Mission Impossible - The Fourth TV Season
The head of the "Impossible Missions Force", a top-secret government group of operatives, starts a tape recorder and finds out about his latest assignment. Throughout most of the series, they would have to stop some petty dictator or powerful bad guy from whatever evil plot they had against the U.S. or Democracy in general. The elaborate use of electronic gadgetry, masters of disguise and detailed plans that require split-second timing made this tv show an "on the edge of your seater"!
Foil the invasion of a democratic country? No problem. Rescue members of a royal family from their would-be usurper? Piece of cake. Replace the irreplaceable Martin Landau and thrice-Emmy-winner Barbara Bain, who departed Mission after its third season? Now that?s impossible! But in this classic series? fourth season, the veteran and rookie members of the Impossible Mission Force still put on a good show. The most prominent new addition to the IMF dossier is Leonard Nimoy as Paris, magician and master of disguise. Lee "Catwoman" Meriwether appears in several episodes as Tracey. Other guest stars make less of an impression; Alexandra Hay makes her only appearance on the show in the season opener as Lynn, who, in the course of an elaborate plot to shatter an alliance between two would-be dictators is caught, strip-searched, and thrown into prison (she disappears mid-episode and is never seen again; viewers never do get to see her sprung). An unintentionally hilarious moment that would have made Mad magazine proud comes in the three-parter, "The Falcon," in which IMF leader Jim Phelps? (Peter Graves) dossier of agents at his disposal includes the eponymous trained animal! Lending Mission: Impossible its international intrigue are the villains from such exotic sounding countries as Nueva Tierra. Great character actors, including John "Dean Wormer" Vernon, Harold Gould and Pernell Roberts portray accented bad guys to the hilt. Each bafflingly complex mission unfolds precisely to plan. Everything must go like clockwork, and usually does, even a lame bit in "The Falcon" in which strongman Willy (Peter Lupus) disguised as a peasant, delays a priest from a coronation by transporting him via horse-driven cart in a roundabout route. Like the previous season?s "The Exchange," one mission hits closer to home. In "Death Squad" electronics expert Barney (Greg Morris) is arrested by a brutal and corrupt police chief who also happens to be the brother of the man who was killed while attacking Barney?s girlfriend (Cicely Tyson, by the way). Mission: Impossible has yet to self-destruct, but this season doesn?t exactly deliver on Paris?s promise to his audience to deliver "excitement you haven?t seen before." We have seen this before, but watching the IMF in episode after episode pull off the impossible is still smart and suspenseful fun. --Donald Liebenson
Mission Impossible - The Fourth TV Season Accessories
 Mission Impossible - The Fifth TV Season
Mission Impossible - The Third TV Season
Mission Impossible - The Second TV Season
Hawaii Five-O - The Fourth Season
The Wild Wild West - The Fourth Season
Mannix - The First Season
Mission Impossible - The Complete First TV Season
The Invaders - The First Season
I Spy - Season 1
Perry Mason - Season 3, Vol. 1
Mission Impossible - The Fourth TV Season Reviews
This set is great for the collector or for someone just starting to enjoy the era that these were filmed it.
In spite of this, the show continued to make fine entertaining episodes, in spite of the fact that no single leading lady actress was brought in to replace Barbara Bain's "Cinnamon Carter" character. Nimoy is not the actor Landau is, and he complained later that he was not given enough challenging roles, but he was adequate. The show survived this by brining in Paul Playdon as lead writer and Stanley Kallis as Producer. Season Three of Mission Impossible had major upheavals in which the main writers of the series abruptly quit. His best performances were in the episodes "Gitano" and "The Code" which otherwise were not among the best stories. In two especially good episodes, "The Crane" and "The Submarine", the IM Force has to race the clock as intensive police cordons are zeroing in on them while they have to deceive a leader of a police state or break an "unbreakable" prisoner. Season Four began with even more potentially damaging changes as Martin Landau and Barbara Bain also abruptly left the show.
Later in the season, lead writer Paul Playdon left the show due to exhaustion, along with Producer Stanley Kallis. To replace Landau's "Rollin Hand" character who wore masks and impersonated other people, Leonard Nimoy was brought in as "Paris" (we never learn his first name). On the whole, this season has as many fine episodes as do the preceding seaons, in spite of the difficulties the cast and crew faced. Highly recommended.
I CAN REMEMBER TO WATCH ALL THIS EPISODES FROM THIS 4TH SEASON, BUT ALREADY I HAVE TO WATCH Y ENJOY THIS SEASON AND I RECOMMENDED THIS TV SERIE, THIS IS MY MISION IMPOSIBLE FOR YOU. HI EVERYONE TO READ THIS SECTION, I LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT THIS TV SERIES FROM THE 60s and 70s. THE CHANGING IN THIS SEASON IS GOOD, ALWAYS THE SAME SOMETIMES IS BOURING. IN MY PERSONAL OPINION IN THIS FOURTH SEASON IS UNBELIEVABLE, THIS TIME I MISS ROLLIN HAND, HIS DO A GREAT JOB BEFORE THIS SEASON, BUT MR SPOKE IS EXCELLENT ( PARIS ) LEONARD NIMOY, AND CINNAMON CARTER (BARBARA BAIN) TOO.
I just love the old MI series and they keep getting better. The stories were so much better as the years went by and the acting in this set was superb.
If you're in the mood for more classy 60's spy action that takes itself seriously, season 4 of Mission: Impossible still delivers the goods. Notable is Lee Meriwether, who appears in a handful of episodes, and you end up wishing if they'd selected a permanent female agent this season, it would've been her. Season 4 of Mission: Impossible continues the intricate missions and cerebral plots of the previous seasons. Standout episodes this season include a faked submarine voyage in "The Submarne," "Lover's Knot" and "Death Squad" which break the usual story mold, and "The Falcon" which is a well-paced 3-parter with some genuine twists. With the departure of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain after season 3, there's some new blood in the IMF this year: Leonard Nimoy joins the cast as new master of disguise Paris, while various guest stars are recruited to fill the female agent role. Still the addition of Paris works, and the rotating female agents mix things up too (since it makes more sense to change agents as needed by the mission, and it also brings some relevance back to the dossier selection scene that precedes most of the stories).
While none of the agents are ever developed much and Paris is pretty much Rollin Hand, a fresh face does draw attention from what are the increasingly noticeable flaws in the series - the repeated use of the same backlot sets and California locations, stories that strain believability with the IMF predicting every thought and action of their targets, and cliffhangers that are resolved almost immediately. The fun is still there, and the payoff at the end of each episode is still worth it, but the show isn't quite as fresh as it was a few seasons back. She certainly matches Bain in style and beauty. Watching this series for the first time, I find the introduction of Paris to be a nice change of pace.
|
