Leonard Nimoy…on Mission: Impossible

[Talos IV]

Irwin Allen did that with Voyage and Land of the Giants also. He held back a lot of new music until the end of the season for those shows. Voyage had new music for 6 of the last 7 episodes of the series. Unlike the first season of LIS and Voyage which blow that wad up front because they needed music to start with. It's just odd that when LIS and Voyage had a look of being on austerity, Irwin had money enough to spring for new scores.

Didn't realize that about Voyage -- thanks for the info. Some of those late-season LIS scores are actually pretty good. If LIS had gone to a fourth season, I wonder what kind of additional scores we would've heard. At least some John Williams music probably would've gotten recycled (again).

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Batman '66 was a family show, a sitcom no less, but the villains tried to murder Batman & Robin on a weekly basis, and characters did occasionally die.

What made The Black Hole a PG-rated movie (back when PG meant more like what PG-13 means today) was that there was actual onscreen violence, death, and intense, frightening scenes, as well as darker overall themes and tone.

Jill St. John died the very first week. One of the very few we may remember. Gordon and O'Hara died every single week after that, but their pathetic natures made us forget.

THE BLACK HOLE may have been Disney's first film with the words ''damn'' or ''hell.'' Seeing it at 13, the prediction from Mimieux's professor about black holes devouring the universe got me queasy on a killer-bee level, or hitting you where you lived. And when Durant died it flabbergasted me because I expected all the heroes to make it----and who goes first? The highest-billed protagonist! Spooky.

 

[Christopher]

Jill St. John died the very first week. One of the very few we may remember.

"What a way to go-go."

 

[Ssosmcin]

Didn't realize that about Voyage -- thanks for the info. Some of those late-season LIS scores are actually pretty good. If LIS had gone to a fourth season, I wonder what kind of additional scores we would've heard. At least some John Williams music probably would've gotten recycled (again).

The funny thing about both shows was they they had a resurgence of quality at the start of their final seasons. Irwin was big on surveys and finding out what audiences thought of his programs. He flatly ignored some of it, like adding backstories and depth to characters because his shows weren't about that, but he did dial back on the monsters every week on Voyage and cut back Smith's screen time in LIS...

For a while.

By the time those shows were heading to their back episodes, they had fallen back into the old patterns but could still crank out a solid episode here and there.

I reject the premise that depicting the threat of death or violence was abnormal for family TV. Guy Williams's Zorro was a family show, from Disney no less, but it was hardly devoid of threatened or depicted violence. Batman '66 was a family show, a sitcom no less, but the villains tried to murder Batman & Robin on a weekly basis, and characters did occasionally die.

I didn't gloss over it, the threat was enough for CBS to make sure the robot didn't really get close to Will in the third episode cliffhanger. And while the robot didn't succeed (obviously), he was priming his energy bolts in the cliffhanger while Will was terrified on top of the chariot.

I think we're splitting hairs, there was plenty of violence and dark themes at the start of LiS. And The Black Hole was just a 10 years later and aimed a few years more mature, but it was no more or less violent than the 1998 movie which was very much a LiS story.

I don't see any similarity at all. And rewriting the story to that extent would make it a different story anyway, just as TBH is a different story from its inspiration 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Well I obviously disagree since the notion occurred to me more than once while watching it. You don't share it, which is fine. So fine, the story as written and filmed would be different, but the premise, some of the characters and a number of dramatic scenes remind me enough of LIS to think it would be fine movie version with some adaptation. Just some deaths and the finale would be different. But again, we don't agree, which is fair.

None of this, nor my Voyage comments, have any bearing on the thread topic, which kinda went away.

 

[Christopher]

I didn't gloss over it, the threat was enough for CBS to make sure the robot didn't really get close to Will in the third episode cliffhanger.

That's exactly the point -- they did dial back on it, because it was a family show. A PG movie like The Black Hole was able to show more actual violence rather than just the threat of it. It's disingenuous in the extreme to ignore the distinction between the two. That is literally the whole thing that differentiates between ratings levels -- how far it goes, how explicit it gets.

