Actor Peter Graves died Sunday at the age of 83. As spy squad chief Jim Phelps, he opened each episode of the CBS TV series Mission Impossible (1966-1973) by listening to his assignment on a tape recorder. Each tape ended with the announcement “This message will self-destruct in five seconds.” And it did, in a puff of smoke.
We could not locate clips of the self-immolating tape spools. Recordings of those recordings must have …well, you know. There are clips of opening montages set to Lalo Schifrin’s Grammy™-winning theme music.
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