Il mago

June 2025

I have just finished watching The Magician, which ran for 2 series and had 24 or 26 episodes, something like that. Truthfully it probably wasnt worthy enough to justify anymore.

It stars Bill Bixby as a magician who solves cases, sounds good so far, but i was expecting the mysteries to be like they were in Jonathan Creek, where the crimes were so baffling it needs a magician to solve them. I would say this was only the case in one episode, the rest were just standard detective stuff.

This was also another example of a complete change of cast except for Bill Bixby when it returned for series 2, in this case i would say it was neither better or worse for this fact.

7 card tricks out of 10.

Despite some plots that didn't quite measure up, the show had cool factor, and charm as only the great Bill Bixby could deliver. Additionally, the series is unique in its premise, if not in its mysteries.

Bixby did a great job of performing Mark Wilson's magic. Wilson was a popular professional magician who had his own TV show in the 60s. While I don't see it listed on this site, I distinctly remember what I believe to have been a 30 minute Saturday morning series where he rescued his beautiful assistant from bad guys each show - of course using his magic each week.

If you like magic, or Bill Bixby, or especially both (like me), keep an eye out for this. Since it only ran one season, once in a rare while a cable channel will run a marathon of the entire series.

ETA: The series is now available on DVD, as of sometime in 2017, I believe.

One of the best t.v. series ever done using magic in a drama (better than Blacke's Magic that came later). It brought magic into the modern age, while keeping the character believable, and yet, mysterious. Also an excellent show to inspire young people to take an interest in magic as a hobby/or even as a profession...it did for me, just when I had thought about hanging up my wand, this show hit the air and I was inspired to create an original style. Bill Bixby did a fine job in every episode, with the excellent coaching of Mark Wilson. I would love to see this series put onto DVD as a hero for the next generation of wand wavers. Our magical arts need more films like this one. (Steve Gathings, Modern Magical Entertainer.)

This series was released on DVD in 2017. The episodes seem to be complete, except for episode 12, "The Illusion of the Curious Counterfeit" part 2, which is missing the recap of part 1 (episode 11). That recap - which can be seen on YouTube - runs only 02:45, yet the episode runs 05:35 shorter than the rest. I've compared the DVD to an old tape from the SciFi Channel. Besides the recap, SciFi had nothing that isn't in the DVD version. It's possible that the episode actually ran 3 minutes short when it originally aired.

I've also compared the pilot movie to the SciFi channel version. At 20:05, SciFi goes to a commercial. A :05 second shot of the Spirit airplane flying off has been trimmed; on the DVD, it cuts directly to a similar (not identical) shot which occurs after the commercial. The missing shot is insignificant, and the edit actually improves the flow, by eliminating the commercial fade-out / fade-in.

Also in the pilot, at 34:15, Max asks Mrs. Coogan (Kim Hunter) if she's ever read "The Count of Monte Cristo". I distinctly remember from an older tape I used to have that she responds "No" then pauses a moment before saying "I've seen the movie." On both the DVD and the SciFi channel versions, the "No" and pause is cut. This makes me wonder if anything else has been cut from the DVD (the SciFi version has nothing else that's missing from the DVD).

One more note ... episode 14, The Illusion of The Queen's Gambit, has the second style of credits, but still lists Keene Curtis as co-star. It seems to be the first Magic Castle episode, with Joseph Sirola listed as a guest star. This presumably belongs before episode 11.

I vaguely remember really enjoying this show as a kid. I was always fascinated with Magic and it was fun to see magic used to defeat bad guys. Now in my 30's I have finally been able to view this series again (thanks to the Sci-Fi channel and insomnia) to see how well it holds up. I've always been a fan of Bill Bixby and his portrayal of Anthony Blake is still marvelous. He's cool, collected and always seems to get wrapped up with people who get in trouble (ala Hart to Hart). The one aspect where Bixby really shines though is his "I'm too cool" attitude towards the bad guys. Blake gets into some tense situations but always seems to have the one up on them and always has a trick up his sleeve (sometimes literally) as he slip out of handcuffs, makes guns vanish and throws flash powder in attacker's eyes. He likes to torment, ridicule and expose the enemy. Also he has some cool stuff like his Corvette, tons of magical gimics and an airplaine which he lives in! Apparently Bixby trained as an actual magician and vowed that all the tricks shown on the program were authentic, this lead to the famous Magician Blackstone offically recognizing the show. Sure you have the wide ties, huge lapells and bell bottoms and at times this show can get a little cheezy with "future starlets" singing, people overcoming emotional problems, etc. But this is a fun show, and the magic adds a special twist to the plot. If you were a fan of Maninix, Streets of San Francisco, Knight Rider or any of the crime shows with a "twist" from the 70's such as David McCallum's Invisible Man or Gemini Man, this series is worth a look (if you can find it that is).