How Makeup and Prosthetics in TV Programs Have Changed From the 1960s

I can see the edges of the prosthetics and even some gauze on their faces as they try to fool the bad guys into thinking they are someone else.

Here is a shot of Rollin Hand (Martin Landau) in Season 1, Episode 2, made up to look like the dictator general in a fictional country south of Cuba. Look at his skin. The prosthetics for his chin and bags under his eyes are obvious. The edges of his hairline don’t look right, nor do the wrinkles on his neck.

Image ^© Paramount Studios

In the early days of television, studio makeup was designed only to look good at the level of detail the cameras and broadcast standards could actually show.

Back then, TV resolution was low — for example, early U.S. black-and-white broadcasts were around 525 total scan lines (but only about 480 visible vertically), and the effective horizontal resolution could be as low as the equivalent of 230–300 “TV lines” across the screen. The result was soft focus, low contrast, and little fine detail compared to modern HD.

Because of that:

Once higher-resolution color TV appeared in the late 1960s and 70s, makeup had to become more subtle and natural, because viewers could now see more texture, color mismatches, and brush marks. That’s also when HD eventually made “airbrushed” and “high-definition” makeup common in the industry.

The original Mission: Impossible TV series (1966–1973) is a perfect example of how makeup in that era was tailored to the resolution and broadcast technology of the time — in this case, U.S. NTSC color television, which had:

For Mission: Impossible, specifically:

1. Makeup was designed for “TV distance”

2. Color and contrast were tuned for the cameras

3. Prosthetic disguise makeup could be simpler

4. Lighting did half the job

If you saw Mission: Impossible in a modern HD remaster, the disguises sometimes look more obvious. Seams, skin texture mismatches, and heavy powdering are visible that 1960s TV audiences never noticed.

Mission: Impossible’s “mask gag” is one of those 1960s TV magic tricks that worked brilliantly because of the technical limits of the medium.

How the masks were actually made:

The production used a mix of custom prosthetic appliances and full-head pull-over masks, but not the hyper-real silicone pieces you see today.

1. Design and Sculpting

• A life cast (plaster mold) of the actor’s head was made.
• A sculptor created the target face (the “person” the agent would impersonate) in clay over the life cast, exaggerating or minimizing features as needed.
• Details like wrinkles, pores, and hairlines were often simplified. There was no need to capture pore-level realism for NTSC.

2. Molding and Casting

• The clay sculpture was molded and then cast in foam latex – the same material used for movie prosthetics of the time.
• Foam latex was light, flexible, and paintable, but it had a visible matte texture that modern HD would pick up instantly.
• In some cases, they made thin slip masks (just the face area) instead of full heads, depending on the shot.

3. Painting

• Painted with rubber cement paints or greasepaint, often in slightly exaggerated tones to survive NTSC color bleed.
• Subtle makeup effects like capillaries, skin mottling, or subdermal tones were skipped because they wouldn’t survive the broadcast compression.

4. Hair and Eyebrows

• Hair was often part of the wig, glued to the mask edges if needed.
• Eyebrows could be painted on the latex or inserted as crepe hair. Either way, at NTSC resolution, they looked fine.

How they were applied on set:

• The famous “mask pull” was often a fake. They’d cut mid-action to a second take with the actor already in the other makeup, and use an over-the-shoulder or quick pull to hide the transition.
• In some cases, they used two masks – one loose “TV removal mask” for the shot, and one tight, realistic one for static close-ups.

Why it was “TV-convincing” in the 1960s

Why it wouldn’t pass muster in 4K

If you watch the Mission: Impossible Blu-ray remasters today, you can often spot:

But in 1967 on a 19-inch RCA console TV? It was pure magic.

Here’s exactly how the Mission: Impossible “mask rip-off” shots were pulled off in the 1966–1973 series.

The “Continuous Pull” Illusion

Almost none of them were truly one-take. They relied on split shots, substitutions, and camera blocking to sell the idea.

1. The setup

1. Step A – Actor as the “impostor”

• The scene begins with the target character — for example, a foreign diplomat — played by that actor in normal makeup.
• This is actually the IMF agent (say, Rollin Hand) pretending to be that diplomat, but the audience doesn’t know yet.

