title: The Wire

text: After the first two episodes of season two, Jim Shelley in "The Guardian" called "The Wire" the best show on TV, praising the second season for its ability to detach from its former foundations in the first season. Jon Garelick with the "Boston Phoenix" was of the opinion that the subculture of the docks (second season) was not as absorbing as that of the housing projects (first season), but he went on to praise the writers for creating a realistic world and populating it with an array of interesting characters.


title: The Wire

text: The critical response to the third season remained positive. "Entertainment Weekly" named "The Wire" the best show of 2004, describing it as "the smartest, deepest and most resonant drama on TV." They credited the complexity of the show for its poor ratings. The "Baltimore City Paper" was so concerned that the show might be cancelled that it published a list of ten reasons to keep it on the air, including strong characterization, Omar Little, and an unabashedly honest representation of real world problems. It also worried that the loss of the show would have a negative impact on Baltimore's economy.


title: The Wire

text: At the close of the third season, "The Wire" was still struggling to maintain its ratings and the show faced possible cancellation. Creator David Simon blamed the show's low ratings in part on its competition against "Desperate Housewives" and worried that expectations for HBO dramas had changed following the success of "The Sopranos".


title: The Wire

text: As the fourth season was about to begin, almost two years after the previous season's end, Tim Goodman of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote that "The Wire" "has tackled the drug war in this country as it simultaneously explores race, poverty and 'the death of the American working class,' the failure of political systems to help the people they serve, and the tyranny of lost hope. Few series in the history of television have explored the plight of inner-city African Americans and none—not one—has done it as well." Brian Lowry of "Variety" wrote at the time, "When television history is written, little else will rival 'The Wire.'" "The New York Times" called the fourth season of "The Wire" "its best season yet."


title: The Wire

text: Doug Elfman of the "Chicago Sun-Times" was more reserved in his praise, calling it the "most ambitious" show on television, but faulting it for its complexity and the slow development of the plotline. The "Los Angeles Times" took the rare step of devoting an editorial to the show, stating that "even in what is generally acknowledged to be something of a golden era for thoughtful and entertaining dramas—both on cable channels and on network TV—"The Wire" stands out." "Time" magazine especially praised the fourth season, stating that "no other TV show has ever loved a city so well, damned it so passionately, or sung it so searingly."


title: The Wire

text: On Metacritic, seasons three and four received a weighted average score of 98, the tenth and eleventh highest scores respectively for any television season in the site's history. Andrew Johnston of "Time Out New York" named "The Wire" the best TV series of 2006, and wrote, "The first three seasons of David Simon's epic meditations on urban America established "The Wire" as one of the best series of the decade, and with season four--centered on the heart-breaking tale of four eighth-graders whose prospects are limited by public-school bureaucracy--it officially became one for the ages."


title: The Wire

text: Several reviewers called it the best show on television, including "Time", "Entertainment Weekly", the "Chicago Tribune", "Slate", the "San Francisco Chronicle", the "Philadelphia Daily News" and the British newspaper "The Guardian", which ran a week-by-week blog following every episode, also collected in a book, "The Wire Re-up". Charlie Brooker, a columnist for "The Guardian", has been particularly enthusiastic in his praise of the show, both in his "Screen Burn" column and in his BBC Four television series "Screenwipe", calling it possibly the greatest show of the last 20 years.


title: The Wire

text: In 2007, "Time" listed it among the one hundred best television series of all-time. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked "The Wire" as the ninth best written TV series. In 2013, "TV Guide" ranked "The Wire" as the fifth greatest drama and the sixth greatest show of all time. In 2013, "Entertainment Weekly" listed the show at #6 in their list of the "26 Best Cult TV Shows Ever," describing it as "one of the most highly praised series in HBO history" and praising Michael K. Williams's acting as Omar Little. "Entertainment Weekly" also named it the number one TV show of all-time in a special issue in 2013.


title: The Wire

text: In 2016, "Rolling Stone" ranked it second on its list of the 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time and ranked it fourth in 2022. In September 2019, "The Guardian", which ranked the show #2 on its list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century, described it as "polemical, panoramic, funny, tragic or all of those things at once", saying it was "beautifully written and performed" and was both "TV as high art and TV wrenched from the soul" and "an exemplar of a certain brand of intelligent, ambitious and uncompromising television". In 2021, "Empire" ranked "The Wire" at number four on their list of The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.


title: The Wire

text: Critics have often described the show in literary terms: the "New York Times" calls it "literary television;" "TV Guide" calls it "TV as great modern literature;" the "San Francisco Chronicle" says the series "must be considered alongside the best literature and filmmaking in the modern era;" and the "Chicago Tribune" says the show delivers "rewards not unlike those won by readers who conquer Joyce, Faulkner or Henry James." 'The Wire Files', an online collection of articles published in "darkmatter Journal", critically analyzes "The Wire" racialized politics and aesthetics of representation. "Entertainment Weekly" put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "The deft writing—which used the cop-genre format to give shape to creator David Simon's scathing social critiques—was matched by one of the deepest benches of acting talent in TV history."


title: The Wire

text: Former President of the United States Barack Obama has said that "The Wire" is his favorite television series. The 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature Laureate, Mario Vargas Llosa, wrote a very positive critical review of the series in the Spanish newspaper "El País". The comedian turned mayor of Reykjavík, Iceland, Jón Gnarr, has gone so far as to say that he would not enter a coalition government with anyone who has not watched the series.


title: The Wire

text: Robert Kirkman, creator of "The Walking Dead", is a strong follower of "The Wire"; he has tried to cast as many actors from it into the television series of the same name as possible, so far having cast Chad Coleman, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Seth Gilliam, and Merritt Wever.


title: The Wire

text: "The Wire" was nominated for and won a wide variety of awards, including nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for "Middle Ground" (2005) and "–30–" (2008), NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Drama Series for each of its five seasons, Television Critics Association Awards (TCA), and Writers Guild of America Awards (WGA).


title: The Wire

text: Most of the awards the series won were for season 4 and season 5. These included the Directors Guild of America Award and TCA Heritage Award for season 5, and the for season 4, plus the Crime Thriller Award, Eddie Award, Edgar Award, and Irish Film & Television Academy Award. The series also won the ASCAP Award, Artios Award, and Peabody Award for season 2.


title: The Wire

text: The series won the "Broadcasting & Cable" Critics' Poll Award for Best Drama (season 4) and won "Time" critics choice for top television show for season 1 and season 3.


title: The Wire

text: Despite the above mentioned awards and unanimous critical approval, "The Wire" never won a single Primetime Emmy Award nor received any major nominations, except for two writing nominations in 2005 and 2008. Several critics recognized its lack of recognition by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. According to a report by "Variety", anonymous Emmy voters cited reasons such as the series' dense and multilayered plot, the grim subject matter, and the series' lack of connection with California, as it is set and filmed in Baltimore.


title: The Wire

text: In the years following the end of the series' run, several colleges and universities such as Johns Hopkins, Brown University, and Harvard College have offered classes on "The Wire" in disciplines ranging from law to sociology to film studies. Phillips Academy, a boarding high school in Massachusetts, offers a similar course as well. University of Texas at San Antonio offers a course where the series is taught as a work of literary fiction.


title: The Wire

text: In an article published in "The Washington Post", Anmol Chaddha and William Julius Wilson explain why Harvard chose "The Wire" as curriculum material for their course on urban inequality: "Though scholars know that deindustrialization, crime and prison, and the education system are deeply intertwined, they must often give focused attention to just one subject in relative isolation, at the expense of others. With the freedom of artistic expression, "The Wire" can be more creative. It can weave together the range of forces that shape the lives of the urban poor."


title: The Wire

text: University of York's Head of Sociology, Roger Burrows, said in "The Independent" that the show "makes a fantastic contribution to their understanding of contemporary urbanism", and is "a contrast to dry, dull, hugely expensive studies that people carry out on the same issues". The series is also studied as part of a Master seminar series at the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense. In February 2012, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek gave a lecture at Birkbeck, University of London titled "The Wire or the clash of civilisations in one country". In April 2012, Norwegian academic Erlend Lavik posted online a 36-minute video essay called "Style in "The Wire"" which analyzes the various visual techniques used by the show's directors over the course of its five seasons.


title: The Wire

text: "The Wire" has also been the subject of growing numbers of academic articles by, amongst others, Fredric Jameson (who praised the series' ability to weave utopian thinking into its realist representation of society); and Leigh Claire La Berge, who argues that although the less realistic character of season five was received negatively by critics, it gives the series a platform not only for representing reality, but for representing how realism is itself a construct of social forces like the media; both commentators see in "The Wire" an impulse for progressive political change rare in mass media productions. While most academics have used "The Wire" as a cultural object or case study, Benjamin Leclair-Paquet has instead argued that the "creative methods behind HBO's "The Wire" evoke original ways to experiment with speculative work that reveal the merit of the imaginary as a pragmatic research device." This author posits that the methods behind "The Wire" are particularly relevant for contentious urban and architectural projects.


title: The Wire

text: HBO aired the five seasons of the show in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2008. New episodes were shown once a week, occasionally skipping one or two weeks in favor of other programming. Starting with the fourth season, subscribers to the HBO On Demand service were able to see each episode of the season six days earlier. American basic cable network BET also aired the show. BET adds commercial breaks, blurs some nudity, and mutes some profanity. Much of the waterfront storyline from the second season is edited out from the BET broadcasts.


