeup job and toupee on George Maharis, the shaggy dog rug that (underused) "special guest star" Cameron Mitchell has slapped on his pate, to say nothing of the ridiculously unbvelievable and poorly-executed premise. Add a pat ending and you've got the lamest episode in series history.

I also don't ever remember George Maharis looking so scrawny and wearing a rug!


Something else worth noting: The last two episodes produced for the series, "The Fighter" and "The Pendulum" each run 49:30, whereas every other show has a running time of about 50:45! They really must've been skimping on production values! "The Fighter" in particular looks quite austere.

[Brian Flagg]

Well, I finished watching the seventh season and now it's the end of my three-year Mission "odyssey."

10.Cocaine
9. Kidnap
8. Imitation
7. The Puppet
6. Underground
5. Movie
4. Crack Up
3. The Pendulum
2. Two Thousand
1. Break!


I'm still amazed how little interest this classic spy show has garnered at CBn. I guess today's youngins' just don't cotton to the retro classiness that is the original Mission: Impossible.

Either that, or Tom Cruise and the Scientologists own you!

[Brian Flagg]

Frequent Mission: Impossible guest star Pernell Roberts died on January 24, 2010 at age 81.

Roberts appeared in the following M:I episodes:

Operation: Heart (season two)
The Mercenaries (season three)
Death Squad (season four)
Imitation (season seven)

[Brian Flagg]

Thought I'd try and kick start this moribund thread.

I've been watching a lot of the original series lately and have come to the conclusion that I prefer the latter seasons of the show, aka "The Syndicate Years." It's decidedly less "spylike" than the first four seasons of the series, with the fifth season starting to bring the musical and stylistic elements that would come to define Mission: Impossible's Syndicate Era. So here we go:


Here are only some of the reasons I love "The Syndicate Years":

More Greg Morris: Barney, my favorite character and IMO the heart of the show, gets more to do more than just crawl through tunnels. He gets to act! Witness: Barney the jive-talkin', junk-shovin', pom-pom hat, valour-shirt wearin' R&B singer of "Blues"; or the supremely cool and arrogant hardened convict in "Hit." Greg Morris finally got to go undercover and strut his stuff.

Early '70s Atmosphere and Fashions: The fashions are outrageous! vn the formerly-buttoned-down Jim Phelps wears orange turtlenecks, checked slacks, and funky purple sunglasses! Willy has a hair helmet and muttonchop sideburns (and gets to play his rude delivery man persona with absolute briiliance), and Barney has an afro and hip jean jacket, among many other fashion changes.

The Music: The incidental scores from seasons five, six and seven feature hip, funky, and jazzy riffs with electric piano, muddy basslines, and the occasional atonality.

Bad Hair: There's nothing like Phelps' silver hair helmet and Willy's muttonchop sideburns--and Barney has an afro...finally! Let's also remember all those middle-aged men with combovers that look more like strips of bacon strapped across their skulls, and frizy helmets on all those "Syndicate" thugs! They may have been "The Greatest Generation" but their early '70s hair wasn't!

No More "Fauxreign" Accents: I know some of you actually like someone like Larry Linville attempting an "Eastern Bloc" accent, but after four seasons, it got tiring! Only Landau and Bain could do foreign accents with any great ability, and they're long gone! Give me NYC-ese vocal approximations over the "Gellerese" of the first four years.

Catch Phrases: ""The Syndicate"; "Conventional law enforcement agencies have been unable..."; "Your mission, Jim, is to put [name of week's villains] out of business for good."
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More to follow...

[Doctor Whom]

Thought I'd try and kick start this moribund thread.

I've been watching a lot of the original series lately and have come to the conclusion that I prefer the latter seasons of the show, aka "The Syndicate Years." It's decidedly less "spylike" than the first four seasons of the series, with the fifth season starting to bring the musical and stylistic elements that would come to define Mission: Impossible's Syndicate Era. So here we go:


Here are only some of the reasons I love "The Syndicate Years":

More Greg Morris: Barney, my favorite character and IMO the heart of the show, gets more to do more than just crawl through tunnels. He gets to act! Witness: Barney the jive-talkin', junk-shovin', pom-pom hat, valour-shirt wearin' R&B singer of "Blues"; or the supremely cool and arrogant hardened convict in "Hit." Greg Morris finally got to go undercover and strut his stuff.

Early '70s Atmosphere and Fashions: The fashions are outrageous! vn the formerly-buttoned-down Jim Phelps wears orange turtlenecks, checked slacks, and funky purple sunglasses! Willy has a hair helmet and muttonchop sideburns (and gets to play his rude delivery man persona with absolute briiliance), and Barney has an afro and hip jean jacket, among many other fashion changes.

