Zooey Deschanel Starred In A Star-Studded Wizard Of Oz Miniseries That Everyone Forgot About

Frank Baum's 1900 children's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" has had an incredible life well beyond its original intent. First, there was a Broadway musical adaptation in 1902, and then in 1939, it was adapted into the film "The Wizard of Oz" starring Judy Garland. Since then, there have been numerous excellent and unique reinterpretations of Baum's story, ranging from 1978's "The Wiz" (a movie musical featuring an all-Black cast) to the wildly successful "Wicked" franchise based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, which has since given rise to a major musical film version starring Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and Jeff Goldblum. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is wildly adaptable because of its rather simple plot structure and hugely recognizable elements, and since it's been in the public domain since 1956, people have had a lot of time to create their own visions of this classic fantasy adventure.

Indeed, there have been all kinds of adaptations of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" ... but one of them, "Tin Man," appears to have mostly been forgotten. The Sci Fi Channel original miniseries took the colorful tale of a young woman from Kansas being transported to a magical world run by a misunderstood tyrant and a wicked witch and turned it into a dark, somewhat depressing, steampunk-esque story that only occasionally worked. Starring Zooey Deschanel as D.G. (the show's take on Dorothy Gale), a farm girl from Kansas who is transported via "travel storm" to the Outer Zone or O.Z., "Tin Man" is one of the weirder footnotes in the history of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" adaptations (and yes, that's including "Return to Oz").

"Tin Man" was first released as a three-part miniseries on the Sci Fi Channel in 2007, and while critics weren't too hot on this steampunk reimagining, viewers were at least interested enough to keep tuning in. "Tin Man" had the highest Nielsen ratings for any miniseries that year and broke records for Sci Fi Channel, with more people tuning in to watch the show's finale than were checking out even popular non-cable mainstays. It was even nominated for nine Primetime Emmy awards, though it only ended up winning one for non-prosthetic makeup. So, was "Tin Man" terrible or simply misunderstood?

Though it boasted an impressive cast, with Deschanel joined by Alan Cumming as the Scarecrow-like Glitch, Richard Dreyfuss as an imprisoned version of the original wizard of Oz (the guy at the center of Sam Raimi's "Oz the Great and Powerful," the man behind the curtain, etc.), Raoul Trujillo as the half-human/half-lion man Raw, and Neal McDonough as Wyatt Cain, the titular Tin Man. In this world, though, he's not physically a tin man; instead, police officers are called "tin men" because of the tin their badges are made from. Glitch is similarly not actually a scarecrow but is more like Eddie from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," but with far less saxophone music (and a zipper down the center of his skull), while Raw's people are used for a subplot about enslavement and racism. Honestly, no matter how much you love Deschanel as Jess on "New Girl," "Tin Man" is a serious bummer. It has some fun performances, a few unique ideas, and it makes a whole lot out of its budget, but it's too deeply dour to ever be truly enjoyable.