title: The Wire

text: The series was remastered in high-definition in late 2014. As the series was shot with a 16:9-safe area, the remastered series is an open matte of the original 4:3 framing. Creator David Simon approved the new version, and worked with HBO to remove film equipment and crew members, and solve actor sync problems in the widened frame. The remastered series debuted on HBO Signature, airing the entire series consecutively, and on HBO GO on December 26, 2014.


title: The Wire

text: In the United Kingdom, the show has been broadcast on FX until 2009 when the BBC bought terrestrial television rights to "The Wire" in 2008, when it was broadcast on BBC Two, although controversially it was broadcast at 11:20 pm and catchup was not available on BBC iPlayer. In a world first, British newspaper "The Guardian" made the first episode of the first season available to stream on its website for a brief period and all episodes were aired in Ireland on the public service channel TG4 approximately six months after the original air dates on HBO.


title: The Wire

text: The series became available in Canada in a remastered 16:9 HD format on streaming service CraveTV in late 2014.


title: The Wire

text: Every season was released on DVD, and were favorably received, though some critics have faulted them for a lack of special features.


title: The Wire

text: The remastered version is on iTunes, and was released as a complete series Blu-ray box set on June 2, 2015.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Melanie Jayne Lynskey ( ; born 16 May 1977) is a New Zealand actress. Known for her portrayals of complex women and her command of American dialects, she works predominantly in independent films. Lynskey is the recipient of two Critics' Choice Awards, a HCA Award, a Gracie, a New Zealand Film Award, a Hollywood Film Award and a Sundance Special Jury Award, as well as Gotham, Satellite, Saturn, Golden Nymph, Independent Spirit, Screen Actors Guild, and Primetime Emmy Award nominations.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey made her screen debut in "Heavenly Creatures" (1994), earning a New Zealand Film Award for her portrayal of teenage murderess Pauline Parker. She later appeared in various international productions, including "Ever After" (1998), "Detroit Rock City", "But I'm a Cheerleader", "The Cherry Orchard" (all 1999), "Coyote Ugly" (2000), "Snakeskin" (2001), "Shooters", "Abandon", and "Sweet Home Alabama" (all 2002). After moving to the United States, Lynskey became known as a character actor, gaining recognition for a mix of big-budget and small-scale film projects, such as "Shattered Glass" (2003), "Flags of Our Fathers" (2006), "Away We Go", "Up in the Air", "The Informant!", "Leaves of Grass" (all 2009), "Win Win" (2011), "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World", "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (both 2012), "They Came Together" (2014), and "Don't Look Up" (2021).


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2012, Lynskey received critical acclaim and a Gotham Award nomination for her starring role as a depressed divorcee in "Hello I Must Be Going", which proved to be a turning point in her career. Subsequent lead parts in "The Big Ask" (2013), "Happy Christmas", "We'll Never Have Paris", "Goodbye to All That" (all 2014), "The Intervention", "Rainbow Time", "Little Boxes" (all 2016), "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore", "And Then I Go" (both 2017), "Sadie" (2018) and "Lady of the Manor" (2021) have established her as a prominent figure in the American independent film community.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Outside of film, Lynskey achieved fame with her portrayal of Rose on the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" (2003–2015), and earned a Critics' Choice nomination for playing Michelle Pierson on the HBO series "Togetherness" (2015–2016). She provided the voices of Beatrice for Cartoon Network's "Over the Garden Wall" (2014) and Megan for Disney XD's "Future-Worm!" (2016–2018). After starring as Molly Strand on the first season of Hulu's "Castle Rock" in 2018, Lynskey appeared as Rosemary Thomson in the FX miniseries "Mrs. America" (2020) and as Betty Gore in the Hulu miniseries "Candy" (2022), receiving a nomination for the 2023 Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter. She currently plays Shauna on Showtime's "Yellowjackets" (2021–present), for which she won the 2022 Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series and was nominated for the 2022 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. Lynskey is married to actor Jason Ritter, with whom she has a daughter.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, to Kay Lynskey, a real estate agent, and Tim Lynskey, an orthopedic surgeon. She is the oldest of five children, and has three brothers and one sister. Her surname is Irish.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: During her childhood, Lynskey's family moved to England for one year before returning to New Zealand. She attended New Plymouth Girls' High School, where she was involved in the drama department and school plays. After high school, Lynskey studied at Victoria University of Wellington.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey's professional acting debut came at age 16 with a starring role in "Heavenly Creatures" (1994), a psychological drama based on the Parker–Hulme murder case. Lynskey played Pauline Parker, a teenager who carries out a brutal crime with the assistance of her best friend (played by Kate Winslet). She auditioned for the role when a casting director visited her high school; prior to this, five hundred girls had been considered for the part of Pauline, but "none were right". Fran Walsh, the film's co-writer, admired Lynskey's "quiet intensity" and said, "we knew immediately that she was right for the role". "Heavenly Creatures" was met with critical acclaim upon its release. Roger Ebert praised its director—Peter Jackson—for picking "the right two actresses", noting that "there is a way Lynskey has of looking up from beneath glowering eyebrows that lets you know her insides are churning". Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" described her work as "extraordinary", while Richard Corliss stated in his review for "Time":


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: "Heavenly Creatures" is recognized as a landmark in New Zealand cinema. It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 67th Academy Awards, while Lynskey was named Best Actress at the 1995 New Zealand Film Awards. She regards working with Jackson and Winslet as an important learning experience. During the making of the film she grew particularly close to Winslet, who later said, "Mel is like the left side of my body. [We] had the exact relationship in terms of communication and love that Pauline and Juliet had. From the minute we saw each other".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Following a three-year hiatus—during which she attended university, auditioned for a part in "The Crucible" (1996), and had a non-speaking cameo in Peter Jackson's "The Frighteners" (1996)—Lynskey secured a leading role in the independent drama "Foreign Correspondents", which was filmed in Los Angeles in 1997 and garnered attention for its use of crowdfunding, a strategy that was considered a "breakthrough" at the time. That same year, she was cast as Drew Barrymore's "charming and funny" stepsister in "Ever After", a post-feminist re-imagining of the Cinderella fairy tale. The film was a commercial and critical success upon its release in 1998.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 1999, Lynskey appeared in four features: teen comedy "Detroit Rock City"; period drama "The Cherry Orchard"; British gangster drama "Shooters"; and the cult hit "But I'm a Cheerleader", which is often referred to as one of the best LGBT films ever made. Next, she adopted a New Jersey accent for a key role as Piper Perabo's best friend in the romantic comedy "Coyote Ugly" (2000), and returned to New Zealand to star as Alice—a free-spirited drifter who embarks on a dangerous road trip—in the award-winning "Snakeskin" (2001), which screened at the Cannes Film Festival. For the latter, she received strong reviews and a nomination for Best Actress at the New Zealand Film Awards.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2002, Lynskey re-teamed with director Andy Tennant—whom she previously worked with on "Ever After"—to play a childhood acquaintance of Reese Witherspoon in the romantic comedy "Sweet Home Alabama", which had a record-breaking opening weekend in North America. In recent years, the scene in which Lynskey's character (Lurlynn) nurses her baby in a crowded bar has been noted for its cultural relevance. Next, she appeared alongside Katie Holmes in psychological thriller "Abandon", the directorial debut of Stephen Gaghan. The film received negative reviews from critics, but Lynskey's performance was considered to be one of its strong points, with Todd McCarthy of "Variety" pointing out that she "does some self-conscious scene stealing". That same year, she made her television debut in "Rose Red", a miniseries written by Stephen King. The series was a ratings hit with an average of 18.5 million viewers over three consecutive nights.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2003, Lynskey played the role of Amy Brand—a writer for "The New Republic"—in "Shattered Glass", a film based on the career of former journalist Stephen Glass (played by Hayden Christensen). Jeff Otto of "IGN" called it "a tension-filled drama with great performances", while Andrew Sarris felt it was "as well executed as any movie I've seen this year", noting that "the performances of … Ms. Sevigny, Ms. Dawson and Ms. Lynskey do more than complement Mr. Christensen's central characterization; they provide a sane backdrop for [his] pathological deceptions to steadily unravel against". Later that year, she landed the part of Rose, the devious but lovable neighbor of Charlie Harper (played by Charlie Sheen) on the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men." After initially appearing in the pilot episode as a guest character, Lynskey was invited to become a series regular, and went on to appear frequently throughout the show's first two seasons. Despite leaving the main cast in 2005 to concentrate on film work—a decision that executive producer Chuck Lorre said he had "a lot of respect for"—she continued to make guest appearances on the show up until its final episode, which aired in February 2015.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2006, Lynskey appeared as the wife of Rene Gagnon (played by Jesse Bradford) in the Clint Eastwood-directed war epic "Flags of Our Fathers". Writing for the "Honolulu Star-Advertiser", Burl Burlingame called it "the richest testament Hollywood has yet made about the paroxysm of World War II ... an astounding movie on every level", while Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" believed it was "a film of awesome power and blistering provocation". The following year, she played one of the principal characters—a woman desperate to get away from her abusive husband—on the short-lived television series "Drive", which was cancelled by FOX midway through its first season run. In her review for the "Los Angeles Times" of the series' first two episodes, Mary McNamara described Lynskey as "especially compelling".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2008, Lynskey had a supporting role in the three-part Western miniseries "Comanche Moon", which aired on CBS. The series received mixed reviews from critics, but "People" commented that Lynskey's performance was among the "best" in the cast. Later that year, she returned once again to New Zealand to star in the romantic drama "Show of Hands", for which she earned a nomination for Best Actress at the Qantas Film and Television Awards.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey received strong reviews in 2009 for her appearance in "Away We Go", a comedy-drama directed by Sam Mendes, where she played a woman who has suffered a series of miscarriages. Referring to the scene in which her character (Munch) performs a pole dance in front of her grieving husband, Wesley Morris of "The Boston Globe" stated: "Lynskey dramatizes sadness and dysfunction with quiet, moving physicality. [Her] character's whole life is there in her long face and drooping limbs. It's the best performance in the movie". Next, she co-starred as Matt Damon's wife, Ginger, in Steven Soderbergh's comedic biographical drama "The Informant!". Based on real events, the film was described as "devilish fun" by "Rolling Stone", while Geoffrey Macnab of "The Independent" noted that Lynskey provided "sterling support". During promotion of the film in September that year, Soderbergh told the "Los Angeles Times":


