mission impossible

Five Thoughts on Mission: Impossible’s “The Psychic”

By Matthew Garcia | Sep 20, 2020 | Television

“The Psychic” originally broadcast on April 22, 1967. Directed by Charles Rondeau and written by William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter, this episode finds the IMF preventing a corrupt businessman from selling illegal acquired patents for top-secret defense hardware. What makes this mission impossible is hat this businessman, Lowell, has fled to South America to […]

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Television

Five Thoughts on Five Additional Mission: Impossible Episodes

By Matthew Garcia | Sep 13, 2020 | Television

1.) The Proctor “The Frame” originally broadcast on January 26, 1967. Directed by Allen Miner and written by William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter, the episode finds the IMF working to thwart a gangster organization. What makes this mission impossible is that these gangsters, known as the Syndicate, somehow exist outside the reach of the […]

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Television

Five Thoughts on Another Five Mission: Impossible Episodes

By Matthew Garcia | Sep 6, 2020 | Television

1.) A Long Search for a Cold Day “Snowball in Hell” originally broadcast on February 18, 1967. Directed by Lee Katzin and written by Judith and Robert Guy Barrows, the episode finds the IMF preventing a sadistic prison warden from selling nuclear secrets. What makes this mission impossible is that those secrets come by the […]

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Television

Five Thoughts on Five More Mission: Impossible Episodes

By Matthew Garcia | Aug 30, 2020 | Television

Mission: Impossible definitely ranks among the top spy shows of all time. It’s also one of the shows that established a formula early on and found numerous creative ways to move and operate within that structure, all across 171 episodes. We’re trucking through the first season now, my friends. The train is moving and we […]

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Television

Five Thoughts on Five Mission: Impossible Episodes

By Matthew Garcia | Aug 23, 2020 | Television

Mission: Impossible isn’t an easy series to binge. Less a TV series than a collection of mini-movies, the show is about the moments and the payoffs rather than the character development or overarching stories. It makes for a great hour of TV, though taking too many in a row can reveal the form and beats […]

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Television

Five Thoughts on Mission: Impossible’s “Wheels”

By Matthew Garcia | Aug 16, 2020 | Television

“Wheels” was originally broadcast on October 29, 1966. Directed by Tom Tries and written by Laurence Heath, the episode finds the IMF dispatched to a South American country to prevent a fraudulent election, so a police-controlled right wing party won’t become a terrorist dictatorship. What makes this mission impossible is that the team not only […]

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Television

Five Thoughts on Mission: Impossible’s “Odds on Evil”

By Matthew Garcia | Aug 9, 2020 | Television

“Odds on Evil” was originally broadcast on October 22, 1966. Directed by Charles R. Rondeau and written by William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter, the episode finds the IMF dispatched to a tiny Mediterranean principality to stop a despot from launching a war campaign. What makes this mission impossible is that the team are not […]

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Television

Five Thoughts on Mission: Impossible’s “Old Man Out”

By Matthew Garcia | Aug 2, 2020 | Television

“Old Man Out” Part I originally broadcast on October 8th, 1966 and Part II followed a week later, on October 15th, 1966. Directed by Charles R. Rondeau (“Memory”) and written by Ellis Marcus, these episodes find the IMF attempting to break a political prisoner out of an Eastern European penitentiary. What makes this mission impossible […]

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Television

Five Thoughts on Mission: Impossible’s “Operation Rogosh”

By Matthew Garcia | Jul 26, 2020 | Television

“Operation Rogosh” premiered on October 1st, 1966. Directed by Leonard J. Horn and written by Jerome Ross, it finds the IMF working to prevent a terrorist attack in Los Angeles. What makes this mission impossible is that the person they’ve been sent after, this man called “The Monster,” this man whose speciality is “mass murder […]

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Television

Five Thoughts on Mission: Impossible’s “Memory”

By Matthew Garcia | Jul 19, 2020 | Television

“Memory” broadcast on September 24th, 1966. Directed by Charles Rondeau (who would go on to direct a substantial number of episodes this season) and written by Robert Levin, it finds Dan Briggs’s Impossible Mission Force team stopping a burgeoning tyrant in Eastern Europe. A man who is “trying to start a war and succeeding,” Briggs […]

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Television

Five Thoughts on Mission: Impossible’s “Pilot”

By Matthew Garcia | Jul 12, 2020 | Television

Mission: Impossible premiered on September 17th, 1966. Created by Bruce Geller and produced by Lucille Ball’s Desilu Productions, the show quickly infiltrated the cultural consciousness, much like how its team of secret agents infiltrate various countries in order to enact their plots. The show has experienced ridiculous longevity, thanks especially to its main theme by Lalo […]

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Reviews

“Mission: Impossible”

By Matthew Garcia | Sep 25, 2018 | Reviews

In 1996, Tom Cruise was gearing up for the release of Mission: Impossible. The film, directed by Brian de Palma, was the first project from his production company with Paula Wagner. Cruise/Wagner Productions and Paramount Pictures were going big on promotion for the film, branching into various media that the franchise hasn’t seemed interested in pursuing […]

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