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BUMMER

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Unlike most TV producers, Tom Fontana was
not
surprised by last week's announcement that his raw, uncompromising HBO
prison
drama "Oz" was ending after the next run of eight episodes in early
2003,
making a total of 56 hours over six seasons.

"It was partly my decision," he said. "Chris [Albrecht, president, HBO
Original
Programming] and I talked. God love HBO, I've never been in a position
where
I've been asked if I wanted to stop. Usually it's the other way."

"It's unlike 'Homicide: Life on the Street,' where we kept being
strung along
[by NBC], so when I wrote the last episode, I had to write half of a
series
finale and half of a season finale. It's more like when 'St.
Elsewhere' went
off, and we were able to give it the closure that, I think, most hour
shows
should have."

"It was a real conversation [with HBO]. Chris had as many reasons for
not
canceling the show as he had for canceling it. He really included me
in the
whole process."

There was talk about the show ending after season four, when a
real-estate deal
tossed the production out of its Manhattan home at Chelsea Market. In
the end,
HBO agreed to rebuild the show's prison sets at a former military base
outside
of Bayonne, N.J., where production has already begun on the final
season.

Set almost entirely (with only occasional forays outside) in the
fictional
Oswald State Correctional Facility, the show focuses on the intense
and
frequently bloody struggles for survival and power among correctional
officers,
inmates and prison officials. Staging a drama in such a contained
setting is
hard enough, and Fontana didn't want to repeat himself.

"I felt so good about this season -- and I feel so good about this
season that
we're shooting now -- that my attitude is, 'I really want to go out
when I'm
feeling good about the show. I don't want to have stayed too long at
the dance.
Besides, I'm running out of ways of killing people.'"

With uncertainty at the end of season four, Fontana debated granting
parole to
convict Beecher (Lee Tergesen), and shot two endings. When the show
was
renewed, though, Beecher's moments of freedom were but a dream, and he
stayed
put.

"I'm going to shoot several endings to several stories this year,"
Fontana
says. "I did that before. That's when Beecher got out but didn't get
out. I
ended up liking the getting-out stuff so much, when we knew the show
was coming
back, I said, 'I'll just use it all.' This time what I'll do is just
shoot a
couple of different endings to different stories, then make up my mind
when I'm
editing."

Like many TV producers, Fontana suffers from frequent Internet
spoilers and
rumors, to the point of scripts for as-yet-unaired episodes going up
for sale.

"That makes me crazy," he says, "because I don't know where they're
coming
from."

He also doesn't understand the notion of spoilers. "How pathetic is
someone's
life that they have to justify their existence by revealing stuff
about a
television show? I'm not just talking about 'Oz,' I'm talking about
any
television show. That gives them somehow importance in the world."

"It's sad. It makes me sad, because I think, 'Wow, that's what it
takes for
them to get off.' I hope, at least, going into the last season, that
people are
a little more restrained in their sharing."

One question plaguing "Oz" viewers is the fate of jailed
televangelist
Jeremiah Cloutier (Luke Perry), who, despite severe burns, simply
disappeared
from the prison's hospital ward (only to appear in visions to
prisoners,
completely healed).

While the practical explanation is that Perry headed off to Canada to
shoot the
Showtime sci-fi series "Jeremiah" (just a coincidence), Fontana
promises
resolution. "We've danced around fantasy on and off since the
beginning, but on
the other hand, there's a very practical answer to this question,
which will be
revealed at the end of next season."

Fontana, who jokes that he was "raised by Jesuits," has always said
that "Oz"
is about "sin and redemption." In season six, it's only more so.

"It's more to do with redemption and retribution than probably ever
before.
When you say, 'OK, what is the end of the Beecher story or the O'Reily
story?',
you want to come to a conclusion. You want to do the math and say,
'This is
what six seasons of this man's life have led to.'"

"There are summations, if you will, about certain key characters. That
isn't to
say everything is resolved in a cheap or cheesy way, it's the natural
conclusion to various stories."