Talk:Oz (TV series)

Beecher and Islam?
Did I miss something? I know he became good friends with Said but I don't recall him finding Islam or adhering to Islamic principals at any time.
 * I think it is implied because he prays with Said.--cda 13:45, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't think he found Islam either. He was interested in it, and joined the muslims in their study groups, but that's it. Plus, it wasn't much later when he left Said. (Can't recall the exact thing that made him leave) OzOz 20:44, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Tobias asked Said to help him find God. Ultimately, their friendship thinned when Keller arrives (Who dislikes Said's ways) and during the whole lawsuit against the State, when Toby took Said's place. Tasteofink 21:30 13 June 2006 (GMT)
 * Their relationship thinned because Toby could not resist temptation. Tobias is a very sensitive man so when he participated in the ultimate death of Schillinger's son (Andy) he felt very guilty and sought help. Hence, he prayed with Said in order to help him deal with his guilt. But after Keller saves him from Schillinger he could no longer resist him. It never really ended, their friendship. Just Tobias wasn't really Islamic since he indulged in homosexual acts with Keller —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.84.15.203 (talk • contribs) 20:27, March 18, 2007

Location
In the episode "Straight Life" a new inmate is brought in. It was his third conviction and so he got life in prison, the words actually used were "three strikes." Is it possible that it may take place in California because that is the only state I know of that has the three strikes law. Raabbasi 03:32, 7 June 2007 (UTC) Not possible, there was a Blizzard in one episode.

also, i believe illinois is out, because in the episode where illinois in mention, they talk of the governor of illinois stating something, cant quite remember, but governor devlin says that guys an idiot, or something. so i think illinois is out


 * I was always believe the setting was New Jersey...I know at least the show was filed there (in Bayonne). ShawnHill (talk) 23:09, 14 January 2008 (UTC)


 * i'm pretty sure its in and around NYC --Zaferk (talk) 02:47, 8 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Personally i don't think it's important. I think it's more any maximum security prison, USA. I do think Devlin was a republican. We could also state it's a state that still uses capital punishment. Phil Nolte (talk) 11:53, 8 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I am 100% sure that the location of Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary is in Delaware, USA as shown in the 5th episode of the 2nd season of the series. Hualda 02:54, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

The series was set in an unnamed state, deliberately kept vague. There were references to "back in the city" without naming the city, and so forth. At various times people were said to have come from or going to New York, California, Illinois, etc., so these could not be the same state as the series locale.Sussmanbern (talk) 00:06, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

The show gets its name from the fictional location - Oswald State Penitentiary. There is no mention of the prison's history ... but some viewers suspected that the prison got its name from Russell Oswald, the NY State Commissioner of Corrections at the time of NY's Attica_Prison_riot in 1971. Commissioner Oswald was widely believed to be the person responsible for giving the order to start the shooting that not only killed 29 prisoners but ten prison employees and officers who had been hostages. Sussmanbern (talk) 00:15, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

In season 6, episode 1 the inmates watch a news broadcast that says a KKK member was accused of a crime and that Gov Devlin suggested he would pardon him if he was convicted. The same news story notes the Bankhead State Courthouse, and later, Fulton County. Bankhead is a neighborhood in Atlanta's Fulton County. If Devlin was mulling over a pardon, it would have to be in his jurisdiction which suggests the prison is in the state of Georgia. I believe this is just one of many breadcrumbs that lead in different directions as to the location, but it was oddly specific and realistic. The only other serious clue I noticed was mention of Alden Township as the place of one of the inmate's crimes (Keller, I believe), which could lead one to believe it is set in Illinois Wisconsin, or Minnesota, all of which have an Alden Township. However, this isn't a solid clue since the FBI is investigating Keller's purported murders and Keller said they had to turn it over to the local authorities since the crime didn't cross state lines. That gives me cause to believe that his crimes were in a different state than where the prison is, since the FBI was involved at all. Thoughts? Dlesn8168 (talk) 02:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)

Why was it cancelled?
Anyone know why this brilliant show was cancelled? - EZtaR 02:31, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

It wasn't cancelled, Tom Fontana (the creator) decided to end the series on a strong note rather than to keep going and risk making poorer episodes and soil the good name of the series. See this link for a message from Tom himself to his online fans explaining it. 203.59.185.54 09:28, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

The series may have ended while enormously popular, but the final season was rather deliberately - and awkwardly - calculated to get rid of loose ends - if not by tying them then by snipping them. In rapid succession toward the end principal characters were killed off -- Cyril O'Reilly, Sayid, the Warden, Schillinger, Keller -- in sometimes implausible ways, and finally the entire prison was evacuated and closed because of an anthrax scare. Sussmanbern (talk) 00:10, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Prison Gangs?
Who decided what each of the gangs in Oz were called? The Muslims and the Aryans are pretty straight forward, but the Italians have been more often been refered to as the Wiseguys, the Sicilians, or the Mafia; while the Homeboys are frequently called the Gangsters, and the Bikers are sometimes called the Angels. How were the current names decided on? Was it just tallied up which names were used the most, or what? --Dark_Wolf101 00:13, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

The names were all the official names as spoken by McManus in season 2 Yours Grimm MD —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.140.189.210 (talk) 22:58, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

