The Magician is an American television series that ran on NBC during the 1973–74 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 from 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.
Tropes used in The Magician:
- Affably Evil: In "Lightning on a Dry Day", the real villain, Mrs. Gilpin, offers guests tea and cookies and remains affable throughout even when revealed as the mastermind.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Nearly turns deadly when Tony uses the vents to sneak into a supposedly abandoned restaurant in "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate". The bar he is holding on to as he peers out the vent snaps and he slides down into the central and only just manages to catch himself; leaving him hanging above a Deadly Rotary Fan.
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: In "The Illusion of Black Gold", the kidnappers are using a biker gang called the Road Knights as their muscle.
- Amateur Sleuth: Tony Blake is a world famous Stage Magician who dabbles in investigation because he cannot stand to see injustice.
- Animal Assassin:
- In "The Illusion of the Stainless Steel Lady", the bad guys attempt to dispose of Tony by placing a rattlesnake in his car.
- In "The Illusion of the Cat's Eye", the female antagonist uses a trained leopard to kill her victims and simulate an ancient Egyptian curse.
- Auction of Evil: In "The Illusion of Black Gold", kidnappers attempt to auction off a kidnapped scientist who has developed a process for extracting oil from shale.
- Batter Up!: In "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate", two hobos with baseball bats attempt to rough Tony up. He manages to grab the bat off one of them and turn the tables.
- Blinded by the Light: In "The Illusion of the Cat's Eye", Tony blinds the bad guy who is chasing him with a shotgun through a darkened warehouse by tossing a piece of burning flash paper in his face.
- Bound and Gagged: After knocking Dennis out, a hitman leaves him bound and gagged in his wheelchair as he prepares to assassinate Max in "The Manhunters".
- Brandishment Bluff: In "Lady in a Trap", Tony is able to bluff a Dirty Cop into handcuffing himself to a radiator by convincing him he has a gun aimed at him under the desk.
- Car Fu: In "Illusion in Terror", Blake's Girl of the Week is run down and seemingly killed by a hitman in a parking garage.
- Cement Shoes: In "Lady in a Trap", a crook attempts to dispose of his girlfriend by chaining her feet to a heavy weight and throwing her off the side of his boat. Fortunately for her, he is over the point where Tony and Jerry are scuba diving and they are able to rescue her.
- Censor Suds: In "The Illusion of the Curious Counterfeit", Tony is set up and sent to met a Professional Killer in a hotel room: The assassin turns out to be woman who greets Tony in the bath: her modesty protected by the bubble bath.
- Chekhov's Hobby: In "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow", Tony mentions to Dominick that he is learning hang-gliding during a conversation at the start of the episode. Guess what skill he uses to stop the Professional Killer at the end of the episode?
- Convection, Schmonvection: In "The Illusion of the Lost Dragon", Tony is able to keep working on a complicated puzzle lock despite the heat of a Lava Pit opening up underneath him. Earlier in the episode, a young man was similarly unaffected until he fell into the lava, at which point he was instantly incinerated.
- Cool Car: Blake drives a white Chevrolet Corvette with custom license plates ("SPIRIT") and, for its time, an exotic feature: a car phone.
- Cool Plane: Initially, Blake used his Boeing 720 jetliner (named "The Spirit") 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.
- Couldn't Find a Lighter: 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 preparation for a later escape attempt.
- Cutlery Escape Aid: At the start of "The Illusion of the Stainless Steel Lady", a reclusive movie star being held prisoner by her shady business manager has used 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.
- Cut Phone Lines: In "The Illusion of the Queen's Gambit", the robbers do this when they take over the casino. They announce what they have done just as Jerry is picking up a phone to call for help.
- Dead Hat Shot: The death of the first Victim of the Week in "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow" is shown by the head of an arrow protruding through the back of his chair and his coffee cup hitting the floor.
- Deadly Bath: In "Lady in a Trap", the thief who masterminded the theft of a rare book is drowned in his bath by the Dirty Cop who arrives to collect the loot.
- Deadly Remote Control Toy: In "The Illusion of the Lethal Playthings'', Tony is chased along a country road by a remote control plane packed with plastique. He eventually manages to escape it by driving Under the Truck. The plane slams into the side of the truck and explodes.