The Music: The incidental scores from seasons five, six and seven feature hip, funky, and jazzy riffs with electric piano, muddy basslines, and the occasional atonality.

Bad Hair: There's nothing like Phelps' silver hair helmet and Willy's muttonchop sideburns--and Barney has an afro...finally! Let's also remember all those middle-aged men with combovers that look more like strips of bacon strapped across their skulls, and frizy helmets on all those "Syndicate" thugs! They may have been "The Greatest Generation" but their early '70s hair wasn't!

No More "Fauxreign" Accents: I know some of you actually like someone like Larry Linville attempting an "Eastern Bloc" accent, but after four seasons, it got tiring! Only Landau and Bain could do foreign accents with any great ability, and they're long gone! Give me NYC-ese vocal approximations over the "Gellerese" of the first four years.

Catch Phrases: ""The Syndicate"; "Conventional law enforcement agencies have been unable..."; "Your mission, Jim, is to put [name of week's villains] out of business for good."
----------------------

More to follow...

I used to prefer the "Syndicate" years myself, for some of the same reasons you articulated. As time has paseed, I find the orginal "eastern bloc" years to be better done, mostly because after five or six years, any highly formulaic show like M:I becomes pretty tired.

[Brian Flagg]

I used to prefer the "Syndicate" years myself, for some of the same reasons you articulated. As time has paseed, I find the orginal "eastern bloc" years to be better done, mostly because after five or six years, any highly formulaic show like M:I becomes pretty tired.

Years ago, I shared the same point of view. I absolutely loved the international intrigue years, and some of my favorite episodes are from season three. I'm a HUGE admirer of Landau and Bain; IMO they never found another female lead as good as Barbara Bain. In fact, my top twenty M:I episodes have quite a few season three episodes on the list, including the top two spots (I'll post it shortly).

I disagree about the program becoming tired and formulaic. Many missions have "wrenches" thrown into the works, and sometimes the team has to rethink in midstream, as things don't always go smoothly.

When I was 13 and 14, first seriously getting into Mission: Impossible, I remember being aghast upon seeing my first "Syndicate" adventure! I loved the military stuff, the "fauxreign" accents, and instead I got mutton chop sideburns and lots of guys in business suits! And why the heck didn't they just come out and call it them "The Mafia"? Yes, I was quite insulted by the change of pace.

I realize that probably 99% of M:I fans prefer the first three or four years of the show, but I guess I'll just have to revel in my minority status.

[JimmyBond]

Watching the show on FX back in the day, I never really cared for the Syndicate episodes. It just seemed silly to me to have these spies who were going after dictators and corrupt governments all of a sudden slumming it and going after the mafia.

I think the biggest thing the series did for me was show just how lame the movies actually were (ok, I take that back, I love the original film, Phelps being the baddie it's only flaw).

[Napoleon Solo]

I used to prefer the "Syndicate" years myself, for some of the same reasons you articulated. As time has paseed, I find the orginal "eastern bloc" years to be better done, mostly because after five or six years, any highly formulaic show like M:I becomes pretty tired.

Years ago, I shared the same point of view. I absolutely loved the international intrigue years, and some of my favorite episodes are from season three. I'm a HUGE admirer of Landau and Bain; IMO they never found another female lead as good as Barbara Bain. In fact, my top twenty M:I episodes have quite a few season three episodes on the list, including the top two spots (I'll post it shortly).

I disagree about the program becoming tired and formulaic. Many missions have "wrenches" thrown into the works, and sometimes the team has to rethink in midstream, as things don't always go smoothly.

When I was 13 and 14, first seriously getting into Mission: Impossible, I remember being aghast upon seeing my first "Syndicate" adventure! I loved the military stuff, the "fauxreign" accents, and instead I got mutton chop sideburns and lots of guys in business suits! And why the heck didn't they just come out and call it them "The Mafia"? Yes, I was quite insulted by the change of pace.

I realize that probably 99% of M:I fans prefer the first three or four years of the show, but I guess I'll just have to revel in my minority status.

re: "wrenches," perhaps the best example is the third season episode where Cinnamon gets captured and tortured. I particularly like the scene where Phelps vows to the other IMFers they were going to get her back. They walk away but Willy wants to say something reassuring and Phelps gives him a look to leave him alone.

re: the Syndicate. The show had "Syndicate" episodes as early as the first season -- William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter wrote at least two and the duo wrote a second-season two parter with the Syndicate. Those were a minority of episodes that season, but M:I always had at least some Syndicate episodes before going all-in during the final seasons.