Lifetime developing Wizard of Oz themed Red Brick Road — Page 2

I seem to recall that the flipped map was a printing mistake that resulted in the publishers accidentally flipping one of the slides from Baum's Fairylogue and Radio Plays. Basically when they went to print it they forgot that everything would have been reversed when it was projected during the actual presentations.

I think most of the inconsistencies resulted more from Baum never knowing when the series would end and needing to adjust history to make various characters still work as good people within his world. For instance, in The Marvelous Land of Oz it is made very clear that the Wizard was responsible for the overthrow of Pastorius and the abduction of Ozma and enlisting Mombi to help hide her. Later, when he decided to bring the Wizard back to Oz in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz it seems he did not want the Wizard to have that be something he would need to atone for, and thus the Wizard is entirely ignorant of the existence of Ozma, and Ozma claims that her grandfather was imprisoned by Mombi long before the Wizard arrived, and that both she and her father were born as prisoners to Mombi (not sure who either of their mothers would be if that were the case) and that the throne to Oz was empty when the Wizard arrived to claim it.

True enough, that Baum many changes and errors along the way. he never planned the series, he never intended to continue the series. He just kept writing as the demand was there, often trying to end it.

The reversed original map will always be a point of debate. The oz Map project, which can be found through google, is pretty neat. That created several maps.. the various versions are shows, but the project also sought to compile various maps from various versions and create a composite, so you have a composite map based on baum's writings, a map compiled from all of Gregory McGuire's The wicked Years novels and the ScyFy Channel's Tinman mini-series. If I recall correctly, there was even one map that combined all three versions that was very interesting. The compiled map style was based on the maps in the Wicked books. I don't recall if they addressed the path of the red Brick Road or not.

Actually, the red brick road doesn't seem to go anywhere; it looks as though it dead ends at the stream.

WHY...

Does Glinda not know what Toto is ("Well, is that the witch?" "Toto? Toto's my dog!" "Well. I'm a little muddled...") but the Wicked Witch knows he's a "mangy little dog"?

Do witches know about dogs or not? Or is Glinda more than just a little bit muddled?

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Maybe the Wicked Witch knows that Toto is a dog because she herself is such a bitch.

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Maybe the Wicked Witch knows that Toto is a dog because she herself is such a bitch.

LOL Takes one to know one!

Also since this is a dream and she is Miss Gulch on green steroids, that's the parallel.

Or maybe they only have dogs in the West in the Winkie Country.

I'll give you one big question that readers kept bugging L. Frank Baum about until finally he had to address it in one of his later Oz books.

Early on, it's established that animals can talk in Oz. Even animals who come from other places can talk, which is shown many times in his sequels.

With one big, glaring exception ... Toto.

For many of the first books in his series, Toto doesn't talk.

Finally, in Tik-Tok of Oz, Dorothy persuades him with much cajoling to talk. The answer is he's just not all that interested in talking.

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Updated On: 10/15/13 at 01:07 PM

Besty, I thought Edna May Oliver was in the running for the Wicked Witch. Was she considered for both?

Edna Mae Oliver was never in the running for the Wicked Witch of the West. The original concept was to cast Gale Sondergaard and make her a glamorous Wicked Queen, like Disney's villain in Snow White.

Oliver and Brice were always considered for the Good Witch, until they went the "fairy princess" route.

As for Glinda, aside from being muddled, she just saw one of her nemeses killed by two creatures who fell out of the sky. She's not assuming anything about little girls or dogs, especially from another planet or a "star called Kansas."

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"Glinda is just an @sshole. I mean, first she insults Dorothy, then she sends on a dangerous journey she doesn't really need to go on."

MadTV summed it up nicely in their skit. Always cracks me up.
MadTV's Alternate ending

Besty, Aljean Harmetz says that Oliver was considered as the Wicked Witch before Sondergaard and even quotes a memo from Arthur Freed to Mervyn LeRoy saying "I suggest you make a decision on Edna May Oliver, as the Wicked Witch as she is usually in demand."

I got caught up answering emails, so I missed the last post before I posted my reply.

I think I speak for the majority, but The Wizard of OZ wouldn't have lasted this long without its terrific and iconic cast.

Well, at least I know I didn't make it up (even if she did).

Google finds a number of mentions of Oliver as a possibility as the Wicked Witch; maybe they're all coming from Harmetz.