Hill was the original leader of the Impossible Missions Force, Dan Briggs in the series Mission: Impossible beginning in 1966. The phrase "Good morning, Mr. Briggs..." was a fixture early in each episode as it began a tape recording he retrieved which detailed the task he must accomplish, however he left the show in 1967 after the end of the first season. As one of the few Orthodox Jewish actors working in Hollywood, he made it clear in advance of production that he was not able to work on the Sabbath (i.e., sundown Friday to dusk Saturday), and that he would leave the set every Friday before sundown. However, despite Hill's advance warnings, the show's producers were unprepared for his rigid adherence to the Sabbath, and on at least one occasion Hill left the set while an episode was still in the midst of filming. The producers used a number of ways of reducing the role of Hill's character Dan Briggs whereby his character would only obtain and hand out the mission details at the start of certain episodes being unable to take further part as he was 'known' to people they would encounter (used at least three times), or Briggs would need to don a disguise and another actor would then play his role incognito until the conclusion of the mission (and episode) when Briggs peeled off a face mask. On other occasions Briggs would be waiting to pick up the team at the end; usually Martin Landau's character 'Rollin Hand' would take over as the team leader for missions in Briggs' absence (Martin Landau being initially a 'special guest star' for the first season, not even included in the show's original opening credits).
According to Desilu executive Herb Solow, once William Shatner burst into his office, claiming "Steve asked me how many Jews worked on Star Trek. He was recruiting a prayer group of ten guys to worship together on top of the studio's highest building and only had six Jews so far from Mission. He asked if I would come and bring Nimoy and Justman and you."
Hill was briefly suspended from the show near the end of the season, during the production of episode no. 23 (entitled 'Action!' — where for the only time Barbara Bain's character 'Cinnamon Carter' obtained the mission via the taped instructions, though Landau's 'Rollin Hand' then led the team). The suspension was imposed after he refused to climb the rafters via a soundstage staircase, as was called for in the script. This incident was unrelated to any religious observances of Hill's. Consequently, Hill was written out of that episode, and when he returned to Mission: Impossible for the five remaining episodes of the season, his role was severely reduced. Hill was not asked to return for season 2, and was replaced as the show's star by Peter Graves. No onscreen explanation was ever given regarding Dan Briggs' later absence from the series. Steven Hill was however featured prominently as Dan Briggs in around 17 or so of the first season episodes.
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