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{{Infobox television episode
 | image= Ortolani The Routine Oz.jpg
 | image_size= 250
 | caption= Dino Ortolani introduces Tobias Beecher to Emerald City
  | series=[[Oz (TV series)|Oz]]
 | season=1
 | episode=1
 | airdate={{Start date|1997|07|12}}
 | production=101
 | writer=[[Tom Fontana]]
 | director=[[Darnell Martin]]
 | episode_list=List of Oz episodes
 | next=Visits, Conjugal and Otherwise
}}

"'''The Routine'''" is the pilot and first episode of the [[HBO]] prison drama television series ''[[Oz (TV series)|Oz]]''.<ref name="Oz book">{{Cite book|author=HarperEntertainment |title=Oz: behind these walls: the journal of Augustus Hill |publisher=HarperEntertainment |location=New York |year=2003 |isbn=0-06-052133-3 |oclc=51241977}}</ref> Written by [[Tom Fontana]] and directed by [[Darnell Martin]], it aired originally on July 12, 1997.

==Starring==
* [[Ernie Hudson]] as [[Leo Glynn|Warden Leo Glynn]]
* [[Terry Kinney]] as [[Tim McManus]]
* [[Harold Perrineau, Jr.]] as [[Augustus Hill]]
* [[Eamonn Walker]] as [[Kareem Said]]

=== Also starring ===
* [[Kirk Acevedo]] as [[Miguel Alvarez (Oz)|Miguel Alvarez]]
* [[Edie Falco]] as [[Diane Whittlesey|Correctional Officer Diane Whittlesey]]
* [[Leon Robinson|Leon]] as [[Jefferson Keane]]
* [[Rita Moreno]] as [[Sister Peter Marie Reimondo]]
* [[Tony Musante]] as [[Nino Schibetta]]
* [[J. K. Simmons]] as [[Vernon Schillinger|Vern Schillinger]]
* [[Lee Tergesen]] as [[Tobias Beecher]]
* [[Sean Whitesell]] as [[Donald Groves]]
* [[Dean Winters]] as [[Ryan O'Reily]]

===Guest starring===
* [[Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje]] as [[Simon Adebisi]]
* [[George Morfogen]] as [[Bob Rebadow]]
* [[muMs da Schemer]] as [[Arnold "Poet" Jackson]]
* [[Jon Seda]] as [[Dino Ortolani]]
* Jose Soto as [[List of characters from Oz - inmates#Emilio Sánchez|Emilio Sánchez]]
* [[Desiree Marie Velez]] as [[List of characters from Oz - friends and family#Jeanie Ortolani|Jeanie Ortolani]]
* [[Lauren Vélez]] as Dr. [[Gloria Nathan]]

===Co-starring===
* [[O. L. Duke]] as [[Paul Markstrom]]
* Goodfella Mike G as [[Joey D'Angelo]]
* Tim McAdams as [[Johnny Post]]
* [[Steve Ryan (actor, born 1947)|Steve Ryan]] as [[Mike Healy (Oz)|CO Mike Healy]]
* Philip Scozzarella as [[Joseph Mineo|CO Joseph Mineo]]
* Derrick Simmons as [[List of characters from Oz - inmates#Billy Keane|Billy Keane]]

==Plot==
[[Augustus Hill]], the series' [[narrator]], introduces the audience to Cell Block 5 of the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary ("Oz"). Nicknamed "[[Emerald City]]" or "Em City," the experimental block is designed to rehabilitate select inmates by allowing them certain privileges in exchange for greater surveillance. The violence of Oz is demonstrated right away as new inmate [[Miguel Alvarez (Oz)|Miguel Alvarez]] is [[shank (weapon)|shanked]] before even being brought inside, horrifying fellow arrival [[Tobias Beecher]]. The violence upsets Em City's unit manager, [[Tim McManus]], who asks [[Prison warden|Warden]] [[Leo Glynn]] to allow the [[Human cannibalism|cannibal]]istic killer [[Donald Groves]] into Em City, believing no inmate is a lost cause. Glynn reluctantly agrees on the condition that drug dealer [[Paul Markstrom]], his own wayward cousin, be brought there as well.

[[Correctional officer]] [[Diane Whittlesey]] assigns the arrivals to their "sponsors", veteran prisoners who at least nominally look after them and ensure they integrate appropriately. Groves is assigned the kindly [[Bob Rebadow]]; Markstrom's sponsor is [[Jefferson Keane]], a fellow "Homeboy"; and Beecher is given [[Italian-American]] [[American Mafia|mobster]] [[Dino Ortolani]]. Ortolani is not interested in babysitting the anxious Beecher, but gives him basic pointers for surviving Oz. Glynn informs the inmates that cigarettes will be confiscated due to new state laws. Beecher is alarmed to find cellmate [[Simon Adebisi]] rifling through his possessions. Adebisi intimidates Beecher when he tries to stop it, and threatens to [[rape]] him at bedtime.

