The Wizard of Oz (TV series)

"The Wizard of Oz" is an animated television series produced in 1990 to capitalize on the 50th anniversary of the 1939 classic film. It ran on ABC from 1990-1991, and was subsequently repeated on the Disney Channel and HBO in the 1990s, and on Toon Disney from 1998-2002.

tory

The Wicked Witch of the West has been resurrected by Truckle the Flying Monkey and the Flying Monkeys loyal to her through a revival ceremony. Now that she's alive again, she has taken over the Emerald City. Dorothy returns to Oz to finish off the witch once and for all. Each episode consisted of the Witch attempting to get the ruby slippers from Dorothy. Dorothy and her friends were also always trying to save the Wizard from the evil West Wind, created by the Witch. Dorothy would sometimes begin an episode by clicking her heels and saying to herself "There is no place like Oz" repeatedly, which would transport her from Kansas to Oz, a reverse of a key point in the 1939 film. Some episodes had similarity to the film, such as Dorothy convincing the Lion he still was powerful after he lost confidence when the Witch cast a spell on him removing his powerful roar and giving it to a Hyena, but she and her friends worked to reverse the spell. This was similar to the film where the Wizard convinced Dorothy's friends their talents lay within.

The series was canceled after one season, so the fates of the characters are unknown.

Episodes

# "Rescue of Emerald City, Part I", written by Cliff Ruby & Elana Lesser 9/8/1990
# "Rescue of Emerald City, Part II", written by Cliff Ruby & Elana Lesser 9/15/1990
# "Fearless", written by Doug Molitor 9/22/1990
# "Crystal Clear", written by Pat Allee & Ben Hurst 9/29/1990
# "We're Not in Kansas Anymore", written by Lisa Maliani & Michael Maroney 10/6/1990
# "The Lion that Squeaked", written by Bob Carrau 10/13/1990
# "Dream a Little Dream", written by Michael Maurer 10/20/1990
# "A Star Is Gone", written by Michael O'Mahony 10/27/1990
# "Time Town", written by Richard Merwin 11/3/1990
# "The Marvelous Milkmaid of Mechanica", by Jules Dennis, from a story by Karen Willson & Chris Weber 11/10/1990
# "Upside-Down Town", written by Gordon Bressack 11/17/1990
# "Day the Music Died", written by Laurie Sutton 11/24/1990
# "Hot Air", written by Doug Molitor 12/1/1990

Cast

* Liz Georges - Dorothy
* Frank Welker - Toto
* David Lodge - Scarecrow
* Hal Rayle - Tin Man
* Charlie Adler - Cowardly Lion
* Alan Oppenheimer - The Wizard
* B. J. Ward - Glinda the Good Witch
* Tress MacNeille - The Wicked Witch of the West
* Pat Fraley - Truckle
* Susan Silo - Munchkin Mayor

Trivia

*Dorothy's design is similar to that of Disney's "The Little Mermaid"'s female protagonist Ariel.
* Many of the songs used in the show were revamped from songs and themes from the film.
* Dorothy wears a simple blue dress in this series, as opposed to a a blue and white gingham dress in the film.
* Dorothy's famous Ruby Slippers were changed from being heels to slip-ons.
* A running gag in the series was the Wicked Witch of the West's Crystal Ball, which she was only able to use once per episode.

Songs

* Look to the Star (The Rescue of Emerald City Part 2)
* We're off to see the Wizard (The Rescue of Emerald City Part 1, Time Town & Upside-Down Town)
* King of the Forest (Fearless & The Lion that Squeaked)
* The Merry Old Land of Oz (Crystal Clear & Hot Air)
* I'f I Only Had a Brain (Crystal Clear, The Marvelous Milkmaid of Mechanica & The Day the Music Died)
* Over the Rainbow (We're Not in Kansas Anymore)

VHS/DVD release

"The Wizard Of Oz" was first released on VHS in 1991, shortly after the series ended. 10 episodes of the series were released on video between 1991 - 1995. In Australia, the series was released in its entirety on VHS.

DVD releases began in 2002 with The Rescue Of The Emerald City, (featuring "The Rescue of Emerald City parts 1 & 2", and "The Day the Music Died") followed in 2003 by The Continuing Story (featuring "Time Town", "We're not in Kansas Anymore", "Crystal Clear", and "Fearless") and We're Off to Save the Wizard in 2005 (featuring "Hot Air", "A Star is Gone", "Upside Downtown", and "Dream a Little Dream")

As of 2008, the series has yet to be released in its entirety.

ee also

*The Wizard of Oz (adaptations) — other adaptations of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

External links

*imdb title|id=0098950|name=The Wizard of Oz
* [http://www.tv.com/the-wizard-of-oz/show/9210/summary.html?q=The%20Wizard%20of%20Oz&tag=search_results;title;0 "The Wizard of Oz"] at TV.com