prison break

Production

Origin

The origins of Prison Break began as a concept (a man deliberately getting himself sent to prison in order to break out again) that was suggested to Paul Scheuring by a female colleague. Although Scheuring thought it was a good idea, he was initially stumped as to why someone would embark on such a mission or how he could develop it into a viable TV show. He later came up with the story of the wrongfully accused brother, and the conspiracy subplot. He then started work writing the plot outline and devising the characters. In 2003 he pitched the idea to the Fox Broadcasting Company, but was turned down as Fox felt somewhat nervous about the long-term possibilities of such a series. He subsequently showed the concept to other channels with no luck. The show was later considered as a possible 10-part miniseries, which allegedly drew interest from big names in the film industry such as Steven Spielberg and Bruce Willis. However, the miniseries never materialized. Following the huge popularity of serialized prime time television series such as Lost and 24, the Fox Network had a change of heart and backed the production in 2004.^[1]

Filming location

The majority of the first season of Prison Break was filmed on location at Joliet Prison, Illinois.^[2]After it was closed down in 2002, Joliet Prison became the permanent set of Prison Break in 2005, and was immortalized as Fox River State Penitentiary on screen. Scenes set in Lincoln's cell, the infirmary and the prison yard were all shot on location at the prison.^[3] The cells that housed the general prison population were specially built with three tiers whereas the actual cells located in Joliet Prison only had two tiers and were smaller.^[4] Exterior scenes were filmed in areas around Chicago, Woodstock and Joliet in Illinois. Other locations included O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and Toronto, Ontario in Canada.

Renewed for a second season, Prison Break resumed filming on June 15, 2006 in Dallas, Texas due to the close proximity of rural and urban settings.^[5] Locations within a 30-minute radius of Dallas were chosen which included Little Elm, Decatur and Mineral Wells.^[6] Many of these locations were used to represent various American towns.^[7]

Broadcast

The first season of Prison Break premiered on Fox in the United States on August 29, 2005 at 9:00pm ET and went on hiatus on November 28, 2005. After the show resumed on March 20, 2006, it was moved to an earlier timeslot to 8:00pm ET, followed by 24. Season 1 reached its completion on May 15, 2006. The return of Prison Break for its second season in the United States on August 21, 2006 retained its 8:00 ET timeslot. Canada has the same schedule as the United States via Global TV's simulcast.

Prison Break has also premiered in other countries around the world including non-English speaking countries - most of which are currently broadcasting the show's first season.

Plot

Main article: List of Prison Break episodes

Season 1

Lincoln Burrows is accused of the murder of Terrence Steadman, who is the brother of the female Vice President of the United States. With strong evidence supporting the charges of first degree murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm against him, Lincoln was sentenced to death (by electric chair). Although Lincoln adamantly asserted his innocence and that he was set up, he was sentenced to the Fox River prison facility to await his execution.

Lincoln's brother, Michael Scofield, is convinced that Lincoln could not have committed such a crime and hatches an escape plan. He designs a full-body tattoo that secretly encodes every last detail of the prison facility and has it tattooed onto his body. After destroying all the evidence at his apartment that could reveal his plan, Michael stages a bank robbery, knowing that he will be convicted and sent to Fox River. Once an inmate, time works against him as he must overcome various obstacles and make the right connections among the inmates and prison staff to be successful in breaking out his brother.

As Michael puts his plan to action inside the prison to save his brother, their childhood friend and lawyer, Veronica Donovan works on the outside to uncover the conspiracy that put Lincoln in jail. She begins to unravel a trail of mysterious incidences that results in her being pursued by covert agents. On the same night as Michael and Lincoln's successful escape from Fox River, Veronica finds the strongest piece of evidence to disprove Lincoln's murder charge - Terrence Steadman still alive.

Season 2

Eight hours after their escape from Fox River State Penitentiary, Michael and Lincoln are on the run. Among those who escaped with them are Sucre, Abruzzi, C-Note, T-Bag, Tweener, and Haywire. The eight fugitives are split up; each with their own objectives but also the same determination to reach Utah to retrieve Charles Westmoreland's hidden $5 million. Lincoln's quest for exoneration is hindered when Veronica is killed by Terrance Steadman's security detail after she found him hiding in Blackfoot, Montana.

Soon after the prison break, a federal agent, Alexander Mahone is assigned to track down and capture these eight escapees.^[8] Using the photographs of Michael's tattoos and other clues, Mahone is able to predict each of the fugitives' actions and to formulate traps to catch them. Matters become more complicated when Bellick and Geary join in the hunt for the fugitives and Westmoreland's money.

