Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: this is the closest that Game of Thrones / Song of Ice and Fire comes to family-friendly, a charming (if frequently 14+? 16+? 18+?) account of a hedge knight and his acquired squire, some years before the events of Game of Thrones. You don't have to track ten thousand characters, there are people who qualify as heroes, and there is a plot that resolves at the end of the season.
We picked up the book from the library. I think that my wife will be reading it first.
"The Hedge Knight", which is adapted by this first season of "Knight of the Seven Kingdoms", is highly recommended by me. It is a very approachable story and rather inspiring at times. The next two stories are also good, but somewhat more demanding of continuity awareness.
Tonight on ME-TV at 2AM Sunday night/Monday morning, they're starting Mission: Impossible from the beginning! The first season starred Stephan Hill, not Peter Graves. I never saw any first season episodes until I got it on DVD!
In a couple of ways, the first season of Mission: Impossible was its best. While I had no problem with Peter Graves as Jim Phelps, the leader of the IMF, I preferred Steven Hill as Dan Briggs. Briggs looked like an ordinary man, a fellow who might be an insurance salesman or an accountant---which is just the bland image one would want in a man who performs covert missions for the government. (As good as Mr. Graves was as Phelps, Jim Phelps always looked too heroic, too much like a leading man.)
The other thing which made the first season better than the others was a subtle one. The show never did go much in depth regarding the members of the IMF. One knew their civilian jobs and their individual skills and nothing more. In the apartment scene, they were cordial with each other, but that was about it. And, of course, once they were on the mission, they were all business. But in the first season, probably because the show was still finding its level, the members of the IMF were slightly more personable. There were exchanges of light humour and wit. I recall one instance in which, in order to distract sentries from spotting whatever they were needed not to spot, Briggs, posing as a movie director, "shoots" a scene in which Cinnamon has to remove her blouse. The sentries watch in rapt attention as Cinnamon undoes one button of her blouse, then two, then three. Just as she gets to the fourth button, Briggs yells "Cut!", and the sentries go back to their jobs, having missed what the IMF needed them to miss. Dan tells Cinnamon, "Good job!", and she replies with a smile, "You waited one more button than you had to."
I never would've wanted to turn the show into a personality-driven series, but the slightly more human characterisation made the IMF team more relatable to me.
The best episode of the first season---if you haven't seen it already, Philip---was "The Ransom", first aired on 05 November 1966. This was the team's first unofficial, personal mission. A gangster, Egan, who somehow knows of Briggs' set-up with the IMF (like many things on the show, this is never explained), kidnaps the young daughter of a friend of Briggs. This is to force Briggs to use the IMF to kidnap from police custody a witness whose testimony will put the gangster behind bars. Egan requires Briggs to then turn the witness over to the gangster, who will kill him.
The IMF stages a complex plot to get the witness away from his police watchdogs, but unlike many of the IMF missions, it doesn't rely on some bit of advanced electronic trickery or a gimmick which doesn't (or didn't, then) exist in real life. This is followed by a second plan to rescue the girl without giving Egan what he wants, and it's brilliant.
But the most enjoyable part of the episode is Steven Hill. On two occasions, he suddenly shifts from being Mr. Ordinary Salesman to a cold, determined fellow. The first time is after the team has gotten the witness, a petty crook named Augie, away from the police, and stage two is how they're going to work the exchange of Augie for the hostage girl. The witness refuses to go along with the plan. Suddenly, Briggs pulls a gun and points it at Augie's temple, telling him that Egan will be just as happy to trade the girl for a dead Augie as well as a living one. Steven Hill's voice suddenly become flat, emotionless and his eyes are cold.
The witness takes all of one second to decide to coöperate. "You know," he says to Dan, "I think you would [kill me]." And Briggs replies, "You know I would." And the viewers know it, too.
The other occasion arises at the exchange of the witness for the girl, and Egan pulls a double-cross---which Briggs has foreseen and stymied. And in that same cold, deadly voice, Dan takes charge of the situation and tells the gangster that now they'll make the exchange Briggs' way, and he adds:
"And one more little thing, Egan. If anything happens to that girl, anything, I'll finish you. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, I'll find you and I'll kill you. And you know I can do it."
It's that kind of thing which makes you believe that Dan Briggs is the ultra-capable leader of the IMF.
