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A magician in a black mask, an assistant in a box, and then the camera swinging around to show you exactly how she got out. Fox's four Masked Magician specials in 1997 and 1998 exposed everything from the zig-zag girl and the sawed-in-half woman to the buried-alive escape; the first one drew the biggest ratings a Fox special had ever had, and the magic world wanted his head.
Black shag haircut, eyeliner, chain wallet — and a man apparently floating between Las Vegas rooftops. Mindfreak made Criss Angel the definitive 2000s magician: half goth rock star, half street illusionist, all catchphrase.
Disney Channel's late-2000s flagship spent four seasons turning Selena Gomez into a household name and making millions of kids believe they could be teenage wizards living above a Greenwich Village sandwich shop. The premise was simple and tight: three wizard siblings, one family competition, and only one of them gets to keep the magic.