Customer Reviews

The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier

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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.

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.

This book is outstanding! I like it so much, I would go on to own 4 copies. If you like entertainment, or research, this is the book for you. It's full of pictures, information, and synopsises. There is so much the author has chosen to share, it is almost 500 pages. You will enjoy reading it. If you want to look up how many episodes Lee Meriwether guest-starred in during season four, or find out why Martin Landau and Barbara Bain really left the show, having this book is a must. I often use it to look up episodes from a particular season. The only thing missing is a list of memorabilia from the show, such as comic books, TV Guides, and paperbacks. However, that is a very minor oversight, which takes nothing away from the content itself.

In short, it is a classy, intelligent book, for a classy, intelligent show. Every good TV show should have a book like this.

Once, according to author Patrick J. White, a pair of writers were talking to a producer who wanted a script for the hit CBS series "Mission: Impossible." It was literally that, they said, an impossible assignment.

"We don't understand the show," one writer complained.

"Good, you're the perfect people to write it!" the producer replied.

Amazingly this went on for seven years and produced hours of television in the late 1960s and early 1970s still remembered today. White's "The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier" is a terrific reference book for "Mission: Impossible" fans and a nice read for everyone else. Many of the episodes may have been sweat-free affairs of undoing evildoers through intricate plans and misdirection plays, but behind the scenes nothing came easy.

There was the concept itself, which required lazy TV watchers to regulate bathroom breaks and beer runs or risk missing a key story element. There were the characters, who while mostly recurring roles gave you very little to go on. Finally, there was the many battles, over costs between CBS and Paramount, over control between producer-creator Bruce Geller and his writers and associates, and over salaries for the many stars who came and left.

White captures all this very well, offering solid examinations of each season and quick if comprehensive breakdowns of each show. The 1991 edition I own may no longer be complete; several hit movies based on the franchise have since been made; but any author who goes to the trouble of getting interviews from Arthur Ashe and Robert Altman in order to flesh out their tangential parts in the "Mission: Impossible" story is striving for thoroughness.

White also scored interviews with the biggest cast names, including Peter Graves (Jim Phelps), Barbara Bain (Cinnamon Carter), and Martin Landau (Rollin Hand), who along with Greg Morris (Barney Collier) and Peter Lupus (Willy) made up the core group even if Graves arrived a year after the series began and Bain and Landau left, abruptly and unpleasantly, after Season 3.

All give lively, engaged interviews. One early scene called for Phelps to lose his girlfriend, a rare allowance for emotion in the series. But during the take, Graves was horrified to spy Landau tearing up and taking over his big scene. "I was moved," Landau explained when Graves confronted him later.

There's also the story of the original series star Steven Hill, who clashed with producers because of his desire to observe his Jewish faith by leaving work before sundown on Fridays. Hill also acted up on the set at times, but it's a complicated story White tells fairly even without the benefit of Hill's side of the story. I was always amused that Hill wound up playing one of the longest-serving characters on an even longer-running show, "Law & Order."

The book does start to sag a bit as it goes on, saddled as it is with a series that did the same. "Mission: Impossible" was an entertaining show, even if time hasn't been kind to some of its hokier plotlines. Credit White with bringing out the best it had to offer while acknowledging its weaker points with humor and a lack of defensiveness.

This book is fantastic and a must have for anybody who loves the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE tv series.
Fantastic trivia mixed with great photos and reviews of each episode makes this a joy to read.
This show was fantastic when it first aired back in the 60s and watching it now on dvd only reinforces how good it was and still is.
Compared to the slick,shallow,over stylised tv shows that pass as entertainment today MISSION IMPOSSIBLE leaves them in its wake!
So go and get a copy because you wont regret it!

I enjoyed this book, its full of great stuff and answers to questions I did not know, it helped me clear up my memory on some episodes.

Great book if you are into the series!

If you are fan of this great 60 and 70's TV show, then this book is for you. I purchased a used version, no need to spend a lot of money for this kind of book. Very informative.

The book delivers as promised. Filled with interesting facts about the actors, plots, creators and devices of the series. Comments critically on each show. I wish there was a multimedia CD ROM available

First, if you love the original show this book is a must. It give you the complete background of the show from its conceptualization to it's follow-up version in 1988. It was well researched with lot a interesting interviews with everyone involved with the show. It also has a plot review of each episode with interesting info and anecdotes. HIghly reccomeded (have it handy when you re-watch the shows on DVD!).

I know of no other better book on this topic. Full of trivia. A delight for old MI fans like me . Should be hardbound!= 4 stars