- Deadly Rotary Fan: Tony is left dangling above a giant spinning fan when an attempt to use an Air-Vent Passageway goes awry in "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate".
- Dead Man Honking: In "The Illusion of the Stainless Steel Lady", Tony fakes his death by Animal Assassin by slumping forward in his car, his head on the steering wheel and the horn blaring.
- Death Dealer:
- 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 Chekhov's Skill 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.
- In "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow", Tony uses a thrown card to smash the desk lamp a Professional Killer is using for illumination; plunging the room into darkness.
- Dirty Cop: In "Lady in a Trap", the local sheriff is part of the conspiracy to steal a rare book.
- Disappearing Box: In "Illusion in Terror", Tony uses a disappearing box to 'vanish' his girlfriend when the two of them are being chased through Tony's workshop by a pair of hitmen.
- Disco Dan: The villain in "The Illusion of the Lost Dragon" is a Chinese warlord who has set up a compound where he lives as if it is the 16th century; the time of his ancestors' greatest power. All of his guards, servants, concubines, etc. dress in appropriate period Chinese garb.
- Disney Villain Death: The mastermind in "The Manhunters" plunges to his death when he is washed over a spillway while trying to escape from Blake.
- Disposable Vagrant: In "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate", a down and out friend of Tony's contacts Tony for help after a friend of his disappears from a homeless mission, and the Sinister Minister running the mission claims to have never heard of him. Tony investigates and discovers this is not the first vagrant to have vanished from the mission, and eventually learns that they are being murdered and their bodies used to help rich criminals fake their deaths.
- Driving into a Truck: In "The Illusion of Black Gold", the Girl of the Week drives Tony's car into the back of a large truck, which turns out to be the mobile office of the reclusive billionaire Tony has been trying to locate.
- Drowning Pit: In "Nightmare in Steel", one of the bad guys attempts to murder Tony's Lovely Assistant by sabotaging the lock on the glass tank being used for a water escape trick.
- Eat the Evidence: In "Lady in the Trap", the Girl of the Week grabs the piece of paper containing the location of the body and eats it as the Villain of the Week is trying to read it.
- Epiphany Therapy: In "Lightning on a Dry Day", Ian recovers from the acute mental trauma of seeing a man burn to death, in what is a very short period of time after Tony returns him to the institute. The doctor finding out what Ian saw was enough to cure him.
- Escape Artist: Tony learned escapology getting out of the South American prison where he initially learned his craft. He demonstrates his escape skills in multiple episodes, and handcuffs are incapable of holding him.
- Evil Elevator: In "Nightmare in Steel", a hitman attempts to kill Tony's new Lovely Assistant by sabotaging the elevator so that it bursts into flame when she presses a button.
- Fakeout Escape: 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 he never left the secure floor.
- Faking the Dead:
- In "Man on Fire", a female Con Artist stages a Staircase Tumble to convince her boyfriend that he has killed her. Her partner then arranges to dispose of the 'body', so he can blackmail the mark into handing over industrial secrets.
- In "The Illusion of Black Gold", Tony helps the CIA fake the death of a defecting scientist so his former government will stop looking for him.
- In "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate", Tony exposes a conglomerate who are abducting Disposable Vagrants, then killing them and using their bodies to help wealthy criminals fake their deaths by using plastic surgery and dentistry to make them match the criminals and then staging 'accidents' when the bodies are damaged beyond recognition and the coroner has to use fingerprints or dental records to establish identity.
- Food Slap: 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.
- Forklift Fu: In "Nightmare in Steel", the villains attempt to dispose of Tony by running him down with a forklift loaded with drums.
- Framed Face Opening: Tony appears in the early episodes in a full-body frame. The other main stars have their faces framed in production Multiplying Balls, and after the Retool on cards that Tony causes to rise out of a deck.
- Gatling Good: In "The Illusion of the Lethal Playthings", a Wicked Toymaker sends a warning to his intended by firing off a vintage hand-cranked Gatling gun in his weapon collection via remote control.
- Girl of the Week: Tony has several romantic interests who disappear at the end of the episode they appear in, and are never mentioned again. This is particularly noticeable in "The Illusion of the Curious Counterfeit", when Janet drops into Tony's life. She had a relationship with him a year ago when they were engaged, knew enough about his stage routine to slip into it while evading two thugs, and knows the Magic Castle's hidden elevators. Tony becomes romantically involved with Janet again, and resolves the conflict between Janet and her father. And yet Janet is never heard from again.
