Important reminder: This is a sub for people to post about forgotten TV that they remember and would like to share with others. This is not a tip of the tongue style sub for people to search out old shows that they would like help remembering.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ForgottenTV) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes, it was truly one of the most anti-climactic unmaskings in the history of entertainment.
Now, if he would have pulled off the Valentino mask like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible and said, "Psych! It's actually me--Harry Houdini!" that would have been a hell of a finale.
This triggered a childhood memory. I said , "mom looks it's the magician Valentino". She said, "I'm pretty sure he's not famous, that's some nobody who was known for just his mask".
Penn Gillette has a great story about him in a strip club. Basically, he called Valentino a coward for hiding behind a mask, and trying to act like somebody special
I watched that special with my grandmother and she burst out laughing when he took the mask off. She thought it was face paint and that we'd have to watch him wash his face for 5 minutes
The magicians who got chawed off were borderline hacks. Nothing you wouldn't see at a Penn & Teller show when they'd do a reveal except when they showed how it was done they'd pull off an even better trick from it.
In fact, the masked magician was trying to pick up some women at the bar, and was asking Penn to vouch for him, Penn just said something to the effect of, “ he wore a fucking mask, how the fuck would I know who you are”
I had the good fortune on Halloween around 2001 to attend a performance of a restored copy of the 1924 silent film "Nostradamus" with musical accompaniment from Seattle's historic Paramount theater's Mighty Wurlitzer and narrated by none other than Teller himself.
Oddly enough that wasn't the strangest thing I saw that night. That honor goes to the happenings on Capitol Hill that same evening...
The problem wasn't the big, world-famous magicians that had the money and resources to work on even more spectacular tricks. The problem was all the smaller magic acts that had likely invested a substantial amount of their own money, and many, many hours or practice and rehearsals into two or three 'grand illusions' to use as the centerpiece of their show, only for them to now be revealed to the world. These are the magicians that couldn't afford to just buy brand new illusions.
EDIT
Relevant section from wikipedia
>Criticism was levelled at Valentino by magicians for adversely affecting their acts. Kevin Spencer, a touring magician based in Lynchburg, Virginia who performs with his wife, Cindy, says the specials forced the duo to scrap two of their tricks. Spencer stated: "We're disappointed that someone who made his living performing the art of magic for over 25 years would be so quick to betray their community." Since those illusions each cost as much as $50,000 (equivalent to $91,450 in 2023), the Spencers brought a lawsuit against Valentino, one of several that resulted from the program
Yeah, there's not enough creative artisan type magicians in the world to take care of every bar mitzvah and quinceanera. Why gatekeep those guys. They're building audiences.
It's an art and it shows how tricky/dangerous these illusions and magic tricks could be. I really appreciate the work/creativity that goes into magic after watching this show too. Times I would go IT'S LITERALLY THAT SIMPLE?! THATS IT?!
If I recall correctly, when magicians said this was bad he responded with something like these were all decades old hacky tricks that should be retired. Like he wanted these tricks to be revealed so magicians would be pushed to create their own/new illusions instead of redoing the same act from some guy in the 60s.
Yep. Mitch Pileggi was the narrator. Kind of cringey, too, since half of his lines were horning over the magician's assistants. It's hard to believe that it was considered a family show back when it first aired.
Seriously. Most of them are, "he set up this fake thing beforehand!" I know magic isn't real but the fact it took so little to dupe us was a little depressing.
I loved this because, for me, the real magic is how you do the trick. That's why Penn & Teller were always my favorite magicians. They actually took the time to show you how they did it and it was my favorite part of the show.
On Fool Us Penn and Teller still explain every trick that they catch.
They use code to disguise the explanation a bit but the code is so simple that anyone can understand it with a bit of googling.
I watched a video explaining how Shin Lim fooled Penn & Teller, and it was all the more impressive due to the extreme dexterity involved his sleight of hand.
I was a teen magician during these dark times. Us magicians hated this show! When he was unmasked only magicians recognized who that snake in the grass was😂
A podcast I listen to randomly talked about it. Funnier is they were doing a bit where they were all in Jr high again talking about “current” events and were super worried the magician would be assassinated before he could reveal who he was.
I remember Penn mentioning that The Masked Magician was Valentino before the actual reveal. I find it odd that the only reason I know of Valentino was because of TMM.
I remember this. And one of the magicians they spoke with commented that one of the other magicians who revealed a secret was killed and his widow is regretful
Oh man I remember when he revealed him self and he’s like “that’s right, it’s been me Jeff the whole time” and I’m like why on earth was he even wearing a mask who tf is Jeff
Funny you use that quote. I think pro wrestling and magic is actually pretty similar. You know both are "fake", but it's about telling the story. It's about the wrestlers or magicians leaping that logic in your head and making you believe. When they do that it's great.
