Twelve Astonishing Facts about “Oz,” HBO’s Original Crime Drama
Described by The New York Times as “high-tech horror with glass-walled cells,” Oz gave viewers a brutal portrayal of prison life in America. Show creator Tom Fontana, along with the show’s writers and actors, was able to illustrate the reality of prison life in a starling way that was unprecedented for television.
On Sunday, October 15, Fontana and the cast of Oz will reunite at the Paley Center for PaleyFest New York. Tickets to the reunion can be purchased here. In anticipation of their reunion, we present twelve facts that may surprise many watchers of the show.
Here are twelve facts about Oz:
1) Oz was HBO’s first hour-long original drama. While many remember shows like The Wire or The Sopranos, it was Oz that debuted as the network’s first exclusive hour-long drama.
2) In the intro, series creator Tom Fontana is seen getting tattooed. In celebration for the next chapter of his career, Tom Fontana got a tattoo of the Oz logo on his arm and had the process filmed for the opening credits.
“But I did know, for myself, that this was sort of next-level in my career and my writing, you know what I mean? Because of HBO. I knew this was a significant thing. I joked to people later that I was going to get all my shows tattooed on my body. I won’t even tell you where Homicide: Life on the Street was going to go,” Fontana said in an interview with the-toast.
3) The name of the show is based on the famous children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. While Oz is the nickname of the Oswald State Correctional Facility, the show’s name was inspired by the classic L. Frank Baum novel The Wizard of Oz.
4) The setting of the show is also a Wizard of Oz reference. The setting for Oz, Emerald City, is also a reference to the famous 1900 novel.
5) The actors who played Ryan and Cyril O’Reily are also brothers in real life. The two inmates were played by Dean Winters and Scott William Winters, respectively. A third brother, Bradford Winters, was one of the writers for the show.
6) Two cast members actually spent time in prison. Chuck Zito (who played mobster Chucky Pancamo) and Craig Grant (who played a Poet) were the only series regulars to have done time in prison. Zito spent time in prison for trafficking amphetamines. Grant was in prison for battery charges.
7) Showing up late to the set could have dire consequences. It has been said by cast members who played prisoners on the show that if you showed up late to the set, your character would be in danger of being either killed off or raped the next episode.
8) All of the inmates on the show are guilty. In most crime television shows, some characters in prisons are not guilty. Oz is different in this case as every character in the show is guilty of the crimes he or she was arrested for.
9) Another Wizard of Oz reference. An early poster for the show used the tagline “It’s no place like home,” while in the film The Wizard of Oz, the phrase “There’s no place like home” is recited by Dorothy as she clicks the heels of her ruby red slippers together on her way home, and is also the last line spoken in the film.
10) A character in the show is based on a real-life child murderer. Shirley Bellinger (Kathryn Erbe), convicted in the show of murdering her daughter, is based on real-life child murderer, Susan Smith. Smith was incarcerated for drowning her two sons in October 1994 in South Carolina.
11) Occupation reversal in other shows. Most of the actors who played inmates on the show also played police officers on other series, including J. K. Simmons (played a police chief in The Closer) and Kirk Acevedo (played a FBI Agent in Fringe).
12) Fontana’s mom was not allowed to watch. Tom Fontana told the press he did not allow his then seventy-five-year-old mother to watch the show, as it could have been too complex and “messed up” for her. “I said to her, ‘Mom, you can’t watch this show,’” Fontana said during an interview with Buffalo News in 1997. “I’m going to have a V-chip put in your television. You’re going to be the only person in the world whose son won’t let you watch television.”
Rohan Ahluwalia is a curatorial and press relations intern at The Paley Center for Media and a senior at The College of New Jersey. His passions include soccer, watching TV, and reading about what is going on around the world. If he is not screaming at his favorite soccer team, Arsenal, then he is reading about the latest happenings in Tunisia or Brunei.