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: While making the film, Soderbergh discouraged Lynskey from contacting the real person on which her character was based, as he wanted her to reach her own conclusion about whether Ginger had been complicit in her husband's crimes. "I decided she had no idea what was going on", she later said. "She was trusting, she was the kind of wife who thinks her job is to stay in the house and take care of the kids ... even though some things didn't necessarily add up ... She wasn't asking too many questions". Lynskey counts her time working on "The Informant!" as one of her favorite professional experiences.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Also in 2009, Lynskey appeared as Edward Norton's pregnant fiancée in Tim Blake Nelson's black comedy "Leaves of Grass", with Seongyong Cho of "RogerEbert.com" writing that her performance was one of the key contributors to the film's "quirky charm", and as the younger sister of George Clooney's character in "Up in the Air". The latter, directed by Jason Reitman, was nominated in six categories—including Best Picture—at the 82nd Academy Awards. Reitman had never before chosen a foreigner to play the part of an American in one of his films, but Lynskey said she "tricked" him into giving her the role of Julie by avoiding conversation with him during her audition, thus concealing her real accent. Reitman said he was "thrilled" by this. In October 2009, Lynskey was presented with a Spotlight Award at the Hollywood Film Festival.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2010, Lynskey had a starring role in "Helena from the Wedding", which Jon Frosch of "The Hollywood Reporter" called a "wise, luminous low-budget comedy", adding, "The actors form a seamless ensemble, but [the film] belongs to ... Lynskey". The following year, she starred opposite Kurt Russell in the sports drama "Touchback", and received praise for her portrayal of Cindy—a recovering drug addict—in "Win Win", where she co-starred with Paul Giamatti. In his review of the latter for "The Hollywood Reporter", David Rooney commended the film's director (Tom McCarthy) for his "unerring touch with minor-key character-based comedy and emotionally honest drama", while noting that Lynskey "brings welcome soft shadings to the story's disruptive element". Meanwhile, Mary Pols stated in her review for "Time" that "[Lynskey] has become one of the most reliably intriguing supporting actresses in film ... she had [parts in] "Away We Go", "The Informant!" and "Up in the Air" ... she was wonderful in all three. In [this] she gives a very different kind of performance and is even better".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2012, Lynskey appeared alongside Steve Carell in Lorene Scafaria's comedy "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World", and had a key role as the teenage main character's sexually abusive Aunt Helen in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", a drama based on the novel of the same name. Due to the nature of her character in the latter, Lynskey said it had been a difficult decision to take the part. Also that year, she starred in the romantic comedy "Putzel", with Mark Hinson of the "Tallahassee Democrat" writing that her performance—in the role of Sally, a professional dancer and the love interest of the main character—"steals the show ... [the film] sparks to life whenever the charming Lynskey arrives on the screen"; while in his review for "Redefine", Allen Huang described her as "delightful" and "deftly believable".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey's portrayal of Amy Minsky—a divorcee who finds herself having to move back in with her parents—in "Hello I Must Be Going" (2012) was particularly well received by critics. For the first time in her career, Lynskey appeared in every scene throughout the film; she described the experience as "a lot of pressure", and said that she initially assumed the part would be given to somebody like Michelle Williams or Maggie Gyllenhaal. Speaking of his decision to cast Lynskey, director Todd Louiso said, "I knew if I cast her, the film had the potential to resonate on a thousand different levels". In his review for the "Los Angeles Times", Kenneth Turan wrote:


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: "USA Today" praised the film for being "funny, well-written, involving and emotionally honest", while noting that "Lynskey brings dimension and intelligence" and a "sympathetic blend of humor, dignity and naturalness to the role". The performance earned her a nomination for the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor. In 2015, "Screen Rant" placed Lynskey's portrayal of Amy at #6 on their list of the '20 Best Acting Performances of the Last 5 Years'.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2013, Lynskey had a starring role in "The Big Ask", an independent comedy-drama. The film received a mixed reception from critics, but Lynskey's portrayal of Hannah was praised. In April the following year, she was named an Emerging Master honoree at the RiverRun International Film Festival. Her next role was in "Happy Christmas" (2014), where she played Kelly, an aspiring novelist whose passion for writing is rekindled when her sister-in-law (played by Anna Kendrick) comes to visit. The film drew attention for being almost entirely improvised. Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" commented, "The performances in "Happy Christmas" are so natural that the actors melt into their characters", while other critics singled out Lynskey as a highlight. Later that year, she appeared as Amy Poehler's best friend in David Wain's satirical romantic comedy "They Came Together", and played the female leads in "We'll Never Have Paris" and "Goodbye to All That". In his review of the latter, Bilge Ebiri said that Lynskey's portrayal of a frustrated wife was "fantastic", while "Variety" described her as "heartbreaking ... This is what falling out of love looks like. It's not screaming matches and altercations; it's apathy and indifference". Next, she provided the voice of Beatrice, an ill-tempered bluebird, for the Cartoon Network miniseries "Over the Garden Wall". Kevin Johnson of "The A.V. Club" noted, "Lynskey steals the show with her amazing putdowns and passive-aggressiveness, smartly avoiding overdone sass or sarcasm". The series went on to receive three Creative Arts Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: From 2015 to 2016, Lynskey played Michelle Pierson on the HBO series "Togetherness", which focused on the lives of two couples living under the same roof. The show—which was created by the Duplass brothers—ran for two seasons, and was praised for its intimate storytelling and the performances of its cast. Robert Lloyd of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote, "[Lynskey] is all deep waters and live wires; soft and steely, trying on new personas for size, her Michelle becomes the series' gravitational center. You can feel her feeling". The performance earned Lynskey a nomination for the 2015 Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Despite missing out on a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2016, she was singled out as a worthy candidate in the run-up to that year's ceremony. In March 2016, it was announced that HBO had decided not to renew "Togetherness" for a third season. Lynskey later compared this to having her "heart broken by someone I'm still in love with".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: For her role in "The Intervention" (2016), Lynskey received the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Individual Performance at the Sundance Film Festival. In his review for "IndieWire", Russ Fischer pointed out Lynskey's "tremendously good comic timing", while Ethan Anderton of "/Film" noted, "Lynskey is the standout, delivering a performance that is genuine, funny and touching all at the same time". The film was the directorial debut of actress Clea DuVall, who wrote the character of Annie, an uptight alcoholic, specifically for Lynskey. She sought the help of a therapist before the film went into production to prepare herself for working with DuVall, a close friend of several years: "I didn't want anything to happen to our friendship and a big challenge was being able to stick up for myself and my perspective in regard to the script and this character". Also that year, she starred opposite Robert Webb in the BBC Two comedy pilot "Our Ex-Wife", and had leading roles in the independent features "Rainbow Time", "Little Boxes", and "The Great & The Small". Joe Leydon of "Variety" described her performance in the latter as "quietly devastating".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey's performance in the Netflix crime thriller "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore" (2017) was roundly praised by critics. The film's director (Macon Blair) wrote the character of Ruth, a downtrodden vigilante who teams up with her neighbor (played by Elijah Wood) to track down a burglar, with Lynskey in mind. The role proved to be physically challenging, as it involved stunt work and the use of prosthetics. Peter Debruge of "Variety" commended Blair for giving Lynskey "something unforgettable to do" and felt that she delivered her "best work yet", while "Time Out" described her as "seething and magnetic". In his review for "RogerEbert.com", Matt Zoller Seitz said:


