History Series / TheMagician

* BellyDancer: In "The Vanishing Lady", Blake visits a witness who runs a belly dancing school. There seems to be no reason for her to have this particular occupation beyond FanService.

* StolenByStayingStill: In "Ovation for Murder", Tony breaks a friend out of the jail wing of a hospital and then conceals him in a linen closet on the same floor. This convinces the real criminals that he has escaped, while allowing him to convince the police that her never left the secure floor.

* TrickArrow: The villains in "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow" are a pair of {{Professional Killer}}s who uses bows and arrows: including some 'realistic' explosive arrows.

* WickedToymaker: In "The Illusion of the Lethal Playthings", someone is trying to kill a friend of Dominick's by detonating bombs and using marionettes and remote controlled toys. Tony's investigation brings him to a toy shop and he becomes the target of the mad man.

* YellowPeril: The villain in "The Illusion of the Lost Dragon" is a descendant of warlords who used to rule Szechuan Province, and who regards anything that originates from there as his property. This includes demanding daughters of Chinese immigrants as tribute. Although he mentions that he is of mixed race (presumably to explain why the white actor playing him does not look Chinese) he dresses in ancient Chinese armour, and lives in a palace surrounded by Chinese servants.

* FakeoutEscape: In "Ovation for Murder", Tony breaks a friend out of the jail wing of a hospital and then conceals him in a linen closet on the same floor. This convinces the real criminals that he has escaped, while allowing him to convince the police that her never left the secure floor.

* FoodSlap: In "Shattered Image", Tony drops an ice cream cone in the lap of the thug who has been tailing him; using the distraction to steal his car keys.

* ImpossibleTheft: In "The Illusion of the Cat's Eye", an insurance underwriter asks Tony investigate when a silver statue is stolen in seemingly impossible circumstances. The statue was inside a locked case with four locks, each requiring a different key, and having to be unlocked in sequence to open the case. Each lock was separately alarmed, and the floor around the case was rigged with a pressure sensitive alarm that would trigger with an ounce's change in pressure. The statue vanished within minutes of the alarm being tested and the doors locked.

* JokerJury: In "The Illusion of the Lethal Playthings", a WickedToymaker kidnaps the industrialists he blames for stealing his toy ideas and puts him on trial before a jury of marionettes before sentencing him to death.

* NewOldFlame: The two-part "The Illusion of the Curious Counterfeit" begins when a preciously unseen ex-girlfriend of Tony's arrives on his doorstep being chased by gangsters. Confusing matters is that on-screen dialogue establishes they broke up a year ago, before Tony was at the Magic Castle. But the girlfriend knows all about the Magic Castle's secret elevators and Tony's penthouse.

* OrganTheft: In "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate", Tony initially believes believes the homeless men being abducted are being used as involuntary organ donors for illegal transplants. They are actually to abduct to provide corpse to an organisation that specializes in helping rich criminals to [[FakingtheDead fake their deaths]].
* OutOfCharacterAlert: In "The Vanishing Lady", a kidnapped singer uses the phrases "chin up" when allowed to speak on the phone to prove she is alive. Blake thinks it was an odd thing for her to say and is sure it is a clue. Dennis' research skills eventually turn up a meaning.

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, and it motivated him to seek justice for others. Blake frequently received assistance from acerbic columnist Max Pomeroy, Max's brilliant but wheelchair-bound son Dennis, his assistant and pilot Jerry, and later Magic Castle owner Dominic.

* CutleryEscapeAid: At the start of "The Illusion of the Stainless Steel Lady", a reclusive movie star being held prisoner by her shady business manager has managed to use a spoon to prise the mortar loose from between several bricks and remove the bricks. After being caught, her jailer tells her that from now on she will be eating with a plastic spoon.

* DeadlyRemoteControlToy: In "The Illusion of the Lethal Playthings'', Tony is chased along a country road a remote control plane packed with plastique. He eventually manages to escape it by driving UnderTheTruck. The plane slams into the side of the truck and explodes.

* DeathDealer: In "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate", Tony is practicing sailing cards across the room when he flicks the final card harder and uses it to extinguish a lighted candle and then bury itself in the dartboard on the wall. When Dominick examines the card, he discovers that that particular card is metal. Tony explains that it is not really a magic trick, but a skill called 'card sailing'. Becomes a ChekhovsSkill later in the episode when Tony uses it to escape from the bad guys. He throws the metal card hard enough to puncture a gas line, and the leaking gas ignites off a candle Tony had placed there earlier, creating a fireball.

* GeniusCripple: Dennis Pomeroy is a super-genius of sorts, being Max and Tony's computer hacker and researcher.

* JobTitle

* ProphecyTwist: In "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow", a psychic has visions connected to a string of murders. However, she refuses to go to the police because she also has a vision of her being killed while standing only a few feet away from a cop. When the killer confronts her in her home, she suddenly realizes that the TV is on and showing a cop show, so she is only a few feet away from a cop on the screen.

