Remember Blacke’s Magic? Recently, star Hal Linden spoke to the AV Club about the short-lived NBC TV series.
Created by Richard Levinson and William Link, the crime drama starred Linden as Alexander Blacke, a magician who winds up solving mysteries with his con-man father (Harry Morgan). The show only laster 13 episodes before NBC pulled the plug in 1986.
In the interview, Linden said he thinks the show was cancelled because it was “mishandled” by NBC:
[Richard] Levinson and [William] Link, they had done Columbo. They had done Angela Lansbury’s Murder, She Wrote. And Levinson, I believe, was a magic freak. He loved magic. That was his concept: a magician solving crimes. Also mishandled by the network. We did it, and there was a question of the pickup [for the back half of the season], and the reason why they didn’t was because they had one other show that had a woman as the lead, so they went for that because it was politically correct to do. So you get all kinds of reasons why.”
But, he admits, he did have a good time with co-star Harry Morgan:
Yes! He was a terrific guy. No agenda. Easy. “Let’s do this! What’s the best way to do it?” And that was it. No ego. A terrific guy. That’s not to say that I haven’t worked with actors with egos, but… we’ll leave it at that!”
What do you think? Have you seen Blacke’s Magic? Do you think NBC should’ve given the show more of a chance?
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