Under McManus and Warden Leo Glynn, the inmates in Em City all struggle to fulfill their own needs. Emerald City is an extremely controlled environment in which there is a carefully managed number of members of each racial and social group, with the hope of easing tensions among these various groups. In this experimental unit of the prison, unit manager Tim McManus attempts to emphasize rehabilitation and learning responsibility during incarceration, as opposed to pure punishment. Many of the plot arcs are set in "Emerald City" ("Em City"), also a concept from The Wizard of Oz. In contrast, the series has used the tagline: "It's no place like home". The nickname is a reference to the classic film Wizard of Oz, which is notable for popularizing the phrase: "There's no place like home". "Oz" is the nickname for the Oswald State Correctional Facility, formerly Oswald State Penitentiary, a fictional maximum-security prison ( level 4). The show was filmed in New York City, New York and later Bayonne, New Jersey. The series finale aired February 23, 2003. Oz premiered on Jand ran for six seasons.
It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes (and received the actual OZ tattoo that was filmed for the credits).