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: The film was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, while Lynskey received a nomination for the Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Actress.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Following the release of "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore", Lynskey had starring roles that same year as the parent of a troubled high school student in the controversial drama "And Then I Go"; a defense lawyer in the Australian miniseries "Sunshine", for which she received a Golden Nymph Award nomination; the mother of a girl with supernatural powers in "The Changeover"; and in the horror film "XX", in which her character frantically tries to hide her husband's body after finding him dead. In her review of the latter, Stephanie Zacharek of "Time" wrote, "The picture has a wry, comic charge, and Lynskey, terrific as always, brings a grace note of pathos to the wicked proceedings".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey had a starring role in the independent drama "Sadie" in 2018, playing a woman struggling to raise her daughter while her husband is on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. "Variety" described the film as "quietly absorbing", adding that Lynskey's work was "strong" and "compelling"; while Frank Scheck of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "It's no surprise that Lynskey, who has quietly [been] establishing herself as one of indie cinema's finest actors, is once again superb in her emotionally complex turn". Next, she appeared in the principal role of Molly Strand on the first season of "Castle Rock", a psychological horror series based on characters and settings from the novels of Stephen King. The series premiered on Hulu in July 2018 and garnered positive reviews, particularly for the cast; "Paste" referred to Lynskey as "delicately complex", while Alan Sepinwall of "Rolling Stone" felt the show was "the latest example of how much humanity and grounding [Lynskey] can bring to the most surreal and macabre of stories ... a tradition that goes back to when she was a teenager in "Heavenly Creatures"". The series was later renewed for a second season; however, due to the anthological nature of the narrative, it featured a different set of actors.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Between April and May 2020, Lynskey co-starred with Cate Blanchett in the nine-part miniseries "Mrs. America", a political drama centred on the career of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. The series ran on FX on Hulu and was widely acclaimed by critics, with James Poniewozik of "The New York Times" calling it "breathtaking ... a meticulously created and observed mural that finds the germ of contemporary America in the striving of righteously mad women". Lynskey's portrayal of the real-life Rosemary Thomson, a staunch supporter of Schlafly's, was described as "delightful" and a "standout" among the cast. She later called working with Blanchett "one of the great experiences of my life".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2021, Lynskey played the principal role of Hannah—a layabout stoner who unwittingly lands a job as a tour guide in a historic mansion—in the buddy comedy "Lady of the Manor", the directorial debut of actor Justin Long and his brother, Christian. Lynskey said that she agreed to take the part because "the thought of being in sweatpants and just acting like I was high for a whole movie was so freeing". Critics were dismissive of the film's reliance on scatological humour, but Lynskey's performance was well received, with Angie Han of "The Hollywood Reporter" commenting that she "brings the same airtight commitment to hot mess Hannah that she does to all her varied roles" and finding her chemistry with co-star Judy Greer to be "warm and genuine"; while "Screen Rant" felt that she "shines as ... the rudderless, classless ... screw-up. [She] unabashedly embraces physical humor ... and really commits to the gags. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments in the film, and Lynskey is at the center of all of them". Adam McKay's satirical tackling of the climate change crisis, "Don't Look Up", was Lynskey's second film role of 2021. Her portrayal of June—the wife of Leonardo DiCaprio's Randall—was picked out as a highlight among the ensemble cast, with David Rooney of "The Hollywood Reporter" describing her as "terrific", and "IndieWire"'s David Ehrlich writing: "[She's] low-key brilliant as [DiCaprio's] clear-headed wife, her grounded performance paving the way for a surprisingly poignant [climax]". In January 2022, it was reported that "Don't Look Up" had set a record for the most viewings of any film on Netflix (the film's distributor) in a single week, making it the third most-watched item in the company's history.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: On the Showtime series "Yellowjackets", which premiered on 14 November 2021, Lynskey stars in the role of Shauna, a suburban housewife and mother who, along with three old friends (played by Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis) has been harbouring secrets about a plane crash that occurred 25 years ago. The series was praised by Judy Berman of "Time" for its "psychological realism" and ability to mix different genres together successfully, while Lacy Baugher Milas of "Paste" felt it was "one of the fall television season's most compelling new offerings, a twisty mystery that … grounds its story in a specifically female experience in a way that other [shows] like this have never bothered to try". The cast were unanimously commended for their performances, but "Rolling Stone" believed "The standout ... is Lynskey. She's always great, but Shauna feels like the ... part she's been waiting her whole career to play". In a similar review, "The Guardian" agreed that "Lynskey does by far the most emotional heavy lifting of the series". Lynskey said it was the character's "internalized rage" that attracted her to the role, as well as "a real dark streak that I … loved and was also terrified of". She told the "New York Post":


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In May 2022, Lynskey starred as Betty Gore—the victim of real-life murderess Candy Montgomery, played by Jessica Biel—in the true crime miniseries "Candy", which aired over five consecutive nights on Hulu. Despite a mixed critical reaction, with some finding the show too similar to others of its type, Biel and Lynskey's work was unanimously praised: Kristen Baldwin of "Entertainment Weekly" felt that "Lynskey ... captures the sadness and seething resentment of a woman stifled by the confines of stay-at-home motherhood", while Brian Tallerico of "RogerEbert.com" said, "She does so much with just a sigh or defeated body language". Writing for the "Chicago Sun-Times", Richard Roeper called the series "a fascinating psychological character study", adding that "Although "Candy" devotes the majority of screen time to telling events from the title character's point of view, Lynskey gives Betty a memorable and constant presence ... [she] was clearly depressed and in need of help ... and through Lynskey's performance, we find that tragic and heartbreaking". It was announced in December 2022 that Lynskey had been nominated for Critics' Choice and Satellite Awards for her portrayal of Betty.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In September 2022, Lynskey was confirmed to be guest starring in "The Last of Us", an adaptation of the 2013 video game that is due to air on HBO in 2023. She will portray Kathleen, the "ruthless leader of a revolutionary movement in Kansas City".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey describes herself as a character actress. "Even when I'm reading a script where I'm supposed to be looking at the lead role, I'll find myself gravitating toward some small weirdo in a few scenes instead".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Regarding her acting technique, Lynskey has said, "I don't have any training ... so the only thing I have to go on is my own instinct. So if a director gives me a note that doesn't feel like it's in line with my instinct, it's very hard for me to do something that ... feels like a lie. So, I'll argue it, and I can get kind of feisty because I feel it in my body, I know what is right".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Asked by a journalist in 2012 about how she felt being cast—up to that point in her career—as a supporting player rather than a lead, Lynskey said it was something she had thought about a lot, and that the "meaty" parts are mostly written for men, or actresses like Meryl Streep. "For a while, I was only being sent fat-girl parts", she said. "Seriously? Sometimes I feel like I'm making some kind of radical statement because I'm a size 6". She told a different journalist that same year, "It's been a big issue that I'm not [famous] … I'll audition for something and then the feedback has been, 'The director wants you, the creative people want you, but the studio is saying no' … but I understand. People are investing a lot of money and they want somewhat of a guarantee". Lynskey has subsequently taken on leading roles in numerous independent films and has been labelled an "indie queen".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Speaking in 2017 about taking risks in her film work, Lynskey said, "I want to tell stories about women who are interesting and complicated and not like people you've seen before ... There aren't that many opportunities [to do that] except in the independent film world. I've made films that have cost $50,000 for the entire film. If you're willing to work like that, you get chances to do really creative, interesting stuff".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey is often complimented on her ability to perform an American accent. She attributes this to staying with Joss Whedon when she first moved to Los Angeles: "When I came here, I stayed in his guest bedroom ... I watched movie after movie and learned American accents". Tim Blake Nelson recalled that when she auditioned for the part of Colleen in "Leaves of Grass", "she came in and auditioned for me and then… she opened [her] mouth and started talking in a New Zealand accent and I just couldn't believe it, because her south-eastern Oklahoma accent was so spot on, and it's a very specific accent".


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey is known for her ability to improvise, and regularly uses dreamwork in preparation for a role.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2012, Lynskey voiced an animated version of herself in an airline safety video for Air New Zealand.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In February 2013, she participated in a Live Read performance of the 1992 film "Glengarry Glen Ross". The read-through was directed by Jason Reitman, who assembled a cast of women to read the all-male script; Lynskey portrayed the role of George Aaronow (originally played by Alan Arkin).


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Between 2014–2015, Lynskey featured on several occasions as part of "The Thrilling Adventure Hour", a staged production and podcast in the style of old-time radio, which was held monthly in Los Angeles.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2015, she starred in the music video for the song "Waiting on Love" by Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers, alongside Jason Ritter.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In June 2018, Lynskey was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: In 2001, Lynskey met American actor Jimmi Simpson during the filming of "Rose Red", in which they both appeared. They became engaged in 2005 and got married on 14 April 2007, in a chapel on Lake Hayes, near Queenstown, New Zealand. Lynskey filed for divorce from Simpson on 25 September 2012, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized on 23 May 2014. In February 2017, Lynskey announced that she was engaged to Jason Ritter, whom she had been dating for four years. In December the following year, they became parents to a daughter. They got married in 2020.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey lives in Los Angeles. She is a close friend of Clea DuVall, whom she met when they appeared together in "But I'm a Cheerleader". Lynskey became a vegetarian at age 10 after learning about sheep farming, but now identifies as a pescetarian. She suffers from misophonia.


title: Melanie Lynskey

text: Lynskey has been open about her struggle with an eating disorder, which lasted for several years. Speaking in 2016, she said that she was "very unwell for a long time", and later recalled that "even when I was … I would still be shamed in wardrobe fittings for not being sample size".


title: Klaus Schwab

text: Klaus Martin Schwab (; born 30 March 1938) is a German engineer, economist and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He has acted as the WEF's chairman since founding the organisation in 1971.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: Schwab was born to Eugen Wilhelm Schwab and Erika Epprecht in Ravensburg. His parents had moved from Switzerland to Germany during the Third Reich in order for his father to assume the role of director at Escher Wyss AG. Schwab's family was monitored by the Gestapo, which in 1944 also interrogated his mother (who was from Zürich) for using a Swiss accent in public. Schwab was raised Catholic. He is a citizen of Germany although he has three Swiss grandparents and two Swiss brothers.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: Schwab has been married since 1971 to Hilde Schwab, a former assistant of his. The wedding took place in Sertig Valley at a Reformed church. The couple live in Cologny in Switzerland. The Schwabs have two adult children, Nicole (born 1975/76) and Olivier. Nicole Schwab co-founded the "Gender Equality Project."