And The Black Hole was just a 10 years later and aimed a few years more mature, but it was no more or less violent than the 1998 movie which was very much a LiS story.

Except it was a remake, so now you're moving the goalposts all over the place. And I don't think it was "very much an LiS story" at all. The movie remake pretty much missed the point of the show and the characters and was generally terrible. We didn't get a good LiS remake until the Netflix series.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

"What a way to go-go."

That line and ''Robin, old chum,'' were the rare two never going over young kids heads at the time.

 

[Christopher]

That line and ''Robin, old chum,'' were the rare two never going over young kids heads at the time.

How is "Robin, old chum" a joke? It's just an old-fashioned term for "friend." Unless you're referring to an instance that was punning on "chum" in the sense of fish bait.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

How is "Robin, old chum" a joke? It's just an old-fashioned term for "friend." Unless you're referring to an instance that was punning on "chum" in the sense of fish bait.

Kids tend not to be old-fashioned, at least intentionally.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Kids tend not to be old-fashioned, at least intentionally.

As a kid in 1966 I didn't think it was old-fashioned.

 

[Christopher]

Kids tend not to be old-fashioned, at least intentionally.

But the point is, it isn't a joke, just a term of endearment, so it's strange to talk about whether or not it went over kids' heads. Plus you said "at the time," and I don't think "chum" was particularly old-fashioned in the '60s (as Nerys just confirmed while I was writing this).

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Really now. It's a square term of endearment for adult '60s America to laugh at. And otherwise underheaded kids like me. God knows Batman was square in many ways. Yes, it was part of a Hardy Boys title when Chet and Biff or whoeveritwas went missing. Which means that Disney as well as British shows occasionally used it also. But the only Americans I've ever heard say it in popular media were Adam West and Kim Darby, courtesy of her 19th century tomboy moptop Western avenger.

Has anybody besides my grandma ever uttered the insult ''boger?'' Would wikipedia have a list of ''chum'' references besides JAWS and the like?

In the end, Batman is the only hero to repeatedly call out ''chum'' the moment his sidekick is injured, captured or embarrassed. Which still has little to do with horses, shoe polish or Leonard Nimoy on ANY show.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Really now. It's a square term of endearment for adult '60s America to laugh at. And otherwise underheaded kids like me. God knows Batman was square in many ways. Yes, it was part of a Hardy Boys title when Chet and Biff or whoeveritwas went missing. Which means that Disney as well as British shows occasionally used it also. But the only Americans I've ever heard say it in popular media were Adam West and Kim Darby, courtesy of her 19th century tomboy moptop Western avenger.

Has anybody besides my grandma ever uttered the insult ''boger?'' Would wikipedia have a list of ''chum'' references besides JAWS and the like?

In the end, Batman is the only hero to repeatedly call out ''chum'' the moment his sidekick is injured, captured or embarrassed. Which still has little to do with horses, shoe polish or Leonard Nimoy on ANY show.

No idea what a “boger” is, but my playmates and I did use the word “booger” . It was a key part of joke.

A guy is walking down the street snapping his fingers.
Another man asks “Hey, what’s that crazy tune?”
The first man answers, “I got a booger on my finger and I can’t get it off!”

 

[DarrenTR1970]

@Christopher

Since I didn’t want to derail the Star Trek thread any further with posts about Mission: Impossible, I’d thought I’d post this here.

This is kind of a rough timeline of events from the start of the third season of Mission: Impossible to the start of the fifth season.

22nd-July-1968

With less than eight episodes in the can, producers and head scriptwriters William Read Woodfield and Alan Balter quit after a final confrontation with Executive Producer Bruce Geller. The show is left without a producer/scripts.

Script consultant Robert E. Thompson assumes temporary Producer/Scriptwriter duties for the next three episodes until Stanley Kallis agrees to produce the remainder of the third season.

Upon assuming the role of Producer, Stanley Kallis, based on the outline that would become ‘The Mind of Stefan Miklos’, hires Paul Playdon to be Head Scriptwriter/Script Consultant. Kallis and Playdon would produce and write the rest of the third season.

