Tape Recorders of Mission Impossible Ep.1 

In the 1970s my fathers secretary was a Mission Impossible fan so when he gave her a tape of notes to be typed he would often add Mission Impossible style intros and finish with 'this tape will self destruct in five seconds'.

I just watched a 15 minute video of a guy discussing the details and statistics of an obsolete tape recorder prop from a TV show made five decades ago. What am I doing with my life? It doesn't matter; I loved every minute of it! Thank you, Techmoan, for being you and doing what you do!

Speaking as a replica prop fabricator; I'm glad I've never had to do this prop, and you've done an _incredible_ job in your research. Brilliant choice for a topic, and brilliantly presented.

Sweet intro. And I am pleased to notice this is only Ep 1

Techmoan, you just get better and better!

They go through all that trouble of hiding the player, then destroy it in such a visible way. "Quick, someone call the fire brigade; that talking telescope is on fire".

I can't help but giggle over the fact someone made a spreadsheet over what models were used on what shows. I mean, I consider myself a bit of a nerd, but that's taking it to a whole new level.

10 secs into Techmoan video and I'm cracking up. Personality and humour raises Mat above any other retro tech channel…

I remember Peter Graves saying that there literally was a stage hand crouched under the desk, smoking and blowing into a tube.

The wig wasn't that bad - the rubber face mask was *terrible* !! 😜

For reasons I can't quite fully articulate, Mat's wig for this episode screamed more "Ed Straker" than "Jim Phelps" to me.

I loved the first series where the message was left on a vinyl record in a plastic seal. The record would self-destruct a certain number of seconds after the seal was broken. I remember thinking "Dan would be buggered if the needle got stuck and he couldn't re-track it before it disintegrated.'" The sign-off would have been "Bad luck, Dan."

Just the other week, I saw a mini documentary on the show. They literally had a bloke with a cigar at the other end of the pipe.

I never watched the original 60s/70s series, but really liked the 80s reboot. I always thought the mini CDs with full motion videos were completely impossible and fantasy, then VideoCD came along just a few years later.

mini reel to reel recorders always fascinated me. there's something so novel about a tiny version of the large studio oriented recorders. It reminds me of a reel to reel microcassette

Fantastic ! Absolutely no doubt in my mind, that watching Mission Impossible from 1970 gave me a fascination with tape recorders. Early/mid 1970's my two brothers and I begged mum/dad to have cassette recorders for Xmas. We chose the Pye 9118. We looked at various models with piano keys but just loved the joystick. We would make music tapes with the mic pushed up against the speaker on dads Bush Radio.......and I am still in the sound game !!

I love analog tape technology, and I find your videos entertaining and very educational. Keep 'em coming!!

I loved watching this show in the late 80s as a kid! Outdated or not, the tech still wowed me! As an adult I was able to call BS on some of the situations, however the stories are so good that I don’t care. If anything, adds charm. Far better than the Tom Cruz movie series

Here in Brazil there was this show called Mundo da Lua where a boy used a Geloso tape recorder he got from his grandpa as a diary, talking about imaginary scenarios and leaning from them. The prop was heavily modified with lights and mechanisms that made buttons move up and down, and the exact model is now a holy grail amongst collectors.

Wow, your attention to detail and your enthusiasm for your chosen subject never ceases to amaze me. Keep up the excellent work.

Thanks so much. I watched the original US run of MI as a chid. It was the theme music that influenced me, with its jazz based 5/4 rhythm and driving bass line played by legendary LA session musician Carol Kaye.

Always loved your channel but I’m really impressed with how you’ve managed to find your niche in recent years with obscure retro hardware. Excellent video!

What a time-warp. I was pre-teen at the beginning of this series’ original run and I so loved the gadgetry of the tape players. My parents bought me a number of these midget open reel recorders over the years. I would pretend to give myself secret instructions before the machine would “self-destruct.” Thanks for the memories.

I'm a fan of the show since reruns during my childhood . It's so cool to see a detailed presentation of the prop used and little errors in the show. Great work and great channel.

Mission Impossible has always been one of my all time favorite shows. I own the entire collection and on cold rainy days I can pull them out and binge watch them. Now I have more too look for in them. Thanks for a great episode. :)

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It's worth mentioning that in the first film reboot, the mission briefing was on a video 8 tape played onboard a commercial airline with the self destruct happening quietly in the armrest of the airline seat. Pretty cool!

Discovered your channel recently while researching laserdiscs. Have enjoyed so many of your videos since. As a big fan for the original 'Mission Impossible' series, this video is the one that me join your Patreon effort. Thank you for all your work!

Wonder what his neighbours are thinking everytime he's making a video in his backyard....

"Reely" funny pun! 😁 At the time, I don't think anyone was aware just how far technology would evolve to the point that we'd be watching these old TV shows on huge TVs in high definition thanks to the shows originally being recorded on film, and that we'd be able to spot all of the scene recycling and prop mistakes many years later.

This is actually one heck of a coincidence... I'd just found my dad's MC-2 a couple of days ago, and I've been recovering the 50+ year old recordings from it! I also had the same issues with the batteries not fitting properly - I just hooked up some externally using alligator clips!

