Off to see the wizard

By Robert Lloyd

May 20, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

A great American acting company returns to television tonight with “The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz,” a full-blown feature presentation of ABC’s “The Wonderful World of Disney.” (As the troupe’s first major work for its new corporate parent -- they have already appeared on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” -- the title should more accurately read “Disney’s ABC’s The Wonderful World of Disney’s Disney’s Muppets’ the Muppets’ Wizard of Oz.”) It’s a clever and colorful two hours, full of incident, handsomely designed and executed, and recommended with a small caveat.

There is, of course, some precedent for fictional creatures assuming the identities of other fictional creatures while simultaneously maintaining their original fictional identities, but the Muppets -- who have also produced “The Muppet Christmas Carol” and “Muppet Treasure Island” -- do it exceedingly well, by virtue of their exceptional reality and their international fame, which completely obscure the thinner reality of the people behind and below them. (At least since the death of Jim Henson.) The actor biographies on the “Oz” website at ABC.com are of Kermit, Gonzo and Miss Piggy, not of those who make them go or speak.

It is remarkable and yet somehow not surprising how naturally they slide into their roles and how easily their roles adapt to suit them: Kermit, always the brains of the outfit, playing the Scarecrow; Gonzo, a robotic Tin Thing, pining for his chicken-love Camilla; Fozzie Bear as the Cowardly Lion, a would-be comic with stage fright; and Miss Piggy in a demanding quadruple role as the witches of the East, West, North and South. Pepe the King Prawn is a less likely Toto but does get to note this eerie coincidence: “Kansas -- ‘80s band. Toto, ‘80s band. We’re on a journey -- ‘80s band.”

Most of the rest of the stock company is present as well, with human support from Jeffrey Tambor as the unmasked Wizard, R&B; singer Ashanti as Dorothy, Queen Latifah as Auntie Em and David Alan Grier as Uncle Henry.

They’re not down on the farm anymore but running a diner in a dry, depressed patch of the modern-day Midwest, next to which Judy Garland’s Kansas is a sylvan glade, and living in that well-known tornado-magnet, a trailer park. The Kansas scenes, in homage to the black and white/color dichotomy of the 1939 MGM “Oz,” have a bleached look, and there are other references to that film, though this is, strictly speaking, an adaptation not of the movie but of L. Frank Baum’s 105-year-old book, the public-domain original.

Dorothy, whose gingham waitress apron conveniently recalls Garland’s famous frock, dreams of being a singing star and of auditioning for the Muppets -- “the most powerful puppets in Hollywood,” says Uncle Henry -- and of getting out of Kansas to somewhere busy and sophisticated, where she might even study cabala.

Oddly, Ashanti does not get to do much singing here, but she’s excellent all around -- she has something of the same young-old quality Garland had -- and lives completely within the Muppet moment. A shoving match with Witch Piggy (“Bring it,” “Let’s go,” “It’s on,” “I’m ready,” “Come with it”) demonstrates the amazing-when-you-think-about-it level of flesh-foam interaction Muppets regularly achieve.

The Muppet-Show Muppets (which are distinct from the “Sesame Street” characters, which are not owned by Disney) were never strictly “made for kids,” and there has always been a grown-up element to their humor, and that’s certainly the case here. Sensitive parents should be forewarned: This is not “The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.”

There is a reference to “Girls Gone Wild” videos, the phrase “witch-slapped,” and a cameo by Quentin Tarantino as himself, who I suppose will just seem like a scary funny man to the younger set. (It’s how he seems to me.) And I was brought up short myself by a joke whose punch line was “Those are my nipples.”

It smacked of childish cleverness and of a writer unable to let go of an idea perhaps better left unused. But that is a brief note of dissonance in an otherwise harmonious whole.

‘The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz’

Where: ABC

When: 8 to 10 tonight.

Ratings: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).

Ashanti...Dorothy

Queen Latifah...Auntie Em

Quentin Tarantino...Self

David Alan Grier...Uncle Henry

Jeffrey Tambor...Wizard

Miss Piggy...Wicked Witch of the East, Wicked Witch of the West, The Good Witch of the North, and Glinda the Good Witch of the South

Kermit the Frog...Scarecrow

The Great Gonzo...Tin Thing