Tales of the Wizard of Oz is a 1961 animated television series, produced by Crawley Films

F. R. Crawley

Frank Radford "Budge" Crawley, OC was an Academy Award winning film producer from Canada.-Career:Crawley was known for making avant-garde films with his wife Judith Crawley...

 for Videocrafts (later known as Videocraft and ultimately Rankin/Bass

Rankin/Bass

Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. , also known as Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment, was an American production company, known for its seasonal television specials, particularly its work in stop-motion animation. The pre-1974 library is currently owned by Classic Media,while the post-1974 library is...

). This is the second animated series produced by the studio, and the first by Rankin/Bass to feature traditional animation

Traditional animation

Traditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...

.

The series features stories derived from characters created in L. Frank Baum's

L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...

 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...

. Several characters are given additional names, including Dandy Lion, Rusty Tin Man, and Socrates the Scarecrow.

Artistic renditions of the Oz characters created for this series were later featured in the hour-long television special

Television special

A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...

, Return to Oz

Return to Oz (TV program)

Return to Oz is an animated television special produced by Crawley Films for Rankin/Bass . It first aired 9 February 1964 in the United States on NBC's General Electric Color Fantasy Hour. It was directed by F.R...

. The series was also adapted to a comic book for a one-shot in Dell's

Dell Comics

Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...

 Four Color

Four Color

Four Color, also known as Four Color Comics and One Shots, was a long-running American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962...

 #1308 [March-May 1962].

, this series has yet to be released on DVD.

Cast List

• Carl Banas
  Carl Banas
  Carl Banas is a Toronto born radio personality and actor. As a TV actor he appeared in the series Wojeck as police detective Byron James, and provided voices for numerous TV series and features. He was also known as a radio personality on Toronto radio station CKFM-FM, later and more famouly known...
  
   - Dandy Lion, the Wizard, Ham
• Corinne Conley - Dorothy
• Bernard Cowan
  Bernard Cowan
  Bernard Cowan was a Canadian actor, announcer and writer. He was born in Toronto, Ontario. He was occasionally credited under his nickname, Bunny Cowan, such as on the production Willy McBean and his Magic Machine....
  
   - Various
• Stan Francis - Various
• Peggi Loder - Various
• Larry D. Mann
  Larry D. Mann
  Larry D. Mann is a Canadian actor. Prior to his acting career, he was a disk jockey on CHUM 1050 radio in Toronto in 1949. His best-known Canadian television exposure was in a Bell Canada series of commercials called "The Boss" in which he played the title role for ten years beginning in 1981...
  
   - Rusty Tin Man, the Wicked Witch, Desmond the Dragon
• Alfie Scopp - Socrates Strawman, Baker, Robby the Rubber Man

Cast (C) 1961 Rankin Bass Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Episodes

(partial listing)

• The Witch Switch
• Leapin Lion
• The Magic Hat
• Machine-Gun Morris
• Movie Maid
• The Big Cake Bake
• Desmond's Dilemma
• The Raffle
• Be a Card
• The Great Oz Auto Race
• Well Done
• The Do-It-Yourself Heart
• The Hillies and Billies
• Love Sick
• The Wisdom Teeth
• The Brain
• Bake Your Cake and Eat it Too
• A Fish Tale
• The Last Straw
• Plug-In Courage
• Boomer Rang
• The Family Tree
• The Pudgy Lion
• The Great Laruso
• Beauty and the Beach
• The Wizard's Magic Wand
• The Balloon Buzz
• Shadow Shakes
• Misfire Miss
• Gung-Ho Gang
• Heart Burn
• Stuffed
• The Fountain of Youth
• The Rubber Man
• The Happy Forest
• Dandy's Dilemma
• The Search
• The Bag of Wind
• The Music Men
• To Bee or Not to Bee
• Have Your Pie and Eat it Too
• The Sound of Munchkins
• The Count
• Places, Please
• The Green Golfer
• The Flying Carpet
• The Monkey Convention
• The Cultured Lion
• The Jail Breakers
• The Reunion
• The Sucker
• The Bubble Champ
• Too Much Heart
• The Witch's Boyfriend
• The Clock Watchers
• Double Trouble
• The O.N.
• Going to Pieces
• Mail-Order Lover
• The School Marm
• An Optical Delusion
• Watch the Bouncing Bull
• All in a Lather
• The Green Thumb
• Leap Frog
• The Big Shot
• On the Wing
• To Stretch a Point
• The Flipped Lid
• Down in the Mouth
• The Gusher
• It's a Dog's Life
• The Munchkin Robin Hood
• The Wizard's Tailfins
• The Fallen Star
• Friends of a Feather
• Monkey Air Lift
• Guaranteed for Life
• The Skills of Bravery
• The Coat of Arms
• Roar, Lion, Roar
• The Inferior Decorator
• The Salesman
• The Cat's Meow
• The Yellow Brick Road
• Rusty Rusty
• The Scarecrow
• The Invisible Man
• Free Trade
• The Bull Fighter
• The Golden Touch
• The Long Hair
• Roll the Presses
• The Big Brother
• The Cool Lion
• Gabe the Gobbler
• The Strawman Twist
• The Dinner Party
• The Fire Chief
• The Green Tomato
• The Poet
• The Three Musketeers
• Get Out the Vote
• The Magic World of Oz
• The Mail Man
• The Pony Express
• Chowy Mein
• The Super Duper Market

See also

• F. R. Crawley
  F. R. Crawley
  Frank Radford "Budge" Crawley, OC was an Academy Award winning film producer from Canada.-Career:Crawley was known for making avant-garde films with his wife Judith Crawley...
  
  
• Rankin/Bass
  Rankin/Bass
  Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. , also known as Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment, was an American production company, known for its seasonal television specials, particularly its work in stop-motion animation. The pre-1974 library is currently owned by Classic Media,while the post-1974 library is...
  
  
• The Wizard of Oz (adaptations)
  The Wizard of Oz (adaptations)
  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum, which has been adapted into several different works, the most famous being the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland...
  
   — other adaptations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
  
  

External links

• Tales of the Wizard of Oz at the Big Cartoon DataBase
  Big Cartoon DataBase
  The Big Cartoon DataBase is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows and cartoon shorts....
  
  
• Tales of the Wizard of Oz at TV.com
  TV.com
  TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...