Kallis admits that the latter half of the third season suffers from an abundance of East European locations, but based on the situation that he and Playdon walked into, they did the best they could under the circumstances.

Filming for the third season concludes in late-February/early-March 1969; the third season having proved to be Mission’s most expensive yet.

The Landau’s go on vacation to Yosemite National Park. Stanley Kallis and Paul Playdon take a month off, before reconvening to start work on the fourth season, by writing and commissioning scripts for the first seven episodes.

4th-April-1969

The Landau’s return from vacation and contract negotiations begin between Landau and Paramount regarding Landau’s ‘year to year’ contract that had previously been negotiated between Landau and Joseph Gantman, producer of the first two seasons of Mission.

However, this time, things would be different. With Gantman gone, negotiations would be conducted between Landau’s attorney and Douglas Cramer, who had replaced Herb Solow in Paramount as Vice President in Charge of Production.

Between April 4th and April 14th, 1969

Douglas Cramer conducts a viewer survey about what did and did not work with Mission in its third season.

9th-April1969

Barbara Bain receives her fourth-year pickup notice with an increase in salary to $3000 per episode.

14th-April-1969

Douglas Cramer issues a five-page memo to Executive Bruce Geller that infamously becomes known as ‘The Hairdresser Memo’ – which is essentially an ultimatum, ‘Control costs or else’.

And in Cramer’s mind one way to control costs was Martin Landau, with his ‘year to year’ contract. Negotiations would lumber on through April and May. When it became clear that the situation would not be resolved before the May 23rd start date, Bruce Geller and Stanley Kallis drew up a list of ‘replacement Rollin’s’, with the hope that these actors would be available to step in to the role on an ‘as needed’ basis. The list includes Robert Vaughn, Ross Martin and at the top, Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy is offered the first eight episodes of season four at the same salary Landau would have received, $7000 per episode. Nimoy agrees and Rollin Hand is written out of the first eight episodes and replaced with ‘The Great Paris’.

16th-May-1969

Barbara is informed that wardrobe meetings for the new season were scheduled for the following Monday, May 19th. Barbara asked for a script and a postponement, as Monday was her maid’s day off and the following day, she and Landau were scheduled to shoot promos for the American Cancer Society. Barbara requested the meeting be rescheduled for May 21st, two full days before filming was set to begin on the two-part episode, 'The Controllers'. Bain receives no reply from Paramount.

However, Paramount did contact her representatives, the William Morris Agency, and was told Barbara was to report to the studio on May 19th or risk default on her contract. Barbara did not report to the studio on either the 19th or 21st. Geller and Kallis are forced to quickly hire actress Dina Merrill as a replacement for Barbara Bain.

30th-May-1969

Final contract negotiations break down between Landau and Paramount, and Landau quits/fired from Mission. Nimoy is offered a five year contract at the same salary Landau would have received, plus an escalation clause. Nimoy agrees.

2nd-June-1969

William Morris asks for Barbara’s release from her contract. Paramount refuses.

8th-June-1969

At the annual Emmy awards ceremony, Barbara Bain wins her third consecutive Emmy for Leading Dramatic Actress. Her acceptance speech concludes with, “As the girl who used to be on Mission: Impossible, this is a bittersweet moment. Mission has been a very special thing for me. . . There are a lot of people who worked with me on Mission: Impossible whom I’d like to thank. There are a couple of people I’d like not to thank, but seeing as they know their names, I won’t call them. Thank you.”

This is the first time Geller, Kallis, and Paramount knew that Barbara Bain had quit Mission.

Geller, Kallis and Paramount were now in a bind. While Barbara Bain may have quit Mission, she was still under contract through the end of the fourth season and no replacement actress could be hired on a full-time basis, lest Barbara decide to return to Mission and fulfill her contract through the remainder of the season. Again, the scripts have to be hastily rewritten to remove Cinnamon and replace her with a rotating cast of actresses.

Between Thanksgiving 1969 and New Year’s Day 1970

With half the season underway and the first thirteen episodes in various stages of production/completion, and Mission on a break for the holiday's, Stanley Kallis receives an offer to produce Hawaii Five-O and agrees, leaving Mission once again without a Producer.

