Mission: Impossible (1988–1990) User Reviews

A few flaws, but still an exciting update of the classic series

[Thomas_Veil · 8/10 · 20 January 2007]

Apparently not all Mission Impossible fans are happy with the 1988 remake. As someone who IS old enough to remember the original, I can tell you that it's actually a pretty good show, and a damn sight better than the movies! The new and old casts are comparable. Let's face it, you don't get to flex a lot of acting muscles on a show like this, so in terms of thespic efforts, I'd say the '88 cast matches the classic cast (Landau/Bain/et.al.) pretty well, and had its own charisma.

Yes, some of the plots are recycled -- a necessity because of a writers' strike at the time. That's the only reason this show got remade in the first place. We're lucky it didn't get yanked after only ONE season when the writers went back to work. But ABC had some modest success with this, and we got an extra year out of it.

Critics have correctly pointed out that one difference between the Missions is that the original was more cagey regarding the information it gave to the audience. For instance, you might see Barney with an electronic device, and Cinnamon and Rollin discussing some bit of trickery, without them explaining what the purpose behind them was. You just had to wait to see the show play out to find out where these things fit into the plot. The newer show, however, had a tendency to want to explain more: "Okay, now we're gonna use these projectors and mirrors to make Mr. Badguy think someone's trying to assassinate him." Another flaw was that some episodes got a little outlandish. Jane Badler in space comes to mind. And the writers had this unnatural love for overlaying supernatural themes on their espionage missions. More than a few plots revolved around spooking some international thug by means of "ghosts" and other hauntings. It was a bit much to believe that so many dictators and terrorists were superstitious enough to fall for this stuff. And one last carp: sometimes the IMF's technology was a bit TOO sci-fi. In one episode, for example, they "un-erased" a videotape while double-talking about some "infrared" layer underneath that could be recovered. That's scientifically illiterate. You'd have as much luck trying to unscramble an egg.

Yet despite these flaws, the show was a delight. The tape recorder sequences were wonderfully updated with a miniature DVD device. The "cons" were still exciting. And the music was just as good as you remembered it...maybe even better. Just the opening title sequence alone was worth tuning in. While it didn't change from week to week as the old show's did, it was very high-tech and very well-cut, like a good music video, and gave the show a welcome face-lift.

And of course it was nice to see Jim Phelps again every week. Even if he had a different supporting cast. Tom Cruise can screw up the franchise all he wants. Mr. Phelps will always be our hero.

big fan of the old series

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 19 April 2005]

I was a huge fan of the original series and couldn't wait to see this new show when it debuted. I found the cast very attractive (and I was a big fan of Tony Hamilton's, may he rest in peace) but disappointed that they recycled scripts from the original series. Nevertheless, though it wasn't the original, I did enjoy it and would have loved it if they'd kept it going.

I especially liked that they brought Peter Graves back and had him use a lot of new-fangled devices. I don't know why they got rid of the first actress, but Jane Badler was wonderful - and I guess she's since made Australia her home.

just perfect

[anoop-thomas · 8/10 · 20 December 2011]

i used to watch this when i was a kid and believe me its just too awesome. Its classy and its just too smart. Always waited for the episodes. The acting is just excellent and i have watched a few of the old original ones and that's great too. But this series is just too excitable and fascinating. If anyone would like to spend their weekend watching an old series of spy movies or series then THIS IS THE ONE.

Am sorry i just loved this and another series called bounty hunters. But IMDb doesn't have that series here which is very surprising.

Just feel sad that they lamed such a great series into a lame movie where stunts are just really impossible. But if you watch this series they will make you understand whats the real meaning of *Mission Impossible* where its possible but kinda impossible. Watch it then you would know what am talking about.

How to make an excellent remake of a classic series

[TheEdge76 · 10/10 · 3 May 2000]

I didn't see the 1960's series of Mission Impossible. However, I did catch this when it first started, and again when it was repeated on Saturday nights. Every episode was exciting to watch, and held my interest right to the end. All the gadgets and tricks they used to accomplish their missions were awesome, especially the dude with the face masks.

I was disappointed when it was taken off, and think it's a real shame this series didn't last longer than two years. I don't think the Tom Cruise movie would even be a patch on this.

All in all an excellent series, extremely well done and very well filmed (with Australia "doubling-up" for some of the more out-of-the-way places).

Fans of the original series disavow all knowledge of Paramount's actions. (Still preferable to the Tom Cruise version though.)

[Victor Field · 24 May 2002]

For this revival (which not only returned the classic series to television but also four of its original episodes - "The Killer" , "The Condemned," "The System" and "The Legacy") Peter Graves again assumed command of the IM Force with a new set of equivalents for the old unit, shot in Australia and with stronger effects... but lesser scripts.

