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Oz
1997-2003
Episode guides are still a work in progress. Galleries are complete.
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Season 1 |
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| July 11-Aug.
25, 1997 |
Season 1 Synopsis from HBO: |
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1.1 The Routine
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1.2 Visits, Conjugal and Otherwise
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1.3 God's Chillin' //
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1.4 Capital P //
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1.5 Straight Life //Gallery
1.6 To Your Health //
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1.7 Plan B //
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1.8 A Game of Checkers
//Gallery |
Beecher's sheltered life as an attorney provides no
preparation for his new life as an Oz inmate. After being
transferred from Adebisi's pod, he lands with Vern
Schillinger, leader of the
Aryans. Beecher's relief is short-lived when he realizes he
must submit to Vern's seemingly endless abuses. To help him
cope, Beecher turns to drugs and spends hours with O'Reily
getting high. His drug use alters his personality and in a
fit of rage, he throws a chair through the glass pod at
Schillinger. The glass shatters and cuts Vern in an eye.
Beecher is put in the hole and placed on psychiatric watch.
Once he returns to Em City, Beecher strikes out at
Schillinger again by beating him in the gym. Beecher later
confronts Schillinger and warns him of his plan to thwart
Schillinger's parole.
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Season 2 |
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July 11-Aug. 31, 1998 |
Season 2 Synopsis from HBO: |
2.1 The Tip
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2.2 Ancient Tribes //
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2.3 Great Men //
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2.4 Losing Your Appeal
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2.5 Family Bizness //
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2.6 Strange Bedfellows
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2.7 Animal Farm //
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2.8 Escape from Oz //
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While being
forced to fellate an inmate, Beecher bites off the tip of the
victim's genitalia. Promising to make Schillinger's life
miserable, Beecher sets him up on a murder conspiracy charge
that gets more years added to Vern's sentence with no parole.
Soon Beecher gets a new podmate, Keller, who he begins to trust
and fall in love with. However it's all a trick to weaken
Beecher's defenses; he discovers this in the gym when Keller and Schillinger gang up on him and break both his legs and arms. |
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Season 3 |
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July 14-Sept. 1, 1999 |
Season 3 Synopsis from HBO: |
3.1
The Truth and Nothing But... //
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3.2 Napoleon's
Boney Parts //
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3.3 Legs //
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3.4 Unnatural
Disasters //
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3.5 U.S. Male //
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3.6 Cruel and Unusual
Punishments //
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3.7 Secret Identities
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3.8 Out o' Time //
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Beecher returns to his pod with revenge on his mind. He starts
his rampage by slashing Metzger's throat. Beecher forces Keller
to admit to authorities that he had something to do with
breaking Beecher's limbs, but the
confession doesn't change much. Beecher has a more devious plan
for getting back at Schillinger. Vern's son, Andy, arrives in Oz
and Beecher immediately gets chummy with him. Beecher lets Vern
know how much chummier he and Andy could get, but Vern swears it
will never happen. After Andy's overdose. Beecher says he wants
to clear his conscience and seek forgiveness from Schillinger.
Toby turns to Islam for redemption, and joins Said
studying the Koran. Soon the two become pod mates. Beecher
forgives Schillinger for the past, but when Toby tries to make
amends, Vern pulls a knife and a fight ensues. The result?
