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Marc Summers’ Mystery Magical Special!


X-E reviews The Mystery Magical Special, also known as Marc Summers' Mystery Magical Special, also known as Marc Summers' Mystery Magical Tour. The 1986 Halloween special hasn't stood the test of time, but it's worth noting that it stood longer than anyone could've reasonably expected it to. Starring a fresh-faced Marc Summers as the leader of a group of kids (including Jonathan Brandis, don't you go crying on me) who find themselves trapped in some kind of weird haunted mansion that fancies itself a magician's stage. The special wasn't huge enough to have anything more than a mild cult following, and the people who remember it do so for one reason only: Skeleton Dude, the fencing pirate skull creature guy. Review is pretty long for a Countdown entry, and includes video clips.

Posted by Matt on 10/15/2006. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 96 comments

Man, I loved that special. I never realized until I finished reading it how much that damn thing shaped my views on the world. Like that lady dancing with the mop basically became my view on romance, dark, romantic and magical.

Chestnuts roasted by James @ 10/16/2006 2:26 AM

Wow…I’ll bet 25 bucks that was filmed in the Magic Castle in LA- I’ve been there a zillion times (great place when you’re a kid) and I recognize practically all the setpieces.
Fittingly, the scariest part of the place is the totally disused basement that looks like it’s missing the “do not tresspass” sign.
Love the site.

Chestnuts roasted by Laila @ 10/16/2006 2:27 AM

Yeah and with your own hand. AHAHAHAHA

Chestnuts roasted by Mad Skelter @ 10/16/2006 2:32 AM

Speaking of game show hosts, did anyone see Bob Saget’s return to network tv?

Chestnuts roasted by jrh @ 10/16/2006 3:22 AM

Marc Summers was cool to me back then, and because of Unwrapped, he’s cool to me still. It’s a shame he struggles with OCD, though. I can’t imagine how he got through Double Dare with it… what with the messy… everything.

jrh: I saw the Saget return. I thought what I think every time I see him on television — Danny Tanner’s moving on up. The set of 1 vs. 100, with the people stacked on top of each other, looks a lot like that conference chamber/arena with the pods from the latest Star Wars movies. It’s interesting.

Chestnuts roasted by Dr. Acula @ 10/16/2006 4:31 AM

ha, “Mystery Magical Special director Steven Santos is rumored to have offered whichever kid gave him the best reaction a cookie shaped like Big Bird”

- genius, pure genius! easily best article of the countdown so far, old skool x-e “flava”..

Chestnuts roasted by drbong @ 10/16/2006 4:37 AM

is there some reason why the article makes no mention of jonathan brandis’ suicide?

Chestnuts roasted by jp @ 10/16/2006 4:41 AM

Whee, I’m finally up to date with the Halloween Countdown. Y’see, rather than get antsy about the whole Megaparty dealio, I’d waited until it was all over before reading it. And then realised I had the countdown to get through as well. Which amounted to a lot of backed-up articles, and a shortage of time to kill. But I read it, and I loved it, and I thank Matt most sincerely for once again getting me excited about a holiday that’s purely commercial over here in EnZed. All but ignored, sadly. Though the original Nightmare on Elm Street screened here a couple weeks ago as the Sunday Horror offering, and that sure got me in the mood. Mmm, Freddy’s crispy ‘and’ dreamy! So now I can check back all regularly-like and keep up to date. Being one of the cool kids is so..cool. I guess.

Chestnuts roasted by onslaught86 @ 10/16/2006 4:41 AM

Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve so much as thought of that special that I forgot Jonathan Brandis was in it.

Chestnuts roasted by M.Fireball @ 10/16/2006 6:30 AM

I had such a crush on Jonathan Brandis when I was in middle school. I totally remember this special. It did not seem so cheesy then.

Chestnuts roasted by kb @ 10/16/2006 9:52 AM

DUDER! I’m FROM Keansburg!

How depressing is that???

Chestnuts roasted by Los Pepes @ 10/16/2006 9:54 AM

Why don’t they still play this? Halloween wasn’t complete without watching Marc Summers find his way outta that place!

Chestnuts roasted by Jeff Mack @ 10/16/2006 11:24 AM

I wonder if Jonathan Brandis knew that this was a stepping stone to a career with the greatest actors of all times like Chuck Norris in Sidekick or The Never Ending Story 2 with…..actually I don’t know who was in that besides Bandis.

