IMF FIDELITY

As the Caretaker of Toobworld, I'm always ready to cross the border into the "Cineverse" and poach a few movies which can expand the TV Universe - the "Star Trek" franchise, "Maverick" with Mel Gibson as Bret Junior, the 1966 "Batman", and "Strange Bargain" - a 1940s film noir which was incorporated into an episode of 'Murder, She Wrote' to create a sequel with many of the original cast. But one movie franchise that will NEVER be a part of Toobworld is the "Mission Impossible" series. This is because the executive producers of the first movie - including Tom Cruise - spat on the memories of the old TV show by defaming one of the heroes in the series.

Had the original actor agreed to play the role, I would have accepted it. There on the screen would have been that character doing what was in the script, no matter how reprehensible it might have been. But instead, they recast the role with another actor who looked nothing like the original actor. So why didn't they just make him a whole new character instead of usurping the original's name?

I never even saw the movie, but from David Bianculli's column about it in the Daily News when it first came out, I was able to figure out who he was talking about. (Like me, he didn't want to spoil the movie if you still have an interest in seeing it.)

He also hoped that someday down the line, somebody will buy the rights to "Jerry McGuire" and degrade that character so that Tom Cruise can see how it feels. (I hope they make him a cross-dressing, neo-Nazi, kleptomaniac pederast!)

I'm not saying that all members of the Impossible Mission force are above reproach; just the ones who are forever enshrined in reruns as true heroes. Other IMF agents could be turned to the Dark Side.

And we had an example of this last year in an episode of 'Burn Notice'. Albert Machado, an official from the Impossible Mission Force was on the take... and taken out by Michael Weston's mentor/nemesis Larry Sizemore. So this is more than theoretical, but still unofficial (unlike the appearance of Cinnamon Carter on an episode of 'Diagnosis Murder') - that IMF official serves a link between 'Burn Notice' and 'Mission Impossible'. But only the two TV series, not the movie franchise.

BCnU!