Paramount’s choice for replacement is Bruce Lansbury, the producer of the recently canceled The Wild Wild West. Paramount’s brief to Lansbury is simple, “Control costs by whatever means necessary.” Bruce is told that the survey conducted at the end of the third season showed that audiences preferred Mission episodes with a domestic setting. Lansbury would finish out the fourth season of Mission and begin implementing changes to the Mission format starting with the fifth season.

At the same time Stanley Kallis is being offered the job of Producer on Hawaii Five-O, Paul Playdon’s time as Mission's Head Writer/Script Supervisor is coming to an end. After eighteen months, Playdon finally lost his grip on the series. It happened while writing the episode ‘Time Bomb’. The results were so disappointing that he felt he’d completely lost what Mission was all about and he quit upon completion of the episode. Lansbury and Mission would be without a Head Writer/Script Supervisor for the remainder of the fourth season until Laurence Heath was hired at the beginning of the fifth season. The fifth season would see the gradual changeover from foreign to domestic threats, with fourteen foreign and nine domestic adventures.

You're probably asking why the changeover from foreign to domestic threat didn't occur earlier, say in the fourth season after the survey was conducted at the end of the third season. My guess would be that the series was too far into production and with the loss of the Landau's at the beginning of the season, and Producer and Head Writer midway through the fourth season, there simply wasn't time to commission scripts with a domestic setting and Lansbury had to ride out the remainder of the fourth season with the scripts he had available.​

 

[Christopher]

You're probably asking why the changeover from foreign to domestic threat didn't occur earlier, say in the fourth season after the survey was conducted at the end of the third season. My guess would be that the series was too far into production and with the loss of the Landau's at the beginning of the season, and Producer and Head Writer midway through the fourth season, there simply wasn't time to commission scripts with a domestic setting and Lansbury had to ride out the remainder of the fourth season with the scripts he had available.

Okay, I thought it might be something like that, but I wasn't sure of the timing.

(If anyone's wondering, Darren was replying to this post: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/sta...budget-a-misnomer.318410/page-4#post-15048240 )

 

[DarrenTR1970]

@Christopher
Here are some more notes regarding Producers, Writers and Production vs. Airdate Order

Season Three
51. The Mercenaries – Produced by William Reed Woodfield and Allan Balter. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 10/20/68
52. The Heir Apparent – Produced by William Reed Woodfield and Allan Balter. Written by Robert E. Thompson. Air Date: 9/29/68
53. The Diplomat – Produced by William Reed Woodfield and Allan Balter. Written by Jerry Ludwig. Air Date: 12/1/68
54/55. The Contender (Parts 1 & 2) – Written and Produced by William Reed Woodfield and Allan Balter. Air Dates: 10/6/68; 10/13/68
56. The Execution – Written and Produced by William Reed Woodfield and Allan Balter. Air Date: 11/10/68

With less than eight episodes in the can, William Reed Woodfield and Allan Balter quit

57. The Play – Produced by Robert E. Thompson. Written by Lou Shaw. Air Date: 12/8/68
58. The Cardinal – Produced by William Reed Woodfield and Allan Balter. Written by John T. Dugan. Air Date: 11/17/68
59. The Elixir – Produced by Robert E. Thompson. Written by Max Hodge. Air Date: 11/24/68
60. The Exchange – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 1/4/69
61. The Bargain – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Robert E. Thompson. Air Date: 12/15/68
62. The Mind Of Stefan Miklos – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Paul Playdon. Air Date: 1/12/69
63. The Freeze – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Paul Playdon. Air Date: 12/23/68
64. The Test Case – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 1/19/69
65. The System – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Robert Hamner. Air Date: 1/126/69. Episode places Number 8 in the Nielsen’s. The highest rating Mission would ever achieve.
66. The Glass Cage – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Paul Playdon. Air Date: 2/2/69.
67. Live Bait – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by James D. Buchanan and Ronald Austin and “Michael Adams”. Air Date: 2/23/69.
68. Doomsday – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 2/16/69.
69/70. The Bunker (Parts 1 & 2) – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Paul Playdon. Air Dates: 3/2/69; 3/9/69.
71. Nitro – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 3/23/69.
72. The Vault – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Judy Burns. Air Date: 4/6/69.
73. Nicole – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Paul Playdon. Air Date: 3/30/69.
74. Illusion – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 4/13/69.
75. The Interrogator – Produced by Stanley Kallis. Written by Paul Playdon. Air Date: 4/20/69.