title: Klaus Schwab

text: Schwab attended 1st and 2nd grade at the primary school in the Wädenswil district of Au ZH, in Switzerland. After World War II, the family moved back to Germany where Schwab attended the Spohn-Gymnasium in Ravensburg until his Abitur in 1957.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: In 1961, he graduated as a mechanical engineer from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, which awarded him a doctorate in engineering entitled: "Der längerfristige Exportkredit als betriebswirtschaftliches Problem des Maschinenbaues" (Longer-term export credit as a business problem in mechanical engineering). He was also awarded a doctorate in economics from the University of Fribourg, and a Master of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: Schwab was professor of business policy at the University of Geneva from 1972 to 2003, and since then has been an Honorary Professor there. Since 1979, he has published the "Global Competitiveness Report", an annual report assessing the potential for increasing productivity and economic growth of countries around the world, written by a team of economists.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: Schwab has authored or co-authored several books. Some consider him to be "an evangelist" for "stakeholder capitalism". The Fourth Industrial Revolution, the subject of a 2016 book he wrote, is another of ideas he has popularised. In January 2017 Steven Poole in "The Guardian" criticised Schwab's "Fourth Industrial Revolution" book, pointing out that "the internet of things" would probably be hackable. He also criticised Schwab for showing that future technologies may be used for good or evil, but not taking a position on the issues, instead offering only vague policy recommendations. The "Financial Times" "innovation editor" found "the clunking lifelessness of the prose" led him to "suspect this book really was written by humans—ones who inhabit a strange twilight world of stakeholders, externalities, inflection points and “developtory sandboxes”."


title: Klaus Schwab

text: The political scientist Klaus-Gerd Giesen has argued that the dominant ideology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is transhumanism.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: In 1971, Schwab founded the European Management Forum, which was renamed the WEF in 1987. In 1971, he also published "Moderne Unternehmensführung im Maschinenbau" (Modern Enterprise Management in Mechanical Engineering). In that book, he argued that the management of a modern enterprise must serve both shareholders and corporate stakeholders (die Interessenten), to achieve long-term growth and prosperity. Schwab has championed the multistakeholder concept since the WEF's inception.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: In 2003 Schwab appointed José María Figueres as CEO of the WEF, his intended successor. In October 2004, Figueres resigned over his undeclared receipt of more than US$900,000 in consultancy fees from the French telecommunications firm Alcatel while he was working at the Forum. In 2006, Transparency International highlighted this incident in their Global Corruption Report.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: While Schwab declared that excessively high management salaries were "no longer socially acceptable", his own annual salary of about one million Swiss francs (a little more than $1 million USD) has been repeatedly questioned by the media. The Swiss radio and television corporation SRF mentioned this salary level in the context of ongoing public contributions to the WEF and the fact that the Forum does not pay any federal taxes. Moreover, the former "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" journalist Jürgen Dunsch made the criticism that the WEF's financial reports were not very transparent since neither income nor expenditure were broken down. Schwab has also drawn ire for mixing the finances of the not-for-profit WEF and other for-profit business ventures. For example, the WEF awarded a multimillion dollar contract to USWeb in 1998. Yet shortly after the deal went through, Mr. Schwab took a board seat at the same company, reaping valuable stock options.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: According to the Transnational Institute (TNI), the Forum is hence planning to replace a recognised democratic model with a model where a self-selected group of "stakeholders" make decisions on behalf of the people. The think tank summarises that we are increasingly entering a world where gatherings such as Davos are "a silent global coup d'état" to capture governance.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: In a 2017 interview, Schwab said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been recognized as a Young Global Leader, and also mentioned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: "I have to say, when I mention now names, like Mrs. (Angela) Merkel and even Vladimir Putin, and so on, they all have been Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. But what we are very proud of now is the young generation like Prime Minister [Justin] Trudeau... We penetrate the cabinet. So yesterday I was at a reception for Prime Minister Trudeau and I know that half of his cabinet, or even more than half of his cabinet, are actually Young Global Leaders."


title: Klaus Schwab

text: In June 2021, Schwab sharply criticised the "profiteering", "complacency" and "lack of commitment" by the municipality of Davos in relation to the WEF annual meeting. He mentioned that the preparation of the COVID-related meeting in Singapore in 2021/2022 had created an alternative to its Swiss host and sees the chance that the annual meeting will stay in Davos at between 40 and 70 per cent.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: Among other awards, Schwab has been conferred with the French Legion of Honour (knight distinction), the Grand Cross with Star of the National Order of Germany, and the Japanese Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun. He also was awarded the Dan David Prize, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth as Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George.


title: Klaus Schwab

text: Schwab has been the recipient of multiple honorary doctorates from institutions including the London School of Economics, the National University of Singapore, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He is honour member from FC Bayern Munich.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). An adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's fantasy novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", the film was primarily directed by Victor Fleming (who left the production to take over the troubled "Gone with the Wind"), and stars Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke and Margaret Hamilton. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but others made uncredited contributions. The music was composed by Harold Arlen and adapted by Herbert Stothart, with the lyrics written by Edgar "Yip" Harburg.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Characterized by its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score, and memorable characters, "The Wizard of Oz" was moderately successful upon its original release of August 25, 1939. The film was considered a critical success and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning in two categories: Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow" and Best Original Score by Stothart. While the film was sufficiently popular at the box office, it failed to make a profit for MGM until the 1949 re-release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget, not including promotional costs, which made it MGM's most expensive production at that time.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The 1956 television broadcast premiere of the film on the CBS network reintroduced the film to the public; according to the U.S. Library of Congress, it is the most seen film in movie history. In 1989, it was selected by the Library of Congress as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is also one of the few films on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. It was among the top ten in the 2005 BFI (British Film Institute) list of "50 films to be seen by the age of 14", and is on the BFI's updated list of "50 films to be seen by the age of 15" released in May 2020.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: "The Wizard of Oz" has become the source of many quotes referenced in contemporary popular culture. The film ranks often on critics' lists of greatest films of all time, and is the most commercially successful adaptation of L. Frank Baum's work.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Teenager Dorothy Gale lives on a Kansas farm owned by her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. When Dorothy's dog Toto bites the wealthy Almira Gulch, Miss Gulch obtains a sheriff's order authorizing her to seize the dog to be euthanized. Toto escapes and returns to Dorothy, who runs away to protect him.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Professor Marvel, a charlatan fortune teller, tells her to go home because Aunt Em is heartbroken. Dorothy returns just as a tornado approaches the farm. Unable to get into the locked storm shelter, Dorothy takes cover in the farmhouse and is knocked unconscious by the violence of the storm. The tornado then lifts the house and drops it on an unknown land.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Dorothy awakens and is greeted by short people known as Munchkins, and a "good" witch named Glinda, who explains to Dorothy that she is in Munchkinland in the land of Oz. The Munchkins are celebrating because the house landed on the Wicked Witch of the East. Her sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, appears in a puff of smoke. Before she can seize her deceased sister's ruby slippers, Glinda magically transports them onto Dorothy's feet and tells her to keep them on, as they must be very powerful. Because the Wicked Witch has no power in Munchkinland, she leaves in another puff of smoke, but only after telling Dorothy, "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!" Glinda knows of only one person who might know how to help Dorothy return home: the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy is directed to follow a yellow brick road that goes to the Emerald City, the Wizard's home.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Along the way, she meets the Scarecrow, who wants a brain; the Tin Man, who wants a heart; and the Cowardly Lion, who wants courage. The foursome and Toto eventually reach the Emerald City, despite the best efforts of the Wicked Witch. Dorothy is initially denied an audience with the Wizard by his doorman. The doorman, relents on hearing that they were sent by Glinda, and the four are led into the Wizard's chambers. The Wizard appears as a giant ghostly head and tells them he will grant their wishes if they bring him the Wicked Witch's broomstick.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: During their quest, Dorothy and Toto are captured by flying monkeys and taken to the Wicked Witch, but the ruby slippers protect her. The Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion free Dorothy, but are pursued by the Witch and her guards. They are cornered by the Witch, who sets fire to the Scarecrow. When Dorothy throws a bucket of water onto the Scarecrow, she inadvertently splashes the Witch, which causes her to melt away.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The Witch's guards gratefully give Dorothy her broomstick. The four return to the Wizard, but he tells them to return tomorrow. When Toto pulls back a curtain, the Wizard is revealed to be just an ordinary man, operating machinery that projects the ghostly image of his face. The four travelers confront him, upon which he confesses that he, like Dorothy, accidentally arrived in Oz from America. He then "grants" the wishes of Dorothy's three friends by giving them tokens that symbolize that they always had the qualities they sought.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The Wizard offers to take Dorothy back to Kansas with him aboard his hot air balloon. However, after Toto jumps off and Dorothy goes after him, the balloon accidentally lifts off with just the Wizard aboard. Glinda reappears and tells Dorothy she always had the power to return to Kansas with the help of the ruby slippers, but had to find that out for herself. After sharing a tearful farewell with her friends, Dorothy heeds Glinda's instructions by tapping her heels three times and repeating the words, "There's no place like home." She is transported back to Kansas.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: She awakens in her bed with a washcloth on her injured head and is attended to by her aunt, uncle and the farm hands. Professor Marvel stops by as Dorothy describes Oz, telling the farm hands and the Professor they were there too. (The actors who portrayed Marvel and the farmhands also played the characters in Oz.) Unfazed by their disbelief, Dorothy gratefully exclaims, "There's no place like home!"