Beecher gets stabbed and Keller comes to his aid. Once healed,
Toby realizes his feelings for Keller are sincere and they
embrace in their pod. |
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Season 4 |
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July 12, 2000-Feb. 25, 2001 |
Season 4 Synopsis from HBO: |
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4.1 A
Cock and Balls Story //
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4.2 Obituaries //
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4.3 The Bill of Wrongs //
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4.4 Works of Mercy //
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4.5 Gray Matter //
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4.6 A Word to the Wise
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4.7 A Town Without Pity
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4.8 You Bet Your Life
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4.9
Medium Rare //
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4.10 Conversions //
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4.11 Revenge is Sweet
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4.12 Cuts Like a Knife
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4.13 Blizzard of '01
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4.14 Orpheus
Descending //
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4.15 Even the Score //
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4.16 Famous Last Words
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Part 1: The pain continues for Beecher. After Keller gets
shot, Toby worries steadily about Keller's recovery. Once
Keller's released from the hospital, he and Beecher come to
blows after Keller accuses Beecher of being weak for wanting
to make peace with Schillinger. A fight ensues and Beecher is
sent to the hole. Beecher still wants to make peace with Schillinger as he's tired of the conflicts. To do this, he
arranges to have Schillinger's son Hank found and brought to
Oz to visit Vern. Although done in earnest, Vern's
suspicions convince him that Beecher is up to no good.
Beecher then finds out that his children have been
kidnapped. He snaps and goes on an anger-filled
rampage. To make matters worse, Beecher receives a mystery
package containing a child's severed hand -- his son Gary's. Sullen and solemn,
Beecher decides on revenge and pays Pancamo to have Vern's
son Hank killed. At the last minute, Beecher changes his
mind, but it's too late as the murder's already happened.
Part 2: Beecher's still in love with Keller, but they disagree on how to deal with Schillinger. Meanwhile,
Beecher and Schillinger decide to participate in Sister
Pete's victim offender program. Just when it seems as
progress is being made, Schillinger finds out his son Hank
was found dead. Schillinger accuses Beecher and swears
revenge. Keller hears about this and takes the rap for the
murder, when in fact, it was Beecher that arranged for the
hit. When Keller gets transferred out of Oz, Schillinger
makes a delicate pact with Beecher not to harm him anymore
only that changes when Robson tells Schillinger that
Beecher's having a parole hearing. This infuriates
Schillinger who sends Robson to kill Beecher. Robson's
attempt is unsuccessful but Beecher is then kept under guard.
Beecher goes to his parole hearing, but is denied. |
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Season 5 |
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| Jan. 6-Feb.
24, 2002 |
Season 5 Synopsis from HBO: |
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5.1 Visitation
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5.2 Laws of Gravity
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5.3 Dream a Little Dream of Me
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5.4 Next Stop: Valhalla
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5.5 Wheel of Fortune //
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5.6 Variety //
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5.7 Good Intentions
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5.8 Impotence //
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Beecher's world continues to swim in emotional upheaval.
Beecher admits that he misses Keller, so he's ecstatic upon
hearing the Keller will be returning. He participates in one
of Sister Pete's interventions with Said and Schillinger.
Later, McManus assigns new inmate, Adam Guenzel, to Beecher's
pod. Beecher knew Guenzel's family in the past. After
getting a threat from the Aryans, Beecher gets the Italians
to protect Guenzel. This leads to a major
fight in the gym with Guenzel and Beecher escaping unscathed
and the Aryans strengthening their resolve. Guenzel's pal
Winthrop, who's now become Schillinger's "girl," tells Guenzel that Beecher
is gay and his protection will lead only
to Beecher attempting to "convert" Guenzel. Furious, Guenzel
confronts Beecher, they fight and Guenzel asks to be moved
from Beecher's pod. Soon the slithery Schillinger offers to
let Beecher deliver the daily mail so he can see Keller. Schillinger wants Guenzel for himself in trade. When Guenzel
continues to refuse Beecher's attempts to help him, Beecher
agrees to Schillinger's deal. Beecher goes to deliver Keller's mail
only to find Keller has
been taken to the hospital because of the beating Howell
delivered to him. After hearing about Guenzel's death,
Beecher gives information that implicates Schillinger. This
information leads to Schillinger's conviction on major charges
and subsequent transfer to solitary confinement. |
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Season 6 |
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| Jan. 5-Feb.