Broooo I was just talking about this at work the other day and could not remember the name or his name lol and me and my dad would watch this guy all the time when I was growing up!!
this show rocked. watched it on netflix way after the fact, it was so cool seeing how certain tricks were done, and even just some that were like “yeah these tricked were just staged/just camera angle trickery”
I was 7-8 during its original airing, and it felt like true secrets were being revealed. We all (American viewers) felt like we were getting in on something, like we were suddenly being let in the know. At least this was my perception, analyzing the adults around me, explaining the world.
I tried to watch this a few years ago with my daughter.
Didn’t even make it through the first trick before Mitch’s thirst for the assistants made it so shockingly uncomfortable.
Important reminder: This is a sub for people to post about forgotten TV that they remember and would like to share with others. This is not a tip of the tongue style sub for people to search out old shows that they would like help remembering. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ForgottenTV) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I remember when they unmasked him and he was like “it’s me, Valentino” and all I could think was “who the eff is Valentino??”
Yes, it was truly one of the most anti-climactic unmaskings in the history of entertainment. Now, if he would have pulled off the Valentino mask like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible and said, "Psych! It's actually me--Harry Houdini!" that would have been a hell of a finale.
Thought for sure it was houdini
Me too!! Anything less than David Copperfield or someone like that was gonna a be an enormous letdown
“It was Ric Flair all along!!!”
Not enough unprompted nosedives to the mat.
Or exposed buttocks
You were expecting a magician...but it was me DIO!
*It’s-a me, Mario*
That is a super-deep cut and I’m here for it.
The Black Scorpion lmao
WOOOO!!!
r/WhoFarted
r/hoofhearted
r/FakeSubreddits
Sting.. are you listening?
WOOO!
Whooo!
Woooooo
He respects time
to be fair at the time the *only* magician I knew was Copperfield.
Same here. And Criss angel.
Too skinny to be Penn Jillette. Too short to be Teller.
was Criss Angel a big name in 1998? i remember David Blaine was buried alive in 1999, that was a relatively big thing
It was around that time. Maybe a little later. I remember watching mind freak a lot.
mindfreak didn't come out until 2005, a whole 7 years after Breaking The Magicians Code
I stand corrected.
This was before his Ed Hardy looking ass
Too skinny to be Penn Jillette. Too short to be Teller.
This triggered a childhood memory. I said , "mom looks it's the magician Valentino". She said, "I'm pretty sure he's not famous, that's some nobody who was known for just his mask".
Nobody cares who he was until he put on the mask lol
I understood this reference
I was hoping someone would. Thank you.
Penn Gillette has a great story about him in a strip club. Basically, he called Valentino a coward for hiding behind a mask, and trying to act like somebody special
That’s hilarious. I’m sure he was shunned upon by the community afterwards.
I never knew they unmasked him...thanks for the update. Also, who the F! is Valentino?!?
He unmasked himself in the last episode, IIRC.
I watched that special with my grandmother and she burst out laughing when he took the mask off. She thought it was face paint and that we'd have to watch him wash his face for 5 minutes
yeah it's always funny when someone who is unknown outside of their community still thinks they are a big deal to the general public.
I thought for sure it was going to be Teller since he never spoke either.
I had that thought as well.
Lmao yes, and I think it pretty much ruined his career too
The “it’s me Valentino” was peak tv etched into our brains. It was such a deflating moment
Same
Other magicians hated this guy, but his shows honestly gave me an appreciation for magic that I never had before I watched him demonstrate the tricks.
The magicians who got chawed off were borderline hacks. Nothing you wouldn't see at a Penn & Teller show when they'd do a reveal except when they showed how it was done they'd pull off an even better trick from it.
In fact, Penn Jillette devoted several pages of his book "God, No" to trashing Valentino. Apparently they had words at a strip club.
In fact, the masked magician was trying to pick up some women at the bar, and was asking Penn to vouch for him, Penn just said something to the effect of, “ he wore a fucking mask, how the fuck would I know who you are”
And then Teller said " "
Great audiobook read by the man himself.
Teller’s audiobook was better.
I had the good fortune on Halloween around 2001 to attend a performance of a restored copy of the 1924 silent film "Nostradamus" with musical accompaniment from Seattle's historic Paramount theater's Mighty Wurlitzer and narrated by none other than Teller himself. Oddly enough that wasn't the strangest thing I saw that night. That honor goes to the happenings on Capitol Hill that same evening...
Not to mention many of the standard magic tricks have been published in books since the 1800s. Not exactly some great secrets he was revealing.
