The Routine

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For the Hotwire album, see The Routine (album). For other uses, see Routine.
"The Routine"
Oz episode
Dino Ortolani introduces Tobias Beecher to Emerald City
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 1
Directed byDarnell Martin
Written byTom Fontana
Production code101
Original air dateJuly 12, 1997 (1997-07-12)
Episode chronology
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"The Routine" is the pilot and first episode of the HBO prison drama television series Oz.[1] Written by Tom Fontana and directed by Darnell Martin, it aired originally on July 12, 1997.

Starring

Also starring

Guest starring

Co-starring

  • Paul Markstrom
  • Goodfella Mike G as
    Joey D'Angelo
  • Tim McAdams as
    Johnny Post
  • CO Mike Healy
  • Philip Scozzarella as
    CO Joseph Mineo
  • Derrick Simmons as Billy Keane

Plot

Paul Markstrom
, his own wayward cousin, be brought there as well.

Italian-American mobster Dino Ortolani. Ortolani is not interested in babysitting the anxious Beecher, but gives him basic pointers for surviving Oz. Glynn informs the inmates that cigarettes will be confiscated due to new state laws. Beecher is alarmed to find cellmate Simon Adebisi rifling through his possessions. Adebisi intimidates Beecher when he tries to stop it, and threatens to rape
him at bedtime.

An unassuming-looking prisoner named

Kareem Said, a radical black Muslim leader convicted of arson
, arrives at Em City. Keane and Adebisi try to intimidate Said out of his anti-drug preaching, but Said purposefully injures himself to display his determination.

Ortolani, plagued by

AIDS
ward. Nathan hates working with Ortolani and thinks McManus can't change people like him. Nonetheless, McManus successfully asks Nathan to dinner with him.

Since Ortolani had attacked his brother, Jefferson Keane agrees to O'Reily's hit. When Ortolani reacts poorly to working in the AIDS ward, McManus vindictively cancels his conjugal visit, replacing it with a behind-the-glass visit between Ortolani and his family. Ortolani tells his wife to go on with her life as though he were dead. During Ortolani's next round in the AIDS ward, he is told by a patient named Emilio Sanchez that he wants to die. In the restroom, Ortolani and O'Reily get into a fight. That night, Ortolani suffocates Sanchez in a

Johnny Post, pour lighter fluid on Ortolani and set him on fire. A dejected McManus examines the photos of Ortolani's corpse.[2][1]

Crime flashbacks

More prominent prisoners in Oz are given a stylized "crime flashback," narrated by Augustus Hill, depicting the crime for which they were incarcerated. The flashbacks of the debut episode were:

  • Tobias Beecher - driving while intoxicated and vehicular manslaughter of a minor.
  • Kareem Said
     - arson in the second degree.
  • Dino Ortolani - murder in the first degree and assault with a deadly weapon (Ryan O'Reily wounded).

Production

"<...>there's something in the first episode. As I was writing it, I had to close my eyes; because I didn't want to see myself writing the words I had to write down. And the actor. The poor actor. [laughs] He read the script, and he called me up, and he went: "Now, you...this is a joke, right? You're not really doing this?"

–Tom Fontana about his commitment to daring, taboo-breaking writing that would become the signature of the series[3]

Creator

Baltimore City Jail and the Maryland House of Correction, before when researching for his previous TV series and felt that the prison was an intimidating and scary place with many stories to tell and that a dedicated TV series about the subject matter had never been done before.[3] HBO felt that they had had success with their previous prison-themed documentaries and decided to commission Oz as their very first hour-long dramatic series. Fontana felt extremely liberated and satisfied writing for Oz, developing graphic scenes and breaking taboos with which, he says, he would have never gotten away in network TV. HBO constructed prison sets inside a warehouse near the Manhattan's Meatpacking District.[4] The opening credits of the show feature Tom Fontana himself getting the "Oz" tattoo.[3]

References

  1. ^
    OCLC 51241977
    .
  2. ^ "HBO: Oz: 1.01 The Routine: Synopsis". HBO. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
  3. ^ a b c "Oz Production Notes". Retrieved 2014-04-13.
  4. ^ a b Bruce Fretts (11 July 1997). "Nasty As He Wanna Be". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2014-04-13.

External links

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