The Magician - Bill Bixby (1 Viewer)

[Doug Wallen]

Great news.

https://www.visualentertainment.tv/products/the-magician-the-complete-collection

 

[Dave Lawrence]

What a great Friday afternoon surprise!
Nice to see VEI stepping up this week, first with news about Angie, and now The Magician.

 

[Jack P]

Well that means four of the five series Bill Bixby starred/co-starred in are on DVD now. The one remaining one would be "Goodnight Beantown."

The announcement there I noticed gets mixed up and refers to Bixby by his character name Blake in the last paragraph!

 

[Doug Wallen]

I noticed that also!!!

 

[Doug Wallen]

TVShowsOnDVD news item;

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Magician-The-TV-Series/23552

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

AT LAST!

We're still trying to find out if the version of the Paramount TV fanfare (very sad sounding and without percussion) heard on the pilot episode will have the missing first two notes restored:


The entire regular 1973-74 season run used the logo with the standard 1972 theme:


~Ben

 

[Jimmyr1960]

I just hope these will be unedited or time compressed. One never knows with VEI.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I just hope these will be unedited or time compressed. One never knows with VEI.

Exactly.

It's never "great news" with VEI until someone bites the bullet, buys a copy, checks to make sure the discs work and the episodes are unedited, then reports back to everyone else that everything is intact and functioning.

 

[Neil Brock]

Still no word on The Immortal. That's the one I'm anxious for. One of my favorite short run series of all time and I want to replace my current copies, 11 from beat up AFN airings off 16mm in the early 80s and the rest from the cut by 6 minute airings on SciFi.

 

[Doug Wallen]

I will be recuperating from surgery and The Magician has been one of my "grails" so I went ahead and pre-ordered from vei. They did fairly well with Petrocelli, so I am hoping for better luck with this one. Nothing like Nero Wolfe (fingers crossed).

 

[Pathfiner]

just hope the release goes ahead and The Magician doesn't disappear !!

 

[cajunhillbilly]

hope all the episodes are included

 

[Ron_B]

VEI updated their listing to include "Includes all 21 episodes + TV movie Pilot!" I can't wait for this!

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

VEI updated their listing to include "Includes all 21 episodes + TV movie Pilot!" I can't wait for this!

Yes, indeed... no series like this would ever be called complete without the pilot episode!

Again, fingers are crossed that the special, melancholy version of the 1972 Paramount Television logo theme (as heard on the pilot) has the first two notes restored!

~Ben

 

[HonkyTonkMan]

I'm predicting that there will be at least some syndicated episodes of The Magician included on this VEI DVD set.
I'm also predicting that the packaging will be a major disappointment.
I really hope that both of my predictions regarding this upcoming DVD set turn out to be completely wrong.

The only chance of me giving this DVD set a 5-star rating in a review on Amazon at some point down the road
is if all of the episodes are presented in uncut form and if the packaging is excellent.

This 1973-1974 NBC TV Series should have been released on DVD exclusively by CBS/Paramount many years ago.
It's such a shame that fans of Bill Bixby had to wait until 2017 for this TV Series to finally get issued on Region 1 DVD.
I will buy this upcoming VEI DVD set even if all of the episodes on it are missing some scenes.
This is a TV Series that for so many years, I have badly wanted to get released on DVD in Region 1 format.
I've seen syndicated versions of a few episodes of this TV Series on YouTube.
I've never seen any episodes of this TV Series on television.

If it turns out that this VEI DVD set of The Magician doesn't have any uncut episodes included on it,
then I would be giving this DVD set a 1-star rating in an Amazon review at some point in the future.

Bill Bixby is one of my Top 5 all-time favorite TV Show stars.
As we know, Bixby was also an amateur magician in real-life.
It's great that he actually performed his very own magic tricks in this 1973-1974 NBC TV Series.
Episodes were preceded by an announcement that the magic tricks were accomplished without trick photography.
As we know, Bixby was the one that insisted on doing all of the magic himself, without any trick photography.

