Prison Break

Prison Break

Prison Break is an American television serial drama created by Paul Scheuring, that was broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company for four seasons, from 2005 until 2009. The series revolves around two brothers; one has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other devises an...

is an American serial drama

Serial (radio and television)

Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...

 television series that premiered on the television network

Television network

A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

 Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 on August 29, 2005 and finished its final season on May 15, 2009. The series was simulcast

Simulcast

Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...

 on Global

Global Television Network

Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...

 in Canada and is broadcast in dozens of countries worldwide. Prison Break is produced by Adelstein-Parouse Productions, in association with Rat Television, Original Television and 20th Century Fox Television

20th Century Fox Television

20th Century Fox Television is the television production division of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, and a production arm of the Fox Broadcasting Company...

. The series revolves around two brothers: Michael Scofield

Michael Scofield

Michael J. Scofield is the main protagonist in the American television series Prison Break. He is portrayed by Wentworth Miller. The character first appeared in the series pilot as a man who stages a bank robbery in order to get sent into the prison where his older brother, Lincoln Burrows , is...

 (Wentworth Miller

Wentworth Miller

Wentworth Earl Miller III is an English-born American actor; model and screenwriter who rose to stardom following his role as Michael Scofield in the Fox Network television series Prison Break.-Early life:...

) and Lincoln Burrows

Lincoln Burrows

Lincoln Burrows, played by Dominic Purcell, is one of the main protagonists of the American television series, Prison Break. The plot of Prison Break revolves around Lincoln Burrows' setup for the murder of the vice president's brother and his brother's plan to help him escape his death sentence....

 (Dominic Purcell). In the first season, Lincoln is sentenced to death

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

 for a crime he did not commit, and Michael deliberately incarcerates himself to help him escape prison. Season two focuses on the manhunt of the prison escapees, season three revolves around Michael's breakout from a Panamanian jail, and the fourth and final season unravels the criminal conspiracy that imprisoned Lincoln.

A total of 81 episodes of Prison Break have been aired, in addition to three special making-of

Making-of

In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...

 episodes. The first season aired from August 29, 2005 to May 15, 2006, with a four month break after Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...

. The second season, which premiered on August 21, 2006, had a similar schedule as the first, although it had a shorter break. After an eight-week hiatus, the second season resumed on January 22, 2007 before ending on April 2, 2007. The third season began on September 17, 2007, with an eight episode run. The show's third season went on hiatus over the 2007 Christmas period because of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike

2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike

The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, more commonly referred to as simply the Writers' Strike, was a strike by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West ....

. It resumed on January 14, 2008, and the last five episodes of the season were aired. The fourth season, consisting of 22 episodes, began airing in September 2008, stopped in December 2008, and resumed on April 17, 2009.

The first three seasons of Prison Break have been released on DVD in Regions

DVD region code

DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...

 1, 2, and 4, and also on Blu-ray. Each DVD boxed set includes all of the broadcast episodes from that season, the associated special episode, commentary from cast and crew, and profiles of various parts of Prison Break, such as Fox River State Penitentiary

Fox River State Penitentiary

Fox River State Penitentiary is a fictional level five maximum-security prison featured prominently in the first season of the television series, Prison Break. The real-life representation of the prison is Joliet Prison, which is located in Joliet, Illinois...

 or the tattoo. Prison Break is also available on several formats besides just TV and DVD. Episodes of Prison Break are available for purchase online via iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 or Amazon Unbox

Amazon Unbox

Amazon Instant Video is an Internet video on demand service, only available in the United States, offered by Amazon.com which offers television shows and films for rental and purchase. The service became available on September 7, 2006 as Amazon Unbox...

. After the premiere of the second season of Prison Break, Fox began online streaming of the prior week's episode, though it originally restricted viewing to the United States.

Series overview

Season		Episodes	Originally aired		DVD and Blu-ray releases
			Season premiere Season premiere In North America, a season premiere is the first episode of a new season of a given television show. It often airs in September or October, after several months of reruns.-Evaluating the changes:...	Season finale Season finale A season finale is the final episode of a season of a television program...	Region 1 DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...	Region 2 DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...	Region 4 DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...	Blu-ray
	1	22	August 29, 2005	May 15, 2006	August 8, 2006	September 18, 2006	September 12, 2006	November 13, 2007
	2	22	August 21, 2006	April 2, 2007	September 4, 2007	August 20, 2007	September 19, 2007
	3	13	September 17, 2007	February 18, 2008	August 12, 2008	May 19, 2008	December 11, 2008	August 12, 2008
	4	24	September 1, 2008	May 15, 2009	June 2, 2009	July 6, 2009	July 15, 2009

Specials

#	Title	Narrated by	Original air date