- Genius Cripple: Wheelchair-bound Dennis Pomeroy is a super-genius of sorts, being Max and Tony's computer hacker and researcher.
- Harmless Lady Disguise: In "The Illusion of Black Gold", three bikers disguise themselves as old ladies to crash a funeral parlour and stage a kidnapping.
- High-Altitude Interrogation: In "The Vanishing Lady", a kidnapper is fleeing from Blake when he trips and falls over the edge of a catwalk. Blake grabs him by the foot and refuses to haul him up till he tells him where the missing woman is being held.
- Hollywood Fire: In "Illusion in Terror", Tony is locked inside a burning barn but seems to suffer no ill effects from the heat. And while there is some smoke, there is not nearly enough.
- Hollywood Law: In "Ovation for Murder", Albie is sent to prison after only being accused of murder. There is no indication of arraignment, bail, or a trial.
- How Unscientific!: "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow" features a woman with genuine psychic abilities: the only example of anything genuinely paranormal in the whole series.note
- Human Mail: In "Man on Fire", a teenager steals one of Tony's trick trunks and conceals himself in it after arranging for it to be delivered the photographic studio that is blackmailing his father.
- I Have Your Wife: In "The Vanishing Lady", a singer is kidnapped and a million dollar ransom demanded from her agent/boyfriend.
- Identity Amnesia: In "The Man Who Lost Himself", Tony helps a man who loses his memory following an accident on Tony's stage, and cannot remember anything about himself: including why he is being chased by two men.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All of the episodes following the Retool have titles beginning "The Illusion of..."
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: In "The Illusion of the Stainless Steel Lady", a reclusive movie star (who is an old friend of Tony's) is being held prisoner in her house by a gang of crooks who are bleeding her bank account dry. When Tony investigates, he is shown into the bedroom of an imposter who summarily dismisses him. However, while in the bedroom Tony spots a packet of cigarettes. Tony's friend doesn't smoke and won't allow people to smoke around her.
- Impossible Theft: In "The Illusion of the Cat's Eye", an insurance underwriter asks Tony to 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.
- Improvised Zipline: In "The Illusion of Black Gold", Tony uses a pair of handcuffs he had earlier taken from the prisoner he was rescuing to slide down a guywire to the ground, carrying the prisoner on his back.
- Instant Sedation: In "Nightmare in Steel", the Ruthless Modern Pirates use anesthetic pistols which cause instantaneous knockout when they hijack the cargo ship.
- It Works Better with Bullets: In "Shattered Image", a mobster attempts to threaten Tony only to find that Tony had lifted his automatic off him earlier. When Tony hands it back, he points it at Tony. Tony then says that to fire one of those, you need one of these and holds up the clip. The mobster grabs the clip and leaves. As he does so, Tony opens his hand and lets the bullets spill out on the bar.
- Job Title: "The Magician" refers to protagonist Tony's occupation as a stage magician.
- Joker Jury: In "The Illusion of the Lethal Playthings", a Wicked Toymaker kidnaps the industrialist he blames for stealing his toy ideas and puts him on trial before a jury of marionettes before sentencing him to death.
- Latex Perfection: Used as part of a Frame-Up in "Ovation for Murder": allowing a hitman to impersonate the patsy and commit murder in plain sight.
- Lava Pit: The Chinese warlord in "The Illusion of the Lost Dragon" has a lava pit concealed beneath the floor of the corridor leading to his inner sanctum. Anyone attempting to intrude has a limited time to solve the puzzle lock on the door before the slowly opening floor dumps them in the lava.
- Lovely Assistant: Tony used a variety of lovely assistants over the course of the show; seemingly hiring a new one in each city he performed in. When the format of the show changed to give him a permanent base of operation, he gained a permanent lovely assistant named Kathy. He sometimes also used a male assistant named Larry.
- Magician Detective: Blake uses his skills as an illusionist and escapologist to solve crimes as needed.
- Money to Throw Away: Tony does it in "The Man Who Lost Himself". Having grabbed the stolen loot from the bad guys, he releases the bundles into the wind, forcing the crooks to stop chasing him in order to grab it. He actually pockets the real cash and releases bundles of stage money to distract them.