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Production on the film began when Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) showed that films adapted from popular children's stories and fairytale folklore could still be successful. In January 1938, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights to L. Frank Baum’s hugely popular novel from Samuel Goldwyn. Goldwyn had toyed with the idea of making the film as a vehicle for Eddie Cantor, who was under contract to Samuel Goldwyn Productions and whom Goldwyn wanted to cast as the Scarecrow.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The script went through several writers and revisions before the final shooting. Mervyn LeRoy's assistant, William H. Cannon, had submitted a brief four-page outline. Because recent fantasy films had not fared well, he recommended toning down or removing the magical elements of the story. In his outline, the Scarecrow was a man so stupid that the only employment open to him was literally scaring crows from cornfields. Also in his outline, the Tin Woodman was a criminal so heartless that he was sentenced to be placed in a tin suit for eternity. This torture softened him into somebody gentler and kinder. Cannon's vision was similar to Larry Semon's 1925 film adaptation of the story, in which the magical elements are absent.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Afterward, LeRoy hired screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who soon delivered a 17-page draft of the Kansas scenes. A few weeks later, Mankiewicz delivered a further 56 pages. LeRoy also hired Noel Langley and poet Ogden Nash to write separate versions of the story. None of these three knew about the others, and this was not an uncommon procedure. Nash delivered a four-page outline; Langley turned in a 43-page treatment and a full film script. Langley then turned in three more scripts, this time incorporating the songs written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf submitted a script and were brought on board to touch up the writing. They were asked to ensure that the story stayed true to Baum's book. However, producer Arthur Freed was unhappy with their work and reassigned it to Langley. During filming, Victor Fleming and John Lee Mahin revised the script further, adding and cutting some scenes. Jack Haley and Bert Lahr are also known to have written some of their dialogue for the Kansas sequence.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: They completed the final draft of the script on October 8, 1938, following numerous rewrites. All in all, it was a mish-mash of many creative minds, but Langley, Ryerson, and Woolf got the credits. Along with these already mentioned, others who contributed to the adaptation without credit include Irving Brecher, Herbert Fields, Arthur Freed, Yip Harburg, Samuel Hoffenstein, Jack Mintz, Sid Silvers, Richard Thorpe, George Cukor and King Vidor.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: So anyhow, Yip also wrote all the dialogue in that time and the setup to the songs and he also wrote the part where they give out the heart, the brains, and the nerve, because he was the final script editor. And he – there was eleven screenwriters on that – and he pulled the whole thing together, wrote his own lines and gave the thing a coherence and unity which made it a work of art. But he doesn't get credit for that. He gets lyrics by E. Y. Harburg, you see. But nevertheless, he put his influence on the thing.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The original producers thought that a 1939 audience was too sophisticated to accept Oz as a straight-ahead fantasy; therefore, it was reconceived as a lengthy, elaborate dream sequence. Because they perceived a need to attract a youthful audience by appealing to modern fads and styles, the score had featured a song called "The Jitterbug", and the script had featured a scene with a series of musical contests. A spoiled, selfish princess in Oz had outlawed all forms of music except classical music and operetta. The princess challenged Dorothy to a singing contest, in which Dorothy's swing style enchanted listeners and won the grand prize. This part was initially written for Betty Jaynes, but was later dropped.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Another scene, which was removed before final script approval and never filmed, was an epilogue scene in Kansas after Dorothy's return. Hunk (the Kansan counterpart to the Scarecrow) is leaving for an agricultural college, and extracts a promise from Dorothy to write to him. The scene implies that romance will eventually develop between the two, which also may have been intended as an explanation for Dorothy's partiality for the Scarecrow over her other two companions. This plot idea was never totally dropped, but is especially noticeable in the final script when Dorothy, just before she is to leave Oz, tells the Scarecrow, "I think I'll miss you most of all."


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Much attention was given to the use of color in the production, with the MGM production crew favoring some hues over others. It took the studio's art department almost a week to settle on the shade of yellow used for the Yellow Brick Road.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Several actresses were reportedly considered for the part of Dorothy, including Shirley Temple from 20th Century Fox, at the time, the most prominent child star; Deanna Durbin, a relative newcomer, with a recognised operatic voice; and Judy Garland, the most experienced of the three. Officially, the decision to cast Garland was attributed to contractual issues.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Ray Bolger was originally cast as the Tin Man and Buddy Ebsen was to play the Scarecrow. Bolger, however, longed to play the Scarecrow, as his childhood idol Fred Stone had done on stage in 1902; with that very performance, Stone had inspired him to become a vaudevillian in the first place. Now unhappy with his role as the Tin Man (reportedly claiming, "I'm not a tin performer; I'm fluid"), Bolger convinced producer Mervyn LeRoy to recast him in the part he so desired. Ebsen did not object; after going over the basics of the Scarecrow's distinctive gait with Bolger (as a professional dancer, Ebsen had been cast because the studio was confident he would be up to the task of replicating the famous "wobbly-walk" of Stone's Scarecrow), he recorded all of his songs, went through all the rehearsals as the Tin Man and began filming with the rest of the cast.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Bert Lahr was signed for the Cowardly Lion on July 25, 1938, and Charles Grapewin was cast as Uncle Henry on August 12.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: W. C. Fields was originally chosen for the title role of the Wizard (after Ed Wynn turned it down, considering the part "too small"), but the studio ran out of patience after protracted haggling over Fields' fee. Wallace Beery lobbied for the role, but the studio refused to spare him during the long shooting schedule. Instead, another contract player, Frank Morgan, was cast on September 22.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Veteran vaudeville performer Pat Walshe was best known for his performance as various monkeys in many theater productions and circus shows. He was cast as Nikko, the head Winged Monkey, on September 28, traveling to MGM studios on October 3.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: An extensive talent search produced over a hundred little people to play Munchkins; this meant that most of the film's Oz sequences would have to already be shot before work on the Munchkinland sequence could begin. According to Munchkin actor Jerry Maren, the little people were each paid over $125 a week (equivalent to $ today). Meinhardt Raabe, who played the coroner, revealed in the 1990 documentary "The Making of the Wizard of Oz" that the MGM costume and wardrobe department, under the direction of designer Adrian, had to design over 100 costumes for the Munchkin sequences. They photographed and cataloged each Munchkin in their costume so they could consistently apply the same costume and makeup each day of production.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Gale Sondergaard was originally cast as the Wicked Witch of the West, but withdrew from the role when the witch's persona shifted from sly and glamorous (thought to emulate the Evil Queen in Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs") to the familiar "ugly hag". She was replaced on October 10, 1938, just three days before filming started, by MGM contract player Margaret Hamilton. Sondergaard said in an interview for a bonus feature on the DVD that she had no regrets about turning down the part. Sondergaard would go on to play a glamorous feline villainess in Fox's version of Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Blue Bird" in 1940. Hamilton played a role remarkably similar to the Wicked Witch in the Judy Garland film "Babes in Arms" (1939).


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: According to Aljean Harmetz, the "gone-to-seed" coat worn by Morgan as the Wizard was selected from a rack of coats purchased from a second-hand shop. According to legend, Morgan later discovered a label in the coat indicating it had once belonged to Baum, that Baum's widow confirmed this, and that the coat was eventually presented to her. But Baum biographer Michael Patrick Hearn says the Baum family denies ever seeing the coat or knowing of the story; Hamilton considered it a rumor concocted by the studio.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Filming for "The Wizard of Oz" started on October 13, 1938, on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio lot in Culver City, California, with Richard Thorpe as director, replacing original director Norman Taurog, who filmed a few early Technicolor tests and was then reassigned. Thorpe initially shot about two weeks of footage, nine days in total, involving Dorothy's first encounter with the Scarecrow, and a number of sequences in the Wicked Witch's castle, such as Dorothy's rescue, which, though unreleased, includes the only footage of Buddy Ebsen's Tin Man.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The production faced the challenge of creating the Tin Man's costume. Several tests were done to find the right makeup and clothes for Ebsen. Ten days into the shoot, Ebsen suffered an allergic reaction to the aluminum powder makeup he wore, though he did recall taking a breath one night without suffering any immediate effects. He was hospitalized in critical condition and was subsequently forced to leave the project. In a later interview (included on the 2005 DVD release of "The Wizard of Oz"), he recalled that the studio heads appreciated the seriousness of his illness only after he was hospitalized. Filming halted while a replacement for him was sought.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: No footage of Ebsen as the Tin Man has ever been releasedonly photos taken during filming and makeup tests. His replacement, Jack Haley, assumed Ebsen had been fired. The makeup used for Haley was quietly changed to an aluminum paste, with a layer of clown white greasepaint underneath, in order to protect his skin. Although it did not have the same dire effect on Haley, he did at one point suffer an eye infection from it. To keep down on production costs, Haley only rerecorded "If I Only Had a Heart" and solo lines during "If I Only Had the Nerve" and the scrapped song "The Jitterbug"; as such, Ebsen's voice can still be heard in the remaining songs featuring the Tin Man in group vocals.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: LeRoy, after reviewing the footage and feeling Thorpe was rushing the production, adversely affecting the actors' performances, had Thorpe replaced. During reorganization on the production, George Cukor temporarily took over under LeRoy's guidance. Initially, the studio had made Garland wear a blond wig and heavy "baby-doll" makeup, and she played Dorothy in an exaggerated fashion. Cukor changed Garland's and Hamilton's makeup and costumes, and told Garland to "be herself". This meant that all the scenes Garland and Hamilton had already completed had to be reshot. Cukor also suggested the studio cast Jack Haley, on loan from Fox, as the Tin Man.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Cukor did not shoot any scenes for the film, but acted merely as a creative advisor to the troubled production. His prior commitment to direct "Gone with the Wind" required him to leave on November 3, 1938, when Victor Fleming assumed directorial responsibility. As director, Fleming chose not to shift the film from Cukor's creative realignment, as producer LeRoy had already expressed his satisfaction with the film's new course.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Production on the bulk of the Technicolor sequences was a long and exhausting process that ran for over six months, from October 1938 to March 1939. Most of the cast worked six days a week and had to arrive as early as 4 a.m. to be fitted with makeup and costumes, and often did not leave until 7 pm or later. Cumbersome makeup and costumes were made even more uncomfortable by the daylight-bright lighting the early Technicolor process required, which could heat the set to over 100 °F (38 °C). Bolger later said that the frightening nature of the costumes prevented most of the Oz principals from eating in the studio commissary; and the toxicity of Hamilton's copper-based makeup forced her to eat a liquid diet on shoot days. It took as many as twelve takes to have Toto run alongside the actors as they skipped down the Yellow Brick Road.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: All the Oz sequences were filmed in three-strip Technicolor. The opening and closing credits, and the Kansas sequences, were filmed in black and white and colored in a sepia-tone process. Sepia-tone film was also used in the scene where Aunt Em appears in the Wicked Witch's crystal ball. The film was not the first to use Technicolor, which was introduced in "The Gulf Between" (1917).


