The first season of ''

Prison Break ''Prison Break'' is an American serial (radio and television), serial drama television show, television series created by Paul Scheuring for Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. The series revolves around two brothers, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purce ...

'', an American serial drama television series, commenced airing in the United States and Canada on August 29, 2005, on Mondays at 9:00 p.m. ( EST) on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

. ''Prison Break'' is produced by Adelstein-Parouse Productions, in association with Rat Entertainment, Original Film and

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...

. The season contains 22 episodes, and concluded on May 15, 2006. In addition to the 22 regular episodes, a special, " Behind the Walls", was aired on October 11, 2005. ''Prison Break'' revolves around two brothers: Lincoln Burrows, who has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit and his younger brother Michael Scofield, a genius who devises an elaborate plan to help him escape prison by purposely getting himself imprisoned. A total of ten actors received

star billing Billing is a performing arts term used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television, or other creative works. Information given in billing usually consists of the companies, actors, directo ...

in the first season, with numerous supporting roles. Filming took place mostly in and around the Chicago area; Fox River was represented by Joliet Prison, which had closed in 2002. Critical reviews of the first season were generally favorable. The first season was released on DVD in Region One as a six-disc boxed set under the title of ''Prison Break: Season One'' on August 8, 2006.

Cast

Main characters

Dominic Purcell Dominic Haakon Myrtved PurcellO'Connor, B,Break Out". ''Men's Fitness''. December/January 2007 Issue; retrieved 18 December 2006. (born 17 February 1970) is a British-Australian actor. He is best known for his portrayals of Lincoln Burrows in F ...

as Lincoln Burrows * Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield * Robin Tunney as Veronica Donovan *

Peter Stormare Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm (born August 27, 1953), better known as Peter Stormare (), is a Swedish actor who holds both Swedish and American citizenship. He played Gaear Grimsrud in the film '' Fargo'' (1996) and John Abruzzi in the television ser ...

John Abruzzi This is a list of characters in the American television series ''Prison Break''. The characters are listed alphabetically by their last name or by the name which appears in the episode credits. Overview : = Main cast (credited) : = Recurrin ...

* Amaury Nolasco as Fernando Sucre * Marshall Allman as

L.J. Burrows This is a list of characters in the American television series ''Prison Break''. The characters are listed alphabetically by their last name or by the name which appears in the episode credits. Overview : = Main cast (credited) : = Recurrin ...

* Wade Williams as Captain Brad Bellick * Paul Adelstein as Secret Service Agent Paul Kellerman * Robert Knepper as Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell *

Rockmond Dunbar Rockmond Dunbar (born January 11, 1973) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Baines on the NBC series '' Earth 2'', Kenny Chadway on Showtime family drama ''Soul Food'', and Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin on the Fox crime drama '' ...

Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin, played by Rockmond Dunbar, is a fictional character from the American television series, '' Prison Break''. The character was introduced as a prisoner in the pilot episode. The actor was promoted from a recu ...

* Sarah Wayne Callies as Dr.

Sara Tancredi This is a list of characters in the American television series ''Prison Break''. The characters are listed alphabetically by their last name or by the name which appears in the episode credits. Overview : = Main cast (credited) : = Recurrin ...

Recurring characters

Episodes

Production

Crew

The season was produced by Adelstein-Parouse Productions, in association with Original Television and

. The executive producers were creator Paul Scheuring, Marty Adelstein,

Neal H. Moritz Neal H. Moritz (born June 6, 1959) is an American film producer and founder of Original Film. He has produced over 70 major motion pictures which have grossed a total of over $11 billion worldwide as of 2021. He is best known for the ''Fast & Fu ...

, Dawn Parouse, Brett Ratner and Matt Olmstead. The staff writers were Scheuring, co-executive producers Nick Santora and Zack Estrin, supervising producer Karyn Usher and Olmstead. The regular director throughout the season was Bobby Roth; additional directors were Jace Alexander, Matt Earl Beesley and

Dwight H. Little Dwight Hubbard Little (born January 13, 1956) is an Americans, American film director, film and television director, known for directing the films ''Marked for Death'', ''Rapid Fire (1992 film), Rapid Fire'', ''Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home'', ...

. Its incidental music was composed by Ramin Djawadi.

Filming

Most of the first season of the series was filmed on location in and around Chicago.Ryan, Maureen,
Joliet prison is a 'Break'-out star
, '' The Chicago Tribune''. August 24, 2005. Retrieved on December 5, 2005. After it was closed down in 2002, Joliet Prison became the set of ''Prison Break'' in 2005, standing in 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.Set Visit: Prison Break
'' IGN''. March 17, 2006. Retrieved on September 14, 2006. Lincoln's cell is the same one in which John Wayne Gacy was incarcerated. Most of the production crew refused to enter the cell, thinking that it was haunted. Other sets were built at the prison, including the cell blocks that housed the general prison population; these blocks had three tiers of cells (as opposed to the real cell block's two) and had cells much larger than real cells to allow more space for the actors and cameras. Exterior scenes were filmed in areas around Chicago, Woodstock, and Joliet in Illinois. Other locations included

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, ...

in Chicago and Toronto, Ontario in Canada. ''Prison Break'' spent $2 million per episode in the state of Illinois, which cost them a total of $24 million in 2005.

Release

Critical reception

The season has a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the site's consensus stating: "''Prison Break'' is confident pulp with a crackerjack premise that spreads thinly enough to smooth over the show's more lunkheaded flourishes." Metacritic gave the season a score—a weighted average based on the impressions of a select 32 critical reviews—of 65. Based on its strong opening, '' The New York Times'' dubbed ''Prison Break'' "more intriguing than most of the new network series, and ... one of the most original" and a "suspenseful thriller", complementing its "authentic look". '' Entertainment Weekly'' called it an "original drama", noting the show's "edge-of-the-seat action". '' The Washington Post'' criticized the show for its "somber pretentiousness" and "uniformly overwrought erformances.

Ratings

The two-hour

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

garnered approximately 10.5 million viewers, giving Fox its "best summertime Monday numbers since episodes of ''

Melrose Place ''Melrose Place'' is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on Fox from July 8, 1992, to May 24, 1999, for seven seasons. The show follows the lives of a group of young adults living in an apartment complex on Melrose Place, in ...

'' and '' Ally McBeal'' aired there in September 1998." The show's first season attracted an average audience of 10 million viewers each week, with "End of the Tunnel" reaching 12 million viewers, and led the debuts of television in the 2005 American fall season. ''Prison Break'' was originally planned for a 13-episode run, but was extended to include an extra nine episodes due to its popularity.

Home media release

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prison Break Season 1 2005 American television seasons 2006 American television seasons Prison Break episodes Prison Break