Tales of the Wizard of Oz (1961– )

This 150-episode series of shorts chronicles Dorothy's long stay in the land of Oz. The Munchkins are portrayed as tiny globs; the Scarecrow is a fool named Socrates; the Tin Woodman is a ... See full summary »

Stars:

Carl Banas, Corinne Conley, Peggi Loder

Cast

Uncredited cast:
Carl Banas	...	Dandy Lion (1961) (uncredited)
Corinne Conley	...	Dorothy Gale (1961) (uncredited)
Peggi Loder	...	The wicked Witch of the West (voice) (uncredited)
Larry D. Mann	...	Rusty the Tin Man (voice) (uncredited)
Alfie Scopp	...	Socrates the Scarecrow (voice) (uncredited)

Storyline

This 150-episode series of shorts chronicles Dorothy's long stay in the land of Oz. The Munchkins are portrayed as tiny globs; the Scarecrow is a fool named Socrates; the Tin Woodman is a bully named Rusty; and the dandy Lion is called Dandy. The Wizard, who speaks like W.C. Fields, can perform little magic beyond card tricks. Nevertheless, Dorothy continually pressures the Wizard to send her home. A constant threat is posed by the solid-green Wicked Witch of the West, who tries to make the dragonette Desmond follow her orders and attack the group of friends, even though he has no malice toward them.

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Plot Keywords:

anthropomorphic scarecrow | surrealism | dragon | based on novel

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Company Credits

Production Co:

Crawley Films, Rankin/Bass Productions, Videocraft International

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Dandy Lion: [Teaching Socrates how to dance ballet] Now the first thing you need to do is relax.
[Socrates lies down on the floor as if to go to sleep]
Dandy Lion: I SAID RELAX, NOT COLAPSE!

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Connections

Followed by Return to Oz (1964)

User Reviews

Best show in the world, at 7:30 in the morning.

I used to watch this series of shorts every morning before school. The CBC used to show it in the mornings with "The New Adventures of Pinoccio", another Rankin / Bass classic. I wish they were still on or I could get them on DVD so kids today could enjoy this very funny show. A friend of mine still swears to this day that there is an episode where Dorothy says "Dammit Toto, get down from there." But this is to be taken with a grain of salt, because he's told me on several occasions that Mr.Bean (Rowan Atkinson) is dead. What I really liked about the show was that often repeatable dialog from the show. Also the jokes were right where they should have been for a kids show, not so lame you could never repeat them after the age of 12 but not so sophisticated that they went over the head of the target audience.