Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)

Mission: Impossible
Genre
Created byBruce Geller
StarringSteven Hill
Martin Landau
Barbara Bain
Greg Morris
Peter Lupus
Peter Graves
Leonard Nimoy
Lee Meriwether
Lesley Ann Warren
Sam Elliott
Lynda Day George
Barbara Anderson
Theme music composerLalo Schifrin
Opening theme"Theme from Mission: Impossible"
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons7
No. of episodes171 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time50-51 minutes
Production companiesDesilu Productions
(1966–1968)
(seasons 1–2)
Paramount Television
(1968–1973)
(seasons 2–7)
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 17, 1966 (1966-09-17) 
March 30, 1973 (1973-03-30)
Related
Mission: Impossible (1988–1990)

Mission: Impossible is an American espionage television series financed and produced by Desilu Productions that aired on CBS for seven seasons from September 17, 1966, to March 30, 1973. It was revived in 1988 for two seasons on ABC, and later inspired the series of theatrical motion pictures starring Tom Cruise beginning in 1996.

Created and initially produced by Bruce Geller, the show chronicled the exploits of a small team of covert government agents, known as the Impossible Missions Force, and their sophisticated methods of deceiving, manipulating and thwarting, amongst others, hostile Iron Curtain governments, third-world dictators, corrupt industrialists, and crime lords.

In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs (played by Steven Hill); Jim Phelps (played by Peter Graves) takes charge for the six remaining seasons. Briggs and Phelps usually assemble the same core team of agents, all of whom have careers and some degree of celebrity outside of espionage. The team is occasionally supplemented by other specialists.