Finally, the pay-off, at the end, is one of the most satisfying and surprising "gotchas" of the whole series.
Back in the '90s, I watched a lot of TV via Columbia House VHS tapes. A LOT. I didn't have cable or satellite at the time; I had a set of "rabbit ears" to pick up local stations (six), but there wasn't anything on broadcast TV that interested me at the time. My promary interests were Star Trek and ST:TNG, but I enrolled in other "clubs" as well. I hate to think about how much money I spent on those tapes (if I had only waited a couple of years for DVDs to be invented!), but it was enough that I didn't feel at all guilty about getting the first tape in a series for $4.95 then quitting, which I did several times.
Mission: Impossible is a series I considered getting through Columbia House, but never pulled the trigger. I did, however, but four pre-packaged tapes at a video tape store (remember those?). The first one comprised four first season episodes. I recorded the first episode early Monday morning and watched it last night. It's one of the ones on my VHS tape and I remember it very well. I remember that Mission: Impossible was a show my older brother used to watch when it was on the air. I used to watch it with him, or rather I was in the room when he watched it, because I couldn't make head nor tails out of it. I always liked the theme song, though. I'm looking forward to watching future episodes going forward.
I remember that Mission: Impossible was a show my older brother used to watch when it was on the air. I used to watch it with him, or rather I was in the room when he watched it, because I couldn't make head nor tails out of it.
Mission: Impossible is one of those infrequent old shows which the Good Mrs. Benson and I both enjoy. Many years ago, when our son, Rick, was still a young teen-ager, a local channel re-ran the show from its first season, and the GMB and I were inveterate viewers. Rick, not so much. He complained that he couldn't just watch that show---he actually had to think about what was going on and stuff.
In my defense, this was when I was, like, seven or eight years old.
ClarkKent_DC > Commander BensonAugust 18, 2026 at 10:52pm
Commander Benson said:
In a couple of ways, the first season of Mission: Impossible was its best. While I had no problem with Peter Graves as Jim Phelps, the leader of the IMF, I preferred Steven Hill as Dan Briggs. Briggs looked like an ordinary man, a fellow who might be an insurance salesman or an accountant---which is just the bland image one would want in a man who performs covert missions for the government. (As good as Mr. Graves was as Phelps, Jim Phelps always looked too heroic, too much like a leading man.)
That, exactly, was a big reason Steven Hill was replaced; the network never liked him as the team leader because he wasn't the perfectly coiffed, blue-eyed, steel-jawed, broad-shouldered, barrel-chested manly man, and they made sure to fix that.
Hill lost favor with the producers because, late during the first season, he was injured doing a stunt in one episode and refused to participate in the next one. (In that one, Cinnamon Carter is the person who collects the mission briefing and listens to the tape that self-destructs, and Rollin Hand leads the team in the field.) After that, Hill was largely sidelined for the rest of the season and cut at the end.
His relationship with the show was already rocky because, as an orthodox Jew, he insisted on keeping the sabbath, which sometimes meant he had to leave the set if filming ran too long. It was something all parties agreed to when he was hired but became difficult to uphold once they actually got into producing the shows. (Being up against that daily deadline factored into his getting hurt doing that stunt, because they were rushing things and he was trying to get away for the day.)
I have long wondered whether Hill's observing the sabbath was said to be a bigger problem than it actually was. After all, Mission: Impossible creator and producer Bruce Geller was Jewish, although I don't know how observant he was. Still, on that basis, I would think Geller would respect Hill's needs, even if honoring it proved problematic. But maybe not. My sporadic experience being a background actor (they don't call them "extras" these days) definitely exposed me to the hurry-up-and-wait nature of filming, and how you can spend long hours but get very little done on any given day, so you keep the cast and crew working into the wee small hours of the morning to ensure you get the footage you need.
Still, it's not like Steven Hill was in every scene, the way, say, Jack Webb was in every scene in Dragnet. I can believe they didn't like adjusting the shooting schedule on his behalf, but I'm not convinced it was the issue it's made out to be.
(I have also heard -- but, admittedly, have not corroborated -- that Hill was pushing other Jewish actors on the Desilu lot, like William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, to join him in keeping sabbath, and such effort got him labeled as a troublemaker.)
