''The World's Greatest Magic'' was a series of

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of en ...

s showcasing

magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...

acts. The first of five shows was broadcast by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

in 1994, and continued with annual editions through 1998. These shows were most often first telecast during the Thanksgiving holidays when special programming would occur. These specials reran occasionally on

ABC Family American cable television, cable and satellite television network Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through four different owners and six different name changes dur ...

(then The Family Channel and Fox Family) from October 1996 to early 2002. The first episode was hosted by

Robert Urich Robert Michael Urich (December 19, 1946 – April 16, 2002) was an American film, television, and stage actor and television producer. Over the course of his 30-year career, he starred in a record 15 television series. Urich began his car ...

, the second by

Alan Thicke Alan Willis Thicke (né Jeffrey; 1 March 1947 13 December 2016) was a Canadian-American actor, songwriter, and game/talk show host. He was the father of singer Robin Thicke. Thicke was best known for playing Dr. Jason Seaver on the 1980s sitco ...

, and the final three episodes by

John Ritter Johnathan Southworth Ritter (September 17, 1948 – September 11, 2003) was an American comedian and actor. He was a son of the singing cowboy star Tex Ritter and the father of actors Jason Ritter, Jason and Tyler Ritter. He is best known for ...

. All of the specials were narrated by

Don LaFontaine Donald LeRoy LaFontaine (August 26, 1940 – September 1, 2008) was an American voice actor who recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers over fou ...

. During specials II, III, IV, and V, before each commercial break of every episode, in a segment known as the ''Mac King School of Magic'', Mac King showed viewers a simple magic trick, and would break its steps down after the commercial break so that the audience could perform the same trick for family and friends. The first special featured the same teach-a-trick segments which involved some of the various magicians featured in the special, along with a special guest celebrity. Below is a list of the closing illusions for each of the five shows, and the magicians who performed them: *World's Greatest Magic I:

Franz Harary Franz Harary (born July 18, 1962) is an American magician and inventor who has appeared on television shows such as the first episode of NBC's ''The World's Greatest Magic'', on which Harary made the Space Shuttle appear to vanish. While studyi ...

- Space Shuttle vanish *World's Greatest Magic II:

Penn and Teller Penn may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Penn'' (film), 1954 Tamil film starring Vyjayanthimala * ''Penn'' (TV series), a 1991 Tamil mini-series * ''Penn'' (TV series), a 2006 Tamil-language soap opera * '' The Penn'', or ''The Stylus'', ...

- Magic bullet catch *World's Greatest Magic III: The Pendragons - Disappearance of 25 Vegas showgirls *World's Greatest Magic IV:

Lance Burton William Lance Burton (born March 10, 1960) is an American stage magician. He performed more than 15,000 shows in Las Vegas for over 5,000,000 people until retiring in 2010. He serves as a judge on '' Criss Angel's Magic with the Stars''. Profess ...

- Jaws of Death escape (Lance was handcuffed and shackled inside a canvas mailbag, put in the back of a car, and dropped into a car crusher.) *World's Greatest Magic V: Brett Daniels - Teleportation of actress

Kelly Packard Kelly Chemane Packard (born January 29, 1975) is an American actress and television personality. She is best known for her roles as Tiffani Smith on ''California Dreams'' and April Giminski on ''Baywatch'', as well as co-hosting ''Ripley's Beli ...

across the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

Featured magicians

The Amazing Johnathan John Edward Szeles (September 9, 1958 – February 22, 2022), better known by the stage name The Amazing Johnathan, was an American comedian and Magician (illusion), magician. His act was mostly composed of hijinks, interaction with one specifi ...

* Anand Joshi * Ayala & Lilia * Bill Malone * Bob Arno * Brett Daniels *

David Williamson David Keith Williamson (born 1942) is an Australian playwright, who has also written screenplays and teleplays. He became known in the early 1970s with his political comic drama '' Don's Party'', and other well-known plays include '' The Clu ...

*Fielding West *

* Galina *

Greg Frewin Greg Frewin is a Canadian illusionist and "World Champion of Magic" by the International Federation of Magic Societies. His awards include first place at the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM); the Gold Medal of Excellence, also from th ...

* The Hamners *

Hans Klok Johannes Franciscus Catharinus "Hans" Klok (born 22 February 1969) is a Dutch magician and illusionist. Biography Klok was born in Purmerend, North Holland. On his tenth birthday, he received a magic set as a present and began performing f ...

& Sittah * Jean-Pierre Vallarino * Jeff Hobson *

Jeff McBride Jeff McBride (born September 11, 1959), also known as "Magnus", is an American magician and magic instructor. He is known for his sleight of hand skills and specializes in the manipulation of playing cards, coins, and other small objects. His s ...

* Joseph Gabriel *

Juan Tamariz Juan Tamariz-Martel Negrón (born 18 October 1942) is a Spanish magician. Tamariz is considered to have pionereed close-up card magic. American stage magician Ricky Jay once said he considered him to be a magician people will remember, and ...

Juliana Chen Juliana Chen is a Chinese magician, who was born in the Hunan province of China. She has appeared on the cover of The Linking Ring, published by the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Early life Chen was born Chen Zhi Ling in the Hunan pr ...

* Mac King * Magician Ganesh * Mark Kalin and Jinger(Kalin) *

Max Maven Max Maven (born Philip T. Goldstein; December 21, 1950 – November 1, 2022) was an American magician and mentalist whose performances were considered erudite and intelligent. He is ranked as one of the most influential mentalists of all time, a ...

Melinda Saxe Melinda Saxe (born March 6, 1965) is a magician from Las Vegas, Nevada. She is best known for her television performances and Las Vegas stage shows in which she was billed as "the First Lady of Magic". She often is associated with the Drill of D ...

