---
title: "Mission: Impossible"
year: 1966
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/mission-impossible-1966"
fi1m_score: 82
critics_reviews: 1
published: "2026-09-16T15:56:37.331262+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-16T15:56:37.910726+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Mission: Impossible (1966)

Created by Bruce Geller · MPA TV-14 · Action & Adventure, Crime, Drama

**Fi1m score: 82** · Critics: 1 of 6 reviews so far

*In a sentence:* An entire team treating elaborate deception as though it were sensible office work

> Bruce Geller’s caper series makes disguises, teamwork and carefully arranged deception absorbing television. We recommend it for the ingenuity and the cast’s composure, though the formula becomes easier to see with repeated viewing.

## Synopsis

Daniel Briggs (Steven Hill) works with a team that includes Barney Collier (Greg Morris), Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), Rollin Hand (Martin Landau) and Willy Armitage (Peter Lupus). Their operations depend on disguises and deception, with the team setting out to make its targets believe a carefully prepared pretence. Each member has a part to play in the caper, and the work depends on coordinating those parts without exposing the people behind them. Getting close enough to deceive someone is only the beginning; the assumed identities must survive contact with their targets.

## Review

[*Mission: Impossible*](https://film.one/film/mission-impossible) is good television for people who enjoy watching a complicated job being done properly. Created by Bruce Geller, it builds its appeal around teamwork, disguises and the steady management of a deception. The cleverness is pleasurable because it gives us something to follow, without simply asking us to accept that the characters are clever. We recommend it, with one reservation: the operations are often more interesting than the people carrying them out.

Peter Graves gives Jim Phelps the calm authority this sort of enterprise needs. Steven Hill, as Daniel Briggs, offers a more guarded presence, while Greg Morris makes Barney Collier’s competence reassuring without making it dull. Barbara Bain’s Cinnamon Carter belongs comfortably among these self-possessed people. The performances persuade us to accept a considerable amount of contrivance, although that same composure can leave the characters difficult to know beyond the work.

Martin Landau brings a useful playfulness to Rollin Hand, and that matters in a programme so attached to control. We found ourselves grinning at the disguises, because the cast treats the business of pretending to be somebody else with such unembarrassed seriousness. Nobody needs to signal that we are meant to enjoy the trick. There is pleasure in being allowed to watch deception without a character continually explaining how ingenious it is.

The subjective camerawork helps keep that pleasure from becoming a dry exercise. With cinematographers including Fred Koenekamp and John Alton, the series makes room for images that limit us to a character’s view. That can make a deception engaging before we have understood all of it. Editors including Donald R. Rode and Paul Krasny keep the operations legible, giving the next step enough importance to make us attend to it.

The music credits include Gerald Fried and Walter Scharf, and the score supplies a persistent forward push. That energy is useful in a programme which asks us to take preparation seriously. The disguises do their share of the practical work, too: appearances have to be convincing enough for us to accept that someone else would be fooled. Occasionally the polish makes us too comfortable, but much of the fun comes from seeing a complicated pretence presented with confidence.

The weakness is repetition, even when individual plots have been carefully varied. Across seven series, the dependable format can make an episode feel more settled than a story about deception ought to feel. Bruce Geller’s creation does not always find enough in its people to compensate when a scheme is less absorbing. We admire the discipline, but there are stretches when another display of competence is not quite enough to hold our attention.

As a caper series, it earns its place through the care taken over each operation and the actors’ willingness to serve it. It is less rewarding when asked to provide much sense of life outside the assignment. That is a limitation worth knowing about before settling in, rather than a reason to dismiss such enjoyable work. Try an episode when there is time to pay attention, and leave the next assignment for another evening.

*Fi1m score 82, published 16 September 2026.*

### Reviews we read (1)

- **The AV Club**, Noel Murray (B+): The critic highlights the series' mid-to-late '60s pizzazz, subjective camerawork, propulsive Lalo Schifrin score, and pre-counterculture cool, along with its finely tuned, well-sprung plots. Some episodes have low points, but the overall package of disguises, deception, and team capers remains engaging. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/mission-impossible-the-complete-first-tv-season-1798202270)

