MovieChat Forums > The Magician (1973) Discussion > A great Television series, ruined by Blo...

A great Television series, ruined by Block headed TV execs

posted 14 years ago by StoneGriffin
4 replies | jump to latest

I remember this show on it's first airing. I loved the idea of a rich philanthropist who just happened to be a kick ass Magician, helping people. The incredible trumpet solo and the cool Title theme music was also a plus!

Why did it fail?

For one, the first season writers wanted to make Anthony Blake more of an action hero. This was a mistake. What differentiated Blake from the heroes of 1970s shows (Rockford Files, Barnaby Jones, Columbo, McMillan & Wife, etc.) was that he was not a cop, not a Private investigator, not a lawyer ..... he was a *beep* magician!!! He can use MAGIC. Let him use magic!!!!

Now he doesn't use REAL magic, like a warlock, but the premise was so promising and they totally blew it. The show focused more on chases, and fights and intrigue that had NOTHING to do with Anthony Blake's talents.

So the fans wrote to the television studios asking for changes. This was back in the days when you had to type up a letter with a typewriter and actually research on where to mail your letter and then put it in the mailbox, never knowing if your letter got to the TV executives who actually run things. No email back in those days.

Well I read an article about the show going into it's 2nd season, and they stated that 'they heard the fans loud and clear ... MORE MAGIC!" So more magic there would be, not car chases, fights, or any other crime fighting scenario that could have taken place in a dozen or more 'cop shows' of the time period. So what happened? We saw endless (and I mean ENDLESS) sequences of Bixby's good friend Marc Wilson (a real pro magician) doing his stage magic show. What the hell? THAT was not what the fans were asking for. We didn't bombard the network to get more 'screen time for Las Vegas magic acts!!' The Execs didn't understand the fans at ALL!!!!!!

What the fans wanted was a virtual superhero who fought crime and caught bad guys WITH MAGIC!!! That's where the "We want to see more Magic" mantra came from!!! We wanted to see kick ass Magic Tricks that were used to befuddle, defeat or capture villains. We wanted a brilliant magician who used his amazing skills with deception and magic to win the day. Anthony Blake was a rich playboy in the vein of BRUCE WAYNE. He could have a workshop which made all sorts of neat MAGIC oriented crime fighting tricks!!!! Yes, we wanted a character that today would probably be from the pages of Marvel Comics. We didn't want to see a lousy Las Vegas Magic Lounge Act every episode! That was ridiculous! And proved that the show's executives were exceedingly DUMB about figuring out what the fans wanted.

(The movie F/X with Bryan Brown captured the essence of that idea, a man gifted with special effects skills, using tricks and diversions to take down the bad guys.)

Well, the end came abruptly and harshly. I tuned into that time slot on the right channel and the right night ... and was abruptly confronted with an out of rotation episode of the "Baseball world of Joe Garogiola". Gag! The Magician had been abruptly canceled..... The end of a very disappointing and frustrating era had arrived.

Ah, you kids today don't know how good you have it.... At least you have cool genre movies to watch. Can you think of a single super hero crime fighting movie in 1973? Gag!

Dr. Kila Marr was right. Kill the Crystalline Entity.

[–] Prismark10 11 years ago

We watched this show and talked about it at school the next day. Although in later years it came across as cheesy it was still good fun.

Its that man again!!

[–] hackraytex 9 years ago

Amen! Another good show screwed up by the suits. My then wife and I had this show on our must watch list every week. I guess the suits did not want to be to responsive to the fan, after all what do they know. I enjoyed the globe trotting Magician of the first year but the executives, at least in TV Guide, wanted the show to be reflective of the time and with the energy crises thought it would not be cool with people fighting gas lines to see a show about a rich guy hopping all over the world in a private jet. The shift to a Las Vegas lounge magic act was a total turnoff. The bozos did not realize, in their isolated world, that maybe we would like to see something that would take our minds off of such problems for awhile and go into a world where there was no energy crisis or anything reminding us of our daily problems. The suits just can't keep their fingers out of something that did not need fixing. The suits are still preaching at us on what we should like and not like. When they get something that works, they should leave it alone. Rest in peace, Mr. Bixby.

[–] vranger (444) 6 years ago

Actually, two things killed the show. First was the writer's strike. While the idea was gold and Bill Bixby both talented and popular, the show couldn't survive several absolutely terrible scripts. Second, it was programmed opposite two popular, established shows -- one of which was Gunsmoke. Character focus had nothing to do with The Magician only lasting one season.

TV history is littered with promising series that couldn't overcome established competition. If The Magician had softer competition, the ratings might have risen to a level that would have given it a second chance, and then with better writing in that second season, who knows?

Tex, yes they did ditch the jet. However, the premise for the last half of the season wasn't a Vegas lounge act. They had Tony Blake performing at his own venue in LA, The Magic Castle, where he lived on the top floor. These segments also had cameos by actual performing illusionists, including frequent appearances by Mark Wilson, the "consultant" who was training Bill Bixby for the series.

[–] bistritapcv (1971) 5 years ago

Wasn't Angela Lansbury's brother somehow involved?