I love old TV. The stuff that is on TV today isn't really funny anymore unless it appears to be denigrating someone and don't even get me started on the trash that is "reality" TV.
Currently I am unemployed. After a couple of hours of daily job hunting, running through the job boards, chasing down leads friends and former co-workers have sent along, I sit down in my recliner and turn on Netflix.
I've always enjoyed the Mission:Impossible series but I've only seen it in re-runs as I was about 8 years old when it went off the air after seven seasons. And honestly...what is not to like? What great characters! The grand leader of the group who was highly regarded and well respected by his fellow group members (Steven Hill played Dan Biggs in season 1 but was later replaced with Peter Graves (Jim Phelps) for seasons 2-7). The original crew of Martin Landau (Rollin Hand), Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain) Barney Collier (Greg Morris) and my personal fave, Willy Armitage (Pete Lupus). I honestly wished they had given him a bigger role in the beginning. With his Greek ancestry, he was gorgeous when he smiled but it's something that we never got a chance to see until the final two seasons where his role was expanded and he was interacting more within the scenarios that had to be completed for the tasks.
So it became a goal that I set for myself to watch the entire run of Mission:Impossible on Netflix. Yesterday I completed that goal and honestly, I was a bit sad! But I did learn a few things while watching the show and here are my top 5 things I learned while watching Mission:Impossible;
1. People react the same no matter where they live. Almost every task given to the MI team was planned using peoples carefully planned reactions to certain stimuli. For example, if the team knew that you were a highly paranoid dictator in some fake European country, they would set up your second in command to look like he was betraying you. Your paranoia kicks in and viola! dead dictator and country headed towards free elections!
2. You can be sexy without being slutty. Let's take Cinnamon Carter for example here. Cinnamon exuded sex appeal, indeed her cover for spying was the fact that she was a high fashion model and VERY well known due to her looks. Most of the series was shot in the 60's with Cinnamon appearing in the first 4 years. She could really carry off sensual and sexy in her 60's attire as well as her hair and makeup. But you never ever saw her go beyond kissing a guy. She could hook a guy but she still made kicking him to the curb look sexy.
3. Never judge a book by its cover. Rollin Hand was a master of disguise and could imitate anyone's voice. Invariably he took over someone's identity to further the master plan along. Of course everyone was fooled, much to their later dismay and had they but checked a little deeper, they may have just seen their doom coming towards them.
4. Being a nerd is very cool. Barney was the electronics guru of the day. He always had the latest gadgets for the team to use and whatever else they needed to have done, he did it. I think most of the MI missions would have been complete and total disasters had it not been for his interest in electronics and all things mechanical.
5. There are some things in life where failing isn't an option. I think I enjoyed the first 4 years of this series the best. They were always saving some country from an evil dictator or some evil external influence. Of course most of these shows were filmed at the height of the Cold War so it's not surprising that we saw so many of these types of scenarios. But failing was never an option because so much was at stake. The same goes for me too...giving up or quitting my job hunt isn't an option.
I will miss all my MI friends...thank you for letting me hang around for a bit.
And for those of you who enjoyed the theme for the show done by Lalo Schifrin, here ya go...enjoy!!
http://youtu.be/mWGeRgFa-hI
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