The TV Series' that Bill Bixby co-starred in that I already have in their absolute entirety on DVD are
My Favorite Martian and The Incredible Hulk.

I don't have the Bill Bixby and Brandon Cruz 1969-1972 ABC TV Series The Courtship of Eddie's Father
on disc because of the Warner Archive Manufacture on Demand (MOD) DVD-R releases of all three seasons.
It's so unfortunate that Warner Bros. didn't sell the DVD rights of this TV Series to MPI Home Video or Shout! Factory.
MPI Home Video and Shout! Factory issue just factory pressed discs.
I'm demanding just Region 1 factory pressed DVD releases of all three seasons of that TV Series in the near future.
I wish that Warner Archive would completely stop issuing DVD-R releases.

Bill Bixby even co-starred with Elvis Presley in the movies Clambake (1967) and Speedway (1968).
I have both of those movies on DVD.

In my collection, I have 338 Elvis CD's, 40 Elvis Books, 30 Elvis movies on DVD,
1 Elvis movie on Blu-Ray, a lot of other Elvis DVD's and a lot of other Elvis stuff too.

 

[smithbrad]

I'm predicting that there will be at least some syndicated episodes of The Magician included on this VEI DVD set.
I'm also predicting that the packaging will be a major disappointment.

I don't have the 1969-1972 Bill Bixby and Brandon Cruz TV Series The Courtship of Eddie's Father on disc because of the
Warner Archive Manufacture on Demand (MOD) DVD-R releases of all three seasons.

I'm demanding Region 1 factory pressed DVD releases of all three seasons of that 1969-1972 TV Series in the near future.
I wish that Warner Archive would completely stop issuing DVD-R releases.

Pretty negative way to start the morning.

As for the Magician and uncut episodes, it will probably mostly depend on what CBS gave them. As for VEI packaging, I've had no complaints with the packaging of any of the VEI series I've picked up.

Regarding WB MOD releases, while I was not initially for it, I've had no complaints with any I have received to date that were on DVD-R. With respect to The Courtship of Eddie's Father, if one ordered while the initial run lasted (except from Amazon) they would have received "pressed disks" for seasons two and three. It was only season one that was released before that aspect of the program started. What is out there is what there is for that series, I highly doubt your demand to the contrary will have any impact unless picked up by another region.

Really, we got the rant on WB, you don't like it. No need to restate it every time. It is what it is and it is here to stay because it has been successful. Complain all you want, while the many of us that support the program because they are releasing shows we want will continue to enjoy the releases. Just to clarify, about 80% of what I own from the WB MOD program is on "pressed disks", so a good part of your rant is just false for many of the releases.

 

[bmasters9]

As for VEI packaging, I've had no complaints with the packaging of any of the VEI series I've picked up.

Nor have I-- I have the original version of the Hotel all-in-one, and notwithstanding the layering of the discs pretty much throughout it, it is still far better than how it is in that newer oversized keepcase version (at least IMO).

 

[Neil Brock]

I'm predicting that there will be at least some syndicated episodes of The Magician included on this VEI DVD set.
I'm also predicting that the packaging will be a major disappointment.

Based on what?? CBS remastered the show to tape for SciFi Channel in the 90s so all of the episodes exist in a remastered format complete and uncut. What information do you have otherwise?

As for packaging, who gives a damn.

 

[Doug Wallen]

Based on what?? CBS remastered the show to tape for SciFi Channel in the 90s so all of the episodes exist in a remastered format complete and uncut. What information do you have otherwise?

I'm just pleased to see the series get a release (been on my wishlist for a long time). If it looks as good as Petrocelli, no complaints from me. Now we just need The Immortal and Longstreet.

 

[Neil Brock]

I'm just pleased to see the series get a release (been on my wishlist for a long time). If it looks as good as Petrocelli, no complaints from me. Now we just need The Immortal and Longstreet.

The Immortal more so than Longstreet. That ran uncut in Canada not that many years ago.