I watched the original show in the 60's as a young boy and was fascinated by the self destruct mechanism,, I also had a small reel to reel as well as a Sanyo cassette player which provided hours of fun, I remember finding one tape decades later with our juvenile horseplay on it.

Joey, have you ever been in a cockpit before? Ever been in a Turkish prison?

I never knew I wanted to know so much about a single tape player. Can we get the one from Evil Dead next?

Love this episode! In the late 60's my aunt dated a service member who was overseas during Vietnam, and they traded tape reels more often than letters. A little begging got my brother and I our own systems (we were 7-8 years old) and I still have a reel I've been moving around ever since. Some day I'll shell out for an old player; wonder if anything is still on it?

You have one of the best channels I have seen. Thank you for taking the time to put together these very fun and educational videos. I really appreciate the education that you give me. It means a lot.

Ayayay... no excuse for misthreading a reel-to-reel on a film set, you've got the sound crew right there, just ask them!

This is gonna 100 percent end up in a ytp video of you stalking the 8-bit guy :D You will step your tactics up to espionage :D

I love living in a time where we see passionate individuals like yourself create content about such a specific thing. It's fun to see how content creators share information and opinions about things hardly anyone would bother to research. As long as you have fun doing these things, I'll continue watching!

Yes, more of this please! I guess that these old 1960-1970's shows could provide material for a lot of episodes if you want to.

Looking quite sharp in that suite, mate 😀

Wow, by chance I'm awake when Techmoan releases something. This is a special day!

I would love this serises to be a regular thing. If anyone else was doing it on youtube I probably wouldn't watch it, but the amount of research, effort and passion you put in to these videos make them a joy to watch. Keep up the great work!

Thank you for keeping it REEL Techmoan... another blast my past, used to act scenes out from some shows with my brother & sister, so cheesy now.... but holds a special place in my memories.

My freind was lucky to see the filming of a Mission Impossible Episode, Here In Australia. The Train they used to represent Prauge was a Qld Railwat Train. Love The Series.

Fabulous, Mat! One of my all-time favorite TV shows. Kudos for getting the first season "recording" quirks correct! In re-watching the shows in present time, it's fun to notice *many* details that were smudged by the broadcast limitations of the day. Take note of many "jail cells" where you can now clearly see the wood grain under the immaculate silver paint. There were hundreds of little glitches that now thoroughly amuse me in trying to spot them all. Also a healthy understanding of the common shooting locations is fun in deconstructing the scenes (mainly the "40 Acres" backlot and the Paramount backlot).

I'm 5 years late to this party, but a supercut of Peter Graves recording-listening performance is what the internet needs.

A most entertaining effort. A fine example of the quality that makes yours the only channel to which I subscribe.

The hottest holiday gift of 2018!

with hair you look like an English Prime Minister😂😂

I love what you do, Mat. Keep it up, I get excited every time a new episode pops up.

Wow! I really appreciate the work you put into this. Very interesting content, and delightfully nostalgic for me. Thank you.

I always assumed the message was actually recorded on the tape so that Peter Graves would have some frame of reference for when he's supposed to be listening (then they'd dub a clean recording on later). The machine smoking and blowing up looked good on camera - but a much easier method would have been to mount a permanent magnet on the right side of the player so the tape erases itself on the take-up reel!

Should any of your Techmoan team be caught or killed, The Secretary will disavow knowledge of your actions...')

Your comment about watching Mission: Impossible in the 80s reminded me of when I watched Channel 4's repeats in the 90s right after showing Rawhide. I'd watch all these with my Mum when we'd filled a tape with assorted programmes we wanted to binge through as most of us used to back then. Good memories! :)

Been watching your videos a while now just keeps better and better love all the retro audio and video stuff keep them coming

Your old mate Craig. It's an old mate you can carry with you.

Warning: Do not play on a Commercial Flight

What a wonderful, historical video and as you say, "reel" pieces of 1960's tech! Being a reel-to-reel fan I must say VERY well researched and presented! Thank you!

That intro was great, as was the depth at which you can speak about these recorders. Keep up the excellent work!

Occasionally people send me audio recordings where the speed varies through the tape, so clearly recorded on a machine similar to this. I probably need to get one because adjusting the speed in Audacity is very fiddly.

