quote:
Still scared kids 37 years later.

Episode 847 (commonly known as the "Wicked Witch episode") is the 52nd episode from the seventh season of the American educational children's television series Sesame Street. It was directed by Robert Myhrum and written by Joseph A. Bailey, Judy Freudberg and Emily Kingsley, it originally aired on PBS on February 10, 1976. The episode involves the Wicked Witch of the West, from the film The Wizard of Oz (1939), losing her broomstick over Sesame Street and causing havoc as she attempts to recover it. Margaret Hamilton, who portrayed the witch in the film, reprises her role in the episode. Produced as the 52nd episode of the series' seventh season, the episode was created to teach children how to overcome their fears.

Shortly after its premiere, the creators of the series and Children's Television Workshop received numerous letters from angry parents, who said that the Wicked Witch had frightened their children. Due to this, the episode was pulled from rebroadcast and was not seen by the public again until 2019, when clips of the episode were shown during a "Lost and Found" event celebrating Sesame Street's 50th anniversary and the full episode was archived in the Library of Congress. It was then only available for private viewing until June 2022, when it was leaked online by an unknown individual.

And of course Mister Rogers famously brought Margaret Hamilton on his show to help his viewers get through their fears.

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by Arksulli

Fayetteville

Member since Aug 2014

25253 posts

Posted on 5/20/24 at 12:09 pm to Fewer Kilometers

Hamilton has said that while she loves the finished product, she hated making the movie (I can't blame her, her stunt double nearly died and Hamilton suffered horrible burns) and that it essentially killed her career.

She was the Wicked Witch after that, which sort of put a damper on her previous career of being the comedic patter character who could quickly rattle off lines.

Page 1 2