MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Season 3

Barbara Bain and Torin Thatcher

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Season Three. 1968.

The Impossible Missions Force is back with the usual suspects for a third season of highly illegal action, intrigue and phoney accents [one size fits all]. This was a solid season with more than its share of above average and a few excellent episodes. Among the most memorable: "The Cardinal," in which the team has to switch a real cardinal for a communist impersonator; "The Elixir," in which a despotic woman (Ruth Roman) is undone by her own vanity; "The Diplomat," with Lee Grant and Fernando Lamas in a suspenseful tale of stolen missile plans and deadly poison; the very clever "The Cage," in which a political prisoner must be freed from a top security prison; "The System," with a casino dealer manipulated into squealing on his boss with violent results; and "Doomsday," in which the team must stop the sale of a hydrogen bomb to the bad guys. The cast is good, with Martin Landau taking top honors. Barbara Bain remains glacial, but Cinnamon does show some emotion in another excellent episode, "The Exchange," in  which she's actually caught during a mission and winds up in an iron curtain prison. There seem to be less episodes in which the bad guys instantly fall in love or lust with Cinnamon [surely some of them would prefer a less classy, overtly sexy 19-year-old?], and Bain continues to do fair-to-middling "character" impersonations, such as her "Anastasia" turn in "The Heir Apparent" with guest-star Torin Thatcher. Bain does an amusing imitation of Marlene Dietrich, bad singing and all, in "The Illusion." Robert Conrad of The Wild, Wild West shows up briefly in "The Contender."

Verdict: When this show cooks, it cooks. ***.

RICHARD DIAMOND, PRIVATE DETECTIVE Season 3

RICHARD DIAMOND, PRIVATE DETECTIVE Season Three.
1959.

The big change in Richard Diamond for the third season [of 34 black and white half hour episodes] is that Diamond has been transplanted to the west coast. He now lives in a nice house with a swimming pool, operates out of L.A., and has an unseen answering service gal named "Sam" [we only hear her voice] who also functions as a kind of assistant at times. Barbara Bain, who later appeared on Mission: Impossible, plays a girlfriend of Diamond's for a few early episodes and then completely disappears. Regis Toomey is gone, replaced by Russ Conway as Lt. Pete Kile, who is friendly to Diamond but who has a nasty, highly unfriendly associate, Sgt. Alden [?]. Janssen now plays Diamond in a very slick and glib manner. Mary Tyler Moore played Sam for a few episodes, and then was replaced by Roxane Brooks.

Richard Diamond remained an entertaining series even with all the changes. Most of the episodes earn a solid "B+."  Arguably the two best episodes are "Two for Paradise," a study of twisted skulduggery over a ranch and a younger woman; and the clever "Seven Swords," [a magician's assistant is murdered right during the act] which guest-stars Carol Ohmart (House on Haunted Hill) and Jerome Cowan (The Old Maid) and has a fine script by Levinson and Link. Guest stars on other episodes include everyone from Allison Hayes, Nora Hayden and Ingrid Goude to Geraldine Brooks, Frank Albertson and Joey Bishop.

Verdict: Not a bad old show. ***.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Season 2

Ice Princess: Cinnamon radiates her usual warmth

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Season Two. 1967.

"You and I are so used to lying that we seldom know when we're telling the truth."

They kidnap people, frame them, drug them, lie to them, imprison them, and arrange for them to be murdered, without their victims having any trial or counsel whatsoever. And these are the good guys! Yes, the "impossible missions" team is back for a second season of improbable but enjoyable adventures in nasty espionage.

Although there are times when Barbara Bain is called to play a fake character as part of a mission, she mostly goes through the series with one patented expression: a kind of glacial, face-frozen look that one imagines is supposed to be the epitome of "cool" -- after all, you'd have to have nerves of steel to go on some of these missions! Her big fake eyelashes add to the chilly effect. The big change in this season is that the difficult Steven Hill was replaced by the more amiable and professional Peter Graves, who does fine work for the series as new leader James Phelps.

Most of this season's episodes are a solid "B+" in quality and there are a few "A's" as well. Among them: "The Bank," in which a truly loathsome villain takes money from people desperate to escape the country but leads them into a death trap instead of freedom; "The Slave," in which the team stop the slave trade in a small nation by kidnapping the princess and placing her on auction [!]; "Money Machine," in which they save an African nation's economy from ruin by stopping a gang of counterfeiters; "Sweet Charity," with Fritz Weaver and Hazel Court as phony and greedy philanthropists; and "Recovery," in which Bradford Dillman offers a fine portrait of a traitor with a bomb that the team needs to reclaim. The season's worst episode was "The Killing," with the group trying unconvincingly to spook a hood with phony supernatural stuff, but wouldn't you know some fans think this is one of the best stories and it even received a few inexplicable Emmy nominations. "The Seal" features an adorable and literal "cat burglar," a pussy who figures in the episode's most suspenseful sequence. Guest-stars for season two include Edmond O'Brian, Pernell Roberts, Kate Woodville, Wilfrid Hyde-White, John Randolph, and Darren McGavin.

Verdict: A slick and entertaining program. ***.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Season 1

The original cast minus Peter Lupus

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Season 1.1966. CBS. 28 color episodes.

Daniel Briggs (Steven Hill) returns from somewhere [it is never revealed] to again head up a covert "Impossible Missions" task force that tackles dangerous undercover operations apparently assigned by the "secretary" [of state?] in the U.S. government, although why the CIA wouldn't handle these assignments is never made clear. Briggs has a large number of agents but he always seems to pick the same group: Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), strongman Willy Armitage (Peter Lupus), electronics expert Barney Collier (Greg Morris), and master of disguise Rollin Hand ("guest star" Martin Landau). While Mission: Impossible was a bit more "serious" than, say, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., there were times when the show should have been called "Mission: Highly Improbable." Suspension of disbelief is required on the vast majority of episodes. A supposedly impregnable prison that has no security cameras? No one ever recognizes famous former model Cinnamon Carter or actor/celebrity Rollin Hand? And in one episode without any explanation a gangster is not only familiar with the Impossible Missions team, but knows Briggs is the head of it and where Briggs lives! And you have to wonder what is the point of those super-secret openings where Briggs gets general info about the mission when somewhere and somehow he'll have to get the details before he can assemble his team or come up with a plan. But what the hell, the fans of this very popular program didn't care as long as the show was entertaining, which it was. The pilot episode, with its cheap wobbling sets, seemed a little unreal, but it held the attention and that's what mattered.

Most of the first season episodes were "B+" in quality, and there were a few "A"s as well. "A Spool There Was" has Cinnamon and Rollin working alone in a hostile country to find a wire that has information about bacteriological warfare on it. The team pretends to have a machine that can perfectly duplicate diamonds in "The Diamond," which features a very suspenseful sequence concerning an exchange of gems. A fascinating fake train ride figures in "The Train," in which the team must eliminate a prime minister's dangerous successor. "The Traitor" concerns a U.S. defector with an important cryptic message. Other memorable episodes concerned a training center for foreign spies, a race to acquire Nazi gold, and the rescue of an imprisoned cardinal in a jail located across from a carnival. The actors are all competent, if unspectacular, with the exception of Martin Landau, who easily walks off with the acting honors.

In one episode Cinnamon gets the assignment info at the opening, because apparently it was decided that a difficult Steven Hill would have to be replaced, which he was in the second season. Lalo Schifrin's sexy and exciting theme music is just wonderful. NOTE: The remastered DVDs of this series looks stunning.

Verdict: Far-fetched but intriguing and entertaining suspense show. ***.