MovieChat Forums > The Magician (1973) Discussion > Max Pomeroy Was A Piece Of Work!

Max Pomeroy Was A Piece Of Work!

posted 16 years ago by johntracytb5
7 replies | jump to latest

Ok, I'm bored, so I'm bringing over some comments about Max Pomeroy that I made on the Todd Crespi board:

I've been reviewing episodes of the series (I'm trying to watch it in order this time), and I've been rather stunned by Max's behavior, which I really hadn't remembered from the original run. (I recorded the series when Sci-Fi Network ran it in the 1990s, but I didn't really watch it then). Anyway, I'm delightfully surprised at how Max's character was portrayed at that time in history, since he's quite the cad---like a cross between Sheridan Whiteside ("The Man Who Came To Dinner"), Clarence Day ("Life With Father") and...well, Jack Nicholson. He is erudite, egotistical, urbane, clever, charming when he wants to be; he has the biting wit of a cobra with a headache but is an exceedingly loyal friend. Contrariwise, he's a relatively self-centered, hands-off father who treats his son as if he were an inanimate, dismissible object, at times illustrating that Dennis is more mature than is Max. All of this actually makes Max the best developed character in the series, based upon my observations, of course, though I think that this vibrant portrayal was more down to Keene Curtis' excellent acting abilities, rather than the less than stellar writing of the series.

I was just a kid when "The Magician" first aired, but I remember that "the new morality" was slowly but surely creeping into many popular TV shows by the early 1970s. What I didn't remember was that this was such a long-running theme for the subplots of "The Magician." It seems funny, in a way, because it would be expected that Tony would be the character getting all the girl action in the series, since he's dishy and the star of the show. Instead, there's that rotten, silly, foul-tempered Max Pomeroy with a new girlfriend at every turn, often young ladies barely older than his young son. I've only gotten through the first eleven episodes so far, but there's no reference (unless I've missed something) that the audience was ever told what had happened to Dennis' mom---Lulu appears in the pilot only, of course---which you'd expect that an audience which is paying attention would want to know. (Of course, anyone who remembered the pilot knew that Max wasn't married to Lulu, which was pretty unseemly at the time). Also, there's nothing to explain why Max feels so free to flaunt his romantic exploits right in his son's face (such as his obviously romantic liaison with a female ambassador in Ep. 10). Unfortunately, there's so little character development on Dennis' part that we never see him react to any of this, which shows that the writers never really took him seriously. (Too bad, too, since he was an interesting character; he was certainly my favorite).

It's odd that the Pomeroys are such a big part of the early end of the series, yet they were pretty shabbily developed overall. (Frankly, we know far less about Jerry in the first half of the series than we know about Max and Dennis, truth to tell). They all made for a very unique supporting cast and, to be honest, I thought they were more interesting than Tony, who was pretty much a "one note wonder," as most heroes are. (Tony is very likable and honorable, but one dimensional to say the least). For my part, everyone's best outing was in "The Manhunters" because so much of that script revolves around the key characters, but it quickly starts to go downhill from there because less emphasis was placed on the main characters' development as the series continued. Still, this is such a fun series to watch and some of the episodes (like "Lady In A Trap") have had me laughing out loud because the delivery of the lines is so clever. I'm so grateful to get to enjoy the series all over again and it is a shame that it's not available on an official release so that the generation who loved this series as kids can enjoy it again as well.

[–] Dominique2 16 years ago

The entire premise of the series was extremely far fetched of course, but
setting that aside I must agree with you. I vaguely remember that, besides
being wheelchair bound, the son - Dennis - was more or less locked up in
the house because: wasn't it built on a hill or something, with loads of
stairs to the curb? Also, everybody was always going everywhere, but the
poor guy always had to man the phone. For me, Todd's presence was what made
the show. He was an extremely attractive looking guy.
I wonder why he quit acting, not that he isn't a great artist, but still.
With looks like that in combination with his talent, he could have had
a longer career in front of the camera. His IMDB "bio" doesn't say anything
about his marital status (hint, hint, mmmwaaahahahaha).