The "Fox River Eight", as they are now tagged by the media, continue on their separate ways. One by one, the fugitives are taken down by Agent Mahone. While Haywire reaches Wisconsin, suffering paranoid delusions, the others converge in Tooele, Utah, where they locate Westmoreland's buried treasure. Meanwhile, "The Company" continues their plan to locate and eliminate Lincoln Burrows, and others who get in their way.

Cast and characters

Main article: List of Prison Break characters

The series premiere had eight major speaking roles with star billing. Death-row inmate Lincoln Burrows is played by Dominic Purcell, while Michael Scofield, Lincoln's brother is played by Wentworth Miller. Robin Tunney was cast as Veronica Donovan, the brothers' childhood friend and lawyer. Amaury Nolasco plays Michael's Fox River cellmate, Fernando Sucre. Marshall Allman plays Lincoln's son, Lincoln "L.J." Burrows, Jr.. Peter Stormare was cast as John Abruzzi, a Fox River prisoner and Chicago mob boss. Brad Bellick, the captain of Fox River's correctional officers is played by Wade Williams with Sarah Wayne Callies portraying the prison doctor, Dr. Sara Tancredi. The eight initial main cast members were subsequently joined by Paul Adelstein, who plays Agent Paul Kellerman, a secret service agent involved in the conspiracy behind Lincoln's conviction. Robert Knepper and Rockmond Dunbar play Fox River prisoners, Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell and Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin respectively. After the thirteenth episode, Peter Stormare became a guest star with Rockmond Dunbar switching from being a recurring guest star to a regular cast member.

The second season began with eleven principal speaking roles with star billing. FBI agent Alexander Mahone, played by William Fichtner, was introduced and assigned to track the fugitives. This coincided with the quick exit of Robin Tunney, whose character was killed in the season premiere. There were other shifts in the casting with Jeff Perry replacing John Billingsley in the recurring role of Terrence Steadman as Billingsley has been cast as a regular on the ABC series The Nine. Camille Guaty, who played Sucre's girlfriend Maricruz Delgado, has also been cast on the same show.^[9] Similarly, Patricia Wettig, who plays Caroline Reynolds, has been cast on an ABC drama, Brothers and Sisters, and will not be seen for at least the first few episodes, but she may return during season 2.^[10]

Response

Critical reception and viewership

The following seasonal rankings are based on average total viewers per episode as recorded by Nielsen Media Research. The recording period begins in late September (the start of the U.S. network television season) and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Fox backed Prison Break with a large advertising campaign. The show debuted on August 29, 2005, to an estimated audience of 10.5 million viewers. Fox has not seen such success for summertime Monday numbers since Melrose Place and Ally McBeal aired in September of 1998. The two-hour premiere was credited as two episodes by the network.^[12] The premiere was the seventh most watched show in America that week according to Nielsen Research^[13], ranking first in both the 18-49 and 18-34 demographics.^[14] The strong debut performance was also matched by various positive reviews. According to The New York Times, Prison Break was "more intriguing than most of the new network series, and it certainly is one of the most original", complimenting on its ability to create a "suspenseful thriller" and its "authentic look".^[15] Entertainment Weekly has dubbed it as one of the best new shows of 2005.^[16] On the other hand, The Washington Post criticized the show for its "somber pretentiousness" and "uniformly overwrought" performances.^[17] The show regularly attracted an average audience of 10 million viewers each week and led the debuts of television in the 2005 American fall season.^[18] Prison Break was originally planned for a 13-episode run, but was extended to include an extra nine episodes due to its popularity.^[19]

The premiere of the second season of Prison Break obtained an average of 9.4 million viewers, down from 10.5 million for the series premiere in August 2005.^[20] The decline was steeper among young-adult viewers with a decrease of 20 percent in the 18-49 demographic compared to its series premiere, but its rating grew from a 3.6 to a 3.9 during the last half hour.^[21] A critic from USA Today commented on the "harebrained absurdities that have swamped this show", and blamed the writers for being "incredibly lazy" for the continuous use of the tattoo as an "all-purpose plot fix".^[22] Contrastingly, Detroit Free Press commended the second season premiere on matching the standard set by the first season, which delivered a "rocking good entertainment" due to its "motley crew of cellblock characters" and the "taut, ingenious storytelling of series creator Paul T. Scheuring and his staff."^[23] The broadcast of the second episode of the second season saw an improvement in audience numbers after receiving the highest number of viewers in the prime time slot with a 4.0 rating in the key 18-49 demographic.^[24]