An unassuming-looking prisoner named [[Vernon Schillinger]] suggests that Beecher appeal to McManus to move out of Adebisi's pod, implying that Schillinger will gladly take Beecher into his own. Unfortunately, Beecher soon realizes Schillinger belongs to the [[Aryan Brotherhood]] and that he has just become Schillinger's "livestock." That night, Schillinger tattoos a [[swastika]] onto a petrified Beecher's buttocks. The following morning, McManus complains about the draconian laws passed by [[Governor (United States)|Governor]] [[Governor Devlin|James Devlin]], saying that banning cigarettes will make the inmates uncooperative. [[Kareem Said]], a radical [[African-American Muslims|black Muslim]] leader convicted of [[arson]], arrives at Em City. Keane and Adebisi try to intimidate Said out of his anti-drug preaching, but Said purposefully injures himself to display his determination.

Ortolani, plagued by [[insomnia]] and violent [[flashback (psychology)|flashback]]s, puts in a request for a [[conjugal visit]] with his wife. Later, he is furious to find out that [[Irish-American]] hoodlum [[Ryan O'Reily]], the victim of the assault which landed Ortolani in Oz, is coming to the same prison. Upon arriving, O'Reily sets out to arrange a [[contract killing|hit]] on Ortolani. After getting into a bloody fight with gay inmate Billy Keane in the showers, Ortolani tries to flirt with Dr. [[Gloria Nathan]] in the infirmary. McManus punishes Ortolani by assigning him to work with the gay inmates in the [[AIDS]] ward. Nathan hates working with Ortolani and thinks McManus can't change people like him. Nonetheless, McManus successfully asks Nathan to dinner with him.

Since Ortolani had attacked his brother, Jefferson Keane agrees to O'Reily's hit. When Ortolani reacts poorly to working in the AIDS ward, McManus vindictively cancels his conjugal visit, replacing it with a behind-the-glass visit between Ortolani and his family. Ortolani tells his wife to go on with her life as though he were dead. During Ortolani's next round in the AIDS ward, he is told by a patient named Emilio Sanchez that he wants to die. In the restroom, Ortolani and O'Reily get into a fight. That night, Ortolani suffocates Sanchez in a [[mercy killing]] and is beaten, tranquilized, and left in [[solitary confinement]] by the guards. As he is sleeping, a [[bribery|bribed]] guard lets one of Keane's henchmen, [[Johnny Post]], pour lighter fluid on Ortolani and set him on fire. A dejected McManus examines the photos of Ortolani's corpse.<ref name="HBOepisode">{{cite web
|url=http://www.hbo.com/oz/episodes/1/01-the-routine/synopsis.html
|title=HBO: Oz: 1.01 The Routine: Synopsis
|publisher=[[HBO]]
|access-date=2014-04-11}}</ref><ref name="Oz book" />

==Crime flashbacks==
More prominent prisoners in ''Oz'' are given a stylized "crime flashback," narrated by Augustus Hill, depicting the crime for which they were incarcerated. The flashbacks of the debut episode were:
* '''[[Tobias Beecher]]''' - driving while intoxicated and vehicular manslaughter of a minor.
* '''[[Kareem Said]]''' - arson in the second degree.
* '''[[Dino Ortolani]]''' - murder in the first degree and assault with a deadly weapon ([[Ryan O'Reily]] wounded).

==Production==
{{quote box|width=40em|quote="<...>there's something in the first episode. As I was writing it, I had to close my eyes; because I didn't want to see myself writing the words I had to write down. And the actor. The poor actor. [laughs] He read the script, and he called me up, and he went: "Now, you...this is a joke, right? You're not really doing this?"|source=–[[Tom Fontana]] about his commitment to daring, taboo-breaking writing that would become the signature of the series<ref name="ProducNotes" />}}

Creator [[Tom Fontana]] pitched the idea of ''Oz'' to the cable channel HBO after years of dissatisfaction working within the constraints of network television and their expression-limiting censoring requirements.<ref name=EW>{{Cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/1997/07/11/behind-scenes-oz/ |title=Nasty As He Wanna Be |author=Bruce Fretts |date=11 July 1997 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=2014-04-13}}</ref> Executive producer [[Barry Levinson]] had visited penal institutions, such as the [[Baltimore City Jail]] and the [[Maryland House of Correction]], before when researching for his previous TV series and felt that the prison was an intimidating and scary place with many stories to tell and that a dedicated TV series about the subject matter had never been done before.<ref name="ProducNotes">{{Cite web|url=http://www.levinson.com/lf/oz/prod.htm |title=Oz Production Notes |access-date=2014-04-13 }}</ref> HBO felt that they had had success with their previous prison-themed documentaries and decided to commission ''Oz'' as their very first hour-long dramatic series. Fontana felt extremely liberated and satisfied writing for ''Oz'', developing graphic scenes and breaking taboos with which, he says, he would have never gotten away in network TV. HBO constructed prison sets inside a warehouse near the [[Meatpacking District, Manhattan|Manhattan's Meatpacking District]].<ref name=EW /> The opening credits of the show feature Tom Fontana himself getting the "Oz" tattoo.<ref name="ProducNotes" />

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
* [http://www.hbo.com/oz/episodes/1/01-the-routine/synopsis.html "The Routine"] at [[HBO]]

{{Oz (TV series)}}

[[Category:1997 American television episodes|Routine, The]]
[[Category:American television series premieres|Routine, The]]
[[Category:Oz (TV series)|Routine, The]]