[–] johntracytb5 16 years ago

I totally agree with you, Dominique2---Todd was a beauty. He was the perfect combination of gorgeous looks, a genuinely charming personality and lots of talent. I've read accounts by several Hollywood industry types which described him as having been one of the nicest people around. He can sing, act, dance, play four instruments AND is a wonderfully talented artist, too. Can't get better than that! Hollywood lost a lot when he left, though he turned out to be Washington's gain.

After watching the series again recently, I remembered strongly why my sis, my friends and I lost interest in it: all the "real" magic left for us when Todd left the series! Yeah, yeah, for guys it was all about the car and Tony was pretty suave and cool, but the young female audience knew that the show was all about our clever Dennis with the sultry voice and that sexy smile of his. Otherwise, let's face it, there was very little left to hold our interest, since most of the time the stories didn't make a lot of sense and the writing was rather abysmal over all. Most of the time, the writers couldn't even remember that Max Pomeroy lived in San Francisco. Often enough, he and Tony would suddenly find themselves in Los Angeles without any explanation to the audience of how this happened. (Let's guess: Tony had learned the power of teleportation)! This is one of those series wherein it falls apart the more you analyze it (but let's do it anyway as it's such fun)!

What's stood out the most to me upon reviewing the series is that the character development is almost nil. The Pomeroys were better developed than either Tony or Jerry (sheesh---we never learned ANYTHING about poor Jerry!), and even they weren't terribly well developed, with Max probably being the best defined character of all. You're right---the original Pomeroy house was a Victorian in San Francisco, built on a peak overlooking SF Bay, and it did have several flights of steps down to the street, so any access that Dennis had to the outside world would have been from the back of the house and out into an alley. Still, this was only in the pilot; once Lulu went, so did the Victorian. The second house, as used in the series, feasibly had better access for someone disabled, so there was no reason to believe that Dennis couldn't leave the house, though the series nearly implied that he was tethered to that silly red phone. (Funny about all those red phones in the series, since, back then, AT&T placed a priority on red telephone equipment for certain types of businesses or public service entities all but exclusively---they were certainly not for mouthy newspaper columnists with attitude issues)!

For a character I've always remembered fondly over the years, it's been strange to note that most of what I knew of the character of Dennis Pomeroy came from interviews done with Todd. We as viewers never really learn his back-story, other than that he's obviously very smart (he was meant to be a genius), a top-notch researcher and that Tony and Max respected him for his resourcefulness. He's of college age (Todd was 21 when he began to play the character), which might have made for an easy "out" explaining his disappearance, had the producers bothered to have the writers present this to the audience. Dennis never seemed to have much of a life outside of fielding information for Tony or for his father's investigations, though he certainly appeared to be tanned, fit and healthy. There are one or two episodes during which it appears that Dennis must have actually escaped the house on his own (Max having run off to play with Tony), since the kid is seen wearing a suit and tie...rather too fancy for home wear even for a family in which the mom wore pearls and silk as daily attire and the father wore cravats and bow ties around the house. Dennis mentions in passing (in "The Manhunters") that he's flown aboard Tony's plane before, which indicates that Max lets him have some fun once in a while. Beyond this, the poor kid seems to be perpetually trapped in that drab, drafty old museum of a house while he's filing dear ol' dad's stories and photos or cruising through the database of the Department Of Motor Vehicles, police files and anything else he can get into prior to the advent of the now common personal computer. Just think about it: Dennis Pomeroy would have a field day were this tale set in current time---he'd likely be the world's No. 1 hacker. (Thanks, Tony)!

[–] Dominique2 16 years ago

Hi johntracytb5,

Another thing that's so different in depicting people with disabilities in movies or series back then and in the past decade or 2> in the earlier years, disabled people were always so helpless and sort of dismissed as not being able to do much or to enjoy much. I think the way the Dennis character was written was still much according to those lines. I seem to remember a line the Tony Blake character said to Dennis in one of the episodes that he shouldn't open the door to just anybody, or something like that, that - even then - came across as a little condescending.
I think it was in the nineties or around then that suddenly people with disabilities were shown being active in sports, driving cars, simply being much more (inter)active with the able bodied world. A better reflection of reality.

