- In the days of King Arthur, there lived a sorcerer who entertained the royal court of Camelot with miraculous feats of magic.

Come with us now to the secret room of Merlin, the magic.

- Welcome.

Welcome to my secret room at Camelot.

Nice to see you.

I missed you the last time that you didn't attend the meeting.

It's good.

You're all here today.

Oh, I must, I must show you a trick that I just learned in Its Queen Gures favorite.

I don't quite know how to explain it.

Maybe.

Maybe I just better show it to you.

It concerns this glass aquarium.

I guess that's the way you pronounce it, sir.

Echo told me the word aquarium.

It has glass on four sides.

There's only one trouble.

It's empty.

And Queen Guinevere would like to have some fish.

So we have some magic water that might bring about that little miracle.

If Chauncey will bring on the magic water, just pour it in there.

Chauncey right in the aquarium.

There's nothing in the picture is there And there's nothing in the aquarium.

And you're getting my beard wet.

Do you see any wiffle dust around Chauncey?

Any magic wolfel dust that we could sprinkle in here?

Sprinkle some magic wolfel dust.

Yes.

I don't think that's wolfel dust.

I think it's a fish.

How many?

No, it's more than one fish.

It's two.

How many three comes after two, doesn't it?

Yeah.

There are three fish in there.

Three little fishies.

There's a song about that, but I don't, I can't sing it too well.

Thank you, Chauncey.

I guess our trick worked.

Congratulations.

Yes, Chauncey's a very good assistant.

And I hope that Queen Guinevere likes these fish, these magic goldfish in our magic aquarium.

I have to do that trick again.

I, I'd rather enjoy that.

I also enjoy receiving letters from our many round table friends.

And this is one that said that, dear Merlin and I went home to get a bandaid.

You all know what a bandaid is for?

Cuts a bandaid for my girlfriend because she hurt herself.

Sign Susan Forster.

That's very nice.

Susan.

You probably prevented your girlfriend from getting a, a bad infection.

It was a very thoughtful, good deed, this very brief and to the point it said, I clean my bedroom every day.

Sign Debbie Huff.

Well, Debbie, if you clean your bedroom every day, I'm sure your mother's most appreciative.

Most children don't do that.

Keep up the good work.

I'll send both of you young ladies, a membership card and a magic wand.

Another one here.

Dear Merlin, will you send me the trick of the anti-gravity?

Skyhook?

It's a long word, but I guess I said that.

Anti-gravity skyhook.

I thought it might be a real good trick.

Yours truly, Bob Gall.

Let's see now.

Oh, I remember we made the lady float in midair on the broomstick, and then we explained the principle of gravity with a little sky hook that looks like a question mark shaped like this.

And Bobby Gall wrote to me, and I told him that if he would write or any other round table member I'd, explain how this works.

And you could make your own magic sky hook.

You see, if you put a belt right in the notch, in the sky hook and put your finger, just your finger on the end of the sky hook and let go Very slowly, it'll remain suspended on the end of your hand.

If you'd like to know how that little puzzle and physics is accomplished just right to Merlin care of this station.

And I'll be happy to send you the plans and the explanation.

The magic skyhook.

Well, I see our good friend Excalibur is here ready for the magic theme word.

Today we all join in the magic incantation so that Excalibur will rise and we may see what's on the blade.

Let's say the magic words together.

Here we go.

Fiddly, die fiddly.

D, magic sword.

Rise for me.

Oh, the magic word is magic.

M-A-G-I-C. Magic.

We talked about magic on several occasions, but I think I might continue what I started last time by using the magic sketchpad.

We talked about the magic of fire with primitive man before man had science or religion upon which to depend.

We learned a little bit about fire and how important it was to primitive man.

And we also talked about the Egyptian magician priests, the ventriloquist who could make the mummies talk.

We didn't talk about one kind of magician.

See if you can tell me what kind I'm illustrating right here.

I'll just draw a quick sketch.

He usually wore a mask like that, A big mask with ferocious looking eyebrows and eyes that slanted down in that manner.

Fierce looking bright eyes.

And his mouth was an unhappy mouth.

How does an unhappy mouth look?

Which way does it turn?

What's that?

Beg your pardon.

It turns down that's right like that.

And he wore this mask so it would frighten everyone.

And so they'd think that he was, that he was a very important person and everyone would listen to him and believe what he said.

The witch doctor.

I don't know what he's doing with this hand right here.

Oh, I think I know what he's doing in this hand.

He has his magic wand.

It's a little leather bag on there, on the end of the stick, and it's stuffed with crushed bone to bring him.

Good luck.

And it's covered with a tough hide of a rhinoceros to give him strength.

He wears a crazy looking grass skirt and he's dancing a, a strange and wild dance.

Do you know what this is yet?

Do you have any idea?

Well, this is the old version of the, of the af of the African witch doctor.

Yes.

