The problem with sweeping generalizations is that there are many legitimate exceptions to such proclamations. I have been a bartender for twenty years without ever learning even the basic rules of football. Yet I have "watched" more games than I can count. I saw much of the show last night without investing myself in it for even a minute.
Lots of people in public places find themselves in front of TV sets.
L. Frank Baum displayed a sort of native genius when he conjured up The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. But Baum was a sloppy writer who cared more about the stage and movies than the printed page. He showed neither consistency nor loyalty to his own text when producing sequels and stage and screen versions of his Oz books. Much that has been read into The Wizard of Oz would have gone flying over Baum's own head.
His first sequel involves a feminist revolution in the Emerald City. This is simply because the original stage version of Oz was such a hit, he wanted an excuse to have lots of shapely chorus girls appear in the inevitable stage version of a sequel. He also filled the sequel's dialogue with cheap wordplay that was designed to get laughs when recited by stage comics. He was neither a deep writer nor even a particularly good one. His fertile imagination and his desire to entertain child readers carried his career.
Having said that, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the great American fairy tale.
Mae West was very short and she wore enormous platform shoes under her long skirts to give her stature. The platform shoes were so tall, her bent knees would break her skirts at what appears to be the middle of her thigh. Her famous sashaying strut was designed to prevent her from bending her knees when she walked.