The Magician

The Magician

1973 - United States

Created by British born producer Bruce Landsbury, the younger brother of actress Angela Lansbury, The Magician was a solid action packed series with something of a twist in as much as the hero was a sleuthing magician who, apart from being a gifted illusionist, also possessed a photographic memory and bags of money. It probably, maybe, should have been a hit when it first appeared in 1973. It was a different take on the standard detective series, starred the amiable Bill Bixby in the lead and came from a producer who had successfully overseen 'The Wild Wild West' and 'Mission Impossible.' But due to circumstances beyond the producer's control it vanished from our screens after one season.

The back story for the series was that years earlier, our hero Tony Blake was falsely imprisoned somewhere in South America on charges of espionage. Blake and his cellmate managed to escape which inspired Blake's interest in escapology. When the cellmate died, he left his fortune to Blake. After pursuing his interest to become a master magician, Blake established himself as a leading exponent of his art. However, he never forgot his unjust imprisonment, and it motivated him to seek justice for others.

The Magician

And so now Blake enjoys a lavish playboy lifestyle, drives a sports car with a personalised number plate: ‘SPIRIT’ and lives, no - honestly, inside a Boeing 720 Jetliner! And yet he never forgets or forsakes those in need of justice and uses his skills to achieve the seemingly impossible. A bit like James Bond meets The Equalizer meets Harry Houdini.

To get the series off to a good start, Lansbury employed Joseph Stefano to write the pilot episode. Stefano had previously written the screenplay for Hitchcock’s classic ‘Pyscho.’ Unsurprisingly, Stefano envisaged a somewhat dark and macabre tale until the Network stepped in and demanded a fast-paced action adventure that depicted the hero as a modern day swashbuckler and which wouldn’t scare the heebie-jeebies out of its viewers. At the same time American television, unlike its British counterpart, had strict rules on toning down violence. Hence, any US TV show that you view from that period such as ‘Hawaii Five-0’and ‘Starsky and Hutch’ normally end without anyone getting beaten, stabbed or shot and the villains appear to be quite happy to throw their arms up in defeat as if to say ‘it’s a fair cop. I’ll come quietly.’

The Magician

And so, with a hero who could bamboozle his opponents with the seemingly impossible there was probably, maybe, a bit of credibility in the fact that he could disarm a no-gooder without resorting to fisticuffs or weapons. No, I’m not convinced either. Neither it seems was the NBC Network, because it scheduled the series up against very strong opposition. The two shows it was up against on primetime Monday night were ‘Gunsmoke’and ‘The Rookies,’ the latter of which enjoyed the success that came with leading into the sure-fire ratings winner ‘ Monday Night Football.’ As if that wasn’t a kick in the teeth then the fact that ‘The Magician’ was being made just as Hollywood’s scriptwriters were walking out on strike and by the time it came to screen the country was suffering a massive economic downturn due to an oil crisis, almost certainly was. A millionaire lifestyle was perhaps not what the audience wanted to see. Probably, maybe not, in fairness to the producers they did try and tone the lavishness down by moving Blake off his plane and into The Magic Castle in Hollywood, a real club devoted to magic acts.

Bill Bixby as The Magician

This was to be Bill Bixby’s launch into the world of ‘straight’ television as opposed to the comedies he had come to be known for. Already a keen amateur magician he threw himself gamefully into the role, learning how to perform the magic tricks required for the series without the use of trick photography and a number of notable guest stars appeared in the series, amongst them were William Shatner, Mark Hamill and his former ‘My Favourite Martian’ co-star Ray Walston ( in an episode titled "My Favourite Magician" ). But it would be his next series, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ that would launch that period of his career. One can only wonder how the series would have been received had Joseph Stefano had been allowed to follow his original vision or if there had been more time to work on the scripts.

But the writers’ strike wasn’t settled until the late summer of 1973 and the series was due to air in October. As a result, scripts were hurriedly written without the luxury of having the time to refine them. It is quite possible that Blake’s lifestyle may have been toned down a bit before the series premiered and the changes that were made during the season; Blake’s residence, the supporting cast - as just two examples, both of which were made without explanation, impacted on the quality of the series. The Magician finished in the Nielsen ratings for the 1973-1974 TV Season 52nd out of 81 shows. Cancellation was inevitable.

The Magician

Still, The Magician did have an influence on later series. The show was a apparently a favourite of ‘The X-Files’creator Chris Carter, who acknowledged it in Special Agent Fox Mulder's "origin" story: a teenaged Mulder was waiting to watch ‘The Magician’ when his sister Samantha was abducted by mysterious forces. In the Quantum Leap’ episode "The Great Spontini", Scott Bakula's character, Dr. Sam Beckett, leapt into an amateur magician in 1974 who aspired to appear on Bill Bixby's ‘ The Magician.’ And in ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ Bixby teamed up once again with Ray Walston when David Banner became the temporary apprentice to a stage magician.

‘The Magician’ will go down as a failed attempt to produce a playboy-righter-of-wrongs series but US television had not quite finished with the idea yet. Remember a wealthy couple who lead a glamorous jet-set lifestyle and regularly found themselves working as un-paid detectives in order to solve crimes in which they became embroiled? ‘Hart to Hart’ took that premise and made it into a hit series. Of that, you can be under no illusion.

Published on November 1st, 2020. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

Barnaby Jones

When Barnaby Jones' son is murdered he comes out of retirement to track down the killer...

Also released in 1973

The Baker Street Boys

Based on a group of street urchins whom Conan Doyle recruited on behalf of Holmes to perform various missions, take messages, search London following clues and going to places where the detective himself could not.

Also released in 1973

Mayans M.C.

The next chapter in the 'Sons of Anarchy' saga: Blood runs thicker than water in the cartel-run borderlands between Mexico and the US

Also tagged Us Crime Drama

The Godfather Saga miniseries review

Seven hour miniseries that combined The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, re-edited in chronological order with additional footage

Also tagged Us Crime Drama

CHiPS

CHiPs an acronym for California Highway Patrol, featured cops on bikes as they patrolled the highways and byways around the vast Los Angeles freeway system.

Also tagged Us Crime Drama

Bowler

Spin-off from The Fenn Street Gang - Stanley Bowler is an East End villain whose social aspirations fail consistently due to his lack of ability to grasp the qualities he needs such as refinement and elegance of manner.

Also released in 1973

Murder She Wrote

Mystery writer Jessica Fletcher investigates murders in the quiet community of Cabot Cove. A bit like Miss Marple, but with an American accent.

Also tagged Us Crime Drama

Billy Liar

Adapted from the highly successful novel/play/film by successful writing team Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, this version of Billy Liar was updated by them to make it more relevant to the early 1970s.

Also released in 1973

Lizzie Dripping

BBC children's series about a mischievous 12 year-old girl, Penelope Arbuckle, and her imaginary witch friend who only Penelope (and the TV audience) could see.

Also released in 1973