William Read Woodfield (1928-2001) was a writer, story editor, and producer of Mission: Impossible. Allan Balter was his customary professional partner. It was Woodfield, in collaboration with Balter, who steered the customary modus operandi of the Missions and the IMF towards grand-scale confidence games; the book The Big Con, written by linguist David W. Maurer, was Woodfield's and Balter's "bible" for how they approached scripts.