David 'Barker' is fired from a dish washing job thanks to eccentric old magician Jasper the Great who promptly takes him on as his new assistant.David 'Barker' is fired from a dish washing job thanks to eccentric old magician Jasper the Great who promptly takes him on as his new assistant.David 'Barker' is fired from a dish washing job thanks to eccentric old magician Jasper the Great who promptly takes him on as his new assistant.
Jack Colvin
- Jack McGee
- (credit only)
Bill Baker
- Juggler
- (uncredited)
Ted Cassidy
- Narrator
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Charles Napier
- Hulk
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Michael Santiago
- Voice
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe title of this episode, "My Favorite Magician," plays on the title of the 1964-66 series Bill Bixby and Ray Walston worked on together, My Favorite Martian (1963), as well on Bixby's 1973-74 series The Magician (1973).
- GoofsAt approximately 34:30 in, Jasper is having an asthma attack in the motel room, he uses his emergency inhaler first by taking 5 rapid puffs, pauses, then another puff, pauses again, then takes a final puff. That is an overdose that, combined with his heart condition, could easily have caused a fatal heart attack. The correct maximum dosage would be a single puff, then after waiting a full minute, ONE more puff. Then to be safe he could repeat that after 4 to six hours. Especially in the 1970s where the medication in the inhalers worked by stimulating adrenaline in the body and rapidly increasing one's heart rate and the strength of the heartbeat.
- Quotes
Dr. David Bruce Banner: [voice over] My hopes that the serum would stop the metamorphosis are gone. Even after the last 20 injections, the condition persists. With this latest dissapointment I must reexamine the entire concept of a cure.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Svengoolie: The Beast with Five Fingers (2021)
- SoundtracksThe Lonely Man
End titles by Joe Harnell
Featured review
Magician's Delusion
Though the title cleverly references earlier Bixby roles, this episode is a smorgasbord of styles, from the tense opening as David gives himself a precisely timed injection that may cure him of the Hulk, to a goofy sequence as an elderly dandy of a magician presents himself in the restaurant where David is busing tables, to the more dramatic and heartfelt scenes as the rather intricate plot develops.
David winds up as the assistant of the magician, Jasper, who is full of tales of his past glories and is starting up his show once again. There's a lot going on with Jasper: his asthma is acting up, a friend relies on him to help get his theater going, a woman he's been pining after for decades is soon to marry a crook, and his daughter is pursuing him since he (no surprise here) escaped from a medical facility. This might sound like too many plots crammed into one episode and saddled onto one character, but the script beautifully balances and intertwines these threads, making a story which is dense and fast- paced rather than bloated.
This is, in sum, an episode which has it all, and does it all at least reasonably well. We even get to see the Hulk acting as both a problem and a lifesaver, capturing the character's double-edged nature quite nicely. The drama is great, the plot is involving, the human interest is compelling, and the humor is amusing. Season 3's streak of so-so is firmly broken.
David winds up as the assistant of the magician, Jasper, who is full of tales of his past glories and is starting up his show once again. There's a lot going on with Jasper: his asthma is acting up, a friend relies on him to help get his theater going, a woman he's been pining after for decades is soon to marry a crook, and his daughter is pursuing him since he (no surprise here) escaped from a medical facility. This might sound like too many plots crammed into one episode and saddled onto one character, but the script beautifully balances and intertwines these threads, making a story which is dense and fast- paced rather than bloated.
This is, in sum, an episode which has it all, and does it all at least reasonably well. We even get to see the Hulk acting as both a problem and a lifesaver, capturing the character's double-edged nature quite nicely. The drama is great, the plot is involving, the human interest is compelling, and the humor is amusing. Season 3's streak of so-so is firmly broken.
helpful•00
- flarefan-81906
- May 1, 2017
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