QUARANTINE BLOG # 82

June 20, 2020

“As always, should you or any of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.”

I Spy may have started the secret agent TV series.  Solo and Kuryakin may have been your U.N.C.L.E’s definition of suave.  But the Impossible Missions Force tops them all for ingenuity, music, drama, and just good story telling.

Produced by Desilu Productions (which also produced Star Trek), Mission: Impossible premiered on CBS on September 17, 1966 and ran for 7 seasons.  It was revived in 1988 for two seasons on ABC.  The theatrical motion pictures starring Tom Cruise may be called Mission: Impossible, but they possess nothing of their namesake as led by Dan Briggs and Jim Phelps (and in the movies, Jim Phelps was a traitor for heaven’s sake!).

Each episode started with a fuse being lit.  As the fuse burned across the screen, clips from scenes in the current episode were shown (the hand holding the match was that of Bruce Geller, the show’s creator). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwpXUn2dF5c Episodes began with the leader of the IMF getting the assignment from a hidden recorder device – located in ingenious places and handed over at the repetition of elaborate passwords.  An envelope of photos and information explained the mission.  Recordings had a basic format: “Good morning, Mr. Briggs/Phelps,” “Your mission, should you decide to accept it,” then the warning of disavowal, and the notification, “This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.  Good luck, Dan/Jim.”

Here is the opening title and first scene of the MI pilot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65Ac4M5FSQg  The instructions to Mr. Briggs are on an LP (long playing record) sealed in plastic.  Opening it activated the time until self-destruct.

A Cold War subtext is present throughout the early series, and typical targets appeared to be leaders of fictional Soviet Bloc countries such as the “European People’s Republic” and the “Eastern European Republic.”  Police vehicles were  labeled as “poliiçia,” and “poliia,” and a gas line or tank would be labeled “Gäz,” for a sense of realism.  Uniforms resembled those of the Nazis or members of the Warsaw Pact.

After receiving the assignment Dan or Jim would open a leather portfolio containing dossiers of perspective agents.  While the ones chosen for the impossible mission were usually photographed in color (Willy was in B&W early on), the black and white potential candidates were actually members of the production cast and their families.  By the third season, Jim Phelps would only bring out the folder when it was necessary to introduce a guest agent.

When the team was gathered for the explanation of the mission and their assignments, they were all dressed in black and white or shades of grey, and the room in which they met was similarly colored.  Steven Hill – born Solomon Krakovsky (Dan Briggs – also district attorney Adam Schiff on Law & Order) once suggested that a small American flag be placed in the room, but producer Bruce Geller opted to stay with the black and white setting.

Let’s wrap this with a couple more interesting tid-bits from the series.  Martin Landau who played “the man of a million faces” auditioned for the part of Mr. Spock in Star Trek, and when Landau’s character, Rollin Hand, left MI, the expert in disguise was “The Great Paris,” played by Leonard Nimoy.

When MI was canceled, it ended run of the spy series.

Only Greg Morris (Barney) and Peter Lupus (Willy) were on all 7 seasons of the show.

And one of the most unusual “tributes” to Mission: Impossible appeared on the Carol Burnett Show in their third season.  “Mission: Improbable” featured Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Lyle Waggoner, and Flip Wilson (in his “Geraldine” character).  The sketch ended with Carol introducing “the first team,” and the audience greeted Peter Graves, Leonard Nimoy, Greg Morris, and Peter Lupus.

👉  A radio and television host from days gone by was Art Linkletter.  His show, House Party, ran on CBS radio and TV for 25 years.  One of the enduring segments was a piece called “Kids Say the Darndest Things.”  The little people would be asked questions or given a situation on which to comment and incredibly funny, and sometimes embarrassing things, would come out of their mouths.  Well, today we too say the darndest things, usually not knowing their origin.

Sometimes angry parents might threaten to “read the riot act” to their unruly children, but in 18th century England, the Riot Act was a real document, often recited aloud to angry mobs.  Instituted in 1715, the Riot Act gave the British government the authority to label any group of more than 12 people a threat to the peace.  In these circumstances, a public official would read a small portion of the Riot Act and order the people to “disperse themselves, and peaceably depart to their habitations.”  Anyone who remained after one hour was subject to arrest or removal by force.  Perhaps a 21st Century reenactment is in order?

👉  Mission: Impossible ran long today, so let’s stop here and feed on a closing piece by Rev. Linda Birchall.  Linda retires in 8 days – may her retirement be as enjoyable and fulfilling as ours is!

Linda says, “I took this selfie with this sweet woman in 2018 in the Kalemegdan Park in Belgrade, Serbia.  She was in her 90s and was still making handmade cards to sell to tourists.  Unlike many vendors in parks full of tourists, she was full of joy and life and she told me, in halting English, her joy came from God.”

“Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob,
    all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth,
    and have carried since you were born.
Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”
    (Isaiah 46:3-4)

May God bless this, His holy word.

Earlier this week I was talking about getting older and sometimes feeling useless.   Much of the time, that useless feeling is because of my deteriorating physical condition.  Let’s face it:  I really AM growing older.  It shows in my face, and I feel it in my bones.  My body does not perform the way it did when I was younger; my reflexes are slower, and I have more aches and pains.  But as I grow older, there’s at least a benefit or two.   For one thing, I realize I am also gaining new insights and a new kind of strength.

The Bible says that gray hair is a crown of glory (Proverbs 16:31).  What that means to me is that I am still able to do the work of the Lord.  I know that I actually have learned to take more time to read and meditate on scripture, pray, and listen to God’s voice than I did when I was younger.  Even though my hearing is not what it used to be (and all of you who have to repeat things to me know that!), I am growing more in tune with God’s voice.

I am growing more grateful for the Lord’s blessings.  My reactions may be a lot slower, but I am quicker to depend on God.  My eyesight might not be perfect, but I am able to see God’s greatness more than ever.   I am learning that with age comes spiritual maturity.

Perhaps even more importantly, I have learned that even with my gray hairs and old age, as Isaiah points out, God is still with me – God will sustain me.  He has made us and He will carry us, because his love never ends.

I hope that each of us, no matter what our age is, will always be mindful of the fact that God’s love will sustain us and help us, no matter what.  All we have to do is take time to listen, to love, and to pray.  God is here.  His love endures forever.

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