* RareMoney: In "The Man Who Lost Himself", three crooks seem to be going to extreme lengths to discover the location of the relatively small sum of $24,000 stolen in a military payroll heist in Hawaii during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It turns out the cash is in the form of so-called 'Aloha money'; money overprinted with the word 'Hawaii' in case the Japanese overran Hawaii. Now valuable collectors' items, $24,000 in uncirculated bills is now worth $1.6 million.
* ReTool: Midway through the program's run, the idea of Tony living on an airplane was dropped and Blake took up residence in a posh apartment at The Magic Castle, a real club devoted to magic acts. At the same time, the supporting cast of the show was replaced with a new, single character, Dominick (Joseph Sirola), a somewhat comical sidekick. No explanation for the changes was given in the series.

* RoomDisservice: Used by a hitman to gain access to Max's hotel room in "The Manhunters".

* SleepingDummy: Tony leaves behind one made out of balloons when he escapes from a jail cell in "Lady in a Trap".

* SuicideByAssassin: In "The Illusion of the Fatal Man". a wealthy man suffering from a ConvenientTerminalIllness hires a pair of {{Professional Killer}}s to kill the three men he blames for sentencing an innocent man to death, and then to kill him, as punishment for having allowed it to happen.

* TownWithADarkSecret: In "Lightning on a Dry Day", Blake visits the small town of Elm Ridge, North Carolina after meeting a young man who was rendered catatonic by something he saw near there. The locals make various attempts to run him out of town before he eventually discovers that [[spoiler: the town matriarch is manufacturing illegal rejuvenation drugs]], and the young man witnessed a Treasury agent who got too close to the truth being burned alive.

* TroubleMagnetGambit: In "The Illusion of the Cat's Eye", the villainess kisses her a lip rouge that us scented to act as an attractant to the black panther she uses as an AnimalAssassin.

* UnderTheTruck: In "The Illusion of the Lethal Playthings", Tony is being chased by a model plane loaded with plastique. He escapes by driving his low-slung Corvette under the trailer of fuel tanker. The plane slams into the side of the tanker and explodes.

* WeHelpTheHelpless: Tony is independently wealthy, and will freely use his skills to aid anyone he thinks is facing injustice.
** After the ReTool, this conceit is pretty much forgotten, and Tony mostly only helps friends.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After the ReTool, Max and his son disappear without mention (except Max appears in one episode filmed before the ReTool that was aired afterward). Jerry disappears without mention five episodes into the ReTool, although actor Jim Watkins continues receiving a star credit.

* WorthlessTreasureTwist: Inverted in "The Man Who Lost Himself", where three crooks seem to be going to extreme lengths to discover the location of the relatively small sum of $24,000 stolen in a military payroll heist in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo. It turns out the cash is in the form of 'Aloha money'; money overprinted with the word 'Hawaii' in case the Japanese overran Hawaii. Now valuable collectors' items, $24,000 in uncirculated bills is now worth $1.6 million.

* GirlInABox: In "The Vanishing Lady", kidnappers knock a singer unconscious and then stuff her into a trunk, and casually wheel the trunk out of the theatre.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_magician_4.jpg]]

** In "Man on Fire", a female ConArtist stages a StaircaseTumble to convince her boyfriend that he has killed her. Her partner then arranges to dispose of the 'body', so he can {{blackmail}} the TheMark into handing over industrial secrets.

* StaircaseTumble: In "Man on Fire", a female ConMan fakes a fatal staircase tumble as part of a plot to convince TheMark that he is a murderer.

* CouldntFindALighter: In "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate", Tony lights the cigarette of friend who is being held captive with a lit candle he pulls from inside his jacket. While the crooks think this is just another of Tony's pointless magic tricks, it actually allows him to place the candle in front of a gas line in preperation for a later escape attempt.
* CutleryEscapeAid: At the start of "The Illusion of the Stainless Steel Lady", a reclusive movie star being held prisoner by her shady business manager has managed to uses a spoon to prise the mortar loose from between several bricks and remove the bricks. After being caught, her jailer tells her that from now on she will be eating with a plastic spoon.

* OrganTheft: In "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate", Tony initially believes believes the homeless men being abducted are being used as involuntary organ donors for illegal transplants. They are actually to abduct to provide corpse to an organisation that specialises in helping rich criminals to [[FakingtheDead fake their deaths]].

** In "Lightning on a Dry Day", the local toughs in a TownWithADarkSecret slash the tyres on Tony's Corvette in an attempt to intimidate him into leaving town. As TheSheriff points out to them, this just makes him more determined to stay.
** The bad guys shoot out the tyres of Tony's Corvette to prevent from escaping in "The Man Who Lost Himself".
* ProphecyTwist: In "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow", a psychic has visions connected to a string of murders. However, she refuses to go to the police because she also has a vision of her being killed while standing only a few feet away from a cop. When the killer confronts her in her home, she suddenly realises that the TV is on and showing a cop show, so she is only a few feet away from a cop on the screen.

* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: When Tony finds his kidnapped friend The Amazing Denbo in "The Illusion of the Deady Conglomerate", Denbo is strapped into a dentist chair as a dentist prepares to forcibly alter his teeth to match those a criminal preparing to [[FakingTheDead fake his death]].

''The Magician'' is an American television series that ran during the 1973–1974 season. It starred Creator/BillBixby 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.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_magician_4.jpg]]

* AffablyEvil: In "Lightning on a Dry Day", the real villain, [[spoiler: Mrs. Gilpin]], offers guests tea and cookies and remains affable throughout even when [[spoiler: she]] is revealed as the mastermind.