The <i> Real </i> Wizard

How appropriate: While the 1939 film classic “The Wizard of Oz” celebrates its 50th year, the man who wrote the book on which it’s based is about to get his due.

John Ritter will portray L. Frank Baum, author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and its many, much-loved sequels, in “The Dreamer of Oz,” an NBC-TV movie for Easter airing. Due to shoot in mid-December, it will detail Baum’s stuggle to get his famed book in print.

Set in Aberdeen in the Dakota Territory (now South Dakota) at the turn-of-the-century, the story involves Baum’s relationship with his wife, Maud, and the townfolk who helped to inspire his book’s characters, including a little person who inspired the Munchkins. It includes fantasy sequences, in which Baum envisions segments of his book, and culminates with its publication in 1900.

Richard Matheson--who’s scripting for producers David Kirschner and Robert Myman--is known for his sci-fi and fantasy credits. But before getting this assignment, confessed the 63-year-old writer, he hadn’t read “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

“It’s something you really should read when you’re a child,” Matheson told us. “I think elements of it are lost on adults.”

The material had its surprises: “Such as the way the Tin Man came to be. Gory! I mean, he was under a witch’s spell and little by little he chopped himself away.

“Something like that’s worthy of Wes Craven!”