Watching the originals again, they're miniature gems particularly in the first few years; the new version just isn't as compelling, although having Casey Randall be the first IM member to actually die in the course of duty was unusual. The episode "Submarine" pretty much encapsulates the remake's inferiority; written by the show's visual effects supervisor Dale Duguid, there's an unfortunate emphasis on how the illusion required to trap the villain is done, which suffuses any suspense.

The show does, however, have more fidelity to the concept than the misguided cinema version from Cruise and DePalma, which is why this is ultimately preferable. But the original show is the one to watch.

A pleasurable, if dated, update

[jdollak · 8/10 · 28 March 2012]

When this series originally aired, I remember watching it with my father. I remember being enthralled by the gadgets.

Now that the series is available on DVD, in two sets, it was a pleasure to watch through the whole thing.

As an adult, I'm much more able to see the weaknesses the show had, but I also can appreciate some of the more responsible approaches that the show had, especially in the sense of being a largely peaceful team.

The budget isn't great. Some sequences appear to have been shot on video. Several episodes use stock footage, especially later ones.

The cast is remarkably attractive.

The area where the show falters is later in the first season, and during much of the second. The writing got lazy. The plots got more linear, more predictable. And in some cases, the gimmick for the episode got in the way of making a decent plot.

Another thing that gradually got on my nerves was the laziness in writing the opening scenes, when Phelps retrieves the mission. In many of these, he winds up retrieving the disc, and watching it, in a place much more public than usual. In one of them, he watches it on an amusement park ride, and we see people walking around in the background. Hardly a secure location.

I've been watching episodes from the original series, and while the writing was more careful, and better plotted, the biggest improvement that the 88 Mission Impossible had was the pacing. The episodes felt like they moved along very quickly.

This series is entirely worth watching. But, especially with the reliance on stock footage, the show looks far more dated than it should.

Suffers by Comparison

[aramis-112-804880 · 6/10 · 1 April 2013]

"Mission Impossible" (1966) was one of the great shows. For the most part, it was intelligently written. As it did not always telegraph what it was going to do, and characters did not do something and then tell you what they did, every moment had to be watched. However, the old series was often set-bound and limited in what it could do.

The Impossible Mission Force Leaders, Dan Briggs (Steven Hill, first season) and Jim Phelps (Peter Graves, whose character achieved iconic status) received a tape (or record) of an anonymous voice briefing him on the mission (photographs included). The tape or record then self-destructed (in a few cases, Briggs or Phelps destroyed them).

The leader then chose the IMF agents best qualified to assist in the upcoming mission. Choosing the team gave the viewer a sense that the Impossible Mission Force was large and went on more missions than were depicted on-air. (As the show focused on a nucleus of a few agents, the team selection process was scrapped).

Then the leader met with the team and they discussed the plan. Electronics genius Barney Collier (Greg Morris) showed off some device he invented. But the viewer is not told exactly how all these cryptic bits of the plan fit together.

This format worked well for seven years. Frequent cast changes kept the show fresh. The cast changes also emphasized that the Impossible Missions Force was a larger organization than just the four of five agents in each episode.

Long after it went off the air, "Mission Impossible" remained in the public consciousness. It had one of the best and most recognizable signature tunes in television. After the theme, the voice on tape, in the space of a minute, gave the viewer all the necessary exposition for the story without sounding like a boring recitation of facts. (This was because the tape scene always took place in a different venue, and it self-destructed -- actually, a smoke bomb hidden in the machine, but it was extraordinarily effective).

And the taped voice added suspense. It always said that should any of the force be caught or killed, "the Secretary" will disavow any knowledge of their actions. The word "disavow" was tantalizing.

So well-remembered was the old show that when a writer's strike threatened an upcoming TV season in the late '80s, "MI" was revived with updated scripts from the old series. The taped voice (Bob Johnson) was brought back, and so was iconic Peter Graves.

But no longer did Phelps choose from a large pool of agents. He chose a team and stuck with it until he had to get a replacement (with the occasional adjunct).

Because the new series used old scripts (for several shows) it was easy to fit new actors into the old patterns. One quickly realized Nicholas Black (Thaao Penghlis) was serving the same function as Rollin Hand (Martin Landau). Another agent on the team was Grant Collier, Barney Collier's son (played by Phil Morris, actual son of the old series' popular Greg Morris).

Though second-unit shots fooled the viewer into thinking the IM force was dashing around the world, the series was largely shot in Australia. As the Australian terrain is varied and can represent many parts of the world, this opened the new series up from the stage-bound old series.

Unfortunately, obvious matte-paintings made some scenes look phony. And one episode, set in Washington, has a cityscape in the background that looks like it was cut out of construction paper. So even though the new series did some realistic-looking location shooting, it was undercut by poor production design.

