On this day in 1943, Four convicts attempted to escape from Alcatraz prison. Two were drowned in San Francisco Bay after being shot and the other two were recaptured. The pun here is that it was bad luck for them to get recaptured.
From this though I would like to talk about the television series based on the Alcatraz prison, also ironically called Alcatraz. It was claimed that this show would be unlike any other crime/police drama on TV. That it would redefine audiences thinking in regards to the prison and its history. I've only seen the show once but for me I felt that it wasn't that different from any other crime show. I'm not sure if this is because of my blatant disregard for crime/police shows (there are just so many of them!!) or if the promos for Alcatraz lied (wow, what a surprise).
However, the series has lived up to one promise. The public interest in the actual Alcatraz prison has increased so much that the National Park Service responsible of maintenance of the prison has had to install warning signs for it public tours. Fans of the TV show have broken away from tours in attempts to find the "nerve centre" that is shown to be underneath the prison on the show. The signs read: "The TV show Alcatraz is fictional. Many areas it depicts are not real. Closed areas protect you, historic structures and nesting birds."
The nesting birds may or may not be there, but the idea that people would actually believe everything that is shown on TV is a little disconcerting.
The again, I believed it would be different from other crime shows.
Image available: http://www.magx.com/places/alcatraz-the-legendary-prison.html
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