The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz is the first in a series of books by L. Frank Baum. It is well-known that the MGM-produced 1939 musical was Jim Henson's favorite film. The Muppets have made several references to it over the years.


 * The Muppet Movie follows a very similar structure to that of the 1939 film.
 * The Muppets Go To the Movies features Piggy as Dorothy, Foo-Foo as Toto, Scooter as the Scarecrow, Gonzo as the Tin-Man and Fozzie as the Cowardly Lion in a medley of songs from the MGM film.
 * The Alice Cooper episode of The Muppet Show takes a break from its freaky tone with Robin singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by a pondside.
 * In Brook Shields' episode of The Muppet Show, Fozzie gets into a Tin-Man outfit despite the fact that they're doing Alice In Wonderland. The cast eventually breaks out into "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" from the musical film.
 * The Muppet Babies animated series spoofed The Wizard of Oz in an episode titled, "By the Book."
 * A photo storybook Muppet Babies: Classic Children's Tales with puppet versions of the Muppet Babies featured the characters as those from Oz.
 * In 1996, two pages from the book Look and Find Muppets featured Oz in a "Where's Waldo?"-type setting.
 * Kermit's Swamp Years makes several references to The Wizard of Oz.
 * The Muppets adapted Baum's book for a television movie in 2005, The Muppets' Wizard of Oz.
 * Performer Frank Oz shares in his name an obvious likeness to the title of these stories. As a result countless jokes have been made on this behalf over the years.