Off to See the Wizard

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    Parody Episodes of/Whole-Plot References to The Wizard of Oz. Because of Small Reference Pools, the parodies are usually of the Judy Garland film, not the original books. If it's a Something Completely Different episode in a series, it will almost certainly be based on the film sufficiently to take advantage of the pre-existing But You Were There and You and You concept.

    Examples of Off to See the Wizard include:

    Comic Books

    Fan Fiction

    Jareth: "Well, come along, Dorothy. We're Off to See the Wizard and all that jazz."
    James: "...Which one of us is Dorothy?"
    Erik: O.o
    Javert: "Not it."

    Live Action TV

    • The Scrubs episode "My Way Home", contains many Shout Outs. It's starts with J.D. listening to Toto. When he arrives at the hospital, the Janitor has painted different routes on the hallways, with yellow (yellow brick road) leading to the exit. He also as a prank spray paints J.D.'s sneakers red, in reference to the ruby red slippers. Dr. Cox calls J.D. "Dorthy" and his only goal now is to get out of the hospital so that he can spend what is supposed to be his day off at home. Eliot as the Scarecrow (needing brains to give a lecture); Turk as the Tin Man (needing a heart for surgery - but also empathy with the couple whose son might be a donor); and Carla as the Lion (needing the courage to talk to Turk about having kids). Other characters were more mix'n'match, with both Dr Cox and Dr Kelso as the Wizard, and a one-off gag with Jordan as the Wicked Witch.
    • One of the many parodies in the 200th episode of Stargate SG 1. Vala as Dorothy; Mitchell as the Scarecrow; Teal'c as the Tin Man; Daniel as the Lion; Carter as the Good Witch; and Landry as the Wizard.
    • There was a Dream Sequence of this on the 1980s TV series Fame once, casting Doris in the role of Dorothy. It is unique among these examples in that it was inspired by the fact that Fame was shot on the same soundstage as the 1939 film. Valerie Landsberg once told the story how the stagehands who worked there very solemnly, almost reverently, showed her and the rest of the cast the last remaining piece of the original Yellow Brick Road, which was kept locked away in what amounted to a shrine in an out-of-the-way corner of the stage.
    • Mad TV, where Dorothy beats up Glinda because she didn't tell Dorothy how the Ruby Slippers worked in her first scene in Oz.
      • Mad TV had another Wizard of Oz parody where Dorothy (Nicole Parker) is caught in a hurricane (as she's now living in Florida) and ends up in Oz. Now Genre Savvy, she clicks her heels to return home and not have to go through the plot again—until hurricanes keep bringing her back to Oz and crushing members of the Lollipop Guild.
        • And another, where Dorothy wakes up to find that her Auntie Em and her family are replaced by M&M's and that the whole ending is being shamelessly used for a commercial.
        • There was another one before that, where Dorothy meets a black slave with one leg in Oz—she ends up having sex with him in the bushes.
    • Saturday Night Live parodies:
      • The Season 5 episode hosted by Elliot Gould has a Canadian version (The Incredible Man) where Dorothy follows yellow snow instead of a yellow brick road and befriends a hockey player, a Mountie, etc. (This sketch became notorious when Garrett Morris {SNL's token black cast member at the time} had a nervous breakdown backstage after being cast as a flying monkey.)
      • Seasons 20 and 29 have similar parodies involving Dorothy's arrival in Munchkinland. In Season 20, the Munchkins aren't impressed by her accidental killing of the Wicked Witch of the East and want her to go away. In Season 29, it turns out that her house landed on not just the Wicked Witch, but also several Munchkins—and the latter aren't quite dead yet. (This sketch ends with an announcer entering the scene and recommending the viewer to rewatch it while stoned and listening to Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.)
      • Season 36 has the movie as the focus of an episode of Turner Classic Movie channel's show, "The Essentials." The episode shows deleted scenes featuring a nerdy weather vane (played by Fred Armisen) joining Dorothy (Anne Hathaway), The Tin Man (Taran Killam), The Scarecrow (Andy Samberg), and the Cowardly Lion (Bill Hader) on their trip to Oz.
    • The Latest Buzz: "The Wonderful Wizard of Buzz Issue" with Rebecca as Dorothy, Michael as the Scarecrow, Noah as the Tin Man, Wilder as the Cowardly Lion, and Amanda as the Wicked Witch.
    • The Donny & Marie variety show had a famous sketch, viewable at paullynde.info, in which Patty Maloney wants to sell her house and Paul Lynde is the real estate agent. The latter half of the sketch is packed with shout-outs to The Wizard of Oz.
    • On Sliders the group once went to see The Sorcerer.
    • On The Suite Life On Deck, when Bailey is knocked unconscious in the basement of her home after an argument with Cody and Moose in Kettlecorn, Kansas after a tornado in, well, "Twister, Part 2", she has a brief Wizard of Oz-style dream, with Zack as the the Scarecrow, Cody as the Tin Man, Woody as the Cowardly Lion, etc.
    • An episode of Mc Gee And Me, "Twister and Shout", did it with the animated McGee character as a genderflipped Dorothy. There was a part about searching for 'the eye of the storm', which had a literal eye in this case.

