OZ: THE ROUTINE {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
One in this series of dramas set in Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary, nicknamed "Oz." This episode, the series's premiere, introduces the experimental wing of Oz christened "Emerald City," a high-tech, antiseptic environment with glass-walled cells and an eclectic mix of prisoners, including Tobias Beecher, a mild-mannered middle-class lawyer convicted for killing a young girl while driving drunk; Kareem Said, a charismatic Muslim terrorist with an agenda; and Dino Ortolani, a hot-headed young mafioso whose temper alienates every faction of the prison's population. This episode focuses on Beecher, whose complete lack of street-survival skills makes him the easy prey of his neo-Nazi cellmate, and Ortolani, who is punished for savagely beating a gay inmate with an assignment to the prison's AIDS ward. The beating engenders more serious reprisals from the victim's brother, also assigned to Emerald City. The action is commented on by the wheelchair-bound Augustus Hill, who delivers soliloquies on the quotidian details of prison life. Emerald City is the brainchild of the idealistic Tim McManus, under the aegis of pragmatic Warden Leo Glynn; the wing is an experiment in rehabilitation and self-determination, with an emphasis on discipline and earned rewards. McManus's ideals are tested to the limit, however, as the tensions between the sharply delineated groups -- Muslims against gangstas, "Wiseguy" Italians against Irish hoodlums, and the Aryan Brotherhood against anyone not "pure white" -- explode with despairing regularity into brutality, murder, and revenge.
(This program contains nudity, adult language, and adult situations.)
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: July 12, 1997 11:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:55:56
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:50212
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Prison administration - Drama; Prison gangs - Drama; Prisons - Drama; LGBT Collection
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV series, 1997-2003
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Barry Levinson … Executive Producer
- Tom Fontana … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Jim Finnerty … Co-Executive Producer
- Bridget Potter … Supervising Producer
- Debbie Sarjeant … Co-Producer
- Darnell Martin … Director
- Dave Darlington … Music By
- Steve Rosen … Music by
- Ernie Hudson … Cast, Leo Glynn
- Terry Kinney … Cast, Tim McManus
- Harold Perrineau … Cast, Augustus Hill
- Eamonn Walker … Cast, Kareem Said
- Kirk Acevedo … Cast, a Prisoner
- Edie Falco … Cast, a Guard
- Leon … Cast, Jefferson Kean
- Rita Moreno … Cast, Sister Peter Marie
- Tony Musante … Cast, Nino Schibetta
- J.K. Simmons … Cast , Schillinger
- Lee Tergesen … Cast, Tobias Beecher
- Sean Whitesell … Cast, Donald Groves
- Dean Winters … Cast, O'Reilly
- Lauren Velez … Cast, Dr. Gloria Nathan
- Jon Seda … Cast, Dino Ortolani
- George E.M. Kelly … Cast, Travis Ballard
- Tim McAdams … Cast, Johnny Post
- muMs the schemer (See also: muMs; See also: muMs da schemer) … Cast, the Poet
- Philip Scozzarella … Cast, Joseph Mineo
- Derrick Simmons … Cast, Billie Keane
- Desiree Marie Velez … Cast, Gintare Ortolani
- Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje … Cast, Simon Adebisi
- George Morfogen … Cast, Robert Rebadow
- O.L. Duke … Cast, Paul Markstram
- Goodfella Mike G. … Cast, Joey D'Angelo
- Steve Ryan … Cast, Officer Mike Healy
- Jose Soto … Cast, Emilio Sanchez