MovieChat Forums > Mission: Impossible (1966) Discussion > Different IMF Team Leader in 1st Season

Different IMF Team Leader in 1st Season

posted 5 years ago by harro (474)
6 replies | jump to latest

Honest to God I thought I'd seen most of the episodes of this classic TV series when it was re-run late at night on an Australian TV channel back in the early 1990s. Now 27 years on from then with Mission Impossible once again being re-run on an Australian (digital) TV channel late at night, I simply had to watch an episode out of curiosity to see whether I got into it as much as I did back then. I ended up being shocked, there was no Jim Phelps and some guy names Dan Briggs was in charge, LOL. I must never ever have seen any episode from the first season (1966) before. I I knew a few different team members came and went from the series through out its duration, but I had no idea that there was a different leader before Jim.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I wish they had continued with Dan Briggs into season 2.

[–] BlissNEsb (108) 5 years ago

Sounds like you experienced the Mandela Effect.

Steven Hill is pretty great as Dan Briggs, he had a very stoic screen pressence.

[–] Destinata (2601) 5 years ago

I loved him! I was pretty young when this first came on, and it was my first experience with someone being replaced on a series...at least, that I can remember. I felt crushed. Then they put Leonard Nimoy into the mix, and the result was jarring.

[–] BlissNEsb (108) 5 years ago

I understand the disappointment, but Peter Graves is great. And personally I loved Nimoy as Paris. My biggest disappointment were the women post Season 3, nobody could replace Barbara Bain and felt more like token eye-candy.

[–] vranger (444) 5 years ago

Steven Hill had a religious issue with the shooting schedule, which put pressure on him to film on the Sabbath. Otherwise you'd have never seen Peter Graves on the series. I have nothing against Hill (and he was great as the DA on Law and Order), but overall I prefer Graves.

[–] PaladinNJ (20310) a year ago

I preferred Peter Graves as well.
Steven Hill was Orthodox Jewish. He couldn't shoot on the Sabbath.