# 70 Years: The Wizard Of Oz Film Appreciation Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793 "2009-07-03T05:42:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/21 "2009-07-05T22:41:16Z")
The annual airing was definitely a big event when I was a kid. I still remember the horror one year of having to make a choice one year when it was on up against a Munsters TV movie. I was really into Munsters reruns at the time. Having to wait a whole 'nother year to see the Wizard, or maybe never see the Munsters in color, what a terrible dilemma for a kid. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/22 "2009-07-05T22:48:25Z")
So this isn’t about Johnny Hart? ---
**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/23 "2009-07-05T22:53:37Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > OK what’s your number 1? See you can’t start a statement like that without finishing it 🙂 Well, it fluctuates depending on what I’ve been watching recently, but I’ve gotta say, if it comes down to a desert island and only two DVDs allowed, I’m bringing Wizard of Oz and Animal House. One I can sing along with, one I can laugh my ass off at. Both I know well enough to quote virtually word for word, and yet I’ve never been bored watching either. I guess that puts my mental age somewhere between 8 and 20, when in reality I’m older than dirt. And if I’m on that desert island, I want a dress like Glinda’s, shoes like Dorothy, and a big rubber dildo like Otter has in his briefcase. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/24 "2009-07-06T01:06:28Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > I would be glued to the television and watch the broadcast and get scared at the flying monkeys and wicked witch and just lose myself in the film. When we finally got a color television set, I could hardly wait to see what it looked like in color! I thought my native Kansan wife was kidding when she told me the ENTIRE movie was in color, but Kansas really does look bleak, black-and-white, as I discovered cutting through it on 2-lanes trying to avoid mountain passes in winter enroute to Phoenix from Omaha. I-80 in Nebraska looks more inviting! My now nearly 36-year-old “baby” first saw _Wizard of OZ_ when he was a year and a half old. There was a popular fish tale being flogged all over the tube at the time. When it was over, the kid started singing about “The Wonderful Lizard of Jaws”. I’ve referred to it that way ever since. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/25 "2009-07-06T08:25:22Z")
My Dad, being a “rich guy” bought one of the early VCRs in the late 70’s. One of the movies we (and I mean “I” recorded while tediously editing out the commercials) was Wizard. My nephew (maybe 4 or 5) was staying with us and was scared of the witch parts, so I had to watch it with him… …about 50 freakin’ times! I was maybe 14 or something. I remember sitting in the “Big Brown Potato Chip Chair” and him hiding his face when She came on… And now, he’s grown, married twice, lives across the country, haven’t spoken in years 'cept when his dad died (my brother) and unlikely to anytime soon. Its Shit getting Old, ain’t it? ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/26 "2009-07-06T14:31:52Z")
I remember watching **The Wizard of Oz** at my grandparent’s house at Thanksgiving. They had a big console-type color TV. Just a few years ago, they had a theater presentation of the film at a performing arts center here in Connecticut. My son was about nine at the time. After all of the times that I’d seen the film, this was the first time that I’d seen it on the big screen. It was pretty cool. Many attendees dressed up in costume. ---
**Author:** ![Das\_Glasperlenspiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/das_glasperlenspiel/32/2944_2.png) [@Das\_Glasperlenspiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Das_Glasperlenspiel)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/27 "2009-07-06T14:44:46Z")
Winged monkeys? No problem. Wicked Witch of the West? No problem. Winkie Guard? “O-Ee-Yah! Eoh-Ah!” Huge problem. I still get scared thinking about them although the fear is somewhat neutralized by the vision of The Cowardly Lion trying to subdue his tail when he is marching in disguised as one of the Guard.🙂 I try to catch the movie at least once a year. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/28 "2009-07-06T15:26:20Z")
One thing that has astonished me is how good the makeup is. The Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow look fantastic! The only other event to rival The Wizard of Oz Annual Broadcast in my house, growing up, was the similar airing of The Sound of Music. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/29 "2009-07-06T17:36:38Z")
I’ll echo all the love listed upthread, and add a couple of marginally-related factoids: A mature woman I used to work with had a full-blown phobia of the munchkins. You couldn’t talk about them in her presence or she’d get pale and break out in a sweat. Before I knew that her phobia was real, I jokingly sang a line or two of “We represent the Lollipop League . . .”, only to see her quickly exit the room and stay away for an hour. Weird! Something I read once and am maybe imperfectly remembering: After the novel _Ringworld_ became a huge hit, people pointed out to Larry Niven that it was for the most part a rewriting of _The Wizard of Oz_. There’s a crashlanding on a mystical far-away world, and four very different characters spend the entire story trying to get off the place. One of the characters is even cowardly. The device that gets them back home was with them almost all along, they just had to realize it. Larry Niven was mortified to realize this and worried that he was just unconsciously channeling his boyhood movie memories. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/30 "2009-07-06T18:09:32Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I’ve recently finished rereading _Wicked_ and McGuire attempts to lampshade this by instilling the witch with a sense of paranoia since childhood…which only got worse because she hadn’t been sleeping much at all for months before her sister died. > > It does work pretty well at making her bitchy without actually being evil. _Wicked_ has **nothing whatsoever to do with OZ.** :mad: The characters have similar names, that’s all. Fucking travesty, “what came before” my ass… ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/31 "2009-07-06T18:16:45Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > There were also special “host” segments. According to one book on The Wizard of Oz, Dick Van Dyke hosted for two years, doing sketches on-camera (he was apparently a pretty good artist). I recall from later on, whjen Danny Kaye was host. The networks used to do this for Big Event movies. I remember Sebastian Cabot and the kids from _Family Affair_ (I’m kinda glad that I had to look up the series name!), hosting _Oklahoma!_ in character, talking about the movie at each commercial break. Why them? Beats me. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/32 "2009-07-06T18:27:46Z")
