David Blaine Serves Up Big-Time Illusions
Go find David Copperfield. Tell him his grand illusions - walking through China’s Great Wall or whatever - aren’t such a big deal anymore.
They won’t seem like a big deal once you’ve see David Blaine.
Blaine is the antithesis of Copperfield’s Vegas-style act, as you’ll see in “David Blaine: Street Magic,” a dumbfounding sleight-of-hand special that airs on ABC at 8.
An ABC publicist hits the nail on the head by describing Blaine as a performer whose “blinding spontaneity” catches strangers unaware. Some are literally frightened by his amazing tricks.
Talk about disarming. Blaine does the whole show dressed in jeans and sneakers.
He’s a master of card tricks and other illusions and claims to have psychic powers. (The skeptic in me wonders how many times his knack failed him and was then edited out of the ABC special.)
Stick around for Blaine’s most mind-boggling illusion: He levitates. Is it a camera trick? Just watch the faces of eyewitnesses Emmitt Smith and Deion Sanders of the Dallas Cowboys. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio also makes an appearance.
Highlights
“Cosby,” CBS at 8: A Social Security snafu renders Hilton (Bill Cosby) “dead,” causing problems at his new job. Ruth (Phylicia Rashad) receives flowers and a marriage proposal in a season finale that ends on an altruistic note.
“National Geographic,” NBC at 8: Turn down the thermostat for this mesmerizing, red-hot documentary which features blazing footage of active volcanoes from around the world.
Included is a tribute to famed volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft of France, who perished in a 1991 Japanese eruption. Also, American researcher Professor R. Stanley Williams recounts a brush with death at Galeras Peak in Colombia.
“Melrose Place,” FOX at 8: Wedding bells ring, and Amanda (Heather Locklear) takes a tumble in a cliffhanger season finale. Tune in for the last time you’ll see Courtney Thorne-Smith, Laura Leighton and Grant Show, who will not return in the fall.
“Murphy Brown,” CBS at 8:30: Murphy (Candice Bergen) is summoned to the White House after she makes a David Brinkley-like comment about how boring she finds the president.
“Detention: Siege at Johnson High” (1997), ABC at 9: After a disturbing and excessively violent 30 minutes, this story of a heavily armed former student’s takeover of a high school settles into a tense and absorbing hostage-negotiation drama.
Rick Schroder is strong as the messed-up kid, and Henry Winkler plays an unlikely hero. Freddie Prinze Jr. delivers a fine performance as one of the teen hostages.
“The Odyssey” (1997), NBC at 9: The epic concludes with Odysseus (Armand Assante) surviving monsters, escaping from the seductive Calypso (Vanessa Williams) and returning to Ithaca. Back home, he confronts his rivals in a bloody climax.
This is inspired television, and Assante is huge.
“Cybill,” CBS at 9: Great fun. Cybill and Maryann (Cybill Shepherd, Christine Baranski) attempt a wicked attack on Maryann’s ex, the infamous Dr. Dick.
“Chicago Hope,” CBS at 10: In an explosive season finale, Geiger (Mandy Patinkin) returns as a principal shareholder of the hospital. But the real drama concerns an attempted transplant that results in horrifying developments.
Cable Calls
“Fast Cars: The Power and the Passion,” DISC at 9 and midnight: Sports-car fanatics will love the pace and feel of this documentary, which takes you behind the scenes and into the workshops of Porsche, Ferrari and other top manufacturers. Find out how these road-huggers are built for speed.
Talk Time
“Tonight,” NBC at 11:35: Paul Reiser (“Mad About You”); student Joe Huber, a one-person graduating class from Roy, Mont.; and singer James Taylor.
“Late Show With David Letterman,” CBS at 11:35: Actress Meg Ryan, Lance Henriksen (“Millennium”) and singer Mary Chapin Carpenter.
“Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher,” ABC at 12:35 a.m.: Chris Rock, Peter Strauss and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
“Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” NBC at 12:35 a.m.: Helen Hunt (“Mad About You”) and comedian Brian Kiley.