[–] johntracytb5 16 years ago

You're absolutely right, Dominique2---things have changed dramatically in the way that some disabled characters are portrayed between the 1970s and now. You've only to look at the difference between how Dennis was portrayed (literally trapped in the house 95% of his appearances) and a character like Stevie on "Malcolm In The Middle" in which he is seen as being out there in the world interacting with other kids (and getting into trouble with them at times) despite his disabilities. He's also not seen as "untouchable" when it comes to gags or pranks and he's not pitied by the other characters in the cast. (Well, Lois is sort of in that mode at the beginning of the series, but she's well-meaning about it). Like Dennis, Stevie was portrayed as a genius whose father, like Max, never coddled him or acted as if he needed to be babied. When I first saw "Malcolm In The Middle," I couldn't help but think how far this subject matter had come since the days of "The Magician."

I seem to remember a line the Tony Blake character said to Dennis in one of the episodes that he shouldn't open the door to just anybody, or something like that, that - even then - came across as a little condescending.

I know what you mean, though, truth to tell, it was merely a light jab at Dennis' earlier unwitting mistake, since he'd accidentally opened the hotel room door to his father's would-be assassin. (Tony left him by saying, "Dennis: don't accept any more packages!"). It was hardly Dennis' fault, since the assassin had cleverly sent up a previous delivery. All of Max's colleagues knew him to be in town and might likely send a fruit basket or two. That skewer of Tony's bugged me a bit too, but mostly because it came at a time when he was willing to abandon that kid (who likely might have been injured during the fall he'd taken) to his own devices in the same hotel where we all knew that the assassin was still running amok. (And yes, earlier dialog says that Jerry was going to show up at the hotel to join Dennis, but he certainly hadn't at that point). Dennis had only fallen into danger in the first place because Max had secretly dumped him, preferring to chat up the girls at poolside and take his pal (the guy who had called the hit on him) to lunch, rather than showing any care for his worried son. (Max not being the world's most responsible father, hence the title of this thread). I agree that Tony's line comes off as a bit callous for someone who is usually quite compassionate, particularly given what Dennis had just been through. It was the writer's less than stellar attempt to add some slight humor to what had been a drama-ladened tale, so I can understand why it's there; it just doesn't work all that well.

[–] vranger (444) 6 years ago

I watched the earlier episodes several months ago, but I seem to remember a scene in which bad guys had to drop on everyone else, and Dennis came out of another room and did something to save the day. I'll have to rewatch the early shows and get the details.

[–] shallow59 15 years ago

My girlfriends and I watched The Magician solely for Dennis Pomeroy as well. We were heartbroken when series 2 started and he and Max had mysteriously disappeared and Tony Blake no longer lived in his 'oh so cool' plane. The whole series became a bit of a bore for us after that.

I remember there were rumours at the time that Todd Crespi was getting too much fan notice for someone who wasn't even in every episode. LOL - I remember one fan mag I had at the time and the headline was something like: 'Todd Crespi, is he too handsome to love.' LOL! None of us girls thought so. ;-)

[–] johntracytb5 15 years ago

Haaaa---I remember that! Since when is anyone "too handsome" to love? Todd was super-gorgeous then and he still is today. It was an interesting situation with "The Magician," though, since Bill Bixby was supposed to be the handsome guy we tuned in to see, yet here was this younger heartthrob generating lots of fan mail. I still have the issue of Tiger Beat from 1973 which introduced the new TV line up for that Fall and they featured both Bixby AND Crespi to sell us on watching the series. (I was never a Bill Bixby fan until "The Courtship Of Eddie's Father," but he was definitely at his "hunky" best in "The Magician"...though more like my mom's speed)...

On a side note, it was obvious in the early part of the series that Max Pomeroy was getting way more girl action than Tony ever did, so the romance in the series was decidedly lop-sided. If they had ever let Dennis out of the house, every girl in San Francisco would have been all over him and Tony would have been relegated to the background. (They should have let us girls write that series)!