Hatrack River Forum: Lost in Oz: The *ahem* "lost" pilot...

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :

Back in 1999 Tim Burton announced that he was going to do a TV series called Lost in Oz that would feature a band of various modern-day people being transported to L. Frank Baum's famous fantasy land...and chronicle their struggles to find a way home. He mentioned the show would feature the post-Wizard Oz characters heavily.

Then...he either dropped the project, or left it, or I don't know what...yet still, the idea was kicked around.

Eventually, in 2002 a pilot was filmed...but this time the series was a thinly-veiled Buffy rip-off, and the classic Oz characters had mostly been dropped, replaced...or mutated.

Since the pilot was never sold (and really, never finished) I was sort of hoping it'd turn up online one day.

Should have looked on YouTube.

It's there, posted in eight parts:

Part One...

Meet Buffy-lite in part one and Gratuitous Guy in part two. Future installments feature new Witches of the West and South...and butchered revamps of Scraps the Patchwork Girl, Ozma, and the Hungry Tiger.

*sigh*

I can't help imagining what might have been...

[ March 06, 2007, 05:32 PM: Message edited by: Puffy Treat ]

Posted by Steev (Member # 6805) on :

The show just doesn't work for me. The charactures say and do things that just don't make any sense.

Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :

Yeah that looked pretty horrible. I gave up after "you're from America??" It's like -- why would she assume she wasn't in America? Cause she saw a couple of guys on horses? They're horses, for pity sakes. It's not like those dudes were riding around on hydras.

Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :

The parts that were weird and twisted-- like the witch screaming at the moon-- were wonderful.

The idea that Good and Evil must be "balanced" is sooooo stupid and overused.

It needs heart more than it needs brains...

Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :

To clarify, I'm wistful about what the original series idea may have been like, not about the pilot as it was filmed. [Big Grin]

And I agree, Scott. Whoever thought up the new Witch of the South's "Unified Oz Theory" obviously understood nothing about Oz, especially since there were more than one "good" or "wicked" witch in each land. In the books, anyway.

And yeah...the new Witch of the West was actually pretty fun. [Smile]

Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :

I haven't watched this yet (probably will tonight) but I thought others might be interested in the upcoming (December) Sci-Fi channel mini series Tin Man with Alan Cumming, Zooey Deschanel, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :

We've discussed it, solo. [Wink]

Posted by mistaben (Member # 8721) on :

Hmm...

'LOST in Oz'
modern-day people trying to get home
Henry Gale?

Could it be that JJ Abrams somehow got wind of this?

Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Puffy Treat:
We've discussed it, solo.

Oh, I'm sure you have. I don't get the chance to read much here lately. [Wink]

Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mistaben:
Hmm...

'LOST in Oz'
modern-day people trying to get home
Henry Gale?

Could it be that JJ Abrams somehow got wind of this?

More likely it's just that Oz has become one of -the- fairy tale archetypes over the years, thus echoes of it can be discerned all over the place.