(a.k.a. "Melinda, First Lady of Magic") * Nathan Burton *

Peter Marvey Peter Marvey is a Swiss Magic (illusion), magician and illusionist, known for his combination of sleight of hand and large-scale stage illusions. Biography In his early childhood, Marvey was fascinated with any form of flight, flying, whether t ...

Princess Tenko (born ; June 29, 1959), best known under the stage name of Princess Tenko and formerly , is a Japanese pop singer turned magician specialising in grand illusions. Biography She was born Mariko Itakura in Arai, Niigata on June 29, 1959. At a yo ...

Raymond Crowe Raymond Crowe is an Australian entertainer. Originally from Adelaide, Crowe brands himself as "Australia's only Unusualist". His act includes mime, ventriloquism, stage magic, and shadow play using only his hands and arms. His shadow play video ...

* Rene Lavand * Sheri Lucas * Steve Wyrick * Francis Tabary * Tom Mullica *

Topas The OT-62 TOPAS is a series of amphibious tracked armoured personnel carriers developed jointly by the Polish People's Republic and Czechoslovakia (ČSSR). OT-62 stands for ''Obrněný Transportér vzor 62'' – "armoured personnel carrier model ...

*Ken Mate

Music

The producer of this series, Gary Ouellet, released a booklet entitled 'Music for Magicians', in which the music selection and editing process for this show was explained. Few of the performers could use their regular performance music, because

synchronization rights A music synchronization license, or "sync" for short, is a music license granted by the holder of the copyright of a particular composition, allowing the licensee to synchronize ("sync") their music with various forms of media output (film, telev ...

are usually too costly (or sometimes unavailable) for commercial tracks. Two exceptions were Topas from WGM I, who used 'Hello Again' by the Cars, and Jeff McBride, who had music specially written for him by Jordan Rudess. Hence, for the first two specials, the performers taped the show using their normal music, and a new audio track had to be created for broadcast, consisting of custom music created for each performer (which resembled their existing music), and a re-creation of the audience applause. In some cases, it was known that the ambient sounds/applause would be important to a particular performer, and those acts were performed without music, so that custom music could be cleanly inserted in post-production. Prior to making WGM III, Ouellet had to use

production music Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be music licensing, licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libra ...

as a last-minute scoring option on another magic production, and subsequently he decided to make WGM III entirely using production music, for which he searched through 15,000 'cuts'.Music for Magicians, Gary Ouellet Each performer's music track was specially created from at least one (often several) library track, with stingers, hits and various accentuating effects fro
Gary Ouellet's Designer Textures for Magicians
Hence, WGM 3-5 were taped live with the pre-prepared music tracks. The following tracks have been identified as being used within the noted performers' sets: ;World's Greatest Magic III: * 'Damned' from Kosinus (Brett Daniels - Appearing Car) * 'Shock Troops' and 'Car Wash' from Kosinus (Hans Klok) * 'Pure Silk' from JW Media Music and 'Angel Wave' from Kosinus (Galina) * 'Tabasco Road' & 'Angel Eyes' from Koka, and 'Funky Lady' from Opus 1 (Peter Marvey) * 'Mystic Party' from Kosinus, and 'Requiem, Op. 89, B. 165:III. Dies irae' by Dvorak (Joseph Gabriel) * 'Techno Pursuit' from Opus 1 (Brett Daniels - Sawing in half) * 'Loco' and 'Words on the Beat' from Koka (Nathan Burton) * 'Starlight' and 'Hi Hop' from Koka (Greg Frewin) * 'New Opus' from Koka (Jean Pierre Vallarino) * 'Kabaret' from Koka (Mac King) * 'Katanga' from Kosinus and 'Pressure Point' from JW Media Music (Dirk Arthur) * 'It's Hollywood', 'Industrial' and 'Final Result' from Opus 1 (The Pendragons - Vanishing Showgirls) ;World's Greatest Magic IV: * 'Real City' from FirstCom (Opening titles and transition segments) * 'Gothic City', 'Enemy Hits' and 'Double Threat' from FirstCom (Ayala - opening illusion) * 'Gun Play' and 'The Getaway' from Hollywood Music (Jonathan David Bass) * 'Facing Saigon' and 'Bamboo Sea' from FirstCom and 'Stormrider' from Chappell (Juliana Chen) * 'Top League' from Chappell (Tim Cole & Jenny Lynn) * 'Closer To My Love' from Chappell (Rick Thomas) * 'X Generation' from FirstCom (Sherry Lukas) * 'Cyclone' and 'Bravado' from FirstCom (The Hamners) * 'Small Town' from FirstCom (Carl Cloutier) ;World's Greatest Magic V: (except where noted, the following tracks are from DeWolfe and its subsidiary labels) * 'Sunrise' from Atmosphere (WGM 1-4 Recap) * 'Driving Force' and 'Classical Excellence' ('Coming Up' segment) * 'Round We Go' (Magic Unlimited) * 'Heatstroke', 'Jumping Joker', 'Athleticism (Remix)' and 'Franky's' (The Majestix) * 'National Emergency' and 'Breathless' (Brett Daniels - The Grand Canyon) * 'Commitment', 'Brave New World', 'Aborigine Firedance 2' and 'Pagan Ritual' (Phelston Jones) * 'Theatre Overture', 'Benny For Your Thoughts' and 'Starlight Concerto' (Dimmare) * '5 Pack Driver', 'Monster', 'First Time' and 'Encounter' (John Gabriel) * 'She Can't Love Me Like Me' (Goldfinger & Dove) * 'Night Flight', 'Death Penalty', and 'Hostage (a)' (from KPM Music) (Jim Passe)

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Worlds Greatest Magic, The 1990s American television series NBC television specials American television magic shows