Oz (1997–2003)

A series chronicling the daily activities of an unusual prison facility and its criminal inhabitants.

Creator:

Tom Fontana

Stars:

Ernie Hudson, J.K. Simmons, Lee Tergesen

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 11 wins & 29 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Ernie Hudson	...	Warden Leo Glynn (56 episodes, 1997-2003)
J.K. Simmons	...	Vern Schillinger (56 episodes, 1997-2003)
Lee Tergesen	...	Tobias Beecher (56 episodes, 1997-2003)
Dean Winters	...	Ryan O'Reily (56 episodes, 1997-2003)
George Morfogen	...	Bob Rebadow (56 episodes, 1997-2003)
Terry Kinney	...	Tim McManus (55 episodes, 1997-2003)
Rita Moreno	...	Sister Peter Marie Reimondo (55 episodes, 1997-2003)
Harold Perrineau	...	Augustus Hill (55 episodes, 1997-2003)
Eamonn Walker	...	Kareem Said (51 episodes, 1997-2003)
Craig muMs Grant	...	Poet (49 episodes, 1997-2003)
Lauren Vélez	...	Dr. Gloria Nathan (48 episodes, 1997-2003)
Granville Adams	...	Zahir Arif (48 episodes, 1997-2003)
Tom Mardirosian	...	Agamemnon Busmalis (47 episodes, 1998-2003)
Kirk Acevedo	...	Miguel Alvarez (46 episodes, 1997-2003)
BD Wong	...	Father Ray Mukada (46 episodes, 1997-2003)
Chuck Zito	...	Chucky Pancamo (46 episodes, 1998-2003)
Philip Scozzarella	...	Officer Joseph Mineo (46 episodes, 1997-2003)
Scott William Winters	...	Cyril O'Reily (45 episodes, 1998-2003)
Otto Sanchez	...	Chico Guerra (40 episodes, 1998-2003)
Robert Clohessy	...	Officer Sean Murphy (38 episodes, 1999-2003)
Christopher Meloni	...	Chris Keller (37 episodes, 1998-2003)
R.E. Rodgers	...	James Robson (36 episodes, 1998-2003)
Kristin Rohde	...	Officer Claire Howell (35 episodes, 1999-2003)
Carl DiMaggio	...	Officer Len Lopresti (33 episodes, 1999-2003)
Evan Seinfeld	...	Jaz Hoyt (33 episodes, 1998-2003)
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	...	Simon Adebisi (32 episodes, 1997-2000)
Timothy L. Brown	...	Officer Jason Armstrong (32 episodes, 1997-2003)
Zeljko Ivanek	...	Governor James Devlin (27 episodes, 1997-2003)
David Zayas	...	Enrique Morales (26 episodes, 2000-2003)
Sean Dugan	...	Timmy Kirk (26 episodes, 1998-2003)
Anthony Chisholm	...	Burr Redding (23 episodes, 2001-2003)
J.D. Williams	...	Kenny Wangler (23 episodes, 1997-2000)

Storyline

Oz chronicles life inside an experimental cell block in the Oswald Maximum Security Correctional Facility: Level Four called Emerald City. Under unit manager Tim McManus and Warden Leo Glynn, the inmates in Em City all struggle to fulfill their own needs. Some fight for power; either power over the drug trade or power over the other inmate factions. Others want money, either through slinging 'tits' (drugs), gambling or other scams. Others, Corrections officers and inmates alike, simply want to survive long enough to make parole or even to see tomorrow. The show gives a no-holds-barred account of prison life with all the plots, subplots and conflicts given context and explaination by the show's wheelchair-bound narrator, Augustus Hill.

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Plot Keywords:

prison | aryan | prison life | gambling | parole | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 July 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Kylmä rinki

Filming Locations:

Bayonne, New Jersey, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Levinson / Fontana Company, The, Rysher Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min 100 min (series finale) 60 min (53 episodes) 63 min (season 4 finale) 68 min (season 2 finale)

Sound Mix:

Stereo (1997-1998) Dolby (1999-)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jefferson Keane is executed halfway through the first season because the actor portraying him, Leon, refused to commit to a series. When Leon asked Tom Fontana why he was being killed off, Fontana told him it was because he said he wouldn't commit to more than four episodes. Leon replied that he thought he'd been talked out of that and actually wanted to stay.

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Goofs

Miguel Alvarez - The large black-and-white rose tattoo on the back of the character's hand, throughout the course of the series, alternates between being on his right hand and on his left.

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Quotes

Augustus Hill: You swat at a fly, step on an ant, squash a cockroach, you don't think much of it. In fact, killing a bug gives you a sense of accomplishment. Fucking ant was ruining your picnic, cockroach was crawling through your kitchen cabinets. You put an end to their disgusting, miserable little lives and make a better world for everyone. Only, for every one you kill, more appear. Bigger, uglier, meaner than before.

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Connections

Spoofed in The Breaks (1999)

User Reviews

Do NOT pass go, do not travel down this "Yellow Brick Road"...

...if what you want is the usual depiction that passes for prison life in a dramatic format. No SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION here, folks, no benevolent GREEN MILE guards or saintly supernatural inmates. OZ tells it like it is, and baby, it ain't pretty.

Using at times a sense of hyper-realism, (in the narrations of the excellent Harold Perrineau, who serves as the show's conscience and Greek chorus), OZ shows us both the profane and profound aspects of prison life that we good, law-abiding citizens don't like to think about. We have the "authorities" to take care of that, don't we?

Exceptional art, no matter what the medium, has the ability to move us, make us think, make us feel both things we embrace and things we reject. The power this show has to polarize viewers into two different camps--love it or hate it--is proof enough that Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson, the forces behind HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS, have fashioned something we haven't seen the likes of in a very long time.

I would strongly suggest that anyone who has not yet seen it give it a try, if you have HBO. Then I dare you to tear yourself away from it. It's rare television that makes you sit up, take notice, and actually care about even the minor characters in an ensemble such as this, no matter how heinous their crimes, or how street-and-battle-hardened their exteriors.

Augustus Hill, Simon Adebisi, Tobias Beecher, Vern Schillinger, Chris Keller, Jefferson Keane, Ryan O'Reilly, Kareem Said, Nino Schibetta, Bob Rebadow, Tim McManus, Warden Leo Glynn, Sister Peter-Marie, Father Ray, Officer Diane Wittlesey and all the others will imprint themselves on your memory and stay there, until you can't wait to find out what happens next.

A blend of black humor and outright horror, cutting commentary and the basest brutality, it is one of the very few shows being done now that can reveal the most majestic qualities of the human spirit. The ongoing struggle to resist surrendering to impulses and urges that cause the evil that men do, in the one place you would least expect to find any light--in a sea of human misery and darkness.