1973 Bill Bixby is The Magician S01E00 Pilot Episode

3 months ago
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In 1973 I was 9 years old and one of my favorite TV shows starred Bill Bixby as The Magician. Loved his Corvette. My brother even had a Pulsar watch. We wanted to be cool just like him. Here is the pilot made for tv movie, the premiere episode of The Magician from March 17, 1973.
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 named Anthony Dorian; the name was changed due to a conflict with the name of a real-life stage magician.
Blake was a professional stage magician who used his skills to solve crimes and help the helpless. Years earlier, Blake had been in prison on a trumped-up espionage charge in an unnamed country in South America. He discovered a way to escape with his cellmate, which began his interest in escapology. The cellmate died and left him a fortune. The escape, apparently followed by exoneration of the false charges that had led to it, led to Blake's pursuit of a career in stage magic, which made him famous. He never forgot his unjust imprisonment, which motivated him to seek justice for others.

Initially, Blake used a private Boeing Jet airliner named The Spirit[1] as a base of operations; it was outfitted as a mobile residence ("It's like any other mobile home, only faster") with live-in pilot Jerry Anderson (Jerry Wallace in the pilot episode, same actor). Blake drove a white '73 Chevrolet Corvette C3 with soft nose, mostly open T-top Targa roof and custom vanity license plates ("SPIRIT") and, for its time, an exotic feature - a car phone. Blake frequently received assistance from acerbic columnist Max Pomeroy, and Max's brilliant son Dennis, who uses a wheelchair.

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