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: In Hamilton's exit from Munchkinland, a concealed elevator was installed to lower her below stage level, as fire and smoke erupted to dramatize and conceal her exit. The first take ran well, but on the second take, the burst of fire came too soon. The flames set fire to her green, copper-based face paint, causing third-degree burns to her hands and face. She spent three months recuperating before returning to work. Her green makeup had usually been removed with acetone due to its toxic copper content. Because of Hamilton's burns, makeup artist Jack Young removed the makeup with alcohol to prevent infection.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: On February 12, 1939, Fleming hastily replaced Cukor in directing "Gone with the Wind." The next day, the studio assigned Fleming's friend, King Vidor, to finish directing "The Wizard of Oz" (mainly the early sepia-toned Kansas sequences, including Garland's singing of "Over the Rainbow" and the tornado). Although the film was a hit on its release, Vidor chose not to take public credit for his contribution until Fleming died in 1949.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Since the film has been released, credible stories have come out indicating that Judy Garland endured extensive abuse during and before filming from various parties involved. The studio went to extreme lengths to change her appearance including binding her chest and giving her Benzedrine tablets to keep her weight down, along with uppers and downers that caused giggling fits. There were claims that various members of the cast pointed out her breasts and made other lewd comments. The director Victor Fleming slapped her during the Cowardly Lion's introduction scene when Garland could not stop laughing at Lahr's performance. Once the scene was done, Fleming, reportedly ashamed of himself, ordered the crew to punch him in the face. Garland, however, kissed him instead. Claims have been made in memoirs that the frequently drunk actors portraying the Munchkins propositioned and pinched her. There were also allegations that she was groped by Louis B. Mayer.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Arnold Gillespie, the film's special effects director, employed several visual-effect techniques. Developing the tornado scene was especially costly. Gillespie used muslin cloth to make the tornado flexible, after a previous attempt with rubber failed. He hung the of muslin from a steel gantry and connected the bottom to a rod. By moving the gantry and rod, he was able to create the illusion of a tornado moving across the stage. Fuller's earth was sprayed from both the top and bottom using compressed air hoses to complete the effect. Dorothy's house was recreated using a model. Stock footage of this tornado was later recycled for a climactic scene in the 1943 musical film "Cabin in the Sky", directed by Judy Garland's eventual second husband Vincente Minnelli.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow masks were made of foam latex makeup created by makeup artist Jack Dawn. Dawn was one of the first to use this technique. It took an hour each day to slowly peel Bolger's glued-on mask from his face, a process that eventually left permanent lines around his mouth and chin.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The Tin Man's costume was made of leather-covered buckram, and the oil used to grease his joints was made from chocolate syrup. The Cowardly Lion's costume was made from real lion skin and fur. For the "horse of a different color" scene, Jell-O powder was used to color the white horses. Asbestos was used to achieve some of the special effects, such as the witch's burning broomstick and the fake snow that covers Dorothy as she sleeps in the field of poppies.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: "The Wizard of Oz" is famous for its musical selections and soundtrack. Its songs were composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Yip Harburg. They won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow". The song ranks first in the AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs and the Recording Industry Association of America's "365 Songs of the Century".


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: MGM composer Herbert Stothart, a well-known Hollywood composer and songwriter, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Georgie Stoll was associate conductor, and screen credit was given to George Bassman, Murray Cutter, Ken Darby and Paul Marquardt for orchestral and vocal arrangements. (As usual, Roger Edens was also heavily involved as an unbilled musical associate to Freed.)


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The songs were recorded in the studio's scoring stage before filming. Several of the recordings were completed while Ebsen was still with the cast. Although he had to be dropped from the cast because of a dangerous reaction to his aluminum powder makeup, his singing voice remained on the soundtrack (as mentioned in the notes for the CD Deluxe Edition). He can be heard in the group vocals of "We're Off to See the Wizard".


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Bolger's original recording of "If I Only Had a Brain" was far more sedate than the version in the film. During filming, Cukor and LeRoy decided a more energetic rendition better suited Dorothy's initial meeting with the Scarecrow, and it was rerecorded. The original version was considered lost until a copy was discovered in 2009.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The song "The Jitterbug", written in a swing style, was intended for a sequence where the group journeys to the Witch's castle. Owing to time constraints, it was cut from the final theatrical version. The film footage of the song has been lost, although silent home-film footage of rehearsals has survived. The audio recording of the song was preserved, and was included in the two-CD Rhino Records deluxe edition of the soundtrack, as well as on the film's VHS and DVD editions. A reference to "The Jitterbug" remains in the film: The Witch tells her flying monkeys that they should have no trouble apprehending Dorothy and her friends because "I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them."


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Another musical number cut before release came right after the Wicked Witch of the West was melted and before Dorothy and her friends returned to the Wizard. This was a reprise of "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" (blended with "We're Off to See the Wizard" and "The Merry Old Land of Oz") with the lyrics altered to "Hail! Hail! The witch is dead!" This started with the Witch's guard saying "Hail to Dorothy! The Wicked Witch is dead!" and dissolved to a huge celebration by the citizens of the Emerald City, who sang the song as they accompanied Dorothy and her friends to the Wizard. Today, the film of this scene is also lost, and only a few stills survive, along with a few seconds of footage used on several reissue trailers. The entire audio track was preserved and is included on the two-CD Rhino Record "deluxe" soundtrack edition.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Garland was to sing a brief reprise of "Over the Rainbow" while Dorothy was trapped in the Witch's castle, but it was cut because it was considered too emotionally intense. The original soundtrack recording still exists, and was included as an extra in all home media releases from 1993 onward.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Extensive edits in the film's final cut removed vocals from the last portion of the film. However, the film was fully underscored, with instrumental snippets from the film's various leitmotifs throughout. There was also some recognizable classical and popular music, including:


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Principal photography concluded with the Kansas sequences on March 16, 1939. Reshoots and pickup shots were done through April and May and into June, under the direction of producer LeRoy. When the "Over the Rainbow" reprise was revived after subsequent test screenings in early June, Garland had to be brought back to reshoot the "Auntie Em, I'm frightened!" scene without the song. The footage of Blandick's Aunt Em, as shot by Vidor, had already been set aside for rear-projection work, and was reused.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: After Hamilton's torturous experience with the Munchkinland elevator, she refused to do the pickups for the scene where she flies on a broomstick that billows smoke, so LeRoy had stunt double Betty Danko perform instead. Danko was severely injured when the smoke mechanism malfunctioned.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: At this point, the film began a long, arduous post-production. Herbert Stothart composed the film's background score, while A. Arnold Gillespie perfected the special effects, including many of the rear-projection shots. The MGM art department created matte paintings for many scene backgrounds.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: A significant innovation planned for the film was the use of stencil printing for the transition to Technicolor. Each frame was to be hand-tinted to maintain the sepia tone. However, it was abandoned because it was too expensive and labor-intensive, and MGM used a simpler, less-expensive technique: During the May reshoots, the inside of the farmhouse was painted sepia, and when Dorothy opens the door, it is not Garland, but her stand-in, Bobbie Koshay, wearing a sepia gingham dress, who then backs out of frame. Once the camera moves through the door, Garland steps back into frame in her bright blue gingham dress (as noted in DVD extras), and the sepia-painted door briefly tints her with the same color before she emerges from the house's shadow, into the bright glare of the Technicolor lighting. This also meant that the reshoots provided the first proper shot of Munchkinland. If one looks carefully, the brief cut to Dorothy looking around outside the house bisects a single long shot, from the inside of the doorway to the pan-around that finally ends in a reverse-angle as the ruins of the house are seen behind Dorothy and she comes to a stop at the foot of the small bridge.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Test screenings of the film began on June 5, 1939. "Oz" initially ran nearly two hours long. In 1939, the average film ran for about 90 minutes. LeRoy and Fleming knew they needed to cut at least 15 minutes to get the film down to a manageable running time. Three sneak previews in San Bernardino, Pomona and San Luis Obispo, California, guided LeRoy and Fleming in the cutting. Among the many cuts were "The Jitterbug" number, the Scarecrow's elaborate dance sequence following "If I Only Had a Brain", reprises of "Over the Rainbow" and "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead", and a number of smaller dialogue sequences. This left the final, mostly serious portion of the film with no songs, only the dramatic underscoring.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: "Over the Rainbow" was almost deleted. MGM felt that it made the Kansas sequence too long, as well as being far over the heads of the target audience of children. The studio also thought that it was degrading for Garland to sing in a barnyard. LeRoy, uncredited associate producer Arthur Freed and director Fleming fought to keep it in, and they eventually won. The song went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and came to be identified so strongly with Garland herself that she made it her signature song.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: After the preview in San Luis Obispo in early July, the film was officially released in August 1939 at its current 101-minute running time.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The film premiered at the Orpheum Theatre in Green Bay, Wisconsin on August 10, 1939. The first sneak preview was held in San Bernardino, California. The film was previewed in three test markets: in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Dennis, Massachusetts on August 11, 1939, and at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, on August 12.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The Hollywood premiere was on August 15, 1939, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The New York City premiere, held at Loew's Capitol Theatre on August 17, 1939, was followed by a live performance with Garland and her frequent film co-star Mickey Rooney. They continued to perform there after each screening for a week. Garland extended her appearance for two more weeks, partnered with Rooney for a second week and with "Oz" co-stars Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr for the third and final week. The film opened nationwide on August 25, 1939.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: MGM sold CBS the rights to televise the film for $225,000 (equivalent to $ in ) per broadcast. It was first shown on television on November 3, 1956, as the last installment of the "Ford Star Jubilee". It was a ratings success, with a Nielsen rating of 33.9 and an audience share of 53%.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: It was repeated on December 13, 1959, and gained an even larger television audience, with a Nielsen rating of 36.5 and an audience share of 58%. It became an annual television tradition.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: On October 25, 1980, the film was released on videocassette (in both VHS and Betamax format) by MGM/CBS Home Video. All current home video releases are by Warner Home Video (via current rights holder Turner Entertainment).