And members of the tribe thought that he possessed magical powers, that if he dropped a little magic powder as he's doing now into a stone bowl, that he could brew a strange and strong magic.

Potent so strong that if he said the right words and a woman come to him who was about ready to have a baby.

If this young lady came to the witch doctor and said, I want to have a boy baby, but he could say the magic words and drop the powder in there and the baby would be a boy, or she came to him and said, I have a sick daughter.

Make him.

Well, he drop another kind of powder in there and the young child would become better.

He also sold strange omelets or charms that would bring good luck.

He made a lot of money that way.

People in the village thought that these charms would bring, bring them good luck and keep away evil spirits.

He lived in sort of a, oh, a circular grass hut like this in the center of the jungle clearing with a door that was arched in that manner.

And the roof was supported by thin saplings.

He usually performed his strange rites and muttered his weird incantations at night when the moon was full and high.

This moon doesn't look like he's very happy about the whole thing.

I think he's a little bit frightened, perhaps, of this African witch doctor.

Now, when people are superstitious, they believe these things.

Modern people don't believe in superstitions or charms, do they?

Well, some people do, but not too much.

Even today, people believe in the crystal ball.

That hand has been handed down from early magic times.

And if we look in the crystal ball today, we'll see our special guest, a young boy who's coming from the, from the 20th century.

Yes.

His name is Tony Turnbull, and I'm told by George, a genie, if we look deep into the crystal ball and really concentrate that, we will see the face of young Tony Turnbull look into the crystal ball concentrate.

You see what I see?

Yes.

The face is materializing, and I believe he came from the 20th century right here to our magic room at King Arthur's court.

Hi Tony.

Nice to see you.

You told me one time that you could do a trick, a gravity trick, the one I just did.

Now, I've never seen any round table members do my tricks.

Would you try it with a magic sky hook?

Now, Tony is going to put the magic sky hook on his fingertip and put a belt right in the middle and make it he'll point it right at me so that you can all see and make it remain suspended.

What do he have glue on your finger?

- No.

- What is the, what is the secret of that?

Miss Magic.

He never tells his secrets.

That's good.

Very good.

I'll tell you what, I'll keep the belt so my pants won't fall down.

You keep the sky hook.

Tony, you know we have a friend at the magic room and you've spoken about this young man.

He lives in a vase.

Do you remember his name?

Echo, sir.

Echo.

You told me that you could work the trick that I do.

That's two tricks that I do that Tony can do.

Would you hold the vase, Tony?

Now hold the wand in the vase and turn the vase upside down.

All right.

Now hold the vase tightly.

Let go of the wand slowly.

No, let go of the wand.

That's it.

I guess, sir.

Echoes a friend to Tony's too.

He's got a lot of friends now.

We'll turn it right side up.

Hold the wand.

Let go of the vase all the way by the end.

Tony Turnbull, you're a, you're a real, real, live, honest to goodness gizzard.

I, I mean a wizard.

He's pretty good, isn't he?

Pretty tricky because you are.

Thank you, Tony, because you are so tricky.

I'd like you to have my magic book, Tony Turnbull of 108 tricks that you can do.

And this is yours also to take with you.

Now, it seems to me you were talking about another trick with he has so many tricks up there sleeve with, what was it?

- Orange.

- I'm just gonna sit down and relax because he's going to do the show today.

This is an orange trick and I'll bet you can't make that orange.

Stay halfway down the string.

I'm sure he can't do this.

Make it stay right there.

Right there.

He did it.

Let's go and talk to Sir Echo real quick, shall we?

Okay, let's go over here and see if he's awake.

- Say hello Down there.

Hello Down there.

- Hello Up there.

Say Sir Echo.

This is young man here.

Tony Turnbull has a, has a, a riddle he'd like to ask - You.

Yo, well a fire ahead Tony.

I'm awfully good at riles.

- You tell him the riddle.

You wanna whispered my ear first?

Alright.

He wants to know, sir.

Echo the longest word in the English language.

- No, that's easy.

Merlin.

You don't know super in istic ex.

- No, no, that's not it.

No, no - Anti-establishment.

Arianism.

- No, no.

Do you give up?

You give up?

- Yeah, I give up.

- Tell 'em what the longest word is, Tony.

Smile.

Ah.

You know why that is?

The long it - Really is.

You know why that's the longest word?

No.

Tell me Mer.

It has a mile between it.

It has a mile.

It has a mile between - Each s you see?

Right, right.

Shake.

You are one of the best guests we've ever had.

I think we, you know, you look very much like a cowboy.

We had on the show here once.

Tony, how about doing this trick?

One more time.

Do it again and I'll turn you into a pirate.

All right.

Make it stay in the middle.

All right.

Let's say goodbye to our friends, shall we?

Bye.

We'll see you later.

Let me see how that goes.

- Chse played by Joe Berman.

Reco portrayed by Rick Houser.

Merlin was produced in the studios of Ohio University Television in Athens, Ohio.