LA Times: Fringe Q&A with Jeff Pinkner

The LA Times Blog has an interview with Jeff Pinkner, the co-executive producer for Fringe, which was just picked up for a full season by Fox. Pinkner discusses how getting picked up for a full season affected the show, hidden Easter eggs, scientific accuracy in the series, and the necessity of exploding heads in a program about science.

Fringe: A Q&A with Jeff Pinkner
Patrick Kevin Day

Q. How did getting picked up for a full season change your planning on the show?

A. If we had only done 13 episodes, I think we all would have been immensely disappointed. The story that we’ve created for this show is a multi-year story. We started by figuring out what the ending was. If we’d only done 13 episodes, I don’t think there would have been a way to satisfyingly move everything up that quickly. The answer is, it doesn’t change our long-term plans, except it allows us to see our long-term plans through.

Q: Did you have a tentative 13th episode ending planned?

A: No, to a degree that would have been planning for failure. And we were all hoping for success.

Q: How many years do you have planned?

A: 75. It will go on longer than any of us. [laughs] No, it’s sort of like an accordian file. There are roads we would love to explore if we have the time. The basic framework I don’t want to say out loud because I think it’s a jinx.

Q: Will the format of Fringe evolve over time the way Lost has?

A: I think of Lost as a show that feels like it's changed, but the change is inevitable. It started on the island, then it went into the island and now it’s about protecting the island. Our show, the basic format will not change as drastically, but it will definitely feel like a deepening and enriching of the story we’re telling.

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Q: The first few episodes of the season seemed a bit repetitive. But the Observer, introduced in the fourth episode, really changed the scope of the show. Was his late introduction intentional?

A: In some ways the show is an experiment for us. We are not, by our own admission, the best at telling stand-alone stories. Because we’re fundamentally attracted to creating worlds, which inherently have an epic scope. While shows like Law & Order are spectacular, it doesn’t have the same epic quality of say, Harry Potter.

It’s our goal to both tell stories, where if you’ve seen nothing before and nothing after, you’ll see a very satisfying 50 minutes of television. But if you have seen what’s come before, you have a whole other level of appreciation.

We set out to populate our world from the start with characters and little mysteries that will only pay off over time. There’s things in the pilot that won’t pay off until Season 3.

I can tell you that there’s almost nothing that’s accidental on the show. There’s no throw-away lines of dialogue, the Observer being in shots is not an accident. There’s Easter eggs all over the place. Many of them are just for the fun of people who want to play along. Several of them have yet to be discovered. But they’re not necessary for the enjoyment of the show. They’re really just for run. If you were to crack the code, it will raise the level of satisfaction, hopefully. For example, in every episode there’s a clue about what the next episode is going to be about.

Q: Can you give a specific example?

A: In the pilot of the show, if you watch carefully in the establishing shot of Massive Dynamic, there’s a sign on the post that’s a little rebus of a pen and a rose. The serial killer’s dad in the second episode is Dr. Penrose. There’s little fun things like that in every episode.

Q: What can you tell us about what we’ll be seeing in the next few weeks?

A: The next episode is a foundational episode, and a lot of things will be set up which will come to pay off over the next several weeks. The next four episodes are stand-alone in quality, but at the same time we start to peel back another layer of the onion. The first six were a prologue, and now we’re getting into the next chapter.

Q: When will the Observer make a major return appearance?

A: He’s laying dormant at the moment. But in the way that pieces come together and interlock, his story is still being told.

Q: Lost has been very secretive regarding its story lines. Do you take secrecy as seriously on Fringe?

A: We don’t have the same level of fanaticism. With Lost, there’s a level of fanaticism that you wouldn’t believe, and so they’re secretive out of necessity. We are definitely protective, and we want the audience to discover the show how we want them to discover it. We definitely try to protect ourselves, but we haven’t found the necessity for the government level of secrecy that Lost has needed to maintain.

Q: Dr. Bishop seems like the most fun character to write.

A: He’s incredibly fun to write. I should say it’s fun to write all of our characters and how they see the world through their prism. I think to write a show solely about Walter Bishop might