TV Themes #3, Statistics #15, and Leonard Cohen

Today's TV theme, at #3 in our list, belongs to a show that began to air in 1966 and ran for 7 seasons. It was rebooted in 1988 and ran for two seasons. In 1996, the first film inspired by the show was released. It starred Tom Cruise and was directed by Brian De Palma. Four sequels were made since, all starring Tom Cruise and directed by John Woo, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird and Christopher McQuarrie. The show was awarded 3 Golden Globes, 10 Emmys, 1 Grammy, 1 Poe Award and received 38 nominations. We are, of course, talking about Mission: Impossible.

The show's main protagonist, Steven Hill, was replaced after the first season by the series' iconic lead, Peter Graves, in the role of Jim Phelps. Graves also starred in the 1988 reboot, the only one from the old cast. He also appeared in the first Tom Cruise movie. The only two actors that appeared in all 7 seasons of the show's original run were Greg Morris and Peter Lupus. Martin Landau who appeared in the first 3 seasons was replaced by Leonard Nimoy for 2 seasons and Barbara Bain who also appeared in the first 3 seasons was replaced by Lesley Ann Warren. She, in turn, was replaced by Lynda Day George. Sam Elliott also was part of the main cast in Season 5.

The premise of the show, which was created by Bruce Geller, was this: Jim Phelps is the head of a super-secret government agency ("Impossible Missions"), and is often given secret anonymous covert missions to attempt; quite often they concern the unmasking of criminals or the rescuing of hostages. He picks his team depending on which tasks need to be done. One thing is vital on an Impossible Mission: the mission must be carried out in entire secrecy, often relying on high-tech equipment and elaborate deceptions.

The show always began in the same stylized way: Jim Phelps is given a cassette by a professional "beyond suspicion", i.e. an airline hostess or a gas station attendant, which he then plays in isolation. It's always the same voice (that of voice actor Bob Johnson), beginning with "Good morning / afternoon / evening, Mr. Phelps." Then it explains the situation and ends with "Your mission Jim, should you decide to accept it" or words to that effect, with a brief explanation of the mission. At the end of the instructions, Phelps is notified, "This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim." Then smoke would rise from the tape, and the instructions would be destroyed.

The title sequence was very exciting: each time it started with a fuse being lit. As the fuse burned across the screen, clips from scenes in the current episode were shown. This was followed by credits introducing the actors. Throughout the title sequence, only the show's theme song could be heard.

The theme song was written by Lalo Schifrin, who, as luck would have it, also composed the theme to our #4, the theme from Mannix, which we heard last week. Schifrin was born in 1932 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During his illustrious career, he won 5 BMI Awards and 1 Grammy. He was also nominated for 6 Oscars, 3 Golden Globes, 4 Emmys and 3 Grammys. He has also composed a large number of concert works for chamber ensembles and orchestras.

Here's the theme from the TV show, with the famous title sequence:

As a bonus, here's Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen Jr. of U2 with their own version of the theme for the 1st Tom Cruise movie. The video is directed by ex-10CC Kevin Godley:

As far as this week's statistics are concerned, it has been a very interesting week, with visitors from all over the globe. There was an interestingly wide represantation of South East Asia, with visits from China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma and Sri Lanka. Europe was very well represented too, with Greece, France, Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, the UK, Ukraine, Spain and Portugal holding postions #2 to #10 respectively in our Top 10 of the week. Also visiting us from Europe were Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway, Romania, the Czech Republic and Serbia. North America was represented by our constant champ, the US, once again at #1 and Canada. South America was represented by Brazil, Chile and Paraguay while the continent of Australia was represented by the country of Australia, which only just missed the week's Top 10. Finally, we had visits from two countries in Africa: Libya from the north and Senegal from the west. I love diversity and this week was a perfect one for diversity. I'm really happy that you all decided to visit!

As for the all-time Top 10, the US has no problem in maintaining its lead and neither has Greece in holding the runners-up slot. Germany is sitting comfortably at #3, while Russia is still at #4, keeping its distance from the UK at #5. Canada and Ireland are still at Nos 6 & 7, but they're being threatened by France, who has had a strong presence these past few weeks. Cyprus, the only one of the Top 10 that has been completely inactive this week is still at #9, but Spain, at #10 for the moment, is closing the gap.

A couple of days ago was Canada day, so I thought that this week my random choice would be Canadian. I decided to choose one of my Top 5 Canadian artists, Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, The Band (they're 4/5 Canadian), Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. The final choice was between my Top 2, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. My favorite eventually won, if only by a hair's breadth.