- New Old Flame: The two-part "The Illusion of the Curious Counterfeit" begins when a previously 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.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: "The Illusion of Black Gold" features a reclusive oil billionaire named Victor Paradine who no one has seen in person in years. The character is very heavily based on Howard Hughes.
- Organ Theft: 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 abducted to provide corpses to an organisation that specializes in helping rich criminals to fake their deaths.
- Out-of-Character Alert: In "The Vanishing Lady", a kidnapped singer uses the phrase "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's research skills eventually turn up a meaning.
- Outside Ride: In "The Magician - Pilot", Blake and Mary Rose have to jump from a speedboat onto a seaplane being piloted by Jerry. They cling to the outside as the plane takes off.
- Pistol-Whipping: A hitman knocks Blake out by rapping him over the back of the head with a pistol in "Illusion in Terror".
- Pop the Tires:
- In "Lightning on a Dry Day", the local toughs in a Town with a Dark Secret slash the tires on Tony's Corvette in an attempt to intimidate him into leaving town. As The Sheriff points out to them, this just makes him more determined to stay.
- The bad guys shoot out the tires of Tony's Corvette to prevent from escaping in "The Man Who Lost Himself".
- Prophecy Twist: 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 herself 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.
- Punk in the Trunk: In "The Illusion of the Cat's Eye", Tony trails the bad guys to their meet by hiding in the trunk of their limo.
- Ransacked Room: In "The Magician - Pilot", Blake visits Francine's apartment in search of Mary Rose. He finds the apartment ransacked and Francine beaten up on the floor. Francine's dazed words send him to a houseboat, only to find the bad guys have beaten him to it, with the houseboat ransacked and Mary Rose missing.
- Rare Money: 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 World War II. 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, the $24,000 in uncirculated bills is 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.
- Max (Keene Curtis) appears in one episode, that was filmed before the Retool but aired after it began. Jerry (Jim Watkins) appears for a few episodes after the Retool begins, but the character is dropped although the actor continues to get a "Starring" credit.
- Ripped From The Phonebook: In "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow", a Professional Killer is given Tony's name from his employer while he is in a phone booth, and immediately rips the page with Tony's name and address out of the directory.
- Ruthless Modern Pirates: In "Nightmare in Steel", Tony thwarts a gang of modern pirates bent on hijacking a freighter carrying millions of dollars in fuel as cargo.
- The Sheriff: Sheriff Platt in "Lightning on a Dry Day" is the "typical" small-town sheriff. It is clear from his introduction that he knows about Town with a Dark Secret's secret. Averted because at the end he turns against the mastermind, Eleanor Gilpin.
- Shoot Out the Lock: One of the bad guys does this in "Man on Fire"; somehow managing to shoot out the chair Tony had jammed under the door handle as well.
- Show Some Leg: In "Nightmare in Steel", Tony's Lovely Assistant distracts a pair of guards on a boat by setting up on the dock to do some painting, and taking off her jacket to reveal an extremely abbreviated top that makes it look like she is topless from the back. While the guards are ogling her, Tony sneaks on board.
- Sinister Minister: In "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate", Reverend Wally runs a homeless mission, but is secretly supplying Disposable Vagrants to the eponymous conglomerate to become bodies to be used in their Faking the Dead racket.
- Skeleton Key Card: In "The Magician - Pilot", a heavy uses his credit card to jimmy the lock on Tony's dressing room.
- Sleeping Dummy: Tony leaves a dummy made out of balloons in the cot when he escapes from a jail cell in "Lady in a Trap".
- Sleight of Handiness: Illusionist Anthony Blake employs his trickery on mooks and the Villain of the Week to right wrongs.
- Slipped the Ropes:
- Somewhat averted in "Lightning on a Dry Day", when Platt handcuffs Tony and pretends that Tony is his prisoner. Tony escapes the cuffs on his own, and even Platt seems surprised.
- Played straight in "The Illusion of the Deadly Congolmerate", where Tony points out to the bad guys that his friend Frank Denbo is a trained escapologist and has clenched his fists and tensed his muscles, meaning that the straps holding him to the dentist chair aren't actually tight and he can slip free at any time by relaxing his muscles. The crooks assume Tony is stalling and ignore him. When Tony stages a dramatic distraction, Denbo is able to slip free immediately.
