Mission Impossible: Daniel Dan Briggs’s (Steven Hill) main role in the team was as its captain; he received the instructions from the Voice on Tape, and selected and coordinated the best people for the mission at hand. The team frequently consisted of Cinnamon Carter, Willy Armitage, Barney Collier and Rollin Hand, although Briggs did not always use all of these team members and often also used other agents. He would brief the team, then if needed, hand out extra disguises or devices. Though Briggs played a significant role in many of the first season missions, he was not an active participant in 7 of the 27 missions he co-ordinated—after the mission briefings for these particular 7 missions, Briggs did not join the team in the actual execution of the plan, evidently confident that his hand-picked team would succeed without his direct involvement. As was the case with most characters in the series, Briggss background and personal life were never explored in detail. The first mission of the series indicated that he had not worked with the IMF for some time prior to that mission. (The Voice on Tape ended the first missions instructions with the statement, I hope its welcome back, Dan. Its been a while.) Another mission, Old Man Out, revealed that he had once romanced an IMF agent played by Mary Ann Mobley. The only other insight into Briggss personal life was his one off-book mission, The Ransom, where the daughter of a personal friend of Briggs, a school teacher, is kidnapped in order to force Briggs to deliver a mob informant from police custody before he can testify before the grand jury. Briggs was depicted at times as a cold, calculating character, quite willing to kill in order to complete a mission. Notably, he was the only member of the IMF shown personally killing a non-target in anything other than self-defense, when he ambushed and killed a sentry to get through a checkpoint in The Carriers.At other times, he exhibited a fatherlike attitude towards his agents, and was frequently seen smiling encouragement and patting shoulders as missions progressed. Several episodes, such as Shock, revealed that Briggs had acting, voice mimicry and disguise abilities similar to those of one of his agents, Rollin Hand. At the start of the second season, James Phelps took over as lead of the IMF Team and no on-air explanation was offered for Briggss disappearance. The real-life reason was that actor Steven Hills Orthodox Jewish religious beliefs often conflicted with the shooting schedule, making it difficult for the production crew to meet deadlines. By mutual consent, his contract was not renewed for Season Two.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 22:35:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015