The Champions of Magic

The World's Greatest Magic was a series of American television specials showcasing magic acts. The first of five shows was broadcast by NBC 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 from October 1996 to early 2002. The first episode was hosted by Robert Urich, the second by Alan Thicke, and the final three episodes by John Ritter. 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. Here's a list of the closing illusions for each of the five shows, and the magicians that performed them: ⁕World's Greatest Magic I: Franz Harary - Space Shuttle vanish ⁕World's Greatest Magic II: Penn and Teller - Magic bullet catch ⁕World's Greatest Magic III: The Pendragons - Disappearance of 25 Vegas showgirls ⁕World's Greatest Magic IV: Lance Burton - Jaws of Death escape

The World's Most Dangerous Magic was the title of two American television specials showcasing illusion and escapology acts, which were made for the NBC network. The first was originally broadcast on 27 April 1998 and the second, titled The World's Most Dangerous Magic 2, was initially aired on 2 May 1999. The shows were the brainchild of producer Gary Ouellet and were made by the Gary L Pudney Company. They featured a combination of famous performers and lesser-known magicians, each performing stunts or illusions that were claimed to involve the risk of death or serious injury. While some stunts clearly involved genuine life-threatening danger should anything have gone wrong, the risk of injury in others was open to question. In the first show, The Pendragons performed the illusion Impaled, which was described as a "balancing feat" in which Charlotte Pendragon risked fatal impalement should it go wrong. However this is a well known illusion in the general repertoire of stage magic in which the performer is not actually in danger of genuine impalement. The Pendragons' presentation of this illusion is nevertheless rated by many magicians as possibly the best ever version of the trick.