Mission: Impossible - Complete TV Series [DVD] [1966]

In September 1966, Bruce Gellar came up with a fantastic Spy TV Series that rivals ‘The Man from Uncle’ and even the UK’s ‘The Avengers’. So himself and Joesph Gantman looked at different spy movies and dramas, and instead of focusing on one spy character such as Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and Harry Saltzman did with Sean Connery’s James Bond who was multi-talented, intelligent and allows worked alone to 1960s spy duos such as Robert Vaughan’s Napoleon Solo and David MacCallum’s Illya Kuryakin with their arrange of gadgets in the comedic, and tough in check spy drama ‘The Man from Uncle’.Geller looked at the book ‘The Big Con’, and created the IMF (Impossible Mission Team) ranging from a group of five spies\agents who skills and talents ranging from the Mastermind\Grifter, ‘Dan Briggs’ played masterfully by Steven Hill, Actress and Con-Artist, ‘Cinnamon Carter’ played by Emmy Award Winning Barbara Bain, Electronic and Technology Whiz ‘Barney Collier’ played by Greg Morris, Strongman, Mussel and Barney’s Assistant ‘Willie Armitage’ played by Peter Lupus, and finally Actor, Master of Disguise and Magician ‘Rollin Hand’ played by guest star Martin Landau who used these skills and they focus on looking at the villain’s psychological and sociological makeup such as greed, angry, racial hatred, arrogance, ignorance, envy, over confidence and delusions of grandeur and uses these as a weapon to kill one or two main villains or arrest them one of them for back stabbing a political statesperson or accidently murdering their Syndicate partner in crime in later season.Season One of Mission: Impossible was one of the greatest hits of 1966\1967, but it had a serious problem surrounding Steven Hill. Despite being a fantastic actor, Steven was an Orthodox Jew, and he had to leave every Friday at 4pm resulting in producers unable to work around his schedule which lead to bitter infighting between the creator, scrip writers, the producer, various directors, cast members, and Steven himself. This resulted in Season One, Guest Star ‘Martin Landau’ being used more often, and Steven being used less, and this often leaded to jealously between the two actors. After Season One ending, and Season Two being commissioned by CBS, Steven Hill was sacked during penultimate episode 'The Traitor', both the creator and the producer decided to change the lead actor.Everyone thinks that changing a lead actor can damage a TV show, but this is Mission: Impossible of course, and Peter Graves character ‘Jim Phelps’ (whose character is well known and is highly recognised with the TV Series) was that Ace card that Gellar and Gantman needed. Instead of ‘Jim Phelps’ being a background character like ‘Dan Briggs’ was, he became more a participate in more and more episodes result in Peter Graves’ who played 'Jim Phelps’ with wonderful passion was extremely popular with audiences, and this caused an increase and a boost in viewing figures resulting in both Season Two and Three, (from September 1967 to April 1969) which had the fabulous and popular character line up of 'Jim Phelps' (Peter Graves), 'Rollin Hand' (Martin Landau), 'Cinnamon Carter' (Barbara Bain), 'Barney Collier' (Greg Morris) and 'Willie Armitage' (Peter Lupus) remaining the best and the most popular cast and character line up through out the history of Mission: Impossible, and their adventures have last the test of time, and remain popular with myself and a lot of Classic Mission: Impossible Fans all around the world.During the Peter Graves\Jim Phelps era of Mission: Impossible which lasted through out Season Two to Seven (which was the last). Throughout the late 1960s to the early 1970s with changing times, fashions, styles and music, ‘Jim Phelps’ has masterminded missions with numerous Agents such as ‘Rollin Hand’, ‘Cinnamon Carter’, ‘Barney Collier’, and ‘Willie Armitage’ ,along with ‘Paris The Great’ (Star Trek Legend ‘Leonard Nimoy’), Tracy (Lea Merriweather), Dana Lambert (Lesley Ann Warren), Dr Doug Roberts (Sam Elliot), Lisa Casey (Linda Day George) and Mini Davies (Barbara Anderson) in later Seasons.This was until 1996 when talentless, arrogant and annoying pain in the neck actor Tom Cruise saw the original TV series, and hated the format and change it into a typical Tom Cruise shoot up movie. When the original cast saw the 1996 original movie both Peter Graves and Greg Morris hated it as it made Peter Graves character a traitor and the main villain which Graves saw it as a personal insult to his character (in which I absolutely agreed with both Graves and Morris's views, and how they disliked the 1996 Movie). Mission: Impossible movies and there pointless sequels is just Tom Cruise shouting and yelling and acting alone, and it’s a pity that British Actor Simon Pegg was dragged into this rubbish movie franchise. Please get this Boxset instead as it is a Million Times Better than the so-called plain imitation Movie Franchise.

