PIONEERS OF TELEVISION | Peter Graves on the fun of doing "Mission:Impossible" | PBS

[ZoneFighter1]

Nothing funny about it, those movies suck. Turning it down was the right thing.

[Onlymusical]

He was offered the part of Phelps in the Tom Cruise movie version but turned it down. (He shouldn't have, though, it's a funny concept to turn a long-term TV hero into a villain decades later).

[MrLunitunz]

@Onlymusical If he agreed to do it he would have lost all his right to complain when they totally butchered his character and the franchise in general. At least without him in it M:I fans can claim the movies as being in discontinuity.

[Onlymusical]

@MrLunitunz That's true. I'm not a huge fan of the original series myself, I'm not exactly sure why, but it was fascinating to see an ensemble show be converted into one of those purely star-driven endeavors that make today's movies so much less satisfying because, as William Goldman writes about so eloquently, the star has to be in practically every shot. The other team members barely existed, to the point that I can't remember any of them except Scott-Thomas, killed in Prague at the start.

[MrLunitunz]

@Onlymusical That's the point. It was an ensemble show, and the concept was that of an ensemble show. When you take a strong ensemble show and replace the ensemble with Tom Cruise and a few other lesser known actors, it's no longer an adaptation of that show. Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible films were a classic case of 'In Name Only'. The fans would have probably cared less if they got a better star than Tom Cruise to play the lead.

[Onlymusical]

@MrLunitunz And the irony is that Hollywood's frequently looking for something to do as an ensemble piece (like "The Avengers" or that recent Stallone thing) and here's something that's so obviously an ensemble that they chose to shove kicking and screaming into the routine single-star formula. It would've been a real shocker, though, had Graves accepted the part, effectively repudiating his bland character in the original series (well, HE was Reaganesquely bland) and going for a real surprise.

[MrLunitunz]

@Onlymusical The Mission Impossible movies represent a lot of wasted potential.

And yeah, I agree, it would have been a shocker for Graves to completely change it up. But they had episodes on the series, certainly on the '88 season where Graves did something completely unexpected with his character, something exciting, and they didn't have to compromise the integrity of the character to do it. That, in itself, deserves respect.

[Onlymusical]

@MrLunitunz I'm intrigued and never saw the '88 series except for clips. What did they do? Give him a grown kid who becomes an MI operative? (That's just a guess but I'd be shocked if it isn't correct.)

[MrLunitunz]

@Onlymusical Nothing like that, although given Phelp's age I wouldn't be surprised if he had a few kids kicking around.

No, they had one episode where Phelps was a serial killer who targeted former IMF female team members. It wasn't actually Phelps, but a former IMF technician who posed as Phelps to frame him. Nevertheless, when he had Phelps' face he was Peter Graves and thus it demonstrated Graves' range, he could actually be quite scary.