Season Four – Episodes with no ‘Producer’ credit are generally believed to have been produced by Stanley Kallis before his departure mid–season. The first seven episodes were written with Rollin Hand and Cinnamon Carter in mind.

76/77. The Controllers (Parts 1 & 2) – Written by Laurence Heath. Air Dates: 10/12/69; 10/19/69. Substitute Paris for Rollin. Substitute Meredyth for Cinnamon
78. The Code – Written by Ken Pettus. Air Date: 9/28/69. Substitute Paris for Rollin. Substitute Lynn for Cinnamon
79. Mastermind – Written by Jerry Ludwig. Air Date: 11/23/69. Substitute Paris for Rollin.
80. The Numbers Game – Written by Leigh Vaughn. Air Date: 10/5/69. Substitute Paris for Rollin. Substitute Tracey for Cinnamon
81. Commandante – Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 11/2/69. Substitute Paris for Rollin
82. Robot – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Howard Berk. Air Date: 11/30/69. Substitute Paris for Rollin. Substitute Tracey for Cinnamon
83. Fool’s Gold – Written by Ken Pettus. Air Date: 10/26/69.
84. The Double Circle – Written by Jerry Ludwig. Air Date: 12/7/69.
85. Submarine – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Donald James. Air Date: 1/16/70.
86. The Brothers – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Leigh Vance. Air Date: 12/14/69.
87/88/89. The Falcon (Parts 1–3) – Written by Paul Playdon. Air Dates: 1/4/70; 1/11/70; 1/18/70.
90. Time Bomb – Written by Paul Playdon. Air Date: 12/21/69.

Paul Playdon quits as Head Writer/Scrip Consultant.

91. The Amnesiac – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Robert Malcom Young and Ken Pettus. Air Date: 12/28/69.
92. Chico – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Ken Pettus. Air Date: 1/25/70.
93. Terror – Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 2/15/70.
94. Gitano – Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 2/1/70.
95. Phantoms – Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 2/8/70.
96. Lover’s Knot – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 2/22/70.
97. Orpheus – Written by Paul Playdon. Air Date: 3/1/70.
98. The Choice – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Ken Pettus. Air Date: 3/22/70.
99. The Crane – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Ken Pettus. Air Date: 3/8/70.
100. Death Squad – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 3/15/70.
101. The Martyr – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Ken Pettus. Air Date: 3/29/70.

Peter Lupus, at the end of the fourth season, had let it be known that he had grown dissatisfied with his salary and the scope of his duties. At the same time, it was known that (incoming producer) Bruce Lansbury had never understood Lupus' function on the show, didn't see the actors appeal, and saw little need for a strongman in the IMF lineup.
Executive Producer Bruce Geller, and Lansbury agreed that Willy would be gradually written out in the fifth season and replaced with a character by the name of Dr. Doug Robert, played by twenty–five–year–old Sam Elliott in his first acting role. It was hoped that the changeover would be gradual enough that viewers wouldn't notice that Willy had been replaced by the end of the season.
The only problem was that Sam Elliott ended up playing the same role of a utility man as Peter Lupus, and, once it became known that Peter was being replaced, there was a letter writing campaign by fans to get Peter reinstated on the series. (It should be noted that Peter Lupus/Willy received the most fan mail out of all the IMF characters on the show.) The big man was asked to return to the series, but Lupus' feelings had been hurt and he considered making his exit permanent. "Everyone talked me out of it," he says. A friend, producer A.C. Lyles had a long talk with him. "Stick with the show," he told Loop. "It's not easy to find another hit. You don't realize while you're doing it that it's not that easy." "So, I'm glad I stayed," Lupus concludes, "though I came very close to walking. And I'm glad that people liked the character so much, because Willy was the most dispensable character."
By the time Peter Lupus returned to "Mission", Executive Producer Bruce Geller had been removed from the series. He drove up to the front gate one day to learn that he had been barred from the lot. "They had two guards escort him to his office," Jonnie Burke recalls. "He took his personal belongings, and they escorted him off the lot."
The character of Doug Roberts would appear in half the episodes of the fifth season and one episode of the sixth season ("Encore", which was a script holdover from the fifth season) before Sam Elliott was let go.

