Nooo! Only one more season of Oz!!!
04-30-02, 05:53 PM
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Nooo! Only one more season of Oz!!!
Sixth Season of 'Oz' Will Be the Last
Tue, Apr 30, 2002 11:23 AM PDT
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Production is set to begin on the final season of HBO's prison drama "Oz," which will end its run with eight episodes scheduled for early 2003.
Created by Tom Fontana ("Homicide: Life on the Street"), "Oz" premiered in 1997 as HBO's first hourlong original drama series. It chronicles what happens inside the walls of the Oswald State Correctional Facility, dubbed "Emerald City" by its inmates.
"OZ has been a landmark series for HBO, one that has had a tremendous impact on both subscribers and critics," says Chris Albrecht, president of HBO original programming. "We look forward to working with Tom Fontana again."
Fontana, who's executive producing a new series for the cable network called "Baseball Wives," says the final season of "Oz" will "finish telling the story I originally set out to tell."
"I want the series to go out at what I hope will be the top of its form," Fontana says. And though it's the end of 'Oz,' it's the beginning of our next collaboration with HBO.""
Tue, Apr 30, 2002 11:23 AM PDT
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Production is set to begin on the final season of HBO's prison drama "Oz," which will end its run with eight episodes scheduled for early 2003.
Created by Tom Fontana ("Homicide: Life on the Street"), "Oz" premiered in 1997 as HBO's first hourlong original drama series. It chronicles what happens inside the walls of the Oswald State Correctional Facility, dubbed "Emerald City" by its inmates.
"OZ has been a landmark series for HBO, one that has had a tremendous impact on both subscribers and critics," says Chris Albrecht, president of HBO original programming. "We look forward to working with Tom Fontana again."
Fontana, who's executive producing a new series for the cable network called "Baseball Wives," says the final season of "Oz" will "finish telling the story I originally set out to tell."
"I want the series to go out at what I hope will be the top of its form," Fontana says. And though it's the end of 'Oz,' it's the beginning of our next collaboration with HBO.""
04-30-02, 06:06 PM
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Well, at the end of season 4 Beecher got denied parole, but they said they would give him another hearing in 1 year, so they could have him end up getting paroled. Keller, Hoyt, and Cyrill are on death row, so they will most likely die in season 6. Pancamo has that disease in the hospital so he will probably die. It looks like Augustus Hill died at the end of season 5, but he might be alive. Cloutier disappeared in season 5, so they might explain that in season 6. That leaves Ryan O'reilly, Vern Shillinger, Enrique Morales, Busmalis, Rebadow, Miguel Alvarez, Poet, Said, Robson, Arif, and Burr Redding who might still be there at the end of the season.
04-30-02, 07:10 PM
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Originally posted by huzefa
Do they only have 8 episodes each season?
Do they only have 8 episodes each season?
04-30-02, 09:36 PM
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Well, the show was real close to going out after Season 4 Part 2, so I consider the last two seasons a bonus. Still sad though.
04-30-02, 11:10 PM
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Go ahead and flame me but I'm glad (even though I'll miss the show). I'd much rather have a show be a high quality show for all of it's 5 or 6 seasons rather then keeping it on the air 9 or 10 for the sake of the fans and having the writing suffer. If the writers and Fontana feel they can't do anything more with the characters or story, then I say let them kill it.
05-01-02, 12:21 AM
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Well, that's too bad I enjoyed watching it, but the show has becoming increasingly ridiculous (not that that's a bad thing 
)
Basically, the only character I even remotely care about is Beecher. As long as he gets out at the end I'll be happy.
Besides, judging from that article, it sounds like HBO will be working with Fontana sometime in the (near?) future.
And we also have that new HBO Series "The Wire" coming soon. If it's anything like HBO's other dramatic series we'll all have something else to watch instead.
)Basically, the only character I even remotely care about is Beecher. As long as he gets out at the end I'll be happy.
Besides, judging from that article, it sounds like HBO will be working with Fontana sometime in the (near?) future.
And we also have that new HBO Series "The Wire" coming soon. If it's anything like HBO's other dramatic series we'll all have something else to watch instead.