First, I would like to say that Mission Impossible was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. I haven't seen it on TV in many years so watching these episodes is a real treat.The box set arrived only 1 day late so delivery was not really an issue considering I live in upstate New York.The set itself is terrific. The box is almost a foot high, about 14 inches wide and about 10 inches deep. It weights a hefty 6 1/2 pounds. The lid is attached at the rear of the box and lifts up from the front. Each of the 7 seasons is housed in a black box about 10 inches high, 6 inches wide and about 1 1/2 inches deep. Each box has "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL TELEVISION SERIES" on the front in red and white writing along with the season number. The season number is also stamped in red at the top of both sides of the box which makes it easy to see when all the boxes are in the larger outer box. One the back of each box is a quote from the show.Inside each box is a red dvd case that slides out of the box easily. The dvd case is well constructed and resembles a notebook with the season number on it and an image of the famous burning fuse that appears at the beginning of each episode..In the inside left cover is a booklet with an episode guide. The dvds are housed in sturdy plastic trays with 2 dvds to a tray. The trays are attached at the top so they can be flipped up to get to the next tray. A really cool thing is that if you remove the last 2 dvds there is an image of the famous reel to reel tape recorder used in the series. Very well done!!In addition to the seven seasons there is a brown cardboard folder that looks like a postal envelope complete with postmakr dated August 15, 1955. It has the famous IMF symbol and a large "CLASSIFIED" stamp across the front and SPECIAL FEATURES DISC printed below. The special features dvd is in the right inner pocket.I bought this from amazon uk instead of us because the us version was just a collection of the individual prepackaged seasons without any additional features dvd and without the cool outer box.The extra features include many CBS promos for the show as well as a wonderful photo montage with a Mission Impossible theme sung with lyrics (I never knew the theme had any lyrics). This feature is just wonderful and was done very well indeed.There is also a 2 part episode of the very short lived 1980's version of this show.The episodes themselves are perfect with great audio and video. I haven't experienced any problems yet. Note that Peter Graves does not appear in the series until season 2.There are a number of language selections available . When you start a dvd a menu appears with the selections. They are: DANSK, DEUTSCH, ENGLISH, ESPANOL, FRANCAIS, FRANCAIS BENELUX, ITALIANO, NEDERLANDSTALIG, NORSK, SUOMI and SVENSKAI have to say that this is one of the most well designed box sets that I've ever purchased and I own many box sets. I highly recommend it.I should also point out that because I live in the US there was no VAT tax so I ended up paying about $60 less than the US version even with the addition of a features dvd and the terrific packaging! What a sweet deal!!Buy this set and you will not be disappointed.

good product

I liked these DVDs, All played well But as I live five to six thousand miles from ENGLAND on the over side of the planet. Things you send me CDs and DVDs need more packing to protect the things you send me. May I say PLEASE wrap first in bubble wrap to protect the things you send and I will pay more for the Postage and Packing. As you can see for the PHOTOs some of the damage, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE inside was good but box outside was damaged, OMAN crack in case and BOURNE bits broken that hold the DVDs and other damage on other things you have sent me.

For those of us of a certain age (mid-'50s in my case) this is a pure nostalgia overload. I am gradually working my way through it (season 2 now). Nice solid packaging and all the episodes by year. Specials and extras are on a separate disc. I didnt realise Stephen Hill was the team leader ("Mr Briggs") in season 1, before Peter Graves ("Mr Phelps") stepped in; I remember him as the DA in Law and Order.All the favorite memes - gadgets, rubber masks - the series is effectively about confidence tricks but with a spy twist and never go for a simple rescue when there is a super complicated option. It's fun to spot appearances from actors "before they were famous". Carroll O'Connor is brilliant as an Eastern European bad guy. Lalo Schifrin's scores really build tension and to my mind contribute at least 50% of the appeal.NB if you werent there this may seem pretty dated (mid-'60s, so even the sci-fi gadgets are old hat today) but for the rest of us that is part of the nostalgic appeal. Check out the huge boats they used to call cars in the US, as well as the extremely cool narrow-lapel jackets and ties. Where can I get some?