The Magician (thing)

Search the room of most geeky boys at around 10 and it seems highly likely amongst all of the toys and such you are going to find at least one deck of marked cards, silk handkerchief that changes color, or box that will make a coin appear and disappear. Magic seems to be a stage that most kids go through, sort of like dinosaurs and knock knock jokes, and though most do not continue to pursue it through their lives, a few do. I was lucky enough to reach my interest in magic stage about the same time that The Magician began airing on NBC.

The Magician told the tale of Anthony "Tony" Blake, a stage magician who inexplicably seemed to get caught up in adventures and solve mysteries. It was the 70's so everyone was solving mysteries: fat men solved mysteries, slovenly men solved mysteries, coyboys solved mysteries, etc. The magic part of the show had the star Bill Bixby actually doing stage magic, like levitating women, or shoving a sword through a box, or sawing people in half. No trick photography was used and it was over all pretty neat. Despite the title, no magic was used in the solving of the cases, but it made for a nice change of pace.

A typical episode would involve Blake (whose name was changed inexplicably from Anthony Dorian in the pilot episode to Blake in the series) going to a town for a show, getting involved in a mystery, doing a couple of tricks at a magic club (which there seemed to be hundreds of in the world of the Magician), and Blake solving the case. He travelled around in a jet which was his home and housed his Corvette, giving the misleading idea that huge sums of money can be had if you get into the magic trade. Later in the series, Blake became a resident of the Magic Castle, a nightclub/magic club, that seemingly had all kinds of cool secret passages and tricks scattered about the place. This enlivened the imaginations of young magic enthusiast everywhere, and made the personal injury lawyers fantasize about the money to be made.