Bill Bixby was a skilled amateur magician. He actually learned how to do the magic tricks for this role, so for most of the magic there was no trick photography used at all. Some magic did use the frame of the camera or edits to allow effects that would not have been possible otherwise.
In the first half of the series, Tony Blake lives on a plane called "The Spirit"; a ramp is often seen lowered so he can park his Corvette, with the vanity license plate equally named "SPIRIT", inside of the Boeing. In the second half of the series, Tony Blake has lost the plane and moved into a suite at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. No explanation was ever given for this character change, however period articles attribute this mid-season revamping to the fact that there was a gas shortage at the time, and the audiences would, not only not be able to relate to a man who spent so much fuel to jet-set himself across country, but would also resent that.
License number on his Corvette was "SPIRIT".
Tony Blake's drink of choice is white wine. (Recurring throughout the series.)
There was a writers' strike in 1973 (Writers Guild of America against the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers) and the series greatly suffered because of that. Fans attribute to that fact the demise of the series after only one season.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
