Since we begin our schooling in September (or August), what better way to go back to school than in the Land of Oz. Oz has tons of ways that schools is incorporated. So, let's check it out and explore Back to School in Oz! Well, hello there and Welcome to Back to School in Oz! I am your tour guide, Vinkus Ken, and we will be looking at how Ozians spend their time getting educated. First up, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz shows us what is like to go to Munchkin School, which weirdly feels a lot like a preschool. What is even greater in this episode is we get to see Aunt Em (or Emily), Uncle Henry, and Dorothy's old house (in classic sepia). Just remember, our Ozian Archives (also known as the Boomerang App) allows you see the entire episode and many other adventures that our famous Dorothy and her companions have here in the Land of Oz. But, for now, let's get our school day started. Now, we have started our school day and sung our "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" welcome song, we now are reading some Ozian books and then out of nowhere our Ozian teacher pronounces a "pop-quiz"! Oh-no, we have not studied! What do we do? Let's see how Dorothy handles her test and what she does in this situation, or episode called, "Ozian Exam". Ok, so now we know that Dorothy uses real-life experience to learn something new. But, what if we don't know how to get that real-life experience? Well, we do just as Dorothy did and use books to study and learn about the different schools in the Land of Oz and reflect on how school is discussed in the books, both in Baum's version and Maguire's version. School is first discussed in the Baum books in the fifth book (Road to Oz) in the series, when we are introduced to the college/university that the Wogglebug has built since first being introduced in the Oz stories (Marvelous Land of Oz), who was appointed as the Official Public Educator of Oz. At Professor Wogglebug's College of Art and Athletic Perfection, students take pills for the academics and spend most of their time working to perfect their athletic performance (see below, right). This is the only known school in Baum's world that I am aware of currently; and, if you want to experience the Wogglebug's College, check out the resources/activities section from a previous post of Poetry in Oz. The best part is you can test out the knowledge pills in the game, as discussed in the books, to see what they do and how they work their magical charm. You can also check out the Wogglebug's College in the TV show, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, in the episode, "Scarecrow Goes to College". It even shows one of the classrooms within this college (see below, left) In Maguire's world, there is one main University with multiple different colleges and academies. The University is called Shiz University and comprises of different colleges such as Briscoe College and Three Queens College amongst others. The academies for younger students are St. Prowd's and St. Florix. If you are interested in learning more about Shiz University, check out my post on the Wicked Years page, where I give a tour of the campus. This is the only area in Maguire's world, where you can get a formal education, so now we can enjoy free time in the school yard. But, if you would rather hang out in the library and read some more, then please enjoy my post on Poetry in Oz, where I reflect on the poetry in Maguire's books. Oh wow! School is out! But, what do we do now? Well, we need to see if there are any after-school activities like a STEM program. I wonder what Ozians can teach us about science and engineering. In the TV show, Lost in Oz, our modern-day Dorothy is an expert at all things science, so the actor behind Dorothy's voice from the show, demonstrates a thing or two about how to build your own Sand Boat to cross the Deadly Desert, which is mentioned in Baum's The Road to Oz first. I will definitely need to know that! Of course, another great after school activity is being in a theatre play and as you can suspect, there are tons of plays out there on the Wizard of Oz done by schools. But, since we are in year of obscure, we will be looking to the very first Wizard of Oz play done circa 1902. Oh wow! That is over 100 years ago! 118 years to be exact! Now, what is great is that you will find the script for the play below for you to read and practice. Then, when you are ready to perform it, ask for someone to film it and then share it with the Wizard of Oz club (or here in the comments). This was originally shared to me by The Daily Ozmapolitan, a weekly news source for Land of Oz fun in "the outside world" (our world, in case you didn't know) and it was a great story because there are so many fun new elements to explore along with so many familiar aspects as well in this old-timey theatre play. Now, as it is typical at the end of school is for teachers to give out homework, so in the spirit of homework (ugh!), here are some at-home activities from various websites to check out like fun packets of worksheets from Teachers Pay Teachers concerning the Wizard of Oz and put together by teachers. Also, please visit the IWOC page for Kids resources that bring Wizard of Oz fun; but, who are we kidding, we are all kids at heart! Furthermore, check out this site to see Wizard of Oz activities by subject. So, thank you for attending our Back to School in Oz and we hope enjoyed your visit! Without further ado, we must aboard our famous bubble machine and be on our way, so we hope to be seeing you somewhere over the Vinkus.
