Mystery Magical Special

Mystery Magical Special is an American television special aired on Nickelodeon. Advertised as a Halloween-themed program, the special was originally produced in 1986, but continued air, often multiple times, every October for several years afterward. Primarily, the special was designed to show off the talents of stage magicians Lance Burton and Tina Lenert, as well as capitalise on Marc Summers' then-newfound fame as the host of the game show Double Dare. Shiri Appleby and Jonathan Brandis and Trenton Teigen also appear, and John Astin makes a cameo appearance. Summers' character and three young children arrive at a mysterious mansion after they get a flat tire. Within, they find, among other things, heads falling from the ceiling, Burton performing card tricks, and even a bizarre demon-like villain character who engages in a prolonged swordfight with Burton. At the end of this fight, Burton performs another display of his talents, wherein he reveals that the demon character never existed, and that the entire ordeal was, in his words, "just a trick". Afterward, the characters leave the mansion, where they meet another lost traveler, Stan Allen, magician, looking for a phone, whom they wryly tell to "help [himself]".