AS SEEN ON TV: THE OZFATHER

Charlie: 

You were much nicer in the books.
Dorothy:Those books are the ravings of a sad, old man.
My father.

Charlie: 

Wait. Your dad was L. Frank Baum, the writer?
Dorothy:A Man of Letters. 

Another glorified librarian, you ask me.

'SUPERNATURAL'

From Wikipedia:

Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919), better known as L. Frank Baum, was an American author chiefly famous for his children's books, particularly "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and its sequels. He wrote a total of 14 novels in the Oz series, plus 41 other novels, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and the nascent medium of film; the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book would become a landmark of 20th century cinema. His works anticipated such century-later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers ("The Master Key"), wireless telephones ("Tik-Tok of Oz"), women in high-risk and action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing ("Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work").

In July 1888, Baum and his wife moved to Aberdeen, Dakota Territory, where he opened a store called "Baum's Bazaar". His habit of giving out wares on credit led to the eventual bankrupting of the store, so Baum turned to editing the local newspaper The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer where he wrote the column Our Landlady. Following the death of Sitting Bull at the hands of Indian agency police, Baum urged the wholesale extermination of all America's native peoples in a column that he wrote on December 20, 1890. On January 3, 1891 he returned to the subject in an editorial response to the Wounded Knee Massacre:

"The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extirmination [sic] of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth."

A recent analysis of these editorials has challenged their literal interpretation, suggesting that the actual intent of Baum was to generate sympathy for the Indians via obnoxious argument, ostensibly promoting the contrary position.

Baum's description of Kansas in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is based on his experiences in drought-ridden South Dakota. During much of this time, Matilda Joslyn Gage was living in the Baum household. While Baum was in South Dakota, he sang in a quartet which included James Kyle, who became one of the first Populist (People's Party) Senators in the U.S.

• Conlan Carter portrayed Baum in "The Wizard of Aberdeen" (1970) episode of the syndicated television series 'Death Valley Days'.
• John Ritter portrayed Baum in the television movie "Dreamer of Oz" (1990).

Neither one of these contradicts the other.  Conlan Carter played the role first so he is the official televersion for the author.  But John Ritter's televersion is valid - however, he is the embodiment of Maud Baum's memories in her old age (triggered by her attendance at the premiere of "The Wizard Of Oz" movie in 1939.) 

The discrepancy in the life of L. Frank Baum in Toobworld occurs in a TV show episode in which he didn't even appear.....

From the Supernatural Wiki:
L. Frank Baum was a member of the Men of Letters, as well as the writer of The Wonderful World of Oz and its subsequent sequels. At some point, after Clive Dillon became trapped in Oz, Baum found the Key to Oz and traveled there to rescue Clive. He unknowingly brought along his daughter Dorothy who became trapped in Oz. After Dorothy returned to Earth, Baum wrote the Wizard of Oz books as clues to Dorothy about how to fight the Wicked Witch of the West.

While in 'Supernatural' the character of Dorothy was written as his daughter, in real life Baum had four sons and no daughters.

"Don't you get it? 

The books aren't silly. They're guidebooks filled with clues he left for you. 

Haggerty poured through each one, and his research led him to uncover the poppies.  So maybe there's something else from the books we can use.

Preferably something with a pointy end....."

We got some splainin to do!

And to do so, we have to turn to yet another TV show.....

From The Librarians Wiki:

Fictionals are a race of magical beings summoned from stories encountered in the second season of the Librarians.

According to Jenkins there are two main types of Fictionals; those that can be summoned by powerful magic and those that come into being of their own accord. The second type are iconic characters whose stories are both well written and well known.

Though rare in the modern day Jenkins's believed there was most likely a small group of Fictionals living in the modern world; their magical existence sustained by the fame and acclaim of their stories. Also, and thankfully most of them don't cause to much trouble; the Library has also struggled to keep track of them. Flynn commented he had always heard about them but had never actually met one

Generally Fictionals do not adapt well to the world outside their stories; Jenkins explained that their minds are only as complex has what their creator wrote meaning they may not be able to understand little if anything outside their stories. Fictionals from older or well written stories tend to have a better time adapting.

Fictionals are bound by their stories, but also empowered by them.

Though sentient beings Fictionals are bound to the narrative of their stories meaning they can be trapped and defeated in the ways their stories dictate. For example Moriarty did not die when Eve stabbed him, because that was not the way his story said he would die. Despite this Prospero found a way to partially break with the narrative of his story such has when he managed to retrieve his spell book through magic. Fictionals can become extremely powerful if real life events matches their narrative. For example Prospero used the white king, pearl earrings, a storm,etc to break the magical seal on the box containing his spell book. Outside of defeating them in the way their story dictates a Ficitonal can be destroyed if the specific book they appeared from is destroyed.

It appears that certain fictionals have their own opinions of their creators with Prospero loathing Shakespeare for the ending of his story and "abandoning" him when the Bard passed away.

The televersion of L. Frank Baum so believed in his character of Dorothy that it brought her to life in Toobworld.  And as such, she perceived the author as her "father".  That means that Dorothy herself was something from the books which could be used to fight their enemies. 

BCnU!

O'BSERVATION: This post is the 10,800th entry for Inner Toob!