@lima-2 I've always thought that "The Secretary" was the Secretary of State. And as for the possible CIA connection, in the first 3 Mission Impossible movies, the IMF was part of the CIA. In the 4th movie, Ethan and company went rogue, and in the 5th movie, the IMF was disbanded and then reestablished,and in the last scene it's strongly suggested that Alec Baldwin has become the US Secretary of State. In fact, in the last scene, the last line is spoken by Jeremy Renner to Alec Baldwin: "Welcome to the IMF, Mr. Secretary".

Anyway, could you explain why having Mimi on board as a temporary IMF agent was illegal?

I could be wrong but I think the reason for changing the missions was that it was less expensive to film as far as sets not having to be built and all that.

@Jayhn1111 Once again, I agree with you about cutting costs. I just felt, like I believe you do, that seasons six and seven turned it into a regular cop show. I always missed the "Secretary will disavow etc." part of the tape not being included. I think a lot of the fans did. And I missed the team not going to countries where Gellerese was used.

I deleted that post, Maria. Can you still see it? Having Mimi on the team was not illegal. If the IMF was operating domestically under orders from the CIA, or "The Secretary" as most all of season 6 and 7 missions were, that is illegal. "If any of your IM force is caught or killed, the Attorney General will disavow any knowledge of your actions." would have been a more appropriate taped instruction.

Yeah but that doesn't roll off the tongue like "the secretary"

@Jayhn1111 Exactly what I was thinking!

@lima-2: No, it's been deleted but it hadn't been when I wrote my reply. No worries. And thanks for the info.

I can think of several possible reasons.

1) As Jayhn noted, the budget was likely cut. The bean counters at Paramount were notorious penny pinchers.

2) As the 70s started to bloom, cop shows were becoming more popular while spy shows were passé.

3) Bruce Geller was no longer in the picture. He seemed to insist on those wonderfully implausible, overly complex schemes that made the show what it was. With him out of the picture, they could settle for more run of the mill tales.

@sukhisoo I heard that Bruce Geller died in a plane crash. Do you happen to know anything about this?

@PhelpsFan said:

@sukhisoo I heard that Bruce Geller died in a plane crash. Do you happen to know anything about this?

No. I had no idea until just now. Google agrees that he died in a plane crash in 1978.

@sukhisoo : Thanks for the info. Even though it happened back in 1978, I feel very sad about it. Maybe it's because he created this show that I love so much.

A few have said on this board that they felt it turned into a cop show. I didn't see it that way in my last viewing. Maybe I will this time around. I just felt like it was much more complex and much more involved than somebody just going undercover for some sting operation.

I saw that someone said it turned into a cop show and I went with it. It made sense.

In earlier seasons, the team was ferreting out double agents, getting involved in third world country coups, and stopping nuclear war.

In the sixth season, they were dealing with jewel smugglers, money launderers, and drug dealers. They generally stayed on U.S. soil and tangled with a crime syndicate.

My memory, of course, could be faulty.

@sukhisoo Yep, season 6 was US bound the closest they got to outside the continental US was an episode set in Hawaii and one that involved Rome and an island off the coast of Georgia that the team made the bad guys think was off the coast of West Africa.

@sukhisoo I just remembered a magazine interview with Robert Justman who was comparing the 2 shows (I think that he had worked on both shows at one time or another). He said that indeed pennies were pinched by NBC for Star Trek, but that MI went over budget every week, but CBS was a bit more willing to put up with costs overruns mainly because IT WAS A HIT TV SHOW. Therein lies the difference about maybe why MI lasted longer than ST.