
Scripted series · CBS
Mission: Impossible
Failure impossible.
Who's in it
Cast
The principal ensemble across the run of the series.
The Nutevio profile
TV DNA
How Mission: Impossible actually feels to watch, measured on the traits our editors track across every series.
Signature profile
Mission: Impossible reads strongest on Character Depth, Bingeability and Emotional Weight.
How fully written and psychologically layered the ensemble is.
How hard it is to stop after one episode.
How much the series is designed to affect you.
Visual ambition — scale, craft and set-piece filmmaking.
The sustained pressure the series keeps you under.
How much each hour depends on the one before it.
How often an episode ends on a hook you can't ignore.
The scale, internal logic and texture of the world.
How often the series is genuinely funny, by design.
The story
What it's about
Mission: Impossible is an American television series that was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicles the missions of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill; Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, takes charge for the remaining seasons. A hallmark of the series shows Briggs or Phelps receiving his instructions on a recording that then self-destructs, followed by the theme music composed by Lalo Schifrin.
The series aired on the CBS network from September 1966 to March 1973, then returned to television for two seasons on ABC, from 1988 to 1990, retaining only Graves in the cast. It later inspired a popular series of theatrical motion pictures starring Tom Cruise, beginning in 1996.
The run
Seasons
7 seasons · 171 episodes.

Season 1 · Complete
Season 1
196628 episodes
6.4IMDbBest episode · S01E08 The Ransom

Season 2 · Complete
Season 2
196725 episodes
5.0IMDb
Season 3 · Complete
Season 3
196825 episodes
5.1IMDb
Season 4 · Complete
Season 4
196926 episodes
6.3IMDb
Season 5 · Complete
Season 5
197023 episodes
6.5IMDbBest episode · S05E18 Blast

Season 6 · Complete
Season 6
197122 episodes
6.2IMDb
Season 7 · Complete
Season 7
197222 episodes
6.4IMDbBest episode · S07E03 The Deal
Where the series peaks
Best Episodes
The hours that define the show, ranked by audience response and editorial signal.

S01E01
Pilot
IMF team leader Dan Briggs assembles his team for the first time. The mission: to recover two nuclear warheads belonging to General Rio Dominguez from a hotel vault in Santa Costa. Jim and Willy sneak safecracker Terry Targo into the vault, who figures out how to get out. The team then captures Dominguez but Targo's fingers are broken in the attempt. With no other alternative, Briggs has himself and Dominguez put into the vault, and Briggs threatens to enter a random combination if Alicio doesn't tell him the code. Dominguez breaks. With the bombs defused, Willy takes the warheads out of the vault. Briggs remains behind and uses the information Targo gathered earlier to get out during a fireworks distraction set off by Barney. Briggs and the rest of the team make a desperate race for safety and get onto a plane heading to safety seconds before the military can catch up to them.
- Directed by Bernard L. Kowalski
- Written by Bruce Geller

S01E03
Operation Rogosh
Imry Rogosh is a mass murderer who kills to forment political upheaval. He is targeting Los Angeles, so the IMF knock him out in a car accident. When Rogosh ""wakes up"" he is in a cell in a prison in his own country, three years later, and ready to be executed as an American agent. To "prove" his loyalty to the cause, Rogosh has to spill the information on his secret operation, but during the mock trial a slip-up cues him in on the ruse. Briggs has to act fast to get Rogosh to reveal the plan to kill the citizens of Los Angeles.
- Directed by Leonard Horn
- Written by Jerome Ross

S01E02
Memory
The IMF must undermine ""the Butcher of the Balkans"", Janos Karq, by having his head of security capture an agent, Sparrow, who will then incriminate Karq. To pull off the ruse, they need a memory expert, Baresh, who can memorize the necessary information in the short time allowed and pretend to be Sparrow. Baresh will later be traded back. However, during a faked ""rescue"" to make Sparrow look more convincing, Baresh gets a look at Soska's master list of agents, and the team must rescue him from the prison immediately to get the information.
- Directed by Charles R. Rondeau
- Written by Robert Lewin

