Escaping into the world of “Prison Break” just got easier.
Tuesday’s DVD debut of the show’s get-outta-jail first season ($59.98) has become business as usual for Fox, which turned TV’s first quick gratification trick in 2002 with “24.”
It used to be at least a one- year gap, and often longer, between the end of an ongoing show’s most recent season and the release of a companion disc collection. But Fox cannily changed that equation by selling “24’s” first coming as a way to whet appetites for the real-
time thriller’s second season. The strategy worked spectacularly, so here comes “Prison Break” on DVD less than three months after its on-the-lam cons left fans hanging in mid-May.
“Prison Break” is in the second month of filming its entire sophomore season in North Texas. The show returns Aug. 21, making speed of the essence for those who want a full 22-episode refresher course plus extras.
A six-disc set features full commentaries on six of those episodes, with two different tracks on four of them. By all means catch the freewheeling banter between executive producer Paul Scheuring and co-star Dominic Purcell on “Prison Break’s” pilot.
OK, they’re prone to saying that each and every actor is either “fantastic” or “great.” But you also can learn a lot about how the series was constructed. Or you can just enjoy the banter, as when Scheuring says it was “like manna from heaven” when Purcell auditioned for the role of wrongly imprisoned Lincoln Burrows just four days before filming began.
“C’mon, tell the truth,” Purcell rejoins. “The first time you saw me, you thought, ‘Who … is this cheesy guy with surfer boy hair?”‘ Purcell, previously better known as the star of Fox’s “John Doe” series, took a shot at “Prison Break” after toiling on the network’s short-lived, sub-awful “North Shore,” which was filmed in Hawaii.
From surfing to a real-life cell block in the Joliet Correctional Center is a jarring transition, but occasional conjugal visits are worked into the script.
“Add a little sexuality to a prison show and its not man-on-man love, it’s kinda neat,” Scheuring says of a dressed-
down scene in the pilot between jailed Fernando Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) and his strikingly sculpted fiancée.
“Working on ‘Prison Break,’ you’re surrounded by disgustingly ugly men 24 hours a day,” Purcell jests. “It’s very refreshing when a beautiful young lady … comes into the show.”
Heartthrob Wentworth Miller, who plays Burrows’ younger brother, Michael Scofield, surprisingly is not among the 18 actors, producers and directors contributing commentaries. But he’s interviewed in two behind-
the-scenes extras, most notably on the complex, full upper torso tattoo he’s required to wear whenever he’s shirtless. It takes 4 1/2 hours to apply and must be scrubbed off daily.
“I’m lucky I’m not on Star Trek’ wearing a freakin’ headpiece or something,” Miller says. “That’d be a lot worse.” All concerned say they’re looking forward to the show’s breakout second season.
“There should be lots of wine, women and song, I think,” says Scheuring.
Purcell is ready to rise to those occasions. Or, as he enthusiastically puts it, “Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah!”