05-01-02, 03:21 PM
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Originally posted by Pac-Rat
Go ahead and flame me but I'm glad (even though I'll miss the show). I'd much rather have a show be a high quality show for all of it's 5 or 6 seasons rather then keeping it on the air 9 or 10 for the sake of the fans and having the writing suffer. If the writers and Fontana feel they can't do anything more with the characters or story, then I say let them kill it.
Go ahead and flame me but I'm glad (even though I'll miss the show). I'd much rather have a show be a high quality show for all of it's 5 or 6 seasons rather then keeping it on the air 9 or 10 for the sake of the fans and having the writing suffer. If the writers and Fontana feel they can't do anything more with the characters or story, then I say let them kill it.
Completely agree. Let em go out on top. These guys have been through enough crap
05-07-02, 08:50 PM
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Here's an article where Fontana talks a little bit about a number of things-internet spoilers, filming multiple endings, and having a say in the cancellation of OZ.
I blacked out TEASERS. They're not really major, but I was ticked when I noticed them since I try to avoid any info on certain shows, and I figure others do as well.
Tom Fontana Prepares to Lock the Doors at 'Oz'
Tue, May 7, 2002 04:48 PM PDT
by Kate O'Hare
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Unlike most TV producers, Tom Fontana was not surprised by last week's announcement that his raw, uncompromising HBO prison drama "Oz" was ending after the next run of eight episodes in early 2003, making a total of 56 hours over six seasons.
"It was partly my decision," he said. "Chris [Albrecht, president, HBO Original Programming] and I talked. God love HBO, I've never been in a position where I've been asked if I wanted to stop. Usually it's the other way."
"It's unlike 'Homicide: Life on the Street,' where we kept being strung along [by NBC], so when I wrote the last episode, I had to write half of a series finale and half of a season finale. It's more like when 'St. Elsewhere' went off, and we were able to give it the closure that, I think, most hour shows should have."
"It was a real conversation [with HBO]. Chris had as many reasons for not canceling the show as he had for canceling it. He really included me in the whole process."
There was talk about the show ending after season four, when a real-estate deal tossed the production out of its Manhattan home at Chelsea Market. In the end, HBO agreed to rebuild the show's prison sets at a former military base outside of Bayonne, N.J., where production has already begun on the final season.
Set almost entirely (with only occasional forays outside) in the fictional Oswald State Correctional Facility, the show focuses on the intense and frequently bloody struggles for survival and power among correctional officers, inmates and prison officials. Staging a drama in such a contained setting is hard enough, and Fontana didn't want to repeat himself.
"I felt so good about this season -- and I feel so good about this season that we're shooting now -- that my attitude is, 'I really want to go out when I'm feeling good about the show. I don't want to have stayed too long at the dance. Besides, I'm running out of ways of killing people.'"
With uncertainty at the end of season four, Fontana debated granting parole to convict Beecher (Lee Tergesen), and shot two endings. When the show was renewed, though, Beecher's moments of freedom were but a dream, and he stayed put.
"I'm going to shoot several endings to several stories this year," Fontana says. "I did that before. That's when Beecher got out but didn't get out. I ended up liking the getting-out stuff so much, when we knew the show was coming back, I said, 'I'll just use it all.' This time what I'll do is just shoot a couple of different endings to different stories, then make up my mind when I'm editing."
Like many TV producers, Fontana suffers from frequent Internet spoilers and rumors, to the point of scripts for as-yet-unaired episodes going up for sale.
"That makes me crazy," he says, "because I don't know where they're coming from."
He also doesn't understand the notion of spoilers. "How pathetic is someone's life that they have to justify their existence by revealing stuff about a television show? I'm not just talking about 'Oz,' I'm talking about any television show. That gives them somehow importance in the world."
"It's sad. It makes me sad, because I think, 'Wow, that's what it takes for them to get off.' I hope, at least, going into the last season, that people are a little more restrained in their sharing."
Fontana, who jokes that he was "raised by Jesuits," has always said that "Oz" is about "sin and redemption." In season six, it's only more so.
"It's more to do with redemption and retribution than probably ever before. When you say, 'OK, what is the end of the Beecher story or the O'Reily story?', you want to come to a conclusion. You want to do the math and say, 'This is what six seasons of this man's life have led to.'"
I blacked out TEASERS. They're not really major, but I was ticked when I noticed them since I try to avoid any info on certain shows, and I figure others do as well.