Season Five – Episodes with no ‘Producer’ credit are generally believed to have been produced by Bruce Lansbury. Towards the end of the fifth season Bruce Lansbury was tapped to become Paramount Television’s Vice President in Charge of Creative Affairs. Lansbury and Heath would split production duties until Heath settled into the role of Producer and Barry Crane was promoted to Associate Producer.

102. Butterfly – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Eric Bercovici and Jerry Ludwig. Air Date: 10/31/70. Willy
103. Homecoming – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 10/10/70. Willy
104. The Rebel – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Norman Katkov and Ken Pettus. Air Date: 11/28/70. Dr. Doug Robert (first appearance)
105. The Killer – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Arthur Weiss. Air Date: 9/19/70. Willy
106. Flip Side – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Jackson Gillis. Air Date: 9/26/70. Willy
107. My Friend, My Enemy – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 10/25/70. Doug
108. The Innocent – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Marc Norman and Laurence Heath. Willy and Doug
109. Decoy – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by John D. F. Black. Air Date: 11/7/70. Willy
110. Flight – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Harold Livingston. Air Date: 10/17/70. Doug
111. Hunted – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Helen Hoblock Thompson. Air Date: 11/21/70. Doug
112. The Amateur – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Laurence Heath. Air Date: 11/14/70. Doug
113. The Catafalque – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Paul Playdon. Air Date: 2/6/71. Doug
114. Squeeze Play – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Walter Brough and David Moessinger. Air Date: 12/12/70. Willy
115. The Merchant – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Harold Livingston. Air Date: 3/17/71. Willy
116. Cat’s Paw – Produced by Laurence Heath. Written by Howard Browne. Air Date: 1/19/71. Willy
117. The Hostage – Produced by Bruce Lansbury. Written by Harold Livingston. Air Date: 12/19/70. Doug
118. Takeover – Produced by Laurence Heath. Written by Jerry Thomas and Arthur Weiss. Air Date: 1/2/71. Doug
119. The Missile – Written by Arthur Weiss. Air Date: 1/16/71. Willy
120. Kitara – Produced by Laurence Heath. Written by Mann Rubin. Air Date: 2/20/71. Doug
121. The Field – Produced by Laurence Heath. Written by Judy Burns and Wesley Lau. Air Date: 1/23/71. Doug
122. Blast – Written by James L. Henderson and Sam Rocca. Air Date: 1/30/71. Doug
123. A Ghost Story – Written by John D. F. Black, Ed Adamson and Ken Pettus. Air Date: 2/27/71. Willy
124. The Party – Written by Harold Livingston. Air Date: 3/6/71. Willy and Doug

Season Seven
Here is the Production Order vs. Airdate Order of Mission: Impossible season seven, along with notes as to whether or not it's pregnant Casey, Morris mustache, Mimi or post–pregnant Casey.

147. Speed – Air Date: 2/16/73. Pregnant/Mustache
148. Two Thousand – Air Date: 9/23/72. Pregnant/Mustache
149. Underground – Air Date: 10/28/72. Pregnant/Mustache
150. Leona – Air Date: 10/7/72. Pregnant/Mustache
151. Break! – Air Date: 9/16/72. Mimi
152. The Deal – Air Date: 9/30/72. Mimi
153. Imitation – Air Date: 3/30/72. Duval
154. Crack–Up – Air Date: 12/9/72. Sandy
155. TOD–5 – Air Date: 10/14/72. Mimi
156. Cocaine – Air Date: 10/21/72. Mimi
157. The Question – Air Date: 1/19/73. Andrea
158. Hit – Air Date: 11/11/72. Mimi
159. Movie – Air Date: 11/4/72. Mimi
160. Ultimatum – Air Date: 11/18/72. Mimi
161. Kidnap – Air Date: 12/2/72. Casey
162. The Puppet – Air Date: 12/22/72. Casey
163. The Fountain – Air Date: 1/26/73. Casey
164. Boomerang – Air Date: 1/12/73. Casey
165. Incarnate – Air Date: 1/5/73. Casey
166. The Western – Air Date: 3/2/73. Casey
167. The Fighter – Air Date: 2/9/73. Casey
168. The Pendulum – Air Date: 2/23/73. Casey​

