Mission: Magic!

In 1973 Filmation Associates created Mission: Magic!, a show with a plot device derived from seemingly random elements. Australian, up-and-coming celebrity Rick Springfield did the voice work for his own character, who co-starred in the series with a high school teacher named Miss Tickle. Miss Tickle used magic, and she and her class of six students went to help Rick in whatever place, alternate time or odd dimension he was in when he called for help.

Rick communicated through a magic gramophone located in Miss Tickle’s classroom, through which those listening could speak with him. After he explained his predicament, Miss Tickle used magic to turn a ceramic cat next to the gramophone into a real cat named Tut-Tut. Apparently, this infused the necessary magic into a chalk drawing she drew on the blackboard to pull Miss Tickle, her students and Tut-Tut through the gateway, to wherever Rick (and his pet owl Tolamy) happened to be.

Although the students — Kim, Vinnie, Carol, Socks, Franklin and Harvey — did what they could to help, most of the heavy lifting was done by Miss Tickle, whose magical powers were seemingly limitless and of great advantage. As a bonus, Rick performed a musical interlude at some point during the episode, of which the music was written and performed by Springfield himself.

The weekly adventures of Rick, Miss Tickle and her students lasted for sixteen episodes. The series didn’t grant Springfield’s career much of a boost, but his fame did take off in the early 80s with his role in the soap opera General Hospital, and the release of his hit single “Jessie’s Girl”.