Mission: Impossible | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Genre | Action Spy fiction |
Created by | Bruce Geller |
Starring | Steven Hill Barbara Bain Greg Morris Peter Lupus Peter Graves Martin Landau Leonard Nimoy Lee Meriwether Lesley Ann Warren Sam Elliott Lynda Day George Barbara Anderson |
Theme music composer | Lalo Schifrin |
Opening theme | "Theme from Mission: Impossible" |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 7 |
No. of episodes | 171 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 50 minutes |
Production companies | Desilu Productions (1966–1968) (seasons 1–2) Paramount Television (1968–1973) (seasons 2–7) |
Original release | |
Network | CBS |
Release | September 17, 1966 March 30, 1973 | –
Related | |
Mission: Impossible (1988–1990) | |
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) |
Mission: Impossible is an American espionage television series that aired on CBS from September 1966 to March 1973, which was financed and filmed by Desilu Productions.[1] It was revived in 1988 for two seasons on ABC, and later inspired the series of theatrical motion pictures starring Tom Cruise beginning in 1996.
Created and initially produced by Bruce Geller, the show chronicled the exploits of a small covert team of secret government agents, known as the Impossible Missions Force, and their sophisticated methods of deceiving, manipulating and thwarting hostile Iron Curtain governments, third world dictators, corrupt industrialists, and crime lords, among others.
In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs (played by Steven Hill); Jim Phelps (played by Peter Graves) takes charge for the six remaining seasons. Briggs and Phelps usually assemble the same core team of agents, all of whom have careers and some degree of celebrity outside of espionage. The team is occasionally supplemented by other specialists.