Mission: Impossible (often referred to as
Mission: Impossible: The Original Series) 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 original leader of the team was Daniel Briggs, portrayed by
Steven Hill; for the remainder of the show's run, the leader was
Jim Phelps, played by
Peter Graves.
The series aired on the
CBS network from September
1966 to March
1973. It returned to television, as
a revival, for two seasons on
ABC, from
1988 to
1990 and later inspired a popular trio of
theatrical motion pictures starring
Tom Cruise in the 1990s and 2000s.