Paul and Corey Cross the Streams is a bi-monthly podcast in which hosts Paul Pakler and Corey Pepper watch and review streaming content. It’s the Great American Podcast where two friends learn about life as they float down the river of streaming services.

Let’s put on a show! It’s season 8 for Paul and Corey Cross the Streams, and this season we’re watching musicals. It’s a singular art form with a dynamic history, and we get to listen to a lot of cast recordings…

This week, Paul chose perhaps the most influential American film – The Wizard of Oz (1939). A film so omnipresent in everyone’s life that Corey couldn’t even watch it. A film so ingrained in our consciousnesses that Paul and Corey don’t even recount the plot of the film during the course of the episode!

What they do discuss is…everything else. From L. Frank Baum’s troubling op-eds to David Lynch to Friends of Dorothy to the conditions on the set to Judy Garland’s life and career to how being on television every year almost made the film into a religious event. The episode could have gone at least an hour longer.

An absolutely and transcendentally beautiful film that deserves all the praise it gets.

This Episode’s Focus: The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Host’s Choice: Paul Pakler
Stream on: Streaming on HBO Max; Rent on all the usual suspects
Corey’s Recipe Recommendations for This Episode: Baked Apple Recipes and Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf Cake

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Special thanks to Tobin for our incredible theme song and Dave Droxler for our podcast’s logo and artwork.