Plot
Nick Walker is on a desperate quest for a "reel" and this quest takes him on a humorous journey. He has some connections and great friends, but that just isn't enough. He is under pressure from his family to make it happen within a year or return home and take over the family farm. In a twist of fate he is given the opportunity to approach one of the "gods" for help, but he is told to make it happen on his own. In an unplanned, unrehearsed moment of brilliance, he stages a faux holdup of a liquor store and uses the surveillance tape as his "reel". The rest is Hollywood history.
Plot
From Hollywood's world-famous Magic Castle to the casinos of Las Vegas and even into Alcatraz, join Paul and Lee as they discover the magic and magicians of America's West coast. Along the way, you'll learn magic from some of the biggest names in the business: Alain Nu vanishes a silk without the use of prosthetics The Buck Twins tip two of their signature routines Alan Ackerman fries another victim Earl Nelson teaches a classic production from "Variations" David Regal makes a baffling prediction Dean Dill matrixes with anything you like Ashford Kneitel finds four ladies with his "card compass" Steve Beam spirals and slices and Nathan Kranzo makes coins vanish and appear without getting burned! PLUS six excellent effects from Paul Wilson and Lee Asher A selection rises out of any deck-then finds its three mates! A deck of cards ribbon spreads in mid-air! The magician blows the whole trick-then recovers with a real kicker! A pack seems to come alive as it is cut in the hands-yet nothing takes place! Four aces are lost in the deck then found behind your back-instantly! Four freely selected cards change-face-up-to the four aces! But even all of this is only the tip of the iceberg. Hit the Road is absolutely loaded with private sessions, exclusive effects and interviews featuring some of magic's most colorful characters, featuring over an hour of footage from Paul and Lee's trip plus explanations and out takes. Hit the Road is truly a unique video experience.
Paul Wilson & Lee Asher are Up to their Old Tricks! (And a few New Ones, too!)
Rod Serling: Meet Joe McCursky - portrait of a man with a dilemma. His wife is 45 minutes late getting home, his television set isn't working properly, and he's all out of lunch meat. [pause] Perhaps not the most terrifying predicament ever, but, still, you'll have to agree it's rather unpleasant. Besides, I'm sure things'll pick up in the next scene - perhaps some terrifyingly deformed creature'll show up and... kill him. After all, anything's possible... in The Twi-Lite Zone.
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form television industry standards. He was known as the "angry young man" of Hollywood, clashing with television executives and sponsors over a wide range of issues including censorship, racism, and anti-war politics.
Serling was born December 25, 1924, into a Jewish family in Syracuse, New York, the second of two sons born to Esther (née Cooper) and Samuel Lawrence Serling. Serling's father had worked as a secretary and amateur inventor before having children, but took on his father-in-law's profession as a grocer in order to earn a steady income. Sam Serling later took up the trade of butcher after the Great Depression forced the store to close. Serling's mother was a homemaker.
American Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City. The show debuted on PBS in 1986.
Groups or organizations featured include: Actor's Studio, Algonquin Round Table, Group Theatre, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Women of Tin Pan Alley, Negro Ensemble Company, Juilliard School, the Beat Generation, The Singer-songwriters of the 1970s, Sun Records, Vaudeville, and Warner Bros. Pictures.
American Masters, a series "devoted to America's 'greatest native-born and adopted' artists," was originally scheduled to premier in September 1985; for "logistical scheduling reasons" the premiere was delayed until summer 1986, though on October 16, 1985, an American Masters "special" called Aaron Copland: A Self-Portrait was aired.
The first of the 15 first-season episodes was Private Conversations, a "cinema-verite documentary by Christian Blackwood done in that trickiest of cinematic forms: a film about a film, in this instance the television version of Death of a Salesman, directed by Volker Schlöndorff". It aired on June 23, 1986, as one of two episodes not specifically commissioned for the show's first season.
Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery (April 15, 1933 – May 18, 1995) was an American film and television actress whose career spanned five decades, best known as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched. She also notably portrayed Ellen Harrod in A Case of Rape and Lizzie Borden in The Legend of Lizzie Borden.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Elizabeth Montgomery was the child of actor Robert Montgomery and his wife, Broadway actress Elizabeth Bryan Allen. She had an older sister, Martha Bryan Montgomery, who died as an infant (named after her aunt Martha-Bryan Allen) and a brother, Robert Montgomery, Jr. (born 1936). After graduating from The Spence School, she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts for three years.
Montgomery made her television debut in her father's series Robert Montgomery Presents (later appearing on occasion as a member of his "summer stock" company of performers), and her film debut in 1955 in The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell.
Her early career consisted of starring vehicles and appearances in live television dramas and series, such as Studio One, Kraft Television Theater, Johnny Staccato, The Twilight Zone, The Eleventh Hour, Boris Karloff's Thriller and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1960 Montgomery was nominated for an Emmy Award for her portrayal of southern prostitute Rusty Heller in an episode of The Untouchables, playing opposite David White who later portrayed Darrin's boss Larry Tate in Bewitched.
Robert Edward "Bob" Crane (July 13, 1928 – June 29, 1978) was an American actor and disc jockey, best known for his performance as Colonel Robert E. Hogan in the television sitcom Hogan's Heroes from 1965 to 1971, and for his 1978 murder, which remains officially unsolved.
Bob Crane was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, but he spent his childhood and teenage years in Stamford, Connecticut. He graduated from Stamford High School (Stamford, Connecticut) in 1946. Music was important to Crane, and he started playing drums early in life. By junior high, he was organizing local drum and bugle parades with his neighborhood friends in Stamford. Later, he became very involved in his high school marching and jazz bands, as well as in the school’s orchestra. He also played for the Connecticut Symphony and the Norwalk Symphony Orchestras as part of the youth orchestra program. On June 21, 1948, Bob enlisted in the National Guard and was honorably discharged on May 1, 1950. In 1949, he married high school sweetheart Anne Terzian, and they raised three children - Robert David, Deborah Ann, and Karen Leslie.