MAXIMUM SECURITY: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The first in this short-lived drama series about the difficult lives of the prisoners and staff at a "supermax" detention facility. In this episode, outgoing prisoner Harry Kanschneider, who has four and a half years left on his sentence, is overjoyed to learn that psychologist Dr. Allison Brody has recommended him for the governor's early release program for non-violent offenders, and despite Brody's warnings that his freedom is only a possibility, Harry excitedly tells his friends that he will be walking the streets within days. Harry's cellmate Frank Murphy seems unimpressed by the news, telling Harry that he cannot bring himself to be happy for someone else's release while he himself languishes in jail, while elsewhere diminutive prisoner Puck makes his usual food deliveries to the cells and is startled when his friend Alfie asks him to bring him a concoction made of poisonous oleander flowers so that he can "get out" by dying.
Harry prepares for his release interview, and the other inmates advise him to avoid one particularly difficult staff member named Emma, who is known for challenging potential parolees with "trick questions" about their plans for post-jail life. Harry sits down with the panel and tries to charm them by explaining that the various charges for which he was incarcerated, including grand theft auto, cocaine possession and destruction of government property, were "all a big misunderstanding." He assures them that if let out, he will put his new skills to use and never return to prison, but the infamous Emma then accuses him of far more serious crimes, and a shocked Harry realizes that she has intentionally brought another prisoner's file and has no intention of giving him a fair hearing.
Dejected by the false hope, Harry ends up fighting with his work-assignment boss and then grabs a guard's gun, quickly taking several people hostage in one of the prison vans and declaring that he is "going home" no matter what. Frank is sent in to diffuse the situation, and while Frank agrees that shooting cruel Warden Thigpen would be a "dramatic gesture," he persuades Harry to surrender without violence. Brody later visits Harry in his cell, upset that he has received two extra years – and six months in solitary confinement – for his stunt, telling him that she had hoped him to be one of her "success stories." Puck brings Alfie a cup and tells him an entrancing story about a woman from his past as he drinks the mixture, presumably having decided to allow his friend to die in peace, as he wishes. Six months later, Harry emerges from solitary, having spent his time carefully reading an almanac given to him by Frank, and he is eagerly greeted by his friends as he returns to the yard.
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: November 30, 1999 10:15 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:37:16
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:08739
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Prisons; Prisoners
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV series, 1984
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Tony Ganz … Executive Producer
- Ron Howard … Executive Producer
- Joseph Stern … Supervising Producer
- Jim Begg … Producer
- Bill Duke … Director
- Joel Blasberg … Writer
- Randy Edelman … Music by
- Robert Desiderio … Cast, Harry Kanschneider
- Geoffrey Lewis … Cast, Frank Murphy
- Jean Smart … Cast, Dr. Allison Brody
- Stephen Elliott … Cast, Warden Thigpen
- Trinidad Silva … Cast, Puck
- Jon St. Elwood … Cast, Alfie
- Tony Plana … Cast, Benny
- Sally Kemp … Cast, Emma
- Robert Allan Browne … Cast
- Robert Carnegie … Cast
- Ji-Tu Cumbuka … Cast
- Badja Djola … Cast
- Robin Eisenman … Cast
- Art Evans … Cast
- Anthony Calder … Cast
- Sid Conrad … Cast
- George Dickerson … Cast
- Wilfredo Hernandez … Cast
- Rance Howard … Cast
- Ric Mancini … Cast
- Gene Ross … Cast
- J.W. Smith … Cast
- Tyler Tyhurst … Cast
- Jack Yates … Cast
- W.T. Zacha … Cast