2. Step B – The disguised actor

• When it’s time for the reveal, the actor is replaced by the IMF cast member wearing a loose “pull-off” mask of the diplomat’s face.
• This mask is made thinner and larger than the close-up mask, so it can be yanked off quickly.

2. The cut-point trick

The mask removal is rarely a continuous action for both faces.

1. The disguised IMF agent grabs the “face” at the chin or neck.
2. Camera pans quickly, or the actor ducks out of the frame.
3. Cut to a shot from as lightly different angle. Now the same IMF actor is wearing no mask but regular makeup as themselves, pulling away the loose “mask” in their hand.

1. Start with the IMF actor in a mask glued at only a couple of points for easy release.
2. They start peeling the mask.
3. As their hand blocks the camera, the mask piece is replaced with a pre-shaped “rubber face” prop that’s floppier and looks like it just came off.
4. This avoids showing the real latex piece peeling off skin (which was clunky).

1. A close-up shows the mask removal starting, usually from behind the head.
2. Cut to a reverse angle where the mask is already half-off and hanging loose.
3. In that reverse shot, the actor is just themselves. No appliance blending is needed.

3. Lighting & focus tricks

4. Why this worked so well in the ’60s

If you watch the HD remasters today, you’ll notice:

I also noticed that the male actors had some form of what looked like pink lipstick on, and their faces seemed to have been shaven very, very closely.

That was a combination of camera technology, lighting, and makeup conventions from the film-and-TV industry of the 1950s – 1970s, and Mission: Impossible in particular, still carried over a lot of the visual style from earlier Hollywood studio practice.

Why male actors wore lipstick (or at least tinted makeup)

• In the black-and-white era, natural lip color could look pale or even disappear under studio lights, so makeup artists used mauve, coral, or muted red lip tints to make the mouth visible.
• Even though Mission: Impossible was in color, the habit (and the need to counteract bright lights) persisted.

• 1960s NTSC color cameras sometimes desaturated skin tones under tungsten lighting, especially when actors were heavily powdered to reduce shine.
• A subtle lip tint helped restore the look of healthy color. Otherwise, lips could appear gray or the same tone as surrounding skin.

• With ~330 horizontal lines of resolution, facial features needed stronger definition to “read” at home.
• Eyebrows, eyes, and lips were all emphasized with makeup — not to look glamorous, but to make expressions visible.

• Usually, it was greasepaint or cream makeup one or two shades darker than the actor’s skin, then blotted so it looked natural in person but photographed as normal lip tone on TV.

Here is a simulation of an actor’s headshot and how it would have appeared on TV in the 1960s TV series vs. what the original film transfer would look like on a modern high-res HDTV.

The color saturation in Mission: Impossible episodes is very high, and on purpose, and partly a byproduct of 1960s color television technology.

1. Era of “Technicolor TV”

2. Filming and Postproduction Choices

3. NTSC Broadcast Limitations

4. Visual Style of the Show

Color Saturation Chain

1. Camera Negative (35mm Eastmancolor)

• Captured vivid color, strong primaries, but required lots of light.

2. Interpositive (timed for exposure)

• A low-contrast copy from the negative; cinematographers and lab color timers adjusted brightness.

3. Internegative (color correction applied)

• Here, the saturation was deliberately boosted to counter NTSC desaturation.

4. Release Print (for TV syndication)

• Delivered with higher-than-natural saturation so it would still “pop” on color TVs.

5. NTSC Broadcast (1960s)

• The signal softened, smeared, and desaturated colors — but viewers at home still saw vivid tones.

6. Modern HD Scans (Blu-ray/4K remasters)

• Now we see the original boosted saturation directly from the film, without NTSC loss — which is why the show looks even more colorful today.

Bottom line: The bold, almost glowing colors in Mission: Impossible weren’t an accident — they were the result of careful choices in film stock, lighting, and color timing, all done to fight the limitations of NTSC broadcast. Today’s remasters reveal the full intensity of what was baked into the film prints.

