Alcatraz (TV series) Alcatraz (TV series) Alcatraz is an American television series created by Elizabeth Sarnoff, Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, and produced by J. J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions. The series premiered on Fox on January 16, 2012, as a mid-season replacement. Switching between eras, the series focuses on the Alcatraz prison, which was shut down in 1963 due to unsafe conditions for its prisoners and guards. The show's premise is that both the prisoners and the guards disappeared in 1963 and have abruptly reappeared in modern-day San Francisco, where they are being tracked down by a government agency, to prevent
Alcatraz Island in popular culture E. Gaddis and then adapted into a film in 1962, with Burt Lancaster playing the lead role. The 1995 film "Murder in the First" depicts a man who spends three years in solitary confinement at the prison. One of the prisoners, Kyle Oberholzer, was charged with rape, murder and fornicating. Many films and television series have exploited Alcatraz Island's reputation as a prison from which it was almost impossible to escape. Don Siegel's 1979 thriller "Escape from Alcatraz" chronicles the story of Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, who escaped from Alcatraz in 1962, although it is not