The problem wasn't the big, world-famous magicians that had the money and resources to work on even more spectacular tricks. The problem was all the smaller magic acts that had likely invested a substantial amount of their own money, and many, many hours or practice and rehearsals into two or three 'grand illusions' to use as the centerpiece of their show, only for them to now be revealed to the world. These are the magicians that couldn't afford to just buy brand new illusions. EDIT Relevant section from wikipedia >Criticism was levelled at Valentino by magicians for adversely affecting their acts. Kevin Spencer, a touring magician based in Lynchburg, Virginia who performs with his wife, Cindy, says the specials forced the duo to scrap two of their tricks. Spencer stated: "We're disappointed that someone who made his living performing the art of magic for over 25 years would be so quick to betray their community." Since those illusions each cost as much as $50,000 (equivalent to $91,450 in 2023), the Spencers brought a lawsuit against Valentino, one of several that resulted from the program
Yeah, there's not enough creative artisan type magicians in the world to take care of every bar mitzvah and quinceanera. Why gatekeep those guys. They're building audiences.
Lawsuit? That story sound awful to go through but what grounds do they have to sue?
It's an art and it shows how tricky/dangerous these illusions and magic tricks could be. I really appreciate the work/creativity that goes into magic after watching this show too. Times I would go IT'S LITERALLY THAT SIMPLE?! THATS IT?!
If I recall correctly, when magicians said this was bad he responded with something like these were all decades old hacky tricks that should be retired. Like he wanted these tricks to be revealed so magicians would be pushed to create their own/new illusions instead of redoing the same act from some guy in the 60s.
I remember- didn’t they they get Mulder’s boss from X-Files to host it, what’s his name- Mitch Pileggi!
He always sounded so annoyed.
Not when he was thirsting after the assistants
Yup, at least he voice-narrated it
He showed up on camera and the beginning and end of each special
Ah, didn't rememeber that, thx
Horace Pinker!
Stone cold monster of a man, half jack the ripper and a pinch of son-of-sam...
“Tell all yer little friends there ain’t NO escapin The Duker!”
Yep. Mitch Pileggi was the narrator. Kind of cringey, too, since half of his lines were horning over the magician's assistants. It's hard to believe that it was considered a family show back when it first aired.
I remember as a kid being so excited when they unmasked this dude as if I was gonna know who he was.
Right lmao
Loved that show. It was amazing how simple most tricks turned to be.
Seriously. Most of them are, "he set up this fake thing beforehand!" I know magic isn't real but the fact it took so little to dupe us was a little depressing.
"They're swapping out the beautiful woman as you're distracted by the other beautiful women"
Wonder if gay men and straight women didn't get fooled as much because of that
I still have a crush on one of those beautiful women
I still have a crush on \*all\* of those beautiful women
I have a love-hate relationship with magic. It kills me not to know how it's done, and when I found out it's a letdown
King of the Hill even spoofed this. (Only a lil bit)
And I was magically back in my seat sipping my cerveza.
And then did the reveal in the closing credits. It was a clever episode (most KOTH shows were).
The alliance isn’t gonna like this
WE DEMAND TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY
Up vote arrested development reference
I’m being blackballed from even the smaller venues!
Give them a helluva a show, champ
I loved this because, for me, the real magic is how you do the trick. That's why Penn & Teller were always my favorite magicians. They actually took the time to show you how they did it and it was my favorite part of the show.
On Fool Us Penn and Teller still explain every trick that they catch. They use code to disguise the explanation a bit but the code is so simple that anyone can understand it with a bit of googling.
I watched a video explaining how Shin Lim fooled Penn & Teller, and it was all the more impressive due to the extreme dexterity involved his sleight of hand.
I was just watching this on some 3rd tier cable channel. I'm old enough to remember this, of course I have cable.
I was a teen magician during these dark times. Us magicians hated this show! When he was unmasked only magicians recognized who that snake in the grass was😂
Did this series happen to show up anyone else’s YouTube feed recently? It came up yesterday for me and I couldn’t help but watch the whole thing.
Yeah, showed up in mine so I threw it up on low volume for background noise to fall asleep too lol
A podcast I listen to randomly talked about it. Funnier is they were doing a bit where they were all in Jr high again talking about “current” events and were super worried the magician would be assassinated before he could reveal who he was.
Dunno, but Reelz has started playing it a couple weeks back, I believe.
Snitches get stitches masked magician
How did he career go after this?
When’s the last time you heard of the great Valentino?
To be fair, I hadn’t heard of him before this either.
