Mission: Impossible was basically more a heist/caper show than a spy show, inspired by Topkapi and the like. But network censors wouldn't allow portraying criminals as protagonists, so they had to be intelligence agents pulling their scams and heists against enemy countries, terrorists, and mobsters in the name of global peace and security.
Still, the IMF was officially banned from committing overt assassination, as spelled out in the pilot. Hence the need for the elaborate capers and schemes to stymie the bad guys' plans. As a rule, they only shot people in self-defense. However, sometimes their stratagems were designed to maneuver the marks into killing each other, or to make a government official appear to be a traitor so he'd get killed by his superiors. So it was rather hypocritical to treat that as different from assassination.
I wouldn't really call the IMF team antiheroes, though, since they had very little personality of their own, mostly subsuming themselves into the roles they played. And when they did show their own personality, they were always played as friendly, likeable people and loyal friends. I think making moral compromises as a spy isn't really being an antihero, because that's more about the demands of the job than about who a person is. What makes James Bond an antihero is how much he seems to relish the dark things he does. The IMF characters were just doing a job, meticulously and dispassionately.
Reposted from the 'Classic/Retro Rewatch' Thread. This comes from the opening chapter of 'The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier' book.
David Geller wrote two drafts for what would become “Mission: Impossible”
In the first draft, “Briggs’ Squad” was described as thus . . .
“. . . Formerly a Special Forces group that performed wartime missions”, “often incredibly hazardous and totally without reward because the government of the United States must disavow any knowledge of these particular activities. Once, in a country in a crisis, the group of men . . . were pulled together to do a job. It was the first job of five years work under the leadership of Lt. Col. David Briggs, for what had come to be known, unofficially, to the few men who knew of its existence, as “Briggs’ Squad”.
The team consisted of Albert Ney, a wheeler-dealer “who never owns anything longer than it takes to turn over a profit”; Jack Smith, who “does not know what a woman means by the word “No,” never – not once in his life – ever having heard it”; Barney Collier (Greg Morris), “expert at ballistics, demolition, submarine vessels,” possessor of a “graduate degree in bioelectric chemical engineering, permutative mathematics, microphysics”, and “a cheating 21 dealer and compulsive gambler”; Willy “The Arm” Armitage (Peter Lupus), “ugly, ill-educated, inept,” “possibly the strongest man in the world”, and “a woman-beating strip joint bouncer”; “Little” Terry Targo (Wally Cox), a mild-mannered martial arts expert, “three time felony offender,” and professional hit man; and Martin Land (Martin Landau), “a master of disguise, quick change, a superb pickpocket, fluent in fifteen languages, able to hold his breath for six or seven minutes,” and, above all a master magician and thief.
Their leader is David (later Dan) Briggs (Steven Hill), who explains his team, “I once led them, and, for better or for worse, I turned them into what they are . . . In each case I have made them unfit to live like normal human beings. Call it because of a death wish, a compulsion, a streak of larceny, competitive instinct, a desire for adventure, or just the lure for life, one way or another, each of them seems destined to end up in the electric chair or serving a long term in prison – unless – unless I, the responsible party, can channel all this that I have made . . . I am a PhD in analytical psychology and highly paid as a behavioral analyst. All this means is that I am an expert in human being, i.e., one of the world’s greatest guessers.”
The mission as described in the first draft of “Briggs’ Squad” would have the squad use a WWII Japanese midget submarine to board a yacht, surrounded by three destroyers, containing the stolen wealth of the Indies and steal it back for the country.
This story and the characters Albert Ney and Jack Smith were dropped when Geller wrote the second draft, which would become the script and pilot episode of “Mission: Impossible”.
To replace Albert Ney and Jack Smith, Geller created Cinnamon (Barbara Bain), “an absolutely stunning woman in her twenties” who is “a total waste of a woman. Hooked on alcohol and narcotics.”
Geller added, “This group of men may attempt anything. Briggs’ Squad may have to be given a semiofficial status (unknown to any of them but Briggs) by which they are performing their services for the United States government without any official aegis and with Briggs’ full awareness that if they are caught they will have to take the full rap as the government will not acknowledge any awareness of their existence.”
They are, “a private group, not a government group. It always works on the right side. It takes on delicate assignments for the government or anyone. Such as if the CIA doesn’t want to be directly involved in a case . . . Sometimes, because of circumstances, the FBI, New York police, or California sheriffs can’t enter into a situation – then they hire this group . . .”
The show was designed to only have three regular characters: Briggs, Cinnamon, and Barney. “Some missions require skills they don’t have,” said Geller, “so they go outside, and that’s when a guest star comes in.” A variety of “guest spies” . . . would be used when necessary. Some would even be killed in action to generate suspense.
By the time the pilot went to series, Willy had been added to the cast as regular and Martin Land was rechristened “Rollin Hand”, appearing as a “Special Guest Star” because Martin Landau did not want to be tied down to a series, as he felt it would hurt his movie career. Of course, he would be brought back throughout the first season as Steven Hill acted up and was eventually suspended from the series.
At the start of the second season, Steven Hill was replaced by Peter Graves as Jim Phelps, who “graduated from college, served in the Korean war, then on to a career with Pan Am Airways.” One day Jim came home to his New York apartment and found a message on his record player.
And that there, is the genesis of “Mission: Impossible” and its cast.