I remember seeing it often as a kid, and it still brings a smile to my face. What really stuck with me was Scarecrow being taken apart and being almost flat as he lay on the ground. :eek: Nothing else in the movie made as big an impression on me back then. Sorry, but I read _Wicked_ and really liked it - thought it was a good and interesting extrapolation of the Witch’s backstory. I had a prosecutor friend who would refer to the police officers who conducted investigations for him as “my winged monkeys.” Not all of them appreciated his sense of humor. 😉 I’m now reading a sf story set in the distant future. Small robots with limited mental capacities are routinely referred to in it as “munchkins.” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/33 "2009-07-06T18:33:55Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Sorry, but I read _Wicked_ and really liked it - thought it was a good and interesting extrapolation of the Witch’s backstory. The Wizard is NOT some sort of Hitler, however. The book may be well written but it is NOT part of the canon nor should it even be even considered backstory. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/34 "2009-07-06T18:36:09Z")
Baum didn’t write it, so of course it’s not canon. But I still found it interesting and a worthwhile read. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/35 "2009-07-06T21:23:43Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Baum didn’t write it, so of course it’s not canon. But I still found it interesting and a worthwhile read. YMMV. If we go with “Baum had to write it for it to be canon”, then a good 2/3 of the _official_ Oz books aren’t canon. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/36 "2009-07-07T12:40:19Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > Something I read once and am maybe imperfectly remembering: After the novel _Ringworld_ became a huge hit, people pointed out to Larry Niven that it was for the most part a rewriting of _The Wizard of Oz_. There’s a crashlanding on a mystical far-away world, and four very different characters spend the entire story trying to get off the place. One of the characters is even cowardly. The device that gets them back home was with them almost all along, they just had to realize it. Larry Niven was mortified to realize this and worried that he was just unconsciously channeling his boyhood movie memories. The parallels go beyond that! Speaker=Scarecrow (has to learn to think instead of scream-and-leap) Nessus=The Cowardly Lion (thinks he’s a coward until we find the evolutionary reason that Puppeteers turn in a fight) Teela=Tin Woodsman: has to learn to care Louis=Dorothy: can go home and possesses the method all along. The fake Ringworld Engineer (Hapoprilliorar or however it’s spelled) is a humbug. There are some more parallels that I don’t remember. Great (if unconcious) pastiche. I loved The Wizard of Oz, but I _hate_ the “It was all a dream” ending , and I don’t like that Baum’s strong, competent Dororthy (he was an ardent Suffragette\*) got turned into such a snivelling wimp by MGM. One example: In the book, Dorothy douses the Wicked Witch of the West because she’s _pissed_ “You horrible woman” (that sort of thing.) In the movie, Dorothy does it 'cause she’s got terrible aim and is incompetent. That said, it really is one of the all time great movies. \*Or does that word refer to women only? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/37 "2009-07-07T14:10:43Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > I loved The Wizard of Oz, but I _hate_ the “It was all a dream” ending , and I don’t like that Baum’s strong, competent Dororthy (he was an ardent Suffragette\*) got turned into such a snivelling wimp by MGM. For sure, the books come across as more socially progressive. I’d love to see a straight adaptation of _The Marvelous Land of Oz_, complete with the war of the sexes and the gender-bending resolution. Maybe _next_ century… ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/38 "2009-07-07T15:28:01Z")
It is because of my at-least-yearly viewing of this movie that every single time I see someone riding a bike, the witch’s theme plays in my head. You know, the tune you hear when she’s up in the tornado and Elmira Gulch comes riding along on her bicycle before turning into the Wicked Witch. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/39 "2009-07-07T15:59:08Z")
I watch it more these days [in conjunction with Dark Side of the Moon.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Side_of_the_Rainbow) I don’t think I’ve ever made it through the whole movie, I always miss part of it, or the end. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793/40 "2009-07-07T17:11:42Z")
A SDSAB report on TWOO and _Dark Side of the Moon_: [Does the music in Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon coincide with the action of The Wizard of Oz? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1773/does-the-music-in-pink-floyds-em-dark-side-of-the-moon-em-coincide-with-the-action-of-em-the-wizard-of-oz-em) The Master speaks: was TWOO a parable of Populism? [Is The Wizard of Oz a satire of the French Revolution? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/362/is-em-the-wizard-of-oz-em-a-satire-of-the-french-revolution) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70-years-the-wizard-of-oz-film-appreciation-thread/501793.md?page=3)