And later script work was not good. In one episode, a character is seen wrapping a long fishing net around a ship's propeller. Coming out of the water, he says the ship won't move with forty feet of fishing net wrapped around its propeller. The old series would simply have shown the wrapping of the net and the result. In the new series, plot points were often labored.

The new series is also hurt by some of the acting. This may be the reason for the first series had a major cast change, since one of the actors simply could not deliver a believable line.

Spoiler alert: In the first season one of Phelps' team is killed on a mission. This first-season cast change led to one of the more exciting developments in the new series: a regular team member is disavowed! Actually, disavowing turned out to be rather disappointing, as "disavowing" looks like a bureaucratic process, or it had became one by this time. I always pictured a foreign premiere banging his shoe on his desk and railing against western interference and "the Secretary" assuring him he'd never heard of these loose cannons. Still, an actual disavowing is one thing the new series has going for it.

Overall, the new "MI" wasn't totally dreadful, but the new "Mission" moved around a lot on the schedule, finally coming to rest opposite "The Cosby Show." As "Cosby" was no. 1 in the 87-88 and 88-89 seasons and slipped no further than second in 89-90, defeating Cosby was a mission too impossible to overcome. Phelps' IMF was disbanded.

Looking back, the '88-'89 "MI" series is just for franchise fans. It was hardly must see TV.

Not quite as good as the best of the old show...but very close.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 11 March 2017]

In 1988, CBS decided to revive the old "Mission: Impossible" TV show. However, to cut costs they did something odd...they filmed the show in Australia! The first season was made in Queensland (north of Sydney) and the second season was made in Melbourne. Generally, this isn't all that obvious, though some of team members sure sound like Aussies...especially Anthony Hamilton. So is it any good? Generally, very good...with a few exceptions. First, because of the writers strike, several of the early episodes are just remakes of old episodes. A few of the episodes (such as "The Devils" and "Bayou") are just insanely bad--with plots such as convincing a mark that Mr. Phelps is Satan himself!!! But generally, the show avoided this sort of thing and brought us more of what everyone loved back in the 60s and 70s...lots of cool plots and gadgets. And, even though Peter Graves was a good bit younger, the shows worked well. It's just too bad the network lost faith in the show and moved it in their schedule...making folks miss out on it because of the change.

By the way, BOTH seasons of the reboot are available on DVD and are worth having.

Rehash of prior series due to writer's strike in UD

[aoksys · 7/10 · 13 April 2022]

At the time, CBS was severely affected by the writers strike in the US. CBS simply rehashed the better episodes from the original series and produced them in Australia. I was thrilled to see the MI show come back, but soon had the feeling that I had seen the episodes before. However, it was still fun to set aside an hour on early Saturday evening to see a "new" show rather than to watch another rerun of some other show.

Never let you down, loved it

[makiefer-87128 · 8/10 · 15 February 2024]

I loved this show as a teenager in the 90s. The masquerade trick was a bit over the top. It's not 100% credible that you can imitate another person by rubber-masking. Apart from that, it was always top notch. The plots had tension, the characters were credible, and the concept was inventive. 20 years after the original show aired, getting a secret tape by the Pentagon at the start of each episode still felt innovative. How would you deliver a mission confidentially ? And disclaim all liability if someone dies ? That way. I loved that. MacGyver was on that show's level of ingeniuty. James Bond just was not.

Mission Down Under

[safenoe · 7/10 · 3 February 2022]

I remember Mission: Impossible, this one filmed in Australia. Kind of a precursor to the John Woo one.

Peter Graves provided a valuable link to the past, and the scenery was impressive.

If you can't have the original, this isn't a bad substitute :-)

[VetteRanger · 7/10 · 4 December 2022]

In a series rebooted 20 years after the original, obviously a few things were going to change. They went for more action, and this MI team got involved in frequent shootouts, something seldom seen in the original.

The original MI plots were tighter and with fewer plot holes than these stories, except for the few they reshot ... which happened because of a writer's strike in 1988.

Finally, you just don't replace Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, and they couldn't on the original series, either. Leonard Nimoy was close, but still not Landau.

However, we enjoyed rewatching this series last summer, and were sorry when we got to the last episode. The actors were engaging enough in their roles to involve us.

As good as the original? No. But decent in it's own right? Yes.

Right idea but ruined by shoe string budget and locations.

[andrewjones888 · 4/10 · 24 October 2011]

I'm sad about this one. Could of been so much more but instead turned into a shadow of it's former self.

Filmed in Australia due to cheaper production costs this really does leave the way open for continuity and location goofs,not to mention a large amount of Aussie actors trying to pull off all manner of accents.

The re-worked episodes of old favourites seems pointless and they don't come off half as good but i understand there was a writers strike going on at the time.

