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Muppets' Wizard of Oz to air Friday May 20

By Greg James
March 31, 2005

Mark your calendars. Call off work. Set your VCR's and program your TiVo because the television premiere date of the highly anticipated Muppets television-movie has been announced today.

The Muppets Holding Company has revealed that "The Muppets' Wizard of Oz" will air in the United States on Friday, May 20, 2005 at 8:00 pm EST on ABC (check local listings for full details). The film's debut will be a two-hour television event (the film itself running 88-minuets, plus commercials and ads).

The decision to sway away from the traditional Saturday night “Wonderful World of Disney” movie programming block was made in hope to get a larger family and child audience. Hopefully the Friday night debut will be able to not only pull in the ratings, but it will also entertain and delight millions of viewers. The premiere should be an uplifting and encouraging experience for Muppet fans, as the Monday prior (May 16) will mark the 15th anniversary of the death of Muppet-creator Jim Henson.

Additional information and details on international airings and home video releases should be available later this month. And sources report that Disney is working on setting up deals to have the film replayed over the summer on ABC, ABC Family, or the Disney Channel. Nothing has been official arranged or announced yet.

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