International viewership

As the only new television series to be positioned in the top 20 television shows of 2005/2006 in Canada, Prison Break achieved an average of 876,000 in the key demographic of 18-49 and 1.4 million viewers nationally for its first season.^[25]

Following a huge advertising campaign on Australian television network, Seven, which hyped the success the show found in North America, Prison Break premiered on February 1, 2006 with an average audience of 1.94 million as well as making its peak with 2.09 million viewers.^[26] The hype of the show was later complemented with encore screenings in the second week, before being set into a concrete time of 8:30pm on Wednesday nights.

Ratings

Due to its storyline and setting, Prison Break's target audience is the 18-34 age group. The show contains adult content including violence, coarse language, sexual and drug references. Concerns have been raised by the Parents Television Council in the United States about the timeslot in which Prison Break is broadcast (8:00p.m.) since the show features scenes which contain graphic violence.^[27] The series is given a TV-14 rating in both the United States and Canada. A similar rating is also used in other countries. Prison Break is rated M in Australia, A+18 in Chile, PG in Hong Kong and PG13V in South Africa.

Awards

Wins

• 2006 People's Choice Award
  • Favorite New TV Drama

Nominations

• 2006 Golden Globe Award
  • Best Drama Television Series
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Drama Television Series - Wentworth Miller

• 2006 Eddie Award
  • Best Edited One-Hour Series for Commercial Television - Mark Helfrich (for the pilot episode)

• 2006 Saturn Award
  • Best Actor on Television - Wentworth Miller
  • Best Network Television Series

• 2006 Television Critics Association award
  • Best New Drama Series

• 2006 Primetime Emmy award
  • Outstanding Main Title Theme Music - Ramin Djawadi

DVD and other releases

DVD

Online

• On May 9, 2006, episodes of Prison Break were made available for purchase on the iTunes Music Store.
• After the premiere of the second season of Prison Break, Fox began allowing online streaming of the current episode for free via more than 50 websites including AOL, Google and Yahoo!, as well as its own extensive network. This is restricted to the United States only. The first three episodes of season 2 will be commercial free, available for 1 week after their television broadcast date.^[31]

Mobisodes

Main article: Prison Break mobisodes

A spinoff series of Prison Break has been made exclusively for mobile phones. The first mobisode of Prison Break: Proof of Innocence became available on the internet for viewing on 8 May 2006. This was an exclusive deal made between Toyota Motor and News Corporation's Fox network, allowing Toyota to sponsor exclusive content of the show and to obtain advertising exclusivity.

Trivia

• Actor Stacy Keach (Warden Henry Pope) was himself incarcerated for several months in Reading Prison in England for cocaine smuggling in the 1980s. The Warden of that prison would serve as the basis for Warden Pope.^[32]
• Actress Sarah Wayne Callies (Dr. Sara Tancredi) was the first actress the producers saw at the audition for the role of Sara Tancredi^[33] and was also the first to become a principal cast member.^[34] Conversely, both Wentworth Miller (Michael Scofield) and Dominic Purcell (Lincoln Burrows) were the last to join the main cast. Miller was chosen six days before the start of production and Purcell was cast three days later.^[33]
• Lincoln Burrows' cell is the same one that John Wayne Gacy was incarcerated in. According to interviews with Dominic Purcell most of production crew refuse to enter the cell and think that it is haunted.^[2]
• The success of the show has caused its producers to reevaluate stories for future seasons. Executive producer and writer, Paul T. Scheuring says, "With success comes questions about season three, so now we’re framing the first two seasons as chapter one of the ‘trilogy’."^[35]
• Some of the walk-on characters who played prisoners actually served time at the Joliet Prison.^[34]
• Silas Weir Michell (who plays the recurring role of Haywire) originally auditioned for the role of T-Bag. Although he did not get the role he was asked to read for the part of Haywire.

References

External links

Network sites

• Prison Break - Global - network site (Canada)
• Prison Break - Five - network site (United Kingdom)

Official tie-in sites

• European Gold Finch Dot Net - Fictional site dedicated to the European Gold Finch

Other sites

• Online streaming of episodes at MySpace
• Prison Break DVD - Official DVD website
• Prison Break at the TV IV
• Prison Break recaps and discussion at Television Without Pity
• Prison Break Wiki
• Prison Break on TV Squad