Burke's Law (1963)/Who Killed Merlin the Great?

Who Killed Merlin the Great?
Season 2, Episode 11
Airdate	December 2, 1964
Production Number	6139
Written by	William Link Richard Levinson
Directed by	Richard Kinon
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Burke's Law (1963) — Season Two

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Who Killed Merlin the Great? is the eleventh episode of the second season of Burke's Law, and the forty-third episode overall.

Special Guest Stars: Nick Adams (Max the Mysterious), Janet Blair (Violet), Paul Lynde (Dr. McCoy), Paul Richards (The Great Grindle), Charlie Ruggles (O. B. Danberry), Jill St. John (Pinky Likewise)

Guest Stars: Joan Huntington (Dr. Johnson), Robert Easton (Hapless Magician), Michael Fox (McCloud), Ralph Moody (Custodian), Bill Woodson (Newscaster), Antony Eustrel (Florist), Eileen O'Neill (Sgt. Ames)

Plot Overview

Burke needs some special magic to solve this one...a famous magician is very much alive when placed in a coffin for his underwater escape trick, but is dead upon being removed from the water, not from drowning but from a bullet wound!

Trivia

The Show

Evidently writers Richard Levinson and William Link thought this plotline--a magician is alive when the tank for his underwater trick is placed in the water, but is dead when the tank is extracted, and not from drowning but a bullet wound--had a lot of mileage, as they remade it, with some retooling, as the pilot episode of their short-lived 1986 series Blacke's Magic.

With further tweaking, this episode was remade again, this time for the 1994 Burke's Law revival. It was the only episode from the original series to be remade for the revived show.

Quotes

"The best witness to a murder is the victim--Burke's Law"--another quote from the Good Captain.