✎ Editor’s notes on 18 facts

TV SERIES · 1997–2003 · USA

Created by: Tom Fontana
Network: HBO
Seasons: 6
Episodes: 56
Studio: The Levinson/Fontana Company, Rysher Entertainment

18 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

The daily lives of prisoners in Emerald City, an experimental unit of the Oswald Maximum Security Prison where ingroups - Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans - stick close to their mutual friends and terrorize their mutual enemies.

18 Interesting Facts About Oz

Production Story (7)

#001
Shirley Bellinger was modeled on Susan Smith, a real-life child killer.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Some characters in The Wire, another HBO series, are also based on real-life criminals. You can read about it on The Wire page.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): inmates in the corridor in OzImage: IMDb
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#002
Chuck Zito, a longtime member of the Hells Angels, originally read for the part of a biker. Tom Fontana took in his complexion and his thick New York accent and decided he belonged with the show's Italians instead.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
People in this prison loved watching those big, hulking, powerful men play a real-life survival game against each other. Pancamo tried to survive in this prison too. What people loved was the displays of power. Getting a glimpse of truly deranged people. Of course, apart from Miguel Alvarez, there was no character whose inner world we got a close look at. And Poet, through his poems, gave some hint of what was going on in his head.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Chuck Zito in biker styleImage: Wikimedia Commons · HAMCHistorian, CC BY-SA 4.0
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#003
Kristin Rohde was signed for just two episodes, but the cast and crew liked working with her so much that the part kept growing, and she stayed until the series ended.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
You never know what's coming. Sometimes you're welcomed warmly in a place where you had no expectations, sometimes you end up a key character at the end of a series where you were an extra. As a director making small-scale films, you catch a producer's eye, and with his backing you do great work.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Kristin Rohde and Edie Falco in OzImage: IMDb
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#004
Germany's RTL got as far as dubbing the entire first season into German in the early 2000s before getting cold feet over the show's content. Oz finally premiered in Germany in 2014.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Right around the time I was watching the show, or had just finished it. Maybe around the time I was about to start. There are conservative people in Europe, but it's not a society that couldn't handle a show like OZ. By the way, of all the shows in the world, Oz is the hardest to watch. Actually it's The Wire — with its weight and realism, it's a boss-level challenge thrown in front of an audience used to consuming the easy stuff. But when it comes to the violence level, Oz is at the top. Spoiler ahead: in the first episode, the character you say "This must be the lead" about gets killed at the end of the episode. Rapes happen. They crush something into tiny pieces, put it in the food, and whoever eats it dies puking blood. A Russian mobster shows up, and even he only lasts two or three episodes within Oz's violence dosage before he's killed too.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Ben Grossmann in a Scarecrow costume on stageImage: Wikimedia Commons · Cory Doctorow from Beautiful Downtown Burbank, USA, CC BY-SA 4.0
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#005
The opening credits deliberately crop the characters' faces, main and recurring characters especially, so that no one can be identified.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Could it be because of this? Anyone can die at any moment in this show. Oz, along with Game of Thrones, is very generous about killing off its major characters.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Judy Garland as Dorothy, partly covered by the word DorothyImage: Wikimedia Commons · Trailer screenshot Licencing information : and, Public domain
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#006
In his 2013 book “Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad,” Brett Martin describes how Tom Fontana, while serving as writer and executive producer, regularly bankrolled the cast's theater projects. Fontana's explanation was that the money got him out of attending: it was “worth $1000 not to have to see a play.”
Editor’s noteArka Evren
The name of the book:
"Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad
The first show named, The Sopranos, is top-tier. The second show named, The Wire, is even more top-tier. The third show named is above even that. The fourth show named, Mad Men, can't hold its own next to those three. Oz belongs there, Dekalog belongs there, Chernobyl belongs there.
This doesn't mean Mad Men is a bad show. It's a matter of weight class. Otherwise, if Mad Men hadn't aired in the same period as Breaking Bad, it could have won more Emmys.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Inmate and visitor in the corridor in OzImage: IMDb
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#007
Contains a major spoiler — show
Heading into the fourth-season finale, nobody knew whether the show would be renewed, so Tom Fontana wrote two endings, one with Beecher paroled and one without. Had the series been canceled, it would have closed on the hopeful note of his release. It was renewed, but Fontana liked the parole sequence so much that he later used it as a dream in the final season.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Sometimes you love a scene you've shot so much that you want to use it somewhere in the series or the film.
I have 9 short films. Two of the shorts have a scene each, and I still love those scenes.
In series and films, sometimes you can't bring yourself to love a scene you've reshot fifty times. But you love another scene from a single take — it's a bit like that.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Photo contains a major spoiler — show
Oz (1997): Lee Tergesen close-up in OzImage: IMDb
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Behind the Scenes (4)