23, 2003 |
Season 6 Synopsis from HBO: |
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6.1 Dead Man Talking
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6.2 See No Evil... //
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6.3 Sonata da Oz //
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6.4 A Failure to Communicate
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6.5 4 Giveness //
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6.6 A Day in the Death
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6.7 Junkyard Dawgs //
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6.8 Exeunt Omnes //
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Beecher's emotional upheaval returns again. He
had to endure the death of his father at the hands of
Winthrop. Later, he was given parole and began working on
Keller's case. Unfortunately, his vulnerability
with Keller resurfaced and he agreed to make a delivery for
Keller on the outside. The delivery meeting was a set-up
arranged by Keller so Beecher would get arrested and
returned to Oz. Later, Beecher signed up to act in the
prison's production of "Hamlet" only to have to endure more
emotional trauma from Keller. During the play, Beecher performs
a scene with Schillinger. As Beecher goes
to stab him, the knife (real not a prop) goes deeply into
Schillinger and kills him. Beecher endures a brief
investigation but gets off as there's no proof of intention.
Beecher later confronts Keller about switching the prop knife
and tells Keller that they are finished. When Keller
resists, Beecher pushes Keller, which forces Keller to
fall over the rail. The fall breaks Keller's neck and kills
him. Although Beecher's finally free from Keller, he's still
trapped in Oz. |
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Oz-related links & articles: |
IMDb //
Wikipedia //
TV.com
Oz Transcripts
HBO page for Tobias Beecher (via Internet archive. HBO no longer
has a page for Oz!)
Hollywood Spotlight Chat,
RealHollywood.Com, Aug. 7, 1997
Escape from L.A., New York
Magazine, July 14, 1997 (PDF)
Interview transcript, HBO,
1998
Lee Tergesen sinks his
teeth into return of HBO's Oz, News-Times online,
July 7, 1998
Oz Beats Odds, Toronto
Sun, Aug. 21, 1998
Chat transcript, TVGen,
Aug. 18, 1998
Lee Tergesen does time as an
'Oz' inmate, Associated Press, July 13, 1999
The Wizard of Oz,
APBnews.com, July 13, 1999
The Wizards of Oz, New
Orleans Times-Picayune, July 11, 1999
Famous Oz Fan Suprises
Fontana, The Buffalo News, July 7, 1999
Chat transcript,
Hollywood Spotlight, 1999
Interview transcript, HBO, 1999
The Wizardry of Oz,
Nerve.com, October 2000
On the Air: Oz (Season 4),
The Washington Blade, 2000
Chat transcript, HBO/TalkCity,
July 20, 2000
Escape to Oz, Indianapolis
Star, July 2, 2000
Prison Uprising, The
Bergen Record, July 9, 2000
Oz: So good it's a crime,
New York Post, July 2000
The
Seducer of Oz, OUT magazine, June 2000
The Inmates of OZ move into
a new Emerald City, New York Times, July 15, 2001
David Bianculli On Emmys
and Oz, Variety, June 6, 2001
Someplace Like Home, The
Bergen Record, May 6, 2001
Rosie's People: TV Spotlight,
Rosie Magazine, March 2002
'Oz' Season Finale, ExtraTV.com, Feb. 22, 2002
Oz Jailbird Sings, TV Guide Online, Jan. 4, 2002
Raw wizardry of Oz ending,
Boston Globe, Feb. 23, 2003
Prisoners of Love,
Variety, Feb. 18, 2003 (PDF)
Time off for Good Behavior,
Crunch Magazine, Winter 2003
Profiles in Oz: Lee
Tergesen, Windy City Times, Jan. 15, 2003
The End of OZ, Satellite
DIRECT magazine, 2003
Oz review, Entertainment
Weekly, Jan. 13, 2003
OZ review,
PopMatters.com, Feb. 10, 2003
A grand slammer on HBO,
The New York Daily News, Jan, 3, 2003
Oz Infinitum, Esquire
magazine, 2003
Wizards of Oz, Sydney Morning Herald, May 3, 2004
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