Mission:Impossible! & TOS

[Christopher]

There's one episode, from Season 3 I think, that takes place in a redress of Stalag 13 (Hogan's Heroes). Talk about taking you out of the story! In this case, that wasn't so bad. This was one of the few earlier episodes that pretty much stunk.

If you're talking about season 2's "Trial by Fury" with Paul Winfield, I consider that one of the series' finest episodes, a tense, gripping departure from the usual, bland formula of the team's plans playing out like clockwork. (My blog review.) I don't know if there was a season 3 episode shot there too.

The "Stalag 13" location was built on Desilu's (formerly RKO's) Forty Acres backlot in Culver City, where M:I and Star Trek did abundant location filming. Andy Griffith's Mayberry was also there, and served as street locations in many M:I and ST episodes (there's a shot in "City on the Edge of Forever" where you can actually see the "Floyd's Barber Shop" sign in a window behind Kirk and Edith Keeler). The "Arab village" portion of the backlot was also seen often in both shows, for instance serving as Organia in "Errand of Mercy." More info on the backlot:

http://www.retroweb.com/40acres.html

Stalag 13 was built on the same part of the backlot formerly occupied by the Tara exteriors from Gone With the Wind.

I'm pretty sure that "Mr. Leslie" appears in the series pilot; he's in one of the hotel vault scenes.

That's right, he was there too, and maybe one other time in the first season.

 

[Steve67]

I'm pretty sure that "Mr. Leslie" appears in the series pilot; he's in one of the hotel vault scenes.

That's right, he was there too, and maybe one other time in the first season.

I thought that he was also in "The Carriers", but I'm not certain.

 

[Christopher]

IMDb claims Paskey appeared in "The Carriers," but I don't recall it.

 

[kkozoriz1]

It's too bad TOS didn't go on to seven seasons as well, but that's an age-old lament.

Look on the bright side. We`re spared Tom Cruise in the Trek movies.

 

[froot]

The episode in question is Season 1, Episode 10: "The Carriers". It's on YouTube and the corridors you mention are in this segment starting about 6:40 in. I don't think they are Trek sets, but the arches are probably stock from the scenery dock and doubtless appeared in some Trek episodes.

Ah, that's it; thank you for the info, guys! The thing with the go-go dancers was hilarious.

I guess it was just similar set pieces, then. I also recall that elevator was in like every damn episode I watched, as Christopher mentioned. I was also about two margaritas and a beer into the evening when I watched that episode as well.

And, yes, thank goodness Tom Cruise stayed mercifully away from the Trek movies. There was that little scare with Matt Damon supposedly being cast for Kirk, but we dodged that bullet as well.

 

[Therin of Andor]

so it's pretty cool to learn the two were basically sister shows.

Grace Lee Whitney reckoned that Barbara Bain and Martin Landau used to drop over to Star Trek all the time, wanting to play with the phasers and tricorders - and their keen interest in SF TV is how they came to star in "Space: 1999". Greg Morris got his young son, Phil, his first acting job in "Miri".

 

[EnsignHarper]

This is so odd I found this thread! I was just watching Season 1 of Mission: Impossible today, and there was an episode where George Takei was a guest star, and I swear to Q there was a scene where they were in the Enterprise corridors. The only difference was that the doors were painted green and had rivets. I thought I was just crazy.

The episode in question is Season 1, Episode 10: "The Carriers". It's on YouTube and the corridors you mention are in this segment starting about 6:40 in. I don't think they are Trek sets, but the arches are probably stock from the scenery dock and doubtless appeared in some Trek episodes.

Speaking of Trek connections, that's Barry (Commodore Wesley) Russo there!

Desilu really was a small world unto itself.....

 

[Forbin]

Those early M:I episodes - Barbara Bain was a breathtaking beauty! If you could get used to the yellow smoker's teeth.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Mission: Impossible is the best tv show ever made in America (apart from The Fugitive maybe). Certainly Mission and Star Trek are in my top five of American shows - it's astounding really how Herb Solow revitalized Desilu's tv production and introduced these two amazing and innovative shows in the same season - it must have been such a creative melting pot in the studio in those days.