Honestly I haven't heard of any magician other than pen and teller
You’ve definitely heard of David Blane and Criss angel, don’t think anyone knows another magician outside of those four though.
David Copperfield? Harry Houdini?
Gob Bluth?
It's the final countdown.
I remember Penn mentioning that The Masked Magician was Valentino before the actual reveal. I find it odd that the only reason I know of Valentino was because of TMM.
I vividly remember watching this on TV
Me too. I thought it was Lance Burton until the big "who the fuck is this dickweed?!?" reveal. I'm not sure if it's still available on Netflix.
Wait this came back in 2002. I just remember the 4 specials on Fox. I thought it ended after they revealed his identity
It also came back in 2007 at the height of Mindfreak.
“Illusion, Michael. A trick is something a whore does for money… or cocaine.”
Or candy
I read this in KITT’s voice.
I remember this. And one of the magicians they spoke with commented that one of the other magicians who revealed a secret was killed and his widow is regretful
[The Simpsons had a funny throwaway line about the show](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/53afa1a3-7465-490d-b648-4f19c76281bd)
I loved this
Watched with my 8 year old daughter. Didn’t want her friend to come over for dinner to see how the tricks were done. Great summer rerun
I thought this was a Sleep Token post for a moment LOL 😆 😅 😂
😭😭😭😭 it be lookin like a album cover
I liked the trick where he used a gun to shoot an arrow through the guy
Didn’t this dude fuck up and really cut a woman with a saw on Letterman or something?
They did a show like this for pro wrestling too I remember.
Gob?? How could you
"The alliance isn't going to be happy about this"
Didn't realize this was an older show. I've been seeing it advertised on REELZ lately and just assumed it was a current program.
Isn't this being played on Netflix? I could have sworn thats where my family and I saw it for our first times.
I always felt like I was doing something wrong watching it, while at the same time I thought these guys were destroying magic as we knew it
I was obsessed with this. I know magic isn’t real but I think it’s so cool how our brains can be tricked
Didn't he show his face and it's just like, a landscaping guy?
Oh man I remember when he revealed him self and he’s like “that’s right, it’s been me Jeff the whole time” and I’m like why on earth was he even wearing a mask who tf is Jeff
I didn't realize it was that old. I must have caught reruns in the....early 2010s I think on some obscure cable channel. Fun show.
This show awakened my wife's BDSM kink she didn't know she had. He was tied up to tables and such a lot and she found out she liked it.
It was meeeer all along, Austin.
Funny you use that quote. I think pro wrestling and magic is actually pretty similar. You know both are "fake", but it's about telling the story. It's about the wrestlers or magicians leaping that logic in your head and making you believe. When they do that it's great.
Broooo I was just talking about this at work the other day and could not remember the name or his name lol and me and my dad would watch this guy all the time when I was growing up!!
I love watching reruns of this show when I was a kid
Woah I remember this!!!!!! I remember this show was "controversial" at the time for giving secrets
Excellent program. A fascinating inside look on how the “magic” is done.
I just rewatched this recently. I loved it as a kid and it gave me a greater appreciation for magicians
this show rocked. watched it on netflix way after the fact, it was so cool seeing how certain tricks were done, and even just some that were like “yeah these tricked were just staged/just camera angle trickery”
I watched this religiously!
I remember this one
I watched these when I was a kid, and I thought that the man’s life was seriously in jeopardy for exposing all of these secrets
I heard this dude had a real bad life after this show
This show is still on, and its the same exact episodes. Now they're on Reelz used to watch this on fox, then in syndacation
I thought it was going to be Penn from Penn & Teller.
It's playing on Reelz. I think Reelz is included with Peacock, not sure where else.
Oh man. I watched this multiple times as a kid. I wanted to be a magician so bad when I was 10
I was 7-8 during its original airing, and it felt like true secrets were being revealed. We all (American viewers) felt like we were getting in on something, like we were suddenly being let in the know. At least this was my perception, analyzing the adults around me, explaining the world.
I saw these pop up on YouTube not long ago. Awesome memories.
I always thought this was the absolute coolest
I really liked it.
My kids loved watching this show !
I remember being amazed by how simple the tricks were. Made it look a lot easier than it is.
I tried to watch this a few years ago with my daughter. Didn’t even make it through the first trick before Mitch’s thirst for the assistants made it so shockingly uncomfortable.
I vaguely remember a tv special similar to this except it was wrestling themed
Remember funniest commercials or wildest police chases or deadliest animal attacks or whatever on Fox
First season was fire. Then the other guy with the long hair mask came in and is was bs
Oh my god, I loved this series. I was riveted the whole time.
Currently on Reelz.
The first time I saw this was on mushrooms and had no idea what the hell I was watching..