When it was released during Hollywood's golden year of 1939, The Wizard of Oz wasn't regarded as anything like the perennial classic it has since become. The film did respectable business, but it wasn't until its debut on television that this family favourite saw its popularity soar. And while Oz's TV broadcasts are now controlled by media mogul Ted Turner (who owns the rights), the advent ...

Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Starring: Judy Garland, Jack Haley, Margaret Hamilton, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr
Directed By: Victor Fleming

Manufacturer: MGM Entertainment
Starring: Peter Dyneley, Sylvia Anderson, Shane Rimmer, Jeremy Wilkin, Matt Zimmerman
Directed By: David Lane

Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp
Directed By: Clarence Brown

First broadcast in 1967, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was the most grown-up of all Gerry Anderson's SuperMarionation adventures. There are gadgets and toy-friendly machines galore, of course--like the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, the Angel Aircraft and Cloudbase itself--but, unlike the colourful fantasies of Stingray and Thunderbirds, this series' concern with an implacable, ...

Manufacturer: ITV DVD
Starring: Francis Matthews, Ed Bishop, Donald Gray, Cy Grant, Jeremy Wilkin

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was nicknamed "Disney's Folly" by contemporary observers; they doubted that the short cartoons shown before the main film could ever successfully make the transition from filler to feature presentation. Surely, no one would sit still for over an hour to watch an animated film, their eyes smarting from the bright colours on screen? Fortunately, Walt Disney and ...

Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
Starring: Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell, Lucille La Verne, Roy Atwell, Stuart Buchanan
Directed By: David Hand, Wilfred Jackson

The swashbuckler genre bumped into science fiction in 1954 for one of Hollywood's great entertainments. The Jules Verne story of adventure under the sea was Walt Disney's magnificent debut into live-action films. A professor (Paul Lukas) seeks the truth about a legendary sea monster in the years just after the Civil War. When his ship is sunk, he, his aide (Peter Lorre), and a harpoon master (Kirk ...

Manufacturer: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
Starring: Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, Robert J. Wilke
Directed By: Richard Fleischer

Drums pound, building excitement; the music bursts into life with a cry of "Stingray! Stingray!" Who can resist? Especially when a dramatic voice announces, "Anything can happen in the next half hour!". Stingray (1964) was the show Gerry Anderson made just before he really hit the big time with Thunderbirds (1965), producing 39 episodes of the 21st-century adventures of Troy ...

Manufacturer: ITV DVD
Starring: Don Mason, Robert Easton, Ray Barrett, Lois Maxwell, David Graham

Manufacturer: Abbey Home Media

Manufacturer: Contender Entertainment Group

Manufacturer: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
Starring: Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, Sean Connery, Jimmy O'Dea, Kieron Moore
Directed By: Robert Stevenson