Replies
I saw his General Hospital stint -- that show is BONKERS.
I'll check out Days of Our Lives, but likely after I get home from Philly Folk Fest this weekend.
Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: this is the closest that Game of Thrones / Song of Ice and Fire comes to family-friendly, a charming (if frequently 14+? 16+? 18+?) account of a hedge knight and his acquired squire, some years before the events of Game of Thrones. You don't have to track ten thousand characters, there are people who qualify as heroes, and there is a plot that resolves at the end of the season.
We picked up the book from the library. I think that my wife will be reading it first.
"The Hedge Knight", which is adapted by this first season of "Knight of the Seven Kingdoms", is highly recommended by me. It is a very approachable story and rather inspiring at times. The next two stories are also good, but somewhat more demanding of continuity awareness.
FYI, today's season finale of X-Men '97 has a post-credits scene. This season had a lot of fun stuff but it felt a bit rushed and overstuffed.
My Adventures with Superman this season, with its original take on The Death of Superman/Reign of the Supermen, has been amazing.
But no show in 2026 beats Widow's Bay which, for me, is an absolute perfect blend of humor and horror.
Tonight on ME-TV at 2AM Sunday night/Monday morning, they're starting Mission: Impossible from the beginning! The first season starred Stephan Hill, not Peter Graves.
I never saw any first season episodes until I got it on DVD!
In a couple of ways, the first season of Mission: Impossible was its best. While I had no problem with Peter Graves as Jim Phelps, the leader of the IMF, I preferred Steven Hill as Dan Briggs. Briggs looked like an ordinary man, a fellow who might be an insurance salesman or an accountant---which is just the bland image one would want in a man who performs covert missions for the government. (As good as Mr. Graves was as Phelps, Jim Phelps always looked too heroic, too much like a leading man.)
The other thing which made the first season better than the others was a subtle one. The show never did go much in depth regarding the members of the IMF. One knew their civilian jobs and their individual skills and nothing more. In the apartment scene, they were cordial with each other, but that was about it. And, of course, once they were on the mission, they were all business. But in the first season, probably because the show was still finding its level, the members of the IMF were slightly more personable. There were exchanges of light humour and wit. I recall one instance in which, in order to distract sentries from spotting whatever they were needed not to spot, Briggs, posing as a movie director, "shoots" a scene in which Cinnamon has to remove her blouse. The sentries watch in rapt attention as Cinnamon undoes one button of her blouse, then two, then three. Just as she gets to the fourth button, Briggs yells "Cut!", and the sentries go back to their jobs, having missed what the IMF needed them to miss. Dan tells Cinnamon, "Good job!", and she replies with a smile, "You waited one more button than you had to."
I never would've wanted to turn the show into a personality-driven series, but the slightly more human characterisation made the IMF team more relatable to me.
The best episode of the first season---if you haven't seen it already, Philip---was "The Ransom", first aired on 05 November 1966. This was the team's first unofficial, personal mission. A gangster, Egan, who somehow knows of Briggs' set-up with the IMF (like many things on the show, this is never explained), kidnaps the young daughter of a friend of Briggs. This is to force Briggs to use the IMF to kidnap from police custody a witness whose testimony will put the gangster behind bars. Egan requires Briggs to then turn the witness over to the gangster, who will kill him.
The IMF stages a complex plot to get the witness away from his police watchdogs, but unlike many of the IMF missions, it doesn't rely on some bit of advanced electronic trickery or a gimmick which doesn't (or didn't, then) exist in real life. This is followed by a second plan to rescue the girl without giving Egan what he wants, and it's brilliant.
But the most enjoyable part of the episode is Steven Hill. On two occasions, he suddenly shifts from being Mr. Ordinary Salesman to a cold, determined fellow. The first time is after the team has gotten the witness, a petty crook named Augie, away from the police, and stage two is how they're going to work the exchange of Augie for the hostage girl. The witness refuses to go along with the plan. Suddenly, Briggs pulls a gun and points it at Augie's temple, telling him that Egan will be just as happy to trade the girl for a dead Augie as well as a living one. Steven Hill's voice suddenly become flat, emotionless and his eyes are cold.
The witness takes all of one second to decide to coöperate. "You know," he says to Dan, "I think you would [kill me]." And Briggs replies, "You know I would." And the viewers know it, too.