## Details

- **Created by:** Bruce Geller
- **Creator:** Bruce Geller
- **Director:** Reza Badiyi, Barry Crane, Lee H. Katzin, Leonard Horn, Leslie H. Martinson, John Llewellyn Moxey, Paul Krasny, Paul Stanley, Charles R. Rondeau, Alexander Singer, Murray Golden, Sutton Roley, Gerald Mayer, Lewis Allen, Virgil W. Vogel, Marvin J. Chomsky, Richard Benedict, Bernard L. Kowalski, Michael O'Herlihy, Stuart Hagmann, Alf Kjellin, Marc Daniels, Robert Totten, Terry Becker, Joseph Pevney, Leon Benson, Don Richardson, David Lowell Rich, Herschel Daugherty, Alan Greedy, Robert Douglas, Tom Gries, Harry Harris, Robert Butler, Ralph Senensky, Allen H. Miner, John Florea, Bruce Kessler, Seymour Robbie, Robert Gist, Peter Graves, Herb Wallerstein, Georg Fenady, Sherman Marks
- **Writer:** Allan Balter, Laurence Heath, William Read Woodfield, Paul Playdon, Ken Pettus, Ed Adamson, Ellis Marcus, Howard Browne, Edward J. Lakso, Leigh Vance, Harold Livingston, Jerrold L. Ludwig, Barney Slater, Robert Lewin, Mann Rubin, Arthur Weiss, Ronald Austin, James D. Buchanan, Richard M. Sakal, Robert E. Thompson, Sy Salkowitz, Howard Berk, John T. Dugan, Judy Burns, John D. F. Black, Daniel B. Ullman, Samuel Roeca, James Griffith, Julian Barry, Judith Barrows, Jackson Gillis, Arthur Rowe, Max Hodge, Leigh Chapman, Helen Hoblock Thompson, Lou Shaw, Buck Houghton, Marc Norman, Donald James, Bruce Geller, John D.F. Black, Chester Krumholz, John O'Dea, Jerome Ross, James L. Henderson, Robert Hamner, Robert Guy Barrows, Gene R. Kearney
- **Story:** Leigh Vance, Ed Adamson, Arthur Weiss, Robert Malcolm Young, Meyer Dolinsky, John T. Dugan, Judy Burns, Wesley Lau, David Moessinger, Norman Katkov, Edward DeBlasio, Henry Sharp, William Wood, Alf Harris, Jerry Thomas, Sheldon Stark, Robert C. Dennis, Walter Brough
- **Teleplay:** Ken Pettus, Laurence Heath, Leigh Vance, Harold Livingston, Jerrold L. Ludwig, Arthur Weiss, Ronald Austin, James D. Buchanan, Robert Malcolm Young, Meyer Dolinsky, Wesley Lau, David Moessinger, Eric Bercovici
- **Cinematography:** Keith C. Smith, Ronald W. Browne, Michel Hugo, Gert Andersen, Charles Straumer, Gerald Perry Finnerman, Andrew J. McIntyre, Fred Koenekamp, Robert F. Sparks, Paul Uhl, John Alton, Robert B. Hauser, Al Francis
- **Editor:** David Wages, John Loeffler, Robert Watts, Robert L. Swanson, Paul Krasny, William O. Cairncross, Jerry Taylor, Arthur Hilton, Stanley Rabjohn, Neil MacDonald, Jodie Copelan, John A. Fegan Jr., Larry Strong, Mike Pozen, Donald R. Rode, Axel Hubert, John M. Foley, Michael Pozen
- **Music:** Walter Scharf, Benny Golson, George Romanis, Gerald Fried, Duane Tatro
- **Producer:** Robert H. Justman, Allan Balter, Barry Crane
- **Cast:** Peter Graves as Jim Phelps; Greg Morris as Barney Collier; Steven Hill as Daniel Briggs; Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter; Peter Lupus as Willy Armitage; Lynda Day George as Lisa Casey; Martin Landau as Rollin Hand; Bob Johnson as Man on Tape (voice)
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-14
- **Release (the US):** 17 September 1966
- **Genres:** Action & Adventure, Crime, Drama

## Where to watch in the US

- Paramount+: streaming, hd
- Paramount+: free, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Apple TV: add-on, hd
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd
- Apple TV: buy, sd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy, sd

*Checked 2026-09-16.*

Also available in: AT, AU, CA, GB, IT, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *The Sting* (1973), Fi1m 85: Another carefully prepared deception, with more room for charm between the complications. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-sting.md)
- *Le Cercle Rouge* (1970): For the patience, practical detail and pleasure of watching professionals work.
- *The Avengers* (1961): British espionage with stranger assignments and considerably less respect for sensible behaviour.
- *The Bureau* (2015): Undercover work with the private costs this team largely keeps off screen.
- *Hustle* (2004): A warmer con-team series that shares the appetite for elaborate misdirection.

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/mission-impossible-1966