S01E05
Old Man Out (2)
Rollin manages to avoid the guards and escape, but Vossek is moved to a new cell in solitary confinement. Briggs comes up with a new plan and manages to relay it to the imprisoned Rollin. They manage to do so, and manage to rescue Vossek from the prison. With Barney providing distraction as a clown, the team manages to get Vossek over the border before Vossek's captors can catch up to them.
- Directed by Charles R. Rondeau
- Written by Ellis Marcus

S01E04
Old Man Out (1)
The IMF team goes in as a circus team to rescue Anton Cardinal Vossek, who is being held in the impregnable Seravno Prison. Vossek is the leader of the country's freedom movement, in rebellion against Colonel Scutari, and is awaiting a fake trial before execution. With the aid of circus acrobat Crystal Walker, the team must get Vossek out. To do so, Rollin fakes being a pickpocket so as to be arrested. Once inside Servano, he has to sneak through the prison and get Vossek out of his cell as a test run for the next day...only for the guards to interrupt at an inopportune moment.
- Directed by Charles R. Rondeau
- Written by Ellis Marcus
Behind the series
Created by
Showrunners, creators, executive producers and the writers who set the voice of the series.

Bruce Geller
Showrunner
- Photo unavailable
Richard M. Sakal
Writer
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Ronald Austin
Writer
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Laurence Heath
Writer
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Arthur Rowe
Writer
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Jackson Gillis
Writer
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Robert Hamner
Writer
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Barney Slater
Writer

James Griffith
Writer
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Howard Browne
Writer
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Judy Burns
Writer
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Jerome Ross
Writer

Leigh Chapman
Writer
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Ed Adamson
Writer
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Robert Lewin
Writer
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Gene R. Kearney
Writer
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Robert Guy Barrows
Writer
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Arthur Weiss
Writer
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John D.F. Black
Writer
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Chester Krumholz
Writer
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Donald James
Writer
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John T. Dugan
Writer

Julian Barry
Writer
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Daniel B. Ullman
Writer
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Lou Shaw
Writer
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Judith Barrows
Writer
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Max Hodge
Writer
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Allan Balter
Writer
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Jerrold L. Ludwig
Writer
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Paul Playdon
Writer
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Howard Berk
Writer
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James L. Henderson
Writer
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Edward J. Lakso
Writer
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Ellis Marcus
Writer
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John O'Dea
Writer
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Robert E. Thompson
Writer
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Mann Rubin
Writer
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Leigh Vance
Writer
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Helen Hoblock Thompson
Writer

Buck Houghton
Writer

Harold Livingston
Writer
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Ken Pettus
Writer
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William Read Woodfield
Writer
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Sy Salkowitz
Writer
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Marc Norman
Writer
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Samuel Roeca
Writer
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John D. F. Black
Writer
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James D. Buchanan
Writer
The craft
Key Crew
Directing, writing, production, camera, music and editing.
Executive production
- Robert H. JustmanProducer
- Bruce GellerExecutive Producer
- Allan BalterProducer
- Joseph GantmanProducer
- Barry CraneProducer
Writing
- Richard M. SakalWriter
- Ronald AustinWriter
- Laurence HeathWriter
- Arthur RoweWriter
- Jackson GillisWriter
- Robert HamnerWriter
Direction
- Robert DouglasDirector
- Sutton RoleyDirector
- Harry HarrisDirector
- Sherman MarksDirector
- Allen H. MinerDirector
- Herschel DaughertyDirector
Cinematography
- Paul UhlDirector of Photography
- Ronald W. BrowneDirector of Photography
- Gerald Perry FinnermanDirector of Photography
- Keith C. SmithDirector of Photography
- Gert AndersenDirector of Photography
- Robert B. HauserDirector of Photography
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
- Amazon VideoBuy
- Apple TV StoreBuy
- Paramount Plus PremiumStreaming
- Paramount Plus EssentialStreaming
- Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel Streaming
- Paramount+ Amazon ChannelStreaming
- Fandango At HomeBuy
- Paramount+ Roku Premium ChannelStreaming
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