Tom Fontana Prepares to Lock the Doors at 'Oz'
Tue, May 7, 2002 04:48 PM PDT
by Kate O'Hare
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Unlike most TV producers, Tom Fontana was not surprised by last week's announcement that his raw, uncompromising HBO prison drama "Oz" was ending after the next run of eight episodes in early 2003, making a total of 56 hours over six seasons.
"It was partly my decision," he said. "Chris [Albrecht, president, HBO Original Programming] and I talked. God love HBO, I've never been in a position where I've been asked if I wanted to stop. Usually it's the other way."
"It's unlike 'Homicide: Life on the Street,' where we kept being strung along [by NBC], so when I wrote the last episode, I had to write half of a series finale and half of a season finale. It's more like when 'St. Elsewhere' went off, and we were able to give it the closure that, I think, most hour shows should have."
"It was a real conversation [with HBO]. Chris had as many reasons for not canceling the show as he had for canceling it. He really included me in the whole process."
There was talk about the show ending after season four, when a real-estate deal tossed the production out of its Manhattan home at Chelsea Market. In the end, HBO agreed to rebuild the show's prison sets at a former military base outside of Bayonne, N.J., where production has already begun on the final season.
Set almost entirely (with only occasional forays outside) in the fictional Oswald State Correctional Facility, the show focuses on the intense and frequently bloody struggles for survival and power among correctional officers, inmates and prison officials. Staging a drama in such a contained setting is hard enough, and Fontana didn't want to repeat himself.
"I felt so good about this season -- and I feel so good about this season that we're shooting now -- that my attitude is, 'I really want to go out when I'm feeling good about the show. I don't want to have stayed too long at the dance. Besides, I'm running out of ways of killing people.'"
With uncertainty at the end of season four, Fontana debated granting parole to convict Beecher (Lee Tergesen), and shot two endings. When the show was renewed, though, Beecher's moments of freedom were but a dream, and he stayed put.
"I'm going to shoot several endings to several stories this year," Fontana says. "I did that before. That's when Beecher got out but didn't get out. I ended up liking the getting-out stuff so much, when we knew the show was coming back, I said, 'I'll just use it all.' This time what I'll do is just shoot a couple of different endings to different stories, then make up my mind when I'm editing."
Like many TV producers, Fontana suffers from frequent Internet spoilers and rumors, to the point of scripts for as-yet-unaired episodes going up for sale.
"That makes me crazy," he says, "because I don't know where they're coming from."
He also doesn't understand the notion of spoilers. "How pathetic is someone's life that they have to justify their existence by revealing stuff about a television show? I'm not just talking about 'Oz,' I'm talking about any television show. That gives them somehow importance in the world."
"It's sad. It makes me sad, because I think, 'Wow, that's what it takes for them to get off.' I hope, at least, going into the last season, that people are a little more restrained in their sharing."
Spoiler:
Fontana, who jokes that he was "raised by Jesuits," has always said that "Oz" is about "sin and redemption." In season six, it's only more so.
"It's more to do with redemption and retribution than probably ever before. When you say, 'OK, what is the end of the Beecher story or the O'Reily story?', you want to come to a conclusion. You want to do the math and say, 'This is what six seasons of this man's life have led to.'"
Spoiler:
05-08-02, 09:55 PM
#16
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Originally posted by WildcatLH
Well, the show was real close to going out after Season 4 Part 2
Well, the show was real close to going out after Season 4 Part 2
There's going to be a big void in the weekly TV schedule when this masterful show disappears.
I still miss Adibisi. He was a despicable creep, but he was respected by everyone as probably the toughest sonofabitch in the place.
One thing I hope more than anything is that that sneering pile of trash, Vern, eventually gets his comeuppence (or cum-up-@ss). Maybe another steaming load on his face is in order, but that's not really enough punishment for what he's done.
Beecher, Saiid, the two old men, and the wheelchair-bound narrator (forgot his name) are all fairly harmless and would not likely be a problem were they to be released. The rest of the inmates can rot.
Rita Moreno is my favorite actress on the show. She seems like a lovely, sincere woman. Dr. Nathan (actress?) is also too good a person for such an environment, but man would I like to see her sans clothes!
