Real ex-cons worked on Oz.įor realism’s sake, Fontana instructed his casting director to hire ex-cons as extras whenever he could. In an interview with NPR, Simmons also shared that fans would occasionally stop him in the street to let him know they endorsed Schillinger’s viewpoints. Simmons referred to Schillinger in the third person and told The New York Times in 1999 that he became “depressed” as a result of the role.
Oz series season 1 skin#
At the time, Simmons appeared to be having particular trouble inhabiting the repugnant skin of Vern Schillinger, the head of the prison’s Aryan population. Simmons, and Perrineau all going on to successful careers others, like Ernie Hudson and Rita Moreno, were already well-established. Oz is probably best remembered for its sprawling ensemble cast, with actors like Chris Meloni, J.K. (The building had been the first to mass-produce Oreo cookies for the company.) The space was obtained after Fontana couldn’t find any empty prisons in which to shoot.
To house the sprawling, 60,000-square foot prison set, HBO commandeered an abandoned National Biscuit Company (a.k.a.
Oz series season 1 cracker#
Oz was filmed in a cracker factory.Įrnie Hudson, Terry Kinney, Harold Perrineau, and Eamonn Walker in Oz. so my thought was just to let someone articulate what all this craziness meant.” 3. Fontana said he chose this approach because “in prison, guys aren’t that forthcoming about what they think and what they feel because that leaves them open and vulnerable to attack. But they were also sometimes puzzled by Fontana’s narrative habit of putting one of the prisoners, Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau), in front of the camera for fourth-wall-breaking soliloquies. Viewers who tuned in to Oz were in for a shock-the show featured the kind of graphic violence and casual nudity you’d find in an actual prison. Oz's Greek chorus monologues were a necessity. Eventually, the artist stopped, saying that he “can’t let this guy bleed anymore.” 2. The tattoo artist kept retracing his needle work so the crew could get the best take. In an impressive display of commitment to Oz-especially since he didn’t know if the show would even last beyond a season-Fontana volunteered his arm to get an “Oz” tattoo for the opening credits montage. Oz's creator is the person you see getting tattooed in the intro.Ī former playwright, Fontana got his big break in television with the 1980s NBC hospital drama St. On the series' 20th anniversary, check out some facts on the cast, the gore, and the alternate series finale idea that was never filmed. As HBO’s first attempt at an hour-long dramatic series, it laid the groundwork for the dozens of risk-taking, novel, and novelistic shows to follow. Fontana came up with the idea following his work on Homicide: Life on the Street, where murderers were sent away: He wanted to explore what happened next.īefore The Sopranos or The Wire, television’s golden age arguably began on HBO on July 12, 1997, when the premium network premiered Fontana's prison drama Oz. When HBO was looking to expand its programming to include hour-long dramas in the late 1990s, the network was intrigued by writer/producer Tom Fontana’s pitch about a maximum security prison and a specific area, dubbed Emerald City, where prisoners could have more leeway in the hopes it would allow for their rehabilitation.