I'm a big fan of the original with Peter Graves (steven hill as Dan Briggs was more wooden than a ventriloquists dummy) so it's great to see him back as leader Jim Phelps.

No matter how you look at it and which ever way you cut the cake there is no way the rest of the IMF team are as good the original cast. Martin Landau was acting alongside the best in feature films so it was a real coup to have him lend his wait to the original. Leonard Nimoy,Greg Morris,Barbare Bain and Peter Lupus quite simply make the new cast here look poor.

Talking of Greg Morris...whats with the stories with him in it? Great to see him back but all he seemed to do in the three episodes he was in was to be knocked unconscious or be flaked out on a bed sweating. Total waste of the Barney Collier character. I do like the fact Gregs son took on the role as electronic wizard after him.

Look out for some very poor back drops and one or two special effects that wouldn't look out of place on Blakes 7.

There are a few good stand out episodes to be found among the rest of the batch and it's still miles better than the films with that prancing midget Tom Cruise.

What a great show

[tweetymac5 · 7 September 2002]

I am a huge fan of the new version of Mission Impossible. I am sorry to say I have never seen the older version. I grew up in the 80's and this was one of my favorite shows. I am also a huge fan of the V miniseries which starred Jane Badler and the tv series Cover Up which starred Tony Hamilton. The cast was great and got even better when they added Jane Badler to replace Terry Markwell. The show had amazing locations and special effects. The movies with Tom Cruise were good with the sequel being better than the first. I didnt like the fact that they used the character of Jim Phelps that way. Especially since they didnt have Peter Graves. They should have used a different character name. I too wish the series had lasted longer than two seasons; it deserved to. I have the episodes on tape from where Jane Badler first appeared, but I would like to have all of the new version. I hope they release it on tape or DVD. My copies are showing their age a little.

I need this on DVD urgently!

[ei98045 · 14 December 2001]

I first watched the remake, and I loved every single episode I saw. Then I've seen some episodes from the original series and they're awesome too. These series, original and remake, are superb! I'd like to have them (particularly the Remake) on DVD as soon as possible; so what's taking so long?! PLEASE! :)

I wish I had a copy of this amazing series!!!

[ams0143 · 10 February 2002]

Mission Impossible is AMAZING!!! I've never seen the first version, and I wasn't very old when this series came out, but I can remember being spellbound and intrigued by this team of crime fighters! I still am! The background music and plots are excellent as is the acting! I have a few of these amazing episodes on tape, but I'd REALLY like to see the series come out on DVD!!! If anyone reads this and knows of anywhere I can get a copy of the series - post a comment to let me know! Thanks!

ams0143

Fantastic late 80's update on original series.

[mh_fan · 17 April 2006]

This was a really wonderful show, much better than the cheap (special effects) original. Of course if they made another series now, it would be better than this one but as there are no current plans to make a series, then I would if I were you, purchase this series if they release on DVD after MI3 hits our screens later this year. In America, it seems that if audience ratings go down a little, they just scrap a quality series, so I wouldn't worry about it having been discontinued, it was and is, the next best thing to waiting years for each Tom Cruise MI movie to come out (though I am a great fan of the MI movies - I hate the waiting!). As well as better special effects and gadgets, the story lines were more up to date and believable. Can't recommend enough, can't wait for the DVD series to come out.

Cheap and not a patch on the original series

[balbs · 14 September 2011]

Although the plot lines are not bad the first episode alone should alert to the cheap production values of the series - filmed in Australia the episode for most of the time is supposed to be in London, and if there was a IMDb prize for the number of location goofs it would win hands down. At least in cold war days you could imagine that a far off East European country was being represented... here the location is just jarring....a red phone box is moved around scenes, the Thames apparently has a modern suspension bridge and one star hotels in London have uniformed members of staff to open doors (I wish).

I laughed my head off at the policeman demanding to see the motorists licence (a la USA) something that just doesn't happen in the UK. A pity that the series was done on the cheap due to the writers strike - it could have been a worthy successor to the original (and on the other hand despite its faults it's still better than the film travesties).

Truly awful remake of a classic.

[welshNick · 4 May 2005]

I don't know who was short of money when the decision got taken to remake a classic, but this series was truly dire. First of all, Peter Graves looked about ninety, he just didn't seem to be a top undercover spy. I understand this was made in Australia owing to a strike in Hollywood and boy oh boy it showed. What was originally a wonderful programme full of suspense and intrigue lurched into almost a comedy with none of the class of the earlier show. The scripts were not even new, they were all lifted from the original and hideously changed to try and fit a new environment. A dire show that luckily for the viewer didn't last too long, though then we had to contend with the two films. Please leave these old series alone to be released on DVD so the next generation can see the original classic and not this monstrosity.