It taught me how to be a professional actor,” he said. “Tom is one of the only guys who cares, so I appreciate that so much.”įor Winters, the show provided lessons in craft. They don’t ask at all,” said Acevedo, who played Miguel Alvarez. “Showrunners don’t ask us what we’d like to do differently. One takeaway from the conversation was how great Fontana was in working with actors, and how much he welcomed their input, as far as the trajectories of their characters. While making a lasting impact on television and on America, as a whole, the show also changed the lives of each actor involved. “I think it was really impactful to our consideration of what we’re doing with prisons and led to lots of ideas about prison reform.”
“I think Oz really is one of those pieces that shed a light,” said Perrineau, who played Augustus Hill. Then, there’s the impact Oz had on the real world, given its nuanced take on subjects like addiction and prison reform, which America wrestles with to this day. “We always were able to access the risk-taking and bloodshed that American theater could have Tom brought that to television.”
“One of the things this show pioneered was creating full people that have a great range of ugliness in them,” he said. “I think everyone in Hollywood needs to take a pause for one second and literally just pay attention to Tom Fontana, who opened the floodgates.”įrom the perspective of Kinney, who played Tim McManus, the show had a radical impact on television because of its focus on humanizing each of its characters-even those who have committed heinous crimes-something which subsequent anti-hero dramas have put into practice, as well. “Tom’s broken down more barriers than anyone,” said Winters. Of course, the show was a game-changer in TV for a number of reasons, including on-screen representation that was ahead of its time. I was sitting on the set with Vince Gilligan and he told me he…became a writer because of seeing Tom Fontana’s work in Homicide,” Winters shared, “and made Breaking Bad because he thought he could get away with it after watching Oz.” “I did a show seven years ago called Battle Creek. The actor, who played Ryan O’Reilly, also shared a fond memory, suggesting that the legacy of Oz continues to unfold. “He looked around and very quietly goes, ‘You guys got it right,’ and walked out.” We were in the bathroom and Chuck D from Public Enemy came in and saw us,” he recalled. Winters then shared an anecdote speaking to how resonant Oz was while it was on the air. “We were all out there going, ‘Lets see what happens.'” “Nobody knew how people were going to take it,” he recalled. His one-time collaborators started out by praising the risk-taking Fontana mentioned, offering up their recollection of just how disruptive the show was in its time. Tergesen, who played Tobias Beecher, noted “the balls” Fontana had to write a show like Oz, at a time when there was nothing else like it on TV.
On the panel, Fontana was joined by actor-director Terry Kinney, as well as cast members Lee Tergesen, Dean Winters, Harold Perrineau and Kirk Acevedo, who of course, weren’t going to allow him to get away with being humble. That’s really cool for a teenager.'Faking It' Reunion: EP Carter Covington Says Show With Groundbreaking Representation & At one point I was the answer for a Trivial Pursuit question. It was a show that never did amazing in the ratings, but it held on because it was always pressing the boundaries of what was okay on TV, bringing up issues that weren’t even being discussed…. As far as I could tell, there was always controversy around St. I remember reading about it in the paper that there was controversy over it.
From the mind of a young person whose fantasies were coming to life before him, it was neat. Tell me if you think it means what I think it means!” My mom read it, and she looked at me sort of puzzled too and said, “I think it means it’s all in your head?” I said, “That’s what I thought it think it means!” So I knew that it was really cool, and I loved that. I thought I knew what it meant, but it was so weird, especially for my younger mind, so I went running down the hallway and grabbed my mom and I was like, “You have to read this. CHAD ALLEN (Tommy Westphall): I remember the script arrived, I read it, got to the end, and I was stumped.