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The film's first LaserDisc release was in 1983. In 1989, there were two releases for the 50th anniversary, one from Turner and one from The Criterion Collection, with a commentary track. LaserDiscs came out in 1991 and 1993, and the final LaserDisc was released September 11, 1996.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The film was released on the CED format once, in 1982, by MGM/UA Home Video. It has also been released multiple times outside of the North American and European markets, in Asia, in the Video CD format.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The first DVD release was on March 26, 1997, by MGM/Turner. It contained no special features or supplements. On October 19, 1999, "The Wizard of Oz" was re-released by Warner Bros. to celebrate the film's 60th anniversary, with its soundtrack presented in a new 5.1 surround sound mix. The DVD also contained a behind-the-scenes documentary, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic", produced in 1990 and hosted by Angela Lansbury, which was originally shown on television immediately following the 1990 telecast of the film. It had been featured in the 1993 "Ultimate Oz" LaserDisc release. Outtakes, the deleted "Jitterbug" musical number, clips of pre-1939 "Oz" adaptations, trailers, newsreels, and a portrait gallery were also included, as well as two radio programs of the era publicizing the film.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: In 2005, two DVD editions were released, both featuring a newly restored version of the film with an audio commentary and an isolated music and effects track. One of the two DVD releases was a "Two-Disc Special Edition", featuring production documentaries, trailers, outtakes, newsreels, radio shows and still galleries. The other set, a "Three-Disc Collector's Edition", included these features, as well as the digitally restored 80th-anniversary edition of the 1925 feature-length silent film version of "The Wizard of Oz", other silent "Oz" adaptations and a 1933 animated short version.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The film was released on Blu-ray on September 29, 2009, for its 70th anniversary, in a four-disc "Ultimate Collector's Edition", including all the bonus features from the 2005 Collector's Edition DVD, new bonus features about Victor Fleming and the surviving Munchkins, the telefilm "", and the miniseries "MGM: When the Lion Roars". For this edition, Warner Bros. commissioned a new transfer from the original negatives at 8K resolution. The restoration job was given to Prime Focus World. This restored version also features a lossless 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: On December 1, 2009, three Blu-ray discs of the Ultimate Collector's Edition were repackaged as a less expensive "Emerald Edition". An Emerald Edition four-disc DVD arrived the following week. A single-disc Blu-ray, containing the restored movie and all the extra features of the two-disc Special Edition DVD, became available on March 16, 2010.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: In 2013, the film was re-released on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and UltraViolet for the 90th anniversary of Warner Bros. and the 75th anniversary of the film.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Many special editions were released in celebration of the film's 75th anniversary in 2013, including one exclusively by Best Buy (a SteelBook of the 3D Blu-ray) and another by Target stores that came with a keepsake lunch bag.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The film was issued on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 29, 2019, featuring both a Dolby Vision and an HDR10+ grading from an 8K transfer.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Although the 1949 re-issue used sepia tone, as in the original film, beginning with the 1955 re-issue, and continuing until the film's 50th anniversary VHS release in 1989, the opening Kansas sequences were shown in black and white instead of the sepia tone as originally printed. (This includes television showings.)


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The MGM "Children's Matinees" series re-released the film twice, in both 1970 and 1971. It was for this release that the film received a G rating from the MPAA.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: For the film's 60th anniversary, Warner Bros. released a "Special Edition" on November 6, 1998, digitally restored with remastered audio.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: On September 23, 2009, the film was re-released in select theaters for a one-night-only event in honor of its 70th anniversary and as a promotion for various new disc releases later in the month. An encore of this event took place in theaters on November 17, 2009.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: An IMAX 3D theatrical re-release played at 300 theaters in North America for one week only beginning September 20, 2013, as part of the film's 75th anniversary. Warner Bros. spent $25 million on advertising. The studio hosted a premiere of the film's first IMAX 3D release on September 15, 2013, in Hollywood at the newly remodeled TCL Chinese Theatre (formerly Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the site of the film's Hollywood premiere). It was the first motion picture to play at the new theater and served as the grand opening of Hollywood's first 3D IMAX screen. It was also shown as a special presentation at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. This re-release grossed $5.6 million at the North American box office.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: In 2013, in preparation for its IMAX 3D release, the film was submitted to the MPAA for re-classification. According to MPAA rules, a film that has been altered in any way from its original version must be submitted for re-classification, and the 3-D conversion fell within that guideline. Surprisingly, the 3D version received a PG rating for "Some scary moments", although no change was made to the film's original story content. The 2D version still retains its G rating.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The film was re-released on January 11 and 14, 2015, as part of the "TCM Presents" series by Turner Classic Movies.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The film was re-released by Fathom Events on January 27, 29, 30, 2019, and February 3 and 5, 2019, as part of its 80th anniversary. It also had a one-week theatrical engagement in Dolby Cinema on October 25, 2019, to commemorate the anniversary.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: "The Wizard of Oz" received widespread acclaim upon its release. Writing for "The New York Times", Frank Nugent considered the film a "delightful piece of wonder-working which had the youngsters' eyes shining and brought a quietly amused gleam to the wiser ones of the oldsters. Not since Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" has anything quite so fantastic succeeded half so well." Nugent had issues with some of the film's special effects:


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: with the best of will and ingenuity, they cannot make a Munchkin or a Flying Monkey that will not still suggest, however vaguely, a Singer's Midget in a Jack Dawn masquerade. Nor can they, without a few betraying jolts and split-screen overlappings, bring down from the sky the great soap bubble in which Glinda rides and roll it smoothly into place.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: According to Nugent, "Judy Garland's Dorothy is a pert and fresh-faced miss with the wonder-lit eyes of a believer in fairy tales, but the Baum fantasy is at its best when the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion are on the move."


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Writing in "Variety", John C. Flinn predicted that the film was "likely to perform some record-breaking feats of box-office magic," noting, "Some of the scenic passages are so beautiful in design and composition as to stir audiences by their sheer unfoldment." He also called Garland "an appealing figure" and the musical numbers "gay and bright."


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: "Harrison's Reports" wrote, "Even though some persons are not interested in pictures of this type, it is possible that they will be eager to see this picture just for its technical treatment. The performances are good, and the incidental music is of considerable aid. Pictures of this caliber bring credit to the industry."


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Some reviews were less positive. Some moviegoers felt that the 16-year-old Garland was slightly too old to play the little girl who Baum intended his Dorothy to be. Russell Maloney of "The New Yorker" wrote that the film displayed "no trace of imagination, good taste, or ingenuity" and declared it "a stinkeroo", while Otis Ferguson of "The New Republic" wrote: "It has dwarfs, music, Technicolor, freak characters, and Judy Garland. It can't be expected to have a sense of humor, as well – and as for the light touch of fantasy, it weighs like a pound of fruitcake soaking wet." Still, the film placed seventh on "Film Daily" year-end nationwide poll of 542 critics naming the best films of 1939.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: According to MGM records, during the film's initial release, it earned $2,048,000 in the U.S. and $969,000 in other countries throughout the world, for total earnings of $3,017,000. However, its high production cost, plus the costs of marketing, distribution, and other services, resulted in a loss of $1,145,000 for the studio. It did not show what MGM considered a profit until a 1949 re-release earned an additional $1.5 million (about $ million in ). Christopher Finch, author of the Judy Garland biography "Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland", wrote: "Fantasy is always a risk at the box office. The film had been enormously successful as a book, and it had also been a major stage hit, but previous attempts to bring it to the screen had been dismal failures." He also wrote that after the film's success, Garland signed a new contract with MGM giving her a substantial increase in salary, making her one of the top ten box-office stars in the United States.


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: The film was also re-released domestically in 1955. Subsequent re-releases between 1989 and 2019 have grossed $25,173,032 worldwide, for a total worldwide gross of .


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: Roger Ebert chose it as one of his Great Films, writing that ""The Wizard of Oz" has a wonderful surface of comedy and music, special effects and excitement, but we still watch it six decades later because its underlying story penetrates straight to the deepest insecurities of childhood, stirs them and then reassures them."


title: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

text: In his 1992 critique of the film for the British Film Institute, author Salman Rushdie acknowledged its effect on him, noting ""The Wizard of Oz" was my very first literary influence". In "Step Across This Line", he wrote: "When I first saw "The Wizard of Oz", it made a writer of me." His first short story, written at the age of 10, was titled "Over the Rainbow".