The Wizard of Oz, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), was first released in theatres on August 15, 1939. The film was then re-released nationwide in 1949, and once more in 1955. The Wizard of Oz was broadcast on television for the first time on Saturday, November 3, 1956. The film was shown as the last installment of the CBS anthology series Ford Star Jubilee. Since that telecast, The Wizard of Oz has been shown by CBS, NBC, The WB, and several of Ted Turner's national cable channels. The film has never been licensed to any local affiliate broadcast TV station. From 1959 to 1991, the showing of The Wizard of Oz was an annual tradition on American commercial network television. During these years (and for several years afterwards), the film was always shown as a television special.
After the film's second broadcast on U.S. television, subsequent network telecasts became a highly anticipated family event for many. The Wizard of Oz has drawn large audiences annually for many decades.
Until 1999, The Wizard of Oz had only been shown in the U.S. on commercial broadcast television. After the film went to cable, TV showings of the movie became increasingly more frequent. At this point, the tradition of televising the film only once per year was ceased in the U.S.
The Wizard of Oz has become perhaps the most famous and cherished film to be shown regularly on U.S. television. Of the many family-oriented musical fantasies broadcast after 1955, The Wizard of Oz is the only one still being shown regularly. Following the 1956 premiere, there were no rebroadcasts of the film until 1959. The 1959–1962 broadcasts occurred during autumn, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Beginning with the 1963–64 season, these special presentations were seen in the first quarter of the year as well as around Easter and Passover. The film was not broadcast in the U.S. in the years 1963, 1992, 1995, or 1997.
The film was first issued on home video formats in 1980.
First telecast
The Wizard of Oz, which had been a critical but only modest financial success during its theatrical run, was chosen to be the first Hollywood film to be shown in prime time on a coast to coast television network. The first telecast took place on Saturday, November 3, 1956, as part of the final program in the soon-to-be-canceled CBS anthology series Ford Star Jubilee – a rotating potpourri of highly budgeted but low-rated specials, including a well-publicized debut hour hosted by Judy Garland. The original asking price of $250,000 was negotiated by MGM attorney, later company president, Frank Rosenfelt. The network paid MGM $225,000 for the rights to televise the film and committed to showing it again for the same price with an option to re-broadcast if the telecast was a success.
This 1956 broadcast was shown as CBS's response to the successful color telecast of the Broadway musical Peter Pan with Mary Martin, which had been re-staged especially for TV at NBC Studios as part of the anthology series Producers' Showcase. Peter Pan had first been shown live on TV by NBC in 1955, and been repeated (again live) by public demand in 1956. Its enormous success on television ushered in a temporary "fad" of mostly live family-oriented specials based on fantasy tales, such as Aladdin (1958), Alice in Wonderland (1955) (a live-action version), Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1957), The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957), and Pinocchio (1957, no relation to the Disney film). As part of this trend, CBS bought the rights from MGM to telecast The Wizard of Oz.
For the first TV broadcast of The Wizard of Oz, the normally 90-minute Ford Star Jubilee was expanded to a full two hours to accommodate the entire film, which in addition to having commercial breaks, was celebrity hosted. The main reason that CBS arranged for a host for the film was that at 101-minutes, the film was not considered long enough to run in the allotted 120-minute slot at that time, even with commercial breaks, without additional content to pad the entire telecast out to two hours.