For those with a little extra time, here’s an interesting pair of podcasts, both from Studio360.
American Icons: The Wizard of Oz
Like many American’s, my family has a history with the Wizard, though we tend to call it “Wizard a’Boz!!!” these days due to it being one of those films that Brigid watch about a billion times from the time she was 3 through 6. The question: “What do you want to watch, Brigid?” The answer: “Wizard a’Boz!” Needless to say, I think of Brigid every time I come upon anything related to the Wizard of Oz, so I suppose I’m predisposed.
I really enjoyed listening to this one, though, because it taught me a bit about Frank Baum, and about some of the legend around the stories. But what I thought was particularly interesting was the angle of the Wizard as seen from other areas of the globe.
Rocky and Bullwinkle & and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Since I was a very young child in the sixties, I can certainly vouch for the impact of Bullwinkle as a family cartoon. I was, however, blissfully unaware of the connection of Bullwinkle to the Cuban missile crisis and equally unaware of the effort of the creators to actually have Moosylvania be added as the 52nd state. The podcast suggests that it was the Simpsons of its time, which may be fair. But Bullwinkle was better. [grin]