Chestnuts roasted by Billy @ 10/16/2006 12:16 PM

Wow….Marc Summers. My 4th grade teacher LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE MARC SUMMERS and for that reason, he was and still IS my favorite teacher of all time. “What Would You Do” was an obsession with my brother and I- we HAD to watch it every single day, no matter how angry we would get at the contestants.

I too had a huge crush on Jonathan Brandis. Started with “IT” and lasted even through “Ladybugs”. Sad stuff.

Damn, makes me wish I still had Nickelodeon. :(

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 10/16/2006 12:36 PM

Holy shit that dude looks absolutely whipped at the end of the fencing scene. “Gasp… only a trick… gasp.”

Great review, I needed that after a long, humorless weekend. At least the Saints won.

Chestnuts roasted by klatubaradanikto` @ 10/16/2006 12:46 PM

so it’s off topic. but when have i ever been ON topic?

Has anyone else watch “Halloweenie”, the Halloween episode of The Adventures of Pete & Pete, lately? It’s on the Season 2 box set…which I got for $5 from the used DVD section at work. Wordd!!

I forgot how much I missed that episode. Go watch it. Now.

I was born in 1986. Wow do I feel under-priveleged for having missed this.

Chestnuts roasted by brianfax @ 10/16/2006 1:09 PM

I remember watching this somethime in the late 80′s, but I don’t think it was when it originally aired. That skull guy scared the crap out of me. In fact, the whole show did. Now the only thing about it that scares me are the low production values.

I think I actually saw Lance Burton’s show when I went to Hot Springs, Arkansas as a kid. I remember my grandpa told me they released live snakes into the audience every night.

Chestnuts roasted by Deuce @ 10/16/2006 2:40 PM

Sorry for the double post. It wasn’t Lance Burton I saw, it was a guy named Maxwell Blade.

That’s a cool name.

Chestnuts roasted by Deuce @ 10/16/2006 2:46 PM

Glad I’m not the only one that remembers when Marc was going public with his OCD (Yeah, you know me!), and appearing on different talk/news magazine shows to revel in the irony of hosting DD. What show was it where as he would stop to straighten the rug and they would play the song “Lunatic Fringe” to underscore his problem? It was both funny as hell and cruel as hell.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 10/16/2006 3:19 PM

I kept reading it as “Magical Mystery Tour”

Chestnuts roasted by Moore_Roger @ 10/16/2006 3:28 PM

Iknow this is a little late, but I was reading your great pumpkin article and it just so happened I rented this cartoon yesterday for my little girl, you know getting her into the spirit and stuff. It was kind of funny, she looked over at me (she’s 5) and she’s like. “daddy, did you used to watch this cartoons when you were a little boy.” I said yes. the she’s like ” Daddy this cartoon is very old.”

I felt like smacking her……

In the end though she did enjoy the Great pumpkin cartoon so I guess that’s the important thing… of course unless she was just trying to make me feel better.

Chestnuts roasted by mjsgrass @ 10/16/2006 3:40 PM

Poor Jonathan Brandis. Still can’t get any love. Maybe that’s why he killed himself. Very sad.

Chestnuts roasted by Toni @ 10/16/2006 3:58 PM

I also totally remember this special. I think Lance still does that skeleton dude fencing trick. He did it a few times in other magic specials definitely.

I also remember all of the Marc Summers OCD publicity. I was amazed that he would do a show like DD and WWYD with it. I watched those religiously as a kid and never saw him cringe. Kind of reminds me how Oprah also had on that New Kids on the Block guy who had stage fright or something. Plus, there’s Howie Mandel’s germaphobia.

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 10/16/2006 4:12 PM

I also was on the Jonathan Brandis crush wagon. My room was adorned with at least 13 posters pried from the colorful pages of Tiger Beat and similar magazines – I also had a small photo album where I kept all of the tiny pictures of him I cut out from those magazines.
Nerd.

Chestnuts roasted by Jessica Marie @ 10/16/2006 5:27 PM

Rudy Coby did a similar switchout on his FOX special. But he got “decapitated” by a Killer Klown before he whipped off the Klown mask. I liked the chick playing his assistant.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 10/16/2006 5:57 PM

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 11:04 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.