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Paris, Barney, Dana, Willy, Jim
Season 5, 1970/71, 23 episodes
Producer Bruce Lansbury, except where indicated
Regular Team: Jim, Paris, Dana, Barney, Willy/Doug
The opening credits for season 5 were:
SAM ELLIOTT appears in Peter Lupus's place in the credits of the shows he appears in, when Peter Lupus is absent. In the shows in which they both appear, only Peter Lupus's name appears in the opening credits, and Sam Elliott is shown as a guest star.
The ratings had slipped during season four, so it was decided to reintroduce a regular female character, and Lesley Ann Warren was recruited to play Dana Lambert. Dana was probably the least versatile of the regular female operatives employed by the Impossible Missions Force, and Lesley Warren, although a versatile actress, was normally given little to do apart from acting as a "romantic lure". Bruce Lansbury, the regular producer for season five, also wanted a younger and more "skilful" replacement for Willy, and Sam Elliott was brought in to play Doctor Doug Robert (aka Lang). However, Peter Lupus proved to have a much larger fan following than the producers had realised, and they were forced to bring back Willy, although Peter Lupus was initially reluctant to return. Lupus appeared in eleven shows, Elliott in ten, and they both appeared in the other two (details in the table).
Season five saw the start of IMF's bigger "domestic" role. In the first four seasons they had roamed the globe — mainly Europe and South America — but now they operated closer to home, coming up against organised crime, or "The Syndicate" as it was normally called, in the United States. This started with a few of the season five stories, becoming more pronounced in the last two seasons.
The format of the show was also changed for this season. Up to now, almost every show had opened in the same way: the IMF leader (initially Dan Briggs, later Jim Phelps) would find a hidden recording, usually a tape, but sometimes a record or even a what-the-butler-saw machine, and a packet of photographs. This would give him his mission, should he choose to accept it, and the tape, or whatever, would then self destruct or be destroyed. In the second scene, Jim or Dan would choose his team from a batch of photographs in a black folder. The third scene was set in Jim or Dan's apartment, when the chosen team would go over part of the mission. Although the second scene was often omitted as the audience grew more familiar with the show, for the fifth season, all three scenes were eliminated, and the mission was sometimes already in progress as the show opened. This removal of the "trademark" elements of the show proved a mistake, and the tape and apartment scenes were reinstated by the middle of the season.
| Transmission Date |
Episode No |
Season No |
TX Order |
Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Oct 1970 | 102 | E1 | 7 | Butterfly # |
| 10 Oct 1970 | 103 | E2 | 4 | Homecoming # |
| 28 Nov 1970 | 104 | E3 | 11 | The Rebel + |
| 19 Sep 1970 | 105 | E4 | 1 | The Killer # |
| 26 Sep 1970 | 106 | E5 | 2 | Flip Side # |
| 25 Oct 1970 | 107 | E6 | 6 | My Friend, My Enemy? * + |
| 3 Oct 1970 | 108 | E7 | 3 | The Innocent # + |
| 7 Nov 1970 | 109 | E8 | 8 | Decoy # |
| 17 Oct 1970 | 110 | E9 | 5 | Flight + |
| 21 Nov 1970 | 111 | E10 | 10 | Hunted + |
| 14 Nov 1970 | 112 | E11 | 9 | The Amateur * + |
| 6 Feb 1971 | 113 | E12 | 19 | The Catafalque + |
| 12 Dec 1970 | 114 | E13 | 12 | Squeeze Play # |
| 17 Mar 1971 | 115 | E14 | 23 | The Merchant # |
| 9 Jan 1971 | 116 | E15 | 15 | Cat's Paw * # |
| 19 Dec 1970 | 117 | E16 | 13 | The Hostage + |
| 2 Jan 1971 | 118 | E17 | 14 | Takeover * + |
| 16 Jan 1971 | 119 | E18 | 16 | The Missile # |
| 20 Feb 1971 | 120 | E19 | 20 | Kitara * + |
| 23 Jan 1971 | 121 | E20 | 17 | The Field * + |
| 30 Jan 1971 | 122 | E21 | 18 | Blast # |
| 27 Feb 1971 | 123 | E22 | 21 | A Ghost Story # |
| 6 Mar 1971 | 124 | E23 | 22 | The Party # + |
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* Producer Laurence Heath # Willy + Doug |
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Episodes were often not broadcast in the same order that they were produced, especially at the begining of a season. I have therefore given three numbers in this table.
The episode number represents the production order over the entire series, the season number represents the episode production order within the season, and TX Order represents the original transmission order.
For example, Butterfly was the 102nd episode made, the first season five episode made, but the seventh shown.
Click on the links in the list to see a brief synopsis of the episode. (No spoilers.)
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