What's "Yours Grim MD"? --134.159.97.130 07:22, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

One odd thing about the prison gangs is that, at the beginning of season 2, it is made clear that the population of Emerald City is deliberately calculated to keep the four or five gangs equally represented. But in most modern prisons, the administration makes a very determined and deliberate effort to disrupt and disband gang organizations, even to the point of reshuffling the cell assignments so that identifiable gangs can no longer congregate. The Em City notion of recognizing and, to some extent, solidifying gang affiliations seems completely reverse of sound penology.Sussmanbern (talk) 00:29, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Article improvement
I'd like to see this article improved. Currently the coverage of Oz on wikipedia is a bit too in universe. My main problem in aiming to improve it is a paucity of sources, any suggestions would be highly valued. Perhaps someone with access to find articles might be able to help? I've added a to do list to the top of the page to help co-ordinate our efforts.--Opark 77 17:09, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Someone in recent weeks has done a major clean up to the article and would like to give a big kudos to those responsible- the page looks really good now. Yeah, someone should nominate it for GOOD ARTICLE. I don't think it is there yet but we should get the ball rolling. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.128.7.220 (talk) 22:13, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Question on the Gangs
At the start of Season 2 McManus stated that each prison gang in oz would be represented by four Emerald City inmates. If Beecher, Hill, Rebadow, and Busmalis represented The Others, then what gang was Keller affiliated with?
 * I think McManus' idea of having each gang represented didn't last very long. But I would place him with the others, as he was Beecher's roomate. I think Shillinger pulled some strings to get him into Emerald City, so that might also explain it. (Narkstraws (talk) 06:18, 22 August 2008 (UTC))

Looking for help writing an article about the spin-offs and crossovers of this series
I am writing an article about all of the series which are in the same shared reality as this one through spin-offs and crossovers. I could use a little help expanding the article since it is currently extremely dense and a bit jumbled with some sentence structures being extremely repetitive. I would like to be able to put this article into article space soon. Any and all help in writing the article would be appreciated, even a comment or two on the talk page would help. Please give it a read through, also please do not comment here since I do not have all of the series on my watch list. - LA @ 17:24, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Reference also in Will & Grace
In the forth season of NBC's "Will & Grace" one of its main characters, Jack, makes fun of "Oz". While watching the show on HBO OLE he says "prision sex" is funnier in Spanish. 85.219.42.27 (talk) 10:19, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism
restored part of the page from vandalism. There was no reason why the link for the transcripts to be deleted nor was there any reason given by the vandal.

Proposed deletion of Joseph Howard (Oz)


The article Joseph Howard (Oz) has been proposed for deletion&#32; because of the following concern:
 * Article describes a minor character fails WP:N and WP:V. A search for references found no published (gBooks) references to this character

While all contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the  notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing  will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. The speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. JeepdaySock (AKA, Jeepday) 15:44, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Delete & Redirect per WP:FAILN?
See Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Unreferenced_articles, JeepdaySock (AKA, Jeepday) 12:07, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Critical reception
I never saw this show but it sounds like it broke new ground of television broadcasting. It would be really helpful to have a section on the popular and critical reception of the series in the U.S. 69.125.134.86 (talk) 18:59, 16 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Agreed. I came here looking for that as I was considering watching this show. I'm surprised to see that minutae like who owns the distribution rights is included but there isn't a single word about critical reception. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:16, 15 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Also supported. I added a critical reception section as I felt the page was missing it and could assist people like me who wanted to know more about the show. I did my best but please feel free to edit/add or remove whatever all of you wiki-ites see fit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Raiders88 (talk • contribs) 10:33, 24 December 2013 (UTC)
 * That's actually what i was looking for too. Good inclusion.Flagpolewiki (talk) 11:54, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

Episodes Section
Currently reads:

Oz took advantage of the freedoms of premium cable to show material that was too excessive for traditional American broadcast television, including elements of coarse language, drug use, violence, male frontal nudity, homosexuality and male rape, as well as ethnic and religious conflicts.

There's a lot i don't like about it. 1) it's not appropriate for the episodes section 2) 'too excessive' is grammatical nonsense 3) 'excessive' is a judgement.

It needs to be phrased better. Or even better replaced with something to the effect of oz ran for 56 episodes from July 12, 1997 to February 23, 2003. Flagpolewiki (talk) 13:59, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Genre Dark Comedy
Was this really a dark comedy? I doubt Oz is a Dark Comedy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jawz101 (talk • contribs) 18:04, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

Critical Reception section
I think this part of the article could use updating. It's basically just a few blurbs about the first couple seasons.

For a long-finished, fairly impactful show like this, I think much of the "Critical Reception" section should be retrospective.

Perhaps a "Legacy" section is necessary instead. I don't really know. I'm not a Wikipedia wizard, but I do know there's something lacking in this article vis-a-vis reactions. 174.96.196.189 (talk) 08:18, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Oz was NOT the very first show on HBO.
There was Dream On and 1st and Ten before it. Maybe the first drama. 2601:18F:E02:5C30:46E:3EBF:FEA9:A463 (talk) 16:59, 22 May 2024 (UTC)