- Slippery Skid: In "Nightmare in Steel", Tony is being chased through a ship when he causes his pursuers to skid and crash by spraying machine oil on the floor. Later in the same episode, he causes the leader of the pirates to trip and fall by tossing a handful of bullets under his foot.
- Stage Magician: Tony's day job is as an illusionist and escapologist.
- Staircase Tumble: In "Man on Fire", a female Con Man fakes a fatal staircase tumble as part of a plot to convince the mark that he is a murderer.
- Stolen by Staying Still: 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 he never left the secure floor.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: When Tony finds his kidnapped friend The Amazing Denbo in "The Illusion of the Deadly Conglomerate", Denbo is strapped into a dentist chair as a dentist prepares to forcibly alter his teeth to match those a criminal preparing to fake his death.
- Suicide by Assassin: In "The Illusion of the Fatal Man," a wealthy man suffering from a Convenient Terminal Illness hires a pair of Professional Killers 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.
- Sunglasses at Night:
- One of the bad guys in "The Man Who Lost Himself" constantly wears sunglasses, even while creeping around a darkened hospital at night. It becomes even more ridiculous when he and his partner start shooting out the lights so they can escape.
- In "The Illusion of the Cat's Eye", Tony wears sunglasses while driving at night.
- Town with a Dark Secret: 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 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.
- Trash Landing: In "The Illusion of the Curious Counterfeit", Tony escapes from the gangsters who are chasing him by jumping from a second storey landing into a huge pile of trash—which seemingly consists of cardboard and rags—in the alley.
- Trick Arrow: The villains in "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow" are a pair of Professional Killers who use bows and arrows: including some 'realistic' explosive arrows.
- Trojan Horse: In "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow", a hitman uses scuba gear to hide inside a fuel tanker in order to infiltrate a high security research facility.
- True Companions: Throughout the first half of the series, Jerry, Max, and Dennis give indications of how close they are to Tony and to each other. They're ready at a moment's notice to come to Tony's aid if he needs it, and Tony shows he'll do likewise. In "Lightning on a Dry Day," when Tony says he's about to cancel a trip to Washington, Jerry asks about it, grinning. One can tell he's thinking, "Uh oh, he's found a mystery to solve," and he approves completely. Then Max immediately asks what he can do to help. In "Illusion in Terror," Tony becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to his girlfriend. Jerry and Max are visibly worried about him, and Max keeps telling Tony to back down; his obsession has become dangerous. They're all very different men from different backgrounds, but make no mistake: Jerry is much more than an employee, and Max and Dennis are much more than colleagues;
they all care very deeply for one another. (There is some of this in the second half of the series with Dominic, but Dominic is more a comic relief character, and his chemistry with Tony isn't near as good as Max and Jerry were.) - Under the Truck: 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 a fuel tanker. The plane slams into the side of the tanker and explodes.
- Unwilling Suspension: In "Illusion in Terror", Blake is suspended by his ankles and left to die in a burning barn.
- Vanity License Plate: Tony drives a white Corvette with the licence plate 'SPIRIT'.
- We Help the Helpless: 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.)
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- 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.
- The SPIRIT jet that Tony used before the Retool disappears and is never mentioned. Given he lived there, its disappearance without a trace is unusual.
- Janet in "The Illusion of the Curious Counterfeit". The whole episode is written to bring Tony and Janet back together as a couple, and work out Tony and Janet's father's vitriolic relationship. However, Janet disappears without a trace in future episodes.
- Wicked Toymaker: 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 madman.
- Witness Protection: In "Illusion in Terror", Tony's Girl of the Week turns out to be in witness protection. After her photo appears in the paper, syndicate hitmen turn up looking to kill her.
- Worthless Treasure Twist: 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 World War II. 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, the $24,000 in uncirculated bills is worth $1.6 million.
- Yellow Peril: The villain in "The Illusion of the Lost Dragon" is a descendant of warlords who used to rule Szechuan Province, and 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.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow", a hitman is worried that a psychic might be able to identify him, decides that his junior partner is too much of a potential weak link and kills him before going after the psychic.