    Literature

    Music

    • The De La Soul music video for "Oooh" (from their 2000 album, AOI: Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump) was a ghetto version of The Wizard of Oz. In the video, a woman with a chihuahua in her purse is denied access to a club (by Dave Chappelle, using the voice he uses for his crackhead characters on Half Baked and Chappelle's Show). When she tries to sneak in, the woman falls and finds herself in the land of "Oooh" dressed as Dorothy with the three members of De La Soul as the Lion, The Scarecrow, and the Tin Man heading off to Brick City to see the Great Wiz (played by Wu Tang Clan member Redman). The difference between this parody and all other Wizard of Oz parodies is that: (1) The shoes "Dorothy" has on are silver platform heels (which is a reference to the Wizard of Oz book, which had Dorothy's shoes as silver rather than ruby like in the popular film version), and (2) The whole thing turns out to be a thought in the woman's head as she's being insulted by the bouncer, averting the But You Were There and You and You trope (and referencing "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge"'s ending in which everything the protagonist did was just an extended fantasy), and the woman enters the club unnoticed.
    • Blues Traveler have a Wizard of Oz parody in the video "Runaround".
    • Appropriate for a singer with an album called "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", Elton John's video for "Original Sin has Mandy Moore as a girl who dreams she's attending a 1970's Elton show, after meeting a Glinda-like Good Witch.
    • Tom "T-Bone" Stankus's song "Existential Blues" is a stream-of-consciousness.. thing.. inspired by the movie version.

    Puppet Shows

    • Before The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, there was a Wizard of Oz medley in The Muppets Go to the Movies with Miss Piggy as Dorothy, Scooter as the Scarecrow, Gonzo as the Tin Man; and Fozzie as the Lion. (The last two reprised the roles in Muppets' Wizard of Oz, which had Kermit as the Scarecrow and human star Ashanti as Dorothy. Piggy played all the witches.) The segment starts in black and white, which leads to Rowlf interrupting Piggy's performance of "Over the Rainbow" because he thinks something's wrong. When Piggy explains that it will turn to color in a minute, he tells the viewers, "Don't adjust your sets, folks!"

    Radio

    • The Revolting People episode "Somewhere over the Rainbow" had Mary as Dorothy; Joshua as the Scarecrow; McGurk as the Tin Man and Sam as the Lion.

    Web Original

    Western Animation

    • Futurama "Anthology of Interest II": Leela as Dorothy, Fry as the Scarecrow, Bender as the Tin Man, Zoidberg as the Lion, Mom as the Wicked Witch, Amy as the Good Witch, and the Professor as the Wizard.

    Leela: There's no place like ... I wanna be a witch!

    • An episode of the ALF cartoon show.
    • The World's Greatest Superfriends episode "The Planet of Oz": A tornado transports the Hall of Justice to Oz, where Mr. Mxyzptlk, who has once again escaped from the 5th Dimension, informs the Super Friends that they must find The Wizard to get home. Along the way they encounter the Wicked Witch of the Worst Kind in a gingerbread house. The witch turns Superman into the Tin Man, Wonder Woman into the Cowardly Lion and Aquaman into the Scarecrow.
    • South Park had a Whole-Plot Reference to The Wizard of Oz without being an out-and-out parody, when the boys went to see the Prime Minister of Canada to gete Kyle's baby brother Ike back.
    • Phineas and Ferb did one in which Candace read the book and fell asleep, having an Oz-based dream in which (in order of appearance):
      • Perry is Toto;
      • The Fireside Girls are the Munchkins;
      • Suzy is the Wicked Witch of the East;
      • Isabella is the Good Witch;
      • Doofenshmirtz is the Wicked Witch—er, Warlock of the West ("It's a robe, not a dress.");
      • Baljeet is a Scarecrow who wants to be cool;
      • The (rusted) Tin Man is replaced by Jeremy dressed as a tree;
      • Buford is a cross between a Lion/Tiger/Bear and doesn't want anything in particular (though he gets a sandwich);
      • And the Wizard is Linda.
      • Phineas and Ferb have no real role, but pop up occasionally to try to show Candace how to have fun by deviating from the Yellow Sidewalk.
    • One of the Scooby Doo shorts from the early 1980s had a Dream Sequence in which Shaggy was the Scarecrow, Scrappy was the Tin Man and Scooby was the Cowardly Lion. Daphne was absent in this period, so Dorothy wasn't represented.
    • Occurs in an episode of Beetlejuice with BJ as the Scarecrow, Jacques as the Tin Man, The Monster From Down The Street as the Cowardly Lion, and Lydia as Dorothy.
    • Earthworm Jim did this as "Wizard of Ooze", casting Jim and Peter Puppy in the roles as Dorothy and Toto.
    • Bugs Bunny of all people likes to do Wizard impressions in Tiny Toons. He's got a giant talking head set up in his office in at least two episodes.
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