I have watched Mission Impossible since I was a child. I used to watch it with my parents and had no idea what was going on. As an adult, when I watch the reruns, I regret that we no longer have such shows on television. Mission demanded the audience's full attention, and that attracted people with some intellect. The manipulation, teamwork, ingenuity were all central to the show. You never heard any of them nag, never talked about their personal life, or need to provided eye candy such as violence; explosives and other visual but empty effects to keep the audience glued to the screen. The agents were rarely vulnerable, weak and always in control (most of the time). More importantly, all of them were always professional. How many cop shows do you see like that today? Mission used skill. It forced the audience to be patient. It assumed that the viewer does not have ADHD and can patiently watch a well written movie. A broader question arises when viewing the show.... has the viewing audience gotten dumber, or are networks insulting our intelligence by feeding us TV junk food; fast, flashy, cookie cutter junk?