 

[Maurice]

I'm pretty sure that "Mr. Leslie" appears in the series pilot; he's in one of the hotel vault scenes.

Sorry to bump this, but I just watched that last night and busted out laughing when I saw him. It's him all right!

Also, the vault door that appears in the M:I pilot is the same one used in Assignment: Earth. The outside detailing on both is virtually identical...probably a stock piece from the Desilu scene dock.

 

[EnsignHarper]

Mission: Impossible is the best tv show ever made in America (apart from The Fugitive maybe). Certainly Mission and Star Trek are in my top five of American shows - it's astounding really how Herb Solow revitalized Desilu's tv production and introduced these two amazing and innovative shows in the same season - it must have been such a creative melting pot in the studio in those days.

Yeah, and both shows were so expensive to do, Desilu almost went bankrupt, and NEEDED for Paramount to buy it. And that deal is STILL one of the biggest bargains in showbiz history...although no one, including Paramount, knew exactly they were getting with Trek AND M:I

 

[Myko]

Still no name for the episode where Frank da Vinci appears, as mentioned in the original post?

 

[toonloon]

Robert Evans, in his autobiography "The Kid Stays in the Picture" mentions that he suggested buying Desilu to Charlie Bluhdorn as a way of aquiring some extra land. He didn't mention Star Trek or MI, so it didn't sound to me like he was bragging. If I'd secured what turned out to be billion dollar franchises for a company I worked for, I'd be singing it from the roof tops.

 

[Hambone]

Hey. Did he just flip me off?!!

 

[Forbin]

No, that's the Vulcan hand gesture for "Found it!"

 

[EnsignHarper]

Robert Evans, in his autobiography "The Kid Stays in the Picture" mentions that he suggested buying Desilu to Charlie Bluhdorn as a way of aquiring some extra land. He didn't mention Star Trek or MI, so it didn't sound to me like he was bragging. If I'd secured what turned out to be billion dollar franchises for a company I worked for, I'd be singing it from the roof tops.

i have never actually read Evans' book, but he is/was a VERY sharp guy, and would be the first admit he had no clue about what that expensive little show that Desilu had would mean to Paramount. If you hav ever seen a picture of the Desilu plant - like in INSIDE STAR TREK, the MAIN reason Paramount bought Desilu, like Evans said, was because the two studios sat cheek and jowl next to each other on Gower Ave in Hollywood. Paramount sold off all of the other properties Desilu owned - including the Forty Acres backlot, and the Desilu - Culver studio where the Trek pilots were filmed, and knocked the wall down between the two studios. To give Paramount credit, this was when most of the other studios were cutting back on their studio space - like MGM and 20th Century Fox, for example.

Trek happened to be in that deal the equivalent of buying a house and finding out years later that the old painting in the corner of the attic is actually an original Rembrandt or something....

 

[Keith1701]

I think there's one episode where Nimoy's character is talking to mark Lenard. It was pretty cool

Yes, it was....

 

[Christopher]

I find it amusing that one of Mark Lenard's M:I episodes is called "Trek." Not only that, but it's scored by Gerald Fried ("Shore Leave," "Amok Time," etc.).

 

[Forbin]

You'll also see a certain Romulan subcommander show up from time to time, and even Apollo, IIRC!

 

[GSchnitzer]

In the fourth season episode "The Amnesiac," Paris has to impersonate the look, voice, mannerisms, and artistic drawing ability of "Otto Silff." Silff perished a couple of years ago in a car crash, but the IMF team is trying to convince others that Silff has actually been alive all this time and is an amnesiac. The slightly different looks between the old Silff and the new Silf (Paris) is due to his reconstructive surgery.

We never see Silff, since he's been dead for a couple of years, but the IMF team has some pictures of him to work with:

And, yes, it's Frank da Vinci in the photos--in an uncredited "role."

Still no name for the episode where Frank da Vinci appears, as mentioned in the original post?