The Magician (1973)
The Magician
1973The Magician is an American television series that ran during the 1973–1974 season. It starred Bill Bixby as stage illusionist Anthony "Tony" Blake, a playboy philanthropist who used his skills to solve difficult crimes as needed. In the series pilot, the character was instead named Anthony Dorian. The name change was due to a conflict with the name of a real life stage magician.
Seasons & Episode
Magician Tony Blake discovers that Julie Carter, the singer who opens his stage illusion show in Las Vegas, has been kidnapped. Against her fiance's wishes, Tony gets involved in trying to rescue the girl, but his helicopter surveillance plan fails. Tony now finds time running out to locate and rescue Julie before the kidnappers kill her.
Tony's girlfriend is apparently run down in a parking garage, but nobody will give him a straight answer as to which hospital the body was taken. When a mysterious uncle suddenly claims the body, Tony suspects something is awry. The investigation spells D-A-N-G-E-R when somebody tries to kill Tony by knocking him out and setting fire to the barn he's in.
A band of modern-day pirates is seeking to hijack a tanker ship for its $4 million worth of fuel. They have coerced a merchant seaman to help them by kidnapping his wife, who had just gotten a role as Tony Blake's stage assistant. Tony steals onto the ship to overhear the pirates' nefarious plans and to try to devise a way to rescue husband and wife.
Tony Blake has taken up residency at The Castle, an exclusive club for magicians, when his old girlfriend Janet Keegan comes to visit--not to get back together with him, but because she is being pursued by two men and doesn't know why. Her father, Charles, who used to be involved in bootlegging and other shady activities, may be involved. Despite Tony's efforts to protect her, the men catch Janet and hold her hostage to keep her father from interfering with a planned robbery, and Tony must rescue her from the prison in which they are holding her.
Tony Blake fails to rescue Janet from the jail in which the kidnappers are holding her. Soon he finds himself caught between the kidnappers, who have put out a contract on Janet, and her own father, who thinks Tony's efforts to rescue her are actually interfering with her safe return. Tony eventually steals into the currency printing plant that the kidnappers have taken over and tries to devise a way to rescue Janet.
Irene Denore, a famous film actress of the silent era, is being held hostage in her own home by her ruthless business manager, Brad Nicholson, who is slowly bleeding her dry of her fortune. Meanwhile, reporter Victoria Hunter is trying to use Tony to get an exclusive interview with Irene. Tony is busy trying to uncover the true reason why the actress won't see anyone.
Tony Blake is doing a benefit performance on a casino boat when a robbery takes place. As far as the police are concerned, the prime suspect in the crime is Tony's friend, boat operator Ed Cassidy (played by William Shatner), but Tony sets out to prove him innocent.
Tony gets involved in a mystery of a stolen Chinese heirloom. A sculpture of a dragon is missing, and when Tony starts to get close to the culprits he gets a karate chop for his trouble! Looks like Tony is physically outmatched by the martial arts experts who steal the statue, but never underestimate the magic of Tony Blake, as he solves the mystery of the Lost Dragon and returns it to it's rightful owner. -- Submitted by Californiamagic
In this episode, Tony is contacted by an old Magician Friend who is down on his luck, living out of a shelter. Apparently he is concerned about someone else who turned up missing from a local shelter, and asks for Tony's help. Tony investigates and soon finds things don't add up, and learns the gruesome details of what happens after staying at Reverend Wally's halfway house, just in time to save his magician friend from the same fate as the others before him.
Someone is going around killing people with, of all things, a bow & arrow. Stranger still, a psychic sees it all in her mind's eye...and has to tell someone. That someone is her good friend Tony Blake. After Tony verifies her visions, he decides to follow the trail and find out who is doing the killing, and why.
Tony finds out someone is trying to blackmail a friend, wealthy Jackson Wyndham, for $500,000. They have already broken into Wyndham's home, projected a bizarre puppet show in his private movie theatre, and booby-trapped his telephone with a bomb. After two close incidents, Tony becomes concerned for his friend and offers his help in finding out who is trying to blackmail him.
The Magician is an American television series that ran during the 1973–1974 season. It starred Bill Bixby as stage illusionist Anthony "Tony" Blake, a playboy philanthropist who used his skills to solve difficult crimes as needed. In the series pilot, the character was instead named Anthony Dorian. The name change was due to a conflict with the name of a real life stage magician.