Leonard Cohen was born on 21 September 1934 in Westmount, Quebec, an English-speking area of Montreal into a middle-classs Jewish family. His mother, Marsha (Masha) Klonitsky, was the daughter of a Talmudic writer, Rabbi Solomon Klonitsky-Kline, of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. His paternal grandfather, whose family had emigrated from Poland, was Lyon Cohen, founding president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His father, Nathan Cohen, who owned a substantial clothing store, died when Cohen was 9 years old. On the topic of being a Kohen, Cohen has said that "I had a very Messianic childhood." He told Richard Goldstein in 1967, "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest."

Cohen was a poet, first and foremost. In 1951 he enrolled at McGill University, where he became president of the McGill Debating Union and won the Chester MacNaghten Literary Competition for the poems "Sparrows" and "Thoughts of a Landsman." Cohen published his first poems in March 1954 in the magazine CIV/n. His first published book of poetry was Let Us Compare Mythologies, in 1956.

Cohen continued to write poetry and fiction throughout much of the 1960s and preferred to live in quasi-reclusive circumstances after he bought a house on Hydra, a Greek island in the Saronic Gulf. While living and writing on Hydra, Cohen published the poetry collection Flowers For Hitler (1964), and the novels The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966/my favourite).

In 1967, disappointed with his lack of financial success as a writer, Cohen moved to the United States to pursue a career as a folk music singer–songwriter. He was soon signed to Columbia Records by John Hammond and by the end of 1967 his first album was released: simply called Songs of Leonard Cohen and produced by John Simon.

The album is one of the best debut albums of all-time. Out of the 10 songs, the 5 are masterpieces. First, there was Suzanne, the song that became a hit by Judy Collins and is one of his most popular songs:

The Stranger Song is my favourite song of the album. It's personal for me: it's describing a part of me that's deep within my psyche.

Sisters of Mercy is another great song. This video is from the movie McCabe and Mrs Miller (Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, 1971).

So Long, Marianne makes great use of what would become a Leonard Cohen trademark: the dramatic use of female background vocals:

The same applies to Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye, my second favourite song of the album. A beautiful breakup song. A great cover version was included in Roberta Flack's first album. Here is Cohen, in a duet with Julie Felix (1968):

His 2nd album was Songs From a Room in 1969. The opening track is Bird on the Wire, a song covered by artists like Willie Nelson and Joe Cocker. Here's Leonard in a live performance in 1979:

The Partisan is my favourite song of this album. It's a very moving song, sung both in English and in French, dedicated to the Resistance fighters in WWII. Here he is, live in France in 1970:

His next album, Songs of Love and Hate (1971), contains my favourite Cohen song of all-time, Famous Blue Raincoat. It's a very emotionally complex song and every time I listen to it I discover new meanings. Here he is, live in Germany:

His 4th studio album, New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974) was yet another great album, where all of the songs are indispensable. I'll feature 5 of them, leaving some great songs out, but there's simply too much great stuff by Leonard to present everything. The opening song was Is This What You Wanted and it contains the phrase "you were KY Jelly, I was vaseline". It was 1974.

Chelsea Hotel #2 is dedicated to the eponymous hotel in NYC and especially to Janis Joplin. Here's a good live version:

Next in line is Lover Lover Lover. Here he is, live on Italian TV:

A Singer Must Die is an introspective song:

Finally, the chilling Who by Fire is a song that has been used in so many TV shows and films:

We take a leap to 1984 and his album Various Positions: the opening song, Dance Me to the End of Love was musically inspired by Greek music and lyrically inspired by the Holocaust, although it was structured as a love song. Madeleine Peyroux made an excellent cover version in 2004. Here's Cohen in a live version:

This album contains Cohen's most popular song, my second all-time favourite of his: Hallelujah.

This song was covered by everyone, from Velvet Underground's John Cale to Susan Boyle. It was a UK #1 by The X Factor winner Alexandra Burke. But the best cover version is definitely by a man who, following in the footsteps of his father Tim, was gone too soon because of heroin: Jeff Buckley. We've got to hear this version:

How many great albums did this man have in him? Yet another great one, I'm Your Man, was released in 1988. The opening song was First We Take Manhattan. Jennifer Warnes is singing backup vocals. Her own version would be a hit:

Take This Waltz uses a poem by gay poet Federico García Lorca (one of Cohen's favorite poets) as an inspiration:

Tower of Song remarkably closes the album. Marianne Faithfull had a great cover version. Here's LC, duetting with the U2:

The title track from his next album, The Future (1992), contains the great line (for a born pessimist like me) "I've seen the future, brother: it is murder."

I have to end this sometime, so our last LC song is from his 2001 album, 10 New Songs. Alexandra Leaving is based on the poem God Abandons Anthony by gay Greek poet Constantin P Cavafy:

I hope you liked today's presentation. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed preparing it. Have a great new week!