The other occasion arises at the exchange of the witness for the girl, and Egan pulls a double-cross---which Briggs has foreseen and stymied. And in that same cold, deadly voice, Dan takes charge of the situation and tells the gangster that now they'll make the exchange Briggs' way, and he adds:
"And one more little thing, Egan. If anything happens to that girl, anything, I'll finish you. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, I'll find you and I'll kill you. And you know I can do it."
It's that kind of thing which makes you believe that Dan Briggs is the ultra-capable leader of the IMF.
Finally, the pay-off, at the end, is one of the most satisfying and surprising "gotchas" of the whole series.
Back in the '90s, I watched a lot of TV via Columbia House VHS tapes. A LOT. I didn't have cable or satellite at the time; I had a set of "rabbit ears" to pick up local stations (six), but there wasn't anything on broadcast TV that interested me at the time. My promary interests were Star Trek and ST:TNG, but I enrolled in other "clubs" as well. I hate to think about how much money I spent on those tapes (if I had only waited a couple of years for DVDs to be invented!), but it was enough that I didn't feel at all guilty about getting the first tape in a series for $4.95 then quitting, which I did several times.
Mission: Impossible is a series I considered getting through Columbia House, but never pulled the trigger. I did, however, but four pre-packaged tapes at a video tape store (remember those?). The first one comprised four first season episodes. I recorded the first episode early Monday morning and watched it last night. It's one of the ones on my VHS tape and I remember it very well. I remember that Mission: Impossible was a show my older brother used to watch when it was on the air. I used to watch it with him, or rather I was in the room when he watched it, because I couldn't make head nor tails out of it. I always liked the theme song, though. I'm looking forward to watching future episodes going forward.
I remember that Mission: Impossible was a show my older brother used to watch when it was on the air. I used to watch it with him, or rather I was in the room when he watched it, because I couldn't make head nor tails out of it.
Mission: Impossible is one of those infrequent old shows which the Good Mrs. Benson and I both enjoy. Many years ago, when our son, Rick, was still a young teen-ager, a local channel re-ran the show from its first season, and the GMB and I were inveterate viewers. Rick, not so much. He complained that he couldn't just watch that show---he actually had to think about what was going on and stuff.
In my defense, this was when I was, like, seven or eight years old.
Commander Benson said:
That, exactly, was a big reason Steven Hill was replaced; the network never liked him as the team leader because he wasn't the perfectly coiffed, blue-eyed, steel-jawed, broad-shouldered, barrel-chested manly man, and they made sure to fix that.
Hill lost favor with the producers because, late during the first season, he was injured doing a stunt in one episode and refused to participate in the next one. (In that one, Cinnamon Carter is the person who collects the mission briefing and listens to the tape that self-destructs, and Rollin Hand leads the team in the field.) After that, Hill was largely sidelined for the rest of the season and cut at the end.
His relationship with the show was already rocky because, as an orthodox Jew, he insisted on keeping the sabbath, which sometimes meant he had to leave the set if filming ran too long. It was something all parties agreed to when he was hired but became difficult to uphold once they actually got into producing the shows. (Being up against that daily deadline factored into his getting hurt doing that stunt, because they were rushing things and he was trying to get away for the day.)
I have long wondered whether Hill's observing the sabbath was said to be a bigger problem than it actually was. After all, Mission: Impossible creator and producer Bruce Geller was Jewish, although I don't know how observant he was. Still, on that basis, I would think Geller would respect Hill's needs, even if honoring it proved problematic. But maybe not. My sporadic experience being a background actor (they don't call them "extras" these days) definitely exposed me to the hurry-up-and-wait nature of filming, and how you can spend long hours but get very little done on any given day, so you keep the cast and crew working into the wee small hours of the morning to ensure you get the footage you need.
Still, it's not like Steven Hill was in every scene, the way, say, Jack Webb was in every scene in Dragnet. I can believe they didn't like adjusting the shooting schedule on his behalf, but I'm not convinced it was the issue it's made out to be.
(I have also heard -- but, admittedly, have not corroborated -- that Hill was pushing other Jewish actors on the Desilu lot, like William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, to join him in keeping sabbath, and such effort got him labeled as a troublemaker.)
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