So, the high saturation was partly on purpose (to make CBS’s color broadcasts “pop”), and partly a technical necessity (to survive NTSC’s limited color fidelity). Modern Blu-rays reveal those boosted colors more strongly than 1960s viewers actually saw.

Why male actors’ skin looked freshly shaved:

• Heavy key lights threw shadows that could exaggerate any stubble into dark patches on low-res cameras.
• Daily close shaves (sometimes twice a day on long shoots) kept faces evenly lit and free from shadow “noise.”

• Pancake foundation or cream makeup adhered much better to completely smooth skin. Even light stubble could make makeup look blotchy on camera.

• Mission: Impossible was shot on 35mm film, which could capture more detail than broadcast TV could show. Without a clean shave, stubble would still be visible in production stills, promos, and later reruns.

• 1960s network TV often wanted leading men to project a polished, well-groomed appearance – part of the era’s visual language. Even the “tough” characters had immaculate grooming. However, I did notice this even on the bad guys.

The net effect on screen:

On a 19-inch 1967 color console TV:

On today’s HD remasters, you can spot:

That “greasy, shiny” look you sometimes see on actors’ faces in the original Mission: Impossible series is a combination of lighting technology, makeup materials, and the limitations of 1960s color TV cameras — and in some cases, it was actually intentional.

1. Hot studio lighting

2. Makeup formulas of the era

3. Color TV camera limitations

4. Intentional “sweat” for dramatic effect

Why it’s more noticeable now

On a 19-inch 1967 RCA color console, the NTSC signal’s softness blurred a lot of this, so the actors didn’t look overly greasy at home. In modern Blu-ray remasters, the film’s true resolution reveals:

Why Mission: Impossible didn’t simply powder everyone more heavily — it’s actually a trade-off they made because of how powder looked worse than shine on 1960s color TV. That choice is part of why faces sometimes glisten in the show.

Some of the plots feel thin or “superficial” compared to the intricate premise — and that wasn’t accidental. It had a lot to do with production economics, TV audience expectations, and stylistic choices of the era.

1. Budget and Scheduling Pressures

• Elaborate sets and disguises
• Stunts and visual spectacle
• The rich color cinematography, CBS prized for selling color TVs

2. Color as a Selling Point

3. Audience Experience

4. Comparison to Later Spy Dramas

So, some episodes had superficial plots by design — it saved money, made production faster, and foregrounded what CBS and Desilu really wanted audiences to notice: the color-saturated visuals, exotic disguises, and ingenious IMF tricks that made the series stand out.

Speaking of image sharpness, quite a few TV series in the “old days” were shot on 16 mm film rather than 35mm film, especially in the 1950s through the 1970s.

Whether a show used 35 mm or 16 mm usually came down to budget, location needs, and intended broadcast quality.

Why 16 mm was used

Examples of TV series shot on 16 mm.

Drawbacks in the HD era

When remastered from the original camera negatives, good 16 mm can still look decent in HD, but:

Here’s a list of notable U.S. prime-time dramas from the 1960s and 1970s that were shot entirely on 16 mm film — not just location inserts, but the whole show.

Prime-Time Dramas of the 1970s and 1980s Shot Entirely on 16 mm

(Alphabetical, with years of original broadcast)

Why most “prestige” shows still used 35 mm

While 16 mm was common for outdoor, action, and lower-budget series, most high-budget dramas and crime procedurals (Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, Columbo, etc.) stayed with 35 mm for sharper images and better color reproduction. Networks knew those shows would rerun for years, and 35 mm preserved more detail.

In the 1950s, 16 mm film was used far less often for prime-time scripted series than in later decades, but it did show up — mostly in lower-budget, location-heavy, or syndicated productions. Networks and big studios generally preferred 35 mm for image quality, but smaller outfits used 16 mm to save money

Here’s a list of notable U.S. prime-time or first-run syndicated series from the 1950s shot primarily on 16 mm film:

Westerns and Action Shows

Crime and Detective Shows

Other Genres

TV shows filmed in 16 mm still looked fine on 1950s TVs, where the resolution and NTSC limitations made 16 mm indistinguishable from 35 mm to most viewers.