Customer Reviews

Mission: Impossible - The Final TV Season

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Good afternoon. Here is the seventh and final season (1972-1973) of "Mission: Impossible" which is now produced by Barry Crane (former "Mission: Impossible" associate producer who masters the science of budgets over scripts from season 1 to 6--except season 2--, and director from season 4 to 7) and entirely supervised by newcomer writer Stephen Kandel but helped by writer Laurence Heath who produces one episode: "Boomerang". The series carries on dealing with the Syndicate as in the previous season 6, Barry Crane follows the path of his predecessor, reaches the fatal recession and, eventually, the series becomes self-conscious and looses its edge.

Minor changes occur: Lynda Day George is absent ten times in this twenty two episodes season and therefore guest female agents appear as in the hybrid season 4: during seven episodes, Barbara Anderson (former "Ironside" leading actress) poses as ex-convict Mimi Davis who is introduced in "Break!" and also Marlyn Mason posing as IMFer Sandy in "Crack-Up" and Elizabeth Ashley posing as IMFer Andrea in "The Question", one episode ("Imitation") contains no female IMFer, the character of Barney carries a moustache during four episodes ("Two Thousand", "Leona", "Underground", "Speed") and the main theme music is slightly re-arranged with a fast tempo in the vein of the "hip" season 5. In order to renew the locations, the action takes place in San Francisco as for instance "Speed" (a season 5 youth movement drama combined in a Syndicate plot, guest starring Claude Akins and Jenny Sullivan).

Find a selection of rare espionage plots: "Two Thousand" (directed by Leslie H. Martinson--who did the cult season 6 "Invasion"--, guest starring Vic Morrow and deals with atomic warfare through weapons trade), "Tod-5" (directed by Film Noir artisan Lewis Allen, guest starring Peter Haskell and Michael Conrad which highlights the germ warfare threat organized by American terrorists), "Ultimatum" (guest starring Murray Hamilton and Madlyn Rhue which underlines the danger of both the atomic warfare and inner terrorism executed by a frustrated scientist; the plot reminds the 1950 British film "Seven Days to Noon"), "The Question" (the masterpiece written by Stephen Kandel and guest starring Gary Lockwood and Jason Evers and tackles a Soviet assassin intrigue about the theme of defection), "The Pendulum" (guest starring Dean Stockwell which points a finger at a conspiracy inside the American government in the form of a subversive group of politicians and militaries).

Find also some engrossing gangster episodes: "Underground" (guest starring Peter Mark Richman as a doctor from a secret organization who interrogates harshly Jim Phelps inside a psychedelic torture chamber a la "Ipcress File" so that he locates the hideout of the Syndicate's finances, held secret by an abducted diabetic accountant), "Kidnap" (the sequel to the season 6 "Casino", directed by actor Peter Graves and guest starring John Ireland and in which Barney becomes the leader of the team to free kidnapped Jim), "Movie" (guest starring John Vernon and David Brian), "The Puppet" (guest starring Roddy McDowall), "Crack-Up" (directed by Sutton Roley and guest starring Alex Cord and Peter Breck in which a hired killer/chess player is hypnotized by the IMF to answer to two catch-phrases "when in doubt, take a pawn/Cordel" and to confess the location and identity of his boss), "The Deal" (guest starring Robert Webber, Lana Wood and Lloyd Bochner which blends a Syndicate plot with a foreign intrigue of a Caribbean dictator), "Break!" (guest starring Robert Conrad). Music-wise, only two scores are original, "Underground" by Lalo Schifrin and "Ultimatum" by Duane Tatro.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to explore, discover and enjoy the overtones and secret meanings of season 7. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck...

This final year entry of Mission Impossible welcomes a newcomer, the beautiful Barbara Anderson as agent Mimi Davis along with veteran greats Peter Graves, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus and Lynda Day George.

After 168 successful missions from original creator Bruce Geller, Jim Phelps accepts the final mission for the IMF. Mission Impossible always placed the bar high for other series with its intricate scripts and that wonderful iconic music theme from the superb Lalo Schifrin! This final season is no exception!

To honor the passing of lead star Peter Graves, the prodigious leader of the IMF series, CBS/Paramount's mission, should they decide to accept it, (and we sure hope they do), is to release the 35 episodes from the 1988-90 series! That would be great news and a nice memorial to this fine actor.

UPDATE: 09.14.11

Great news; Mission Impossible: The 88 TV Season will be out on November 29th, 2011, in time to beat the 4th theatrical MI movie. I'll be the 1st one to pre-order!

I have just purchased the season 7 and is half way through the set great show the IMF used brains rather than brawn to defeat the bad guys. The picture are very crisp considering they are over 30 years old. I took away 1 star because there are NO extras in any of the sets. It really is too bad because all of the original cast is still alive except for Greg Morris & Peter Graves (who by the way passed away in March). So come on CBS put something on the 2nd MI series (1988 version)which starred Graves & Jane Badler.

I LOVE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!!!! THIS IS GOOD TV EVEN NOW. WE HAVE NOTHING OF THIS CALIBER ON TV AT ALL. I PURCHASED ALL 7 SEASONS AND ALL ARE MIND GRIPPING.PETER GRAVES SERIES ARE MY FAVORITE, BUT ALL ARE GOOD.BARNEY IS THE MAN!!!!PLEASE PURCHASE ALL AND BE THRILLED BY WHAT YOU DO NOT GET WITH TOM.

My daughter and I love this series, and now we own all of it. I think it is great. The actors are fantastic, and they are creative in their missions.

As announced at the "TV Shows On DVD" web site on 09-12-2001. Mission Impossible: The '88 TV Season, will be released on November 29th 2011. It will be published by CBS & PHE; containing 19 shows on five disks; the SRP will be announced at a later time. This television programme lasted for two seasons (1988-1989 & 1989-1990). To be noted is the appearence of Mr. Greg Morris, reprising his original series role, working along side his son (series regular), Mr. Phil Morris in an episode together. Something special. I look forward to ordering this season set when Amazon makes pre-ordering available. Have fun :)

My husband absolutely loves the series. The quality of each of the DVDs are very good. Never had any problems with the quality (video or sound). Sounds like a given, however, many of the old series out there from the 60's and 70's have poor video and sound quality. Not so with the Mission Impossible series. Highly recommend these DVD's.

A great series - unfortunately the last season was not as good as the first few, but still quite enjoyable. The DVD package has great video and sound quality. No extras, but the show itself is good enough for me to enjoy.

This series is really good. The bad guy is on the defensive from the start of the show. I love this aspect of Mission Impossible shows. The storylines are good and the Mission Impossible team puts on quite a performance. I love how the bad guys are doublecrossed in this series. My only regret is that this was the last season for the show.

Who'd've thought Mission Impossible could get better than seasons 1-6, but they achieved that and more in this one. We loved seeing William Shatner as a bad guy, Lois Maxwell, Robert Goulet, Roddy McDowall, claude Akins, Dean Stockwell and Barbara McNair as guest stars, who could ask anything more from 1972-3!