Having grown up in the 60's, I was able to catch a lot of shows that most of today's MTV generation could only dream about from adrenaline-fueled, mindless motion picture remakes. While I am finding more and more new shows that I like, there are tons of them from the 60's and 70's that run circles around a lot of the claptrap you find today. "Mission Impossible" is a perfect example. Most audiences today think of "Mission Impossible" and immediately think of Tom Cruise. However, Cruise's vision of the Impossible Missions Force is really no more than a frivolously lame attempt to recapture the spirit of a show that was worlds ahead of its current counterpart in terms of intelligence and quality writing. "Mission Impossible" debuted in 1966 and ran for a heady seven seasons. The series revolved around the IMF teams who were sent out on what were deemed 'impossible missions.' The teams were made up of government spies and specialists who were brought together for each mission by a team leader, after careful consideration of a selection of dossiers.

Their missions were so super secret that it was known by all involved that if anyone were ever to be caught or killed, the government would disavow any knowledge of their actions. One of the signatures of the series was the self-destruction of the tape that held the information for the assignments.

The original cast from the first season included Steven Hill as Dan Briggs (the Team Leader), Martin Landau as Rollin Hand (The Master of Disguise), Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter (The Femme Fatale), Greg Morris as Barney Collier (The Electronics Expert) and Peter Lupus as Willy Armitage (The Muscle). By the second season, Hill would be replaced by the more familiar Peter Graves as Jim Phelps. (This character would late be resurrected and bastardized in the first Cruise debacle.) Though most of the later casts were still superlative, this original cast, including Peter Graves, was the best.

The series, considering it was created back in the mid 60's was superbly written. Even though the missions were deemed impossible, the ways in which the team would pull them off were always wholly credible. There was little in the way of suspension of disbelief required, even when they included some pretty tricky disguises. The characters were also written in such a way as to keep them from being stereotypical of their particular specialty, gender or race, which rarely happened back then. Each of the characters was fully fleshed out to make them 3-dimensional and played as such superbly by the cast.

Lately Paramount has been releasing a lot of the shows I grew up with, including the terrific "Wild, Wild West." "Mission Impossible" was extremely high on the list of those I wanted to see on DVD. I was really beginning to wonder if they would ever see the light of day. I guess the one good thing to come out of Cruise's train wrecks has been a renewed interest in this original series. The first DVD set came out towards the beginning of the year and offered up the entire first 28 episode season, with each of the episodes digitally re-mastered for the highest quality picture and sound available. Considering the age of the series, Paramount did an awesome job with the transfer. The series looked and sounded remarkable.

This month, Paramount is following up with the third season, and as usual I'm blown away by the speed with which they are able to get these releases out on store shelves. This third season continues to see the IMF under the leadership of the aforementioned Jim Phelps, and it is from this point that the series really took off. These 25 episodes explode off the TV screen as the transfer is so terrific. The episodes are spread out over seven discs, which also accounts for the great quality. I was glad to see we didn’t have to deal with any double-sided discs. The only possible disappointment for fans would be in the lack of special features. I was hoping for some interviews or cool archival footage, but no such luck. However, with a series this good, I consider it a small complaint. Paramount delivered what I really wanted, episodes of the series fully restored to look better than they did over 40 years ago.

If your only introduction to "Mission Impossible" has been through the three Tom Cruise movies, consider yourselves severely lacking. If you want to see the 'real' IMF in action, pick up the first, second and third season sets and prepare yourself for the ride. And as far as I'm concerned, Paramount cannot release the next four seasons fast enough! (By the way, I've already watched my set…. it did not self-destruct…)

Episodes:
The Heir Apparent
The Contender, Part 1
The Contender, Part 2
The Mercenaries
The Execution
The Cardinal
The Elixir
The Diplomat
The Play
The Bargain
The Freeze
The Exchange
The Mind of Stefan Miklos
The Test Case
The System
The Glass Cage
Doomsday
Live Bait
The Bunker, Part 1
The Bunker, Part 2
Nitro
Nicole
The Vault
Illusion
The Interrogator

Starring: Peter Graves, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus, Martin Landau, Barbara Bain
Extras: None
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, English Mono
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 11/20/2007
Region: 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Mission Impossible: Season 3 a B+.