 

[Christopher]

No surprise that "Speed" was shot first. That had extensive location shooting in San Francisco, and most or all of the tape-drop sequences in season 7 were at San Francisco locations, so I figure they probably shot the whole bunch of them while they were in SF for "Speed." After all, the missions are given in voiceover and any mission-relevant photos or documents can be filmed separately in an insert shot, so the tape-drop scenes could be used interchangeably in any episode (and were often used twice within a given season).

 

[DarrenTR1970]

@Christopher

Since the season’s first episode would be shot partially in San Francisco, Barry Crane took a second unit and Peter Graves up two days early to film tape scenes in spectacular locations like the San Francisco Civic Center, Maritime Park, and the Bay Cruise. Propman Bob Richards recalls a typical Crane magic act while on location. “He took a single unit to San Francisco, and we had enough work for twice the time we were supposed to be there, but they only gave him so much money and manpower. So he works it out that he’s got just enough to split the unit in two, with cameras for both units. Then he splinters off another group from one of the units, and then sends a spare camera to get extra shots of something else. We were shooting with four units!”

“One day the camera truck arrived on location and there weren’t any cameras for the principal production unit because they were all out with the other units. We were delayed maybe forty-five minutes to an hour, and we made it up the next day.”

The San Francisco shooting was a pleasant way to begin the new semester, and everyone was delighted – except director Virgil Vogel, who found himself sharing the crew with Barry Crane. “Barry was trying to make it pay by breaking up my crew and sending them off to shoot other things for other shows,” says Vogel. “He’d been such a terror about costs, but he was the guy going over all the time.” Crane the director would have the crew for a certain amount of time before Vogal could begin. “Then you got the crew for the remainder of the day, which was often only two hours. By then of course, Barry was back as unit manager again, and complaining about why you haven’t done your day’s work,” he says with a laugh.

With eleven tape scenes in the can, production on “Speed” commenced on Thursday afternoon, April 13, 1972.​

 

[Christopher]

Of course, I still have to wonder why they even needed secret tape drops once the IMF became a law enforcement agency openly cooperating with the police and government. The best rationale I can think of is that they were concerned that the mob might have informants inside "conventional law enforcement." It still feels like it was just kept because of tradition rather than because it made sense in-story.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

@Christopher

If you were to rewatch the series now, knowing what you know about Production v. Airdate order and the various backstage turmoil regarding Producers, Writers and the firing of the Landau's, would that change your opinion about certain episodes, especially knowing that the first seven/eight episodes of season four were written with Martin Landau and Barbara Bain in the parts of Rollin Hand and Cinnamon Carter, before the writers started tailoring the scripts to Leonard Nimoy's portrayal of The Great Paris?

 

[Christopher]

@Christopher

If you were to rewatch the series now, knowing what you know about Production v. Airdate order and the various backstage turmoil regarding Producers, Writers and the firing of the Landau's, would that change your opinion about certain episodes, especially knowing that the first seven/eight episodes of season four were written with Martin Landau and Barbara Bain in the parts of Rollin Hand and Cinnamon Carter, before the writers started tailoring the scripts to Leonard Nimoy's portrayal of The Great Paris?

I don't know, but I don't see why it would make a difference. I mean, it's always been quite obvious that Paris was just Rollin with a name change. And the whole nature of the show, for most of its run, was that the regulars were ciphers whose own personalities were meant to disappear under the roles they played. So it was always going to come down just to actor interpretations.