Um, probably not particularly relevant, but if you wanted to do the tape destruction for real (and I'm fairly sure it'd not destroy the player itself) you'd need.... Magnetic tape based on cellulose instead of other plastics. A basic chem lab, such as, say, in a school. Nothing magic, you just want to use the inert gas box. A very small sample of finely ground lithium aluminium hydride. A fine brush or toothpick. Some superglue. A suitably sized reasonably airtight bag, such as a zip-loc or a scottish granny's handbag. Method: Record message at your leisure onto the tape. After stating the required duration before flumffing wait for that period, then hit stop. Place the recorder, tape, and everything else listed above into an inert gas chamber, and fill with something suitable. Argon's good. Nitrogen's good. Vaporised cheese is very bad. Extract the tape and using the fine brush or tooth pick trace a line of glue down the centre of the tape, on the inside if you want it to look really swish, but it doesn't really matter. This line should be as thin as possible, and as close to dead centre of the tape as possible. Carefully add LAH to the glue, and allow to dry. Shake off and rebottle remaining LAH. TIGHTLY wind the spool back to the beginning. Place the tape into the bag. Degas the box, Degas' L'Absinthe, and extract everything, putting back in the places when necessary. As late as possible prior to being picked up, remove the tape from the bag and place in the recorder, making sure not to let the spool unwind. Stand back and watch in amazeballs as the tape plays, then continues to run, sooner or later exposing the LAH to air, which will then ignite a little bit (being pyrophoric), enough to set the cellulose spool on fire a tad, which ought to burn enough to destroy the tape, but not run hot enough to do more than smudge and sooty sweep the actual recorder. Maybe melt the reels a bit, but even that'd be a stretch. Snigger to oneself as that dapper Mr Phelps goes off to frame your mother in law for betraying the State Secrets of Uchbocklechistranistan. I am 100% certain there are other ways to do this. I am also 100% certain I can think of other ways to do this but whaddaya want for free?

Amazing, clever, and funny intro. I appreciate how you did the green screen effects the justice they deserve. Love it!

Mission Impossible was one of my favourite shows when I was younger and you're my fave RU-vidr now. This video today is the greatest thing I have seen in a long time. Techmoan, you rule mate.

Always a bit disappointed when there's no puppets at the end, but the intro made up for it this time. Briefly thought you were impersonating Terry Jones at first.

Two of Mission Impossible team were then recycled in the series Space: 1999 (or, ‘Mission Even More Impossible Than Mission Impossible’).

My absolute favorite tv show when I was a kid was the late 80s version of Mission: Impossible. It was more modern, sci-fi and overall interesting than the 70s show, in my opinion, but I was really bummed when that Tom Cruise movie came along. To me, Mission: Impossible was all about teamwork and how the specialists used their individual skills to solve the problems. Having one guy who was a super agent who could do everything was not what I wanted, but the most recent one is probably one of the best action movies in recent years.

Nice video! Years ago, I spoke to one of the prop masters for this show and he told me that at first, Sanyo (who made Craig) wanted their logo to show - for sales purposes - but when they saw the machine self-destruct, they complained and asked the show to cover it over. Sanyo was afraid the public would avoid buying their machines for fear of them catching fire. Also, the cassette used was made by SONY-- the A-B logo in the top left corner was unique to their early cassettes. Again, by this time, the show knew to cover the logos identifying the mfg so the public would not think their products were defective. And that's from a guy who actually worked with the props.

I am from the u.s. and Craig was considered the "cheap" brand in the electronics world... I am not sure, but i think they became part of Audiovox which is another budget brand.

That wig, man.....

LOL. That was pretty good! I never thought someone would drill that far down to put the M.I. tape recorder up on a pedestal. I used to watch the show during it's original airings as a young kid and laughed when the tape would "self destruct", but never really gave it a second thought. Pretty neat.

A very big THANK YOU!!!! That is what I have waited for for ages.

That scene continuation was hilariously bad.

I kind of cringed when he threw the tape into the lake.

I enjoy ALL your videos but this was especially interesting as I was a very keen fan as a child MANY years ago. Excellent stuff, keep ‘em coming please.

You've absolutely outdone yourself here, Matt. Amazing work. MI, The Prisoner and The Avengers will stand as the finest TV work ever in my book.

It is forbidden by federal law to magnetise the Queen!

Thumbs up if you never knew Mission Impossible was originally a TV show XD

This is my new favorite episode. Wonderful!

Techmoan at his best. This is what we want to see. Can't wait for the next one!

This is now instantly my new favourite series! Bang on!

Fantastic start to what promises to be a fantastic video series, great work, Techmoan!

Love the series already.. can't wait for the next one

Excellent episode, I loved that show as a kid and it influenced me as well thank you. 🎯👍

Thanks for making this video. I love the series and was hoping that someone at some point would make a video like this

I cant imagine the effort that hos gone into this video. Thanks a lot for your work!

I love your channel for learning about tech from the past. That reel to reel looks nice.

What an absolutely masterful analysis of Mission Impossible. Really enjoyed this one.

I really enjoy your shows. Thank you so much for all the research you do.

Brings back memories when I was a kid watching the reruns. The tape burning up was cool! Never realized all the subtle differences.

Fantastic production values and well researched. thanks Matt. :-)

Thanks to you, I started watching Mission: Impossible. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT

Cool! My mom and dad introduced me to this show. I'll have to share this with them. Thanks!

Just when I think I couldn't love this channel any more than I already do.

Loved this show growing up in the 80s, watching it with my dad who must have seen them not long after they originally aired. I loved the convoluted plots and props and, of course, the iconic, self-destructing tape message.

Great video. One of my favourite series growing up

I just started rewatching all these great old MI episodes. Really fun.

Loved this episode! Thanks. I love old tech in TV shows.

What a lovely way to start the morning. Great vid!

I like the way you said "real or imaginary" just as you showed the reel (Real or Reel - GREAT!) superb timing. I love your videos you should be on TV they are so informative.