TF: It is centered on a sexual behavior seminar which is an elective course taken by freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors. The idea is some of them are very active sexual and some of them are virgins. You not only see what's going on in the classroom stuff but what they are dealing with in their lives. Surrounding that the faculty are some very interesting characters.

TF: Yes

TF: We are in the process of casting so I cannot really talk about any of that yet. But the majority of the cast will be unknown younger people along with some really good NY theater actors.

JD: You've done a lot of work in the "Theater" right?

TF: I started as a playwright. Back 29 years ago when William Shakespeare just started writing and I've done a lot work in the theater in stage production. I think it's great. I think it is a great foundation for anyone working in Television.

You put together one of the best casts on Tv for the television show Oz and it paid off tremendously. Along with the Sopranos & Sex in the city you really helped develop HBO as a legitimate alternative to network programming. What kind of things can we be expecting from the cast this time?

Well it's always hard to predict. You always want the best actors you can get. What you want are actors who not only play one thing but over the course of the series can give you a lot of different colors. In terms of the cast I think a lot of them will be young but very talented. Not just pre-faced. We just might find a couple of superstars.

That's great. I've noticed you shoot the majority of your show in NY. Do you find it's a great setting?

We'll I'm a New Yorker so for me it's not only a great setting it seeds the undercurrent of the shows. Not only that but I like to go to my favorite restaurants at the end of the day when we are done shooting. It's convenient for me to choose NY. I mean I live here and I love the city and I love the whole insanity of what we live with. There is no other place I have ever been that is like it so. Like I said it sets the whole undercurrent of the film. You take OZ and like I said it was just set on a prison on the east coast but just shooting in Manhattan and having it set in Manhattan and later in Bayonne it gives it a vibrancy that you wouldn't get from shooting in Toronto, L.A or Topeka. 

I'm so used to seeing the cast around town.

Without even having to say it's in NY you get a sense of the joy and the turbulence of being in NY.

I noticed you got your start on St. Elsewhere back in 82' with the late Bruce Paltrow. What was that like?

The late great my dear friend and my mentor Bruce Paltrow. It was very exciting. I had been a playwright and Bruce took an enormous gamble bringing me out to LA to work on the show. You talk about Alice in Wonderland I was just .. It was like overwhelming the difference working in Theater and working in Television and Bruce was incredibly generous and incredibly patient and demanding. He really taught me everything I know about how to make a television show I learned from him.

It was in terms of critically and in terms of the Ratings most of my shows are usually hovering between life or death. and that one we had some rough years and then we finally took hold but we we're always opposite Dynasty and Dallas.. Those were huge shows. Everybody wanted to know who shot JR not who got an appendectomy on St. Elsewhere.

You've really worked with the who's who of acting on your shows and I was wondering if there is anybody you would really like to work with who you haven't had the opportunity yet?

That's a hard question. Oh Boy. I would love to work with Jack Nicholson.. I'm trying to edit myself because.. I'm just going to say Jack Nicholson.

I've been particularly lucky on all the shows that I've worked with that the cast tended to be very ensemble and really took the word ensemble seriously . Again it's hard to say on OZ Dean Winters and Lee Turgesen were wonderful because in a very subtle way they were the leaders of the cast. I don't want to say leaders of the show because they we're really an ensemble but they really when a new actor cam onto the show they really took care of them and they had to past Dean and Lee's mustard. It was interesting to see that happen. They we're protective of the show and the other actors, and that was very exciting for me.

I worked with both of them on Homicide as guest star parts. I also directed Lee in a play years ago. I know them both and wrote the parts with them in mind. The show became a huge part of them and they felt responsible for the show and the other actors

It wasn't to piss on the other actors on OZ because we had a great group of people. Vernie and Terry and Rita and Damon was a gift from the gods.

There were tons of great actors in there you always want to see in bigger parts but you never do.

I was lucky but I've been lucky all the way back to St. Elsewhere. I'm spoiled by working with really terrific actors. You look at St. Elsewhere and there was Alfrey Woodard and Denzel Washington, and Ed Flanders, Bill Daniels, Norman Lloyd and Bill Forrest. You know it was a great group of actors to write for. Homicide was the same thing, Andre and Kyle and Clark and that whole crazy bunch so I've been very lucky to have such great actors to write for.

It definitely helps.

It does especially for a show like OZ . If the actors are fearless it gives me the courage to write something I might not have written if the actors were more worried about their fan club or image than what the show was about.

I've notice your sort of know for bridging the gap between 2 shows like you did on the Jury and OZ. What is that like?

On one hand if you find an actor your in synch with you want to work with them again. So I am always like I feel like I have this repertoire company that a carry with me from show to show.  The other thing is that I think that TV it's not a lot of little pieces it's one big big mosaic. To me all of Television sets into the mosaic so it's fun for me to bring a cast from one show into another show.

I love that episode.

I was fun because some of those people hadn't seen each other in a while and we shot it on the same sound stage we shot OZ. SO it was a real homecoming for a lot of them.

In terms of?

One of the most bizarre conversations Lee Turgesen and I ever had on the set .. His character was taking a poop in the toilet in the cell.. This is stupid why am I telling you this.. This is so stupid. Anyway we had a conversation about whether he while he was wiping his butt whether would face out or whether he would look back towards the toilet .. and part of it was because we were trying to figure out where the camera was going to be. But we got into this psychological discussion about men who wipe facing out and men who wipe facing the toilet.

How did it end up?