#008
According to some of the actors who played inmates, anyone who turned up late to set risked having their character killed or raped the following week.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Hahahahhahhahahahaha.
Sorry folks, isn't it pretty funny? There's already Game of Thrones, which kills off its characters as generously as OZ.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Miha Baloh on setImage: Wikimedia Commons · Unknown author, Public domain
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#009
Tom Fontana told The Toast in 2015 that Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje had no hang-ups about nudity: “If in a scene it said, 'Adebisi takes out his penis,' he would go, 'I don't take out my penis in this scene. There's no reason for me to do that.' And I'd say ok, Adewale, don't take out your penis. I don't care. The next scene he'd take out the penis. It wasn't scripted for that, but suddenly there was the penis.”
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Tom Fontana might have an obsession with the actor who played Adebisi. For instance, he says this, then he doesn't want the actor to want to leave the show, and I remember him saying something like "I needed him," and then there's no main character in Oz, but the character closest to a main character was Adebisi. That's also a Tom Fontana thing.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and fellow panelistsImage: Wikimedia Commons · Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0
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#010
Tom Fontana says Dean Winters had a crush on Lauren Luna Velez and asked for a sex scene between their characters. He got one of sorts: O'Reilly fantasizing about sleeping with Nathan, which delighted Winters.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Things have gone off the rails here. The violence, harshness and nudity in Oz have corrupted even one of the show's own characters. This is the first time I'm hearing something like this about a show or film. This has to do with what Oz brought out, or exposed, in the actors. As I said, OZ has the highest violence dosage of any show, and that's why it's also the hardest to watch (setting The Wire aside). The extreme stuff in the show led the actor to openly reveal his attraction to the female characters, and bad enough to ask for a sex scene.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Dean Winters and Scott William Winters in close-upImage: IMDb
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#011
Before shooting the season 3 boxing scenes, series creator Tom Fontana asked the actors involved whether they had ever boxed. Every one of them said yes, yet Chuck Zito turned out to be the only one with real experience in the ring.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
The show made people lie. There's an info item above stating that the actor who played O'Reily was attracted to the actress and wanted to shoot a sex scene with her. Now there are lies too. I watched this show when I was 19-20, but it never pushed me toward any behavior or thoughts that could set a bad example.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Chuck Zito portraitImage: Wikimedia Commons · Glenn Francis, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Characters & Cast (4)

#012
The inmate brothers Ryan and Cyril O'Reilly were played by brothers off screen as well, Dean Winters and Scott William Winters, while a third brother, Bradford Winters, was on the writing staff.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
I smell nepotism. There's this thing in the art world about not bringing your relatives in.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Dean Winters and friendsImage: Wikimedia Commons · Peter Massas, CC BY-SA 2.0
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#013
Every poem Craig muMs Grant recited on the show was one he had written himself.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
That adds a different story to this series too. You know OZ is a different world. The poems are extremely beautiful. Anecdotes like this, improvisations like this, things that develop spontaneously make the stuff about that thing in the art world more beautiful and interesting.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Craig muMs Grant reciting poetryImage: IMDb
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#014
Of the whole cast, only Chuck Zito and Craig muMs Grant had served actual prison time.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
In the earlier info, you're listening to Poet's poems from someone who's done prison time, so.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Chuck Zito and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in OzImage: IMDb
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#015
Before converting to Islam, Kareem Said was Goodson Truman, and Zahir Arif was Jerome Van Dyke.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Oz portrays the Muslim group surprisingly well. It's rare for a show out of the West to portray Muslims this positively. But the September 11 attacks hadn't happened yet when this show started filming. And Kareem Said gave up his freedom for his brothers. Some may see him as power-hungry, but I don't agree.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Kareem Said and Zahir Arif togetherImage: IMDb
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Easter Eggs & References (1)

#016
The arm getting tattooed in the opening credits belongs to Tom Fontana.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Tom Fontana is the creator of the show. Meaning he's the top authority on it.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Two inmates in the Oz corridorImage: IMDb
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Career & Awards (2)

#017
A long list of Oz alumni later turned up on The Wire (2002): J.D. Williams, Domenick Lombardozzi, Seth Gilliam, Lance Reddick, John Doman, Method Man, Clarke Peters, Michael Potts, Reg E. Cathey, Wood Harris and Frankie Faison.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Because.
There's a close connection between The Wire, OZ and The Sopranos, and all three are HBO series.
Also, the series that could best fill the void these three left is Boardwall Empire.
Maybe partly Breaking Bad too.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): Anthony Chisholm and John Doman in OzImage: IMDb
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#018
Michael Kenneth Williams read for a small part on Oz, and that audition is what led casting director Alexa L. Fogel to cast him as Omar Little on The Wire (2002).
Editor’s noteArka Evren
I said it before:
There's a connection between The Wire, OZ and The Sopranos.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Oz (1997): A prisoner in the Oz gymImage: IMDb
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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

Wikipedia English Wikipedia article
IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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