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As with many animated shows in the 80s and early 90s, they decided to appeal to early elementary kids with shows like Muppet Babies and Baby Looney Tunes. So, why shouldn't Oz get the same treatment? As we approach its 25th anniversary of Oz Kids TV show (September 14, 2021), we will look to this very odd and obscure take on the Land of Oz and its stories. First, if you did not that that this show existed, scroll to the bottom of this post to watch. Although, if you have seen the show, you know it follows the children of the Oz characters (from the books and movies) and takes us along on various adventures. Even Toto is called Toto 2 as it is Toto's pup. The show is definitely meant as a continuation story from the adventures in the books and movies; but, for the most part it is definitely focused on the books. Now, there is one part of the show that never made sense to me? On the Wikipedia page, it states that there were 26 episodes in the series; but, only 9 were released. So, the mystery is if there are 26 episodes that were produced originally for the ABC network, why did we only get 9 VHS stories? I plan on answering what I can; but, in the end this case may be left unsolved; but, at least we will have some more answers. So, The Oz Kids aired its first episode on September 14, 1996 (that's 24 years ago). As seen from the picture above, it only ran for 9 weeks, but apparently the Wikipedia page claims that their were 26 episodes aired between those 9 weeks. Now, the Oz Wiki page states that this was an erroneous statement given from a book, Happy Holidays--Animated!: A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film as only 9 were ever released. You can find that book on Amazon. Now, knowing that there are two conflicting sources, we will need a third to validate which side might be more accurate. But first, let's look at the length of each episode, which supposedly aired at about 23 minutes per episode. Calculating that out, we get 19 episodes from the 9 VHS stories that were released. What about the other 7 episodes, which would get us to the 26 in total? That would have been about 2 to 3 more stories left in some archive. This also does mean that are either 7 episodes are not really there and someone just typed a wrong number or we are also missing 17 episodes from the series. So, what ever became of those episodes? That we may never know as it currently belongs to Disney and was produced by 4 different production companies. Now, another aspect of the mystery that needs to be addressed concerns that the show only ran for 9 weeks in total. If the episodes that we have aired, how many episodes aired in the 9 weeks that it was on TV? According to the picture above and the Wikipedia page, an episode was released every Saturday for 9 weeks. But, the episodes were supposedly only 23 minutes long, meaning that episodes would have to be aired about 2 to 3 times a week. Now, unless it aired like a mini series a week, this is quite a mystery to me. So, I posit my theory to you, which is that they only aired an episode a week and it was either shortened with less storyline or aired as a whole movie in the form we have now since they only released 9 movies (or episodes as they are calling them). Also, they must have only done 9 episodes as a whole because that is what we have today. I am also guessing that they had intended to have 26 episodes but the show did not do as great as it was expected and therefore left the network before the series had even ended. The Oz Wiki page backs this up as it says that since that book was wrong, it must have aired in shorter segments. Either way, it’s a unique show that has some fascinating mystery behind it and as always feel free to comment your theories below to questions I have asked in this post and have fun with it! Above, I have showcased some of the episodes that I really have enjoyed in The Oz Kids series; but, let me know, which ones did you like? If you have not seen any of them, click the link below and it will take you to the entire series that has been digitized from the VHS. Also, since I needed a third resource to validate which side is more accurate, I give you some great resource links to help further your theories and maybe you are the one to unravel this mystery once and for all.
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AuthorMy name is Vinkus Ken and I have been a long time fan of many things in Oz and how their world truly does emulate much of ours. Did you know that they have a flag of their own? Or did you know that they have a law about only having 9 jurors in their courts? Also, Oz has a court system! I like to introduce facts that seem meaningless and bring meaning to them by comparing them to our world. So, come along on this journey and enjoy the ride. |