Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inside Information On The Greatest Television Series Of All, March 5, 2007
In my humble opinion, Mission: Impossible is the most imaginative television series of all time. This book is the perfect companion, giving
much information on the gestation of the series, the creator, Bruce Geller, the actors, directors, writers, producers and a list of every episode made, including the 1980's revival of the series. What is not apparent to the viewer but comes out in this history of the series, is that the series underwent a number of major crises, any one of which could have finished it off, yet it survived to last for seven seasons, while generally maintaining its quality. For example, not many know that creator Geller actually only wrote one episode, the pilot (the story of the nuclear bombs stored in the vault of a hotel in a Latin American country). Although he rode herd on the show for several seasons, he was finally forcibly ejected from the studio. Original star of the series, Steven Hill was forced to leave the show due to matters of concience.
During season three, when the finest episodes of the series were being
produced, the top writers got into a fiery dispute with Geller and quit in the middle of the season leaving no scripts ready to be filmed. Fortunately, Paul Playdon, possibly the best writer of all to work on the series was recruited at this crucial moment and saved the show. At the end of this same third season, stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain both quit the show. In spite of all this, the show survived and more or less maintained its quality.
One of the best things in the book is that it lists the stuntmen-doubles who appeared in the show. In the first-season episode called "The Confession", there is one of the most amazing stunts I have ever seen on television....Rollin Hand (played by Martin Landau) and bad-guy Andreas Soloweichek (David Sheiner) are hand-cuffed together and jump out of a moving vehicle. According to this book, the stunt was performed by Buzz Henry and Chuck Wilcox. It is about time these two heroes got credit for doing one of the most dangerous stunts I have ever seen...as you see them rolling around on the road, it is amazing that they didn't break every bone in their bodies and have their arms dislocated. And for all this, they weren't even mentioned in the credits! Kudos to Mr White for giving them and their colleagues their due.
Now that Mission: Impossible is being brought out in DVD, it might be time
to bring this book out as a reprint.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very thorough, detailed, entertaining book!, February 9, 1999
By A Customer
This book is outstanding! I own 4 copies myself. If you like entertainment, or research, this is the book for you. It's full of pictures, details, information, and synopsises. I love it! A classy, intelligent book, for a classy, intelligent show!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mission: Impossible Review, June 18, 2002
This book is a perfect companion for any MI fan. Includes plot details and breakdowns and actor bio's and series reviews. Everything is here. Definetly worth buying and now all i want is for Paramount to release series on DVD. Life would be perfect then.
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