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| Bruce Israel Geller |
A key inspiration for Geller in creating the series was the
1964 Jules Dassin film Topkapi, innovative for its coolly existential depiction
of an elaborate heist. Geller switched the story away from the criminals of
Topkapi to the good guys of the IMF, but kept Dassin's style of minimal
dialogue, prominent music scoring and clockwork-precision plots executed by a
team of diverse specialists. Several episodes in fact show close-up shots of an
agent's wristwatch to convey the suspense of working on a deadline.
One of the more controversial points of Geller's was his
insistence on minimizing character development. This was done intentionally
both because he felt that seeing the characters as tabulae rasae would make them more convincing in undercover work,
and because he wanted to keep the focus on the caper and off the characters
themselves. Geller would even veto the writers' attempts to develop the
characters in the episodes. This is why, even after Geller was removed from the
show, the IMF agents would only have one scene at Jim's apartment where they
interacted, and they were rarely if ever seen in their "real" lives.
As a side effect of this, cast turnover was never once
explained on the show. None of the main characters ever died or were disavowed
in the original series, but a character could disappear between episodes
without mention or acknowledgment. The 1980s revival, however, did kill off a
main character on screen; Bruce Geller had died on May 27, 1978 in a plane
crash in Santa Barbara, California, so he was unable to potentially veto the
decision. Mimi Davis is the only character whose recruitment as an IMF agent
shown on screen, although such a scene was filmed for Dana Lambert (Lesley Ann
Warren) and discarded. The 1980s revival otherwise stayed true to Geller's
edict, with the occasional brief exception.
The producers of Mission: Impossible were sued for
plagiarism by the creators of an ABC show called 21 Beacon Street. The suit was
settled out of court. Geller claimed never to have seen the earlier show;
Beacon Street's story editor and pilot scripter, Laurence Heath, would later write
several episodes of M:I.
Mission: Impossible is still recognized for its innovative
use of music. Composer Lalo Schifrin wrote several distinctive pieces for the
series. The visual cuts in the main title sequence were timed to the beats and
measures of the theme tune—written in (unusual) 5/4 time—while an animated
burning fuse moved across the screen. Most episodes included fairly long
dialogue-free sequences showing the team members—particularly electronics
expert Barney Collier—making technical preparations for the mission, usually to
the accompaniment of another easily recognizable tune called "The
Plot." Lalo Schifrin also wrote a theme piece for each main character and
the sound track for each episode incorporated variations of these throughout.
Even when an episode's score is credited to some other composer, Desilu's music
supervisor Jack Hunsacker would re-edit it, adding Schifrin melodies from the
library. The series had great impact on film and TV music. Before Mission:
Impossible, a common compliment was along the lines of "the score worked
very well but never got in the way or called attention to itself." By
contrast, Mission: Impossible was praised for the prominence of its music.
At 171 episodes, the original version of Mission: Impossible
held the record for having the most episodes of any English-language espionage
television series for over 35 years (about 10 more episodes than its nearest
rival, the UK-produced The Avengers). Its record was broken during the eighth
season of 24 in 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission:_Impossible
