Mission: Impossible (1988 TV series)

Mission: Impossible
1988 season DVD set cover
Genre	Action/Adventure
Created by	Bruce Geller
Starring	Peter Graves Thaao Penghlis Tony Hamilton Phil Morris Terry Markwell Jane Badler Bob Johnson
Theme music composer	Lalo Schifrin
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	35 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	46–49 minutes
Production company(s)	Paramount Network Television
Distributor	CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original network	ABC
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	October 23, 1988 – February 24, 1990
Chronology
Related shows	Mission: Impossible (1966)

Mission: Impossible is an American television series that chronicles the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). The show is a revival of the 1966 TV series of the same name. The only actor to return for the series as a regular cast member was Peter Graves who played Jim Phelps, although two other cast members from the original series (Greg Morris and Lynda Day George) returned as guest stars. The only other regular cast member (unseen) to return for every episode was the voice of "The Tape" (in this series, "The Disc"), Bob Johnson.

The events of the series take place 15 years after the last season of the original Mission: Impossible TV series. After his protégé and successor as leader of the top-secret Impossible Missions Force is killed, Jim Phelps is called out of retirement and asked to form a new IMF team and track down the assassin.

His team consists of Nicholas Black, a disguise expert and actor; Max Harte, a strongman; Casey Randall, a model-turned-agent; and Grant Collier, the son of Barney Collier, the IMF's original technology expert, and a technical genius in his own right. After finding the killer, Jim decides to stay on and keep the team together. Midway through season 1, Casey is killed during a mission (becoming the first ongoing IMF agent to be disavowed), and Secret Service agent Shannon Reed succeeds her for the remainder of the series. With the exception of this cast change, Phelps' team remains constant throughout the series.

In 1988, the American fall television season was hampered by a writers' strike that prevented the commissioning of new scripts. Producers, anxious to provide new product for viewers but with the prospect of a lengthy strike, went into the vaults for previously written material. ABC decided to launch a new Mission: Impossible series, with a mostly new cast (except for Graves, who would return as Phelps), but using scripts from the original series, suitably updated. To save even more on production costs, the series was filmed in Australia; the first season in Queensland, and the second season in Melbourne. Costs were, at that time, some 20 percent lower in Australia compared with Hollywood. The new Mission: Impossible was one of the first American commercial network programs to be filmed in Australia. The show's core cast included several Australian actors, and numerous Australians (along with Australian-based American and British actors) were also cast in guest roles.