NBC Turns to Magic for Help

Being a big fan of the 1973-1974 TV series, The Magician, which starred Bill Bixby as a wealthy, mystery-solving illusionist, I was struck by this report from Variety:

NBC is conjuring a drama series revolving around a crime-solving magician.

Untitled project hails from Universal Media Studios, scribe Dan Fesman (“NCIS”), producer David Percelay and helmer Jon Amiel (“Entrapment”). Fesman is writing and will exec produce with Percelay and Amiel, who will direct if the project is picked up to pilot.

The concept centers on a master magician whose career is in ruins after he develops stage fright and agoraphobia; an elite law enforcement agency recruits him to take an unusual approach to cracking tough cases.

“It won’t be as much of a whodunit as a ‘how the hell do we catch him,’” Amiel told Daily Variety. Percelay approached Amiel with his one-line description of the project, which felt “totally in my wheelhouse,” Amiel said. The two developed it together and then scouted for a writer.

The “stage fright and agoraphobia” character traits make me think NBC is hoping to be brought something more like Tony Shalhoub’s Monk than Bixby’s long-ago, more earnest show (or even the slightly more tongue-in-cheek 1986 Hal Linden/Harry Morgan series, Blacke’s Magic). But it might behoove NBC, which could really use a couple of hits right now, to look toward its own past for inspiration. “Why Doesn’t NBC Just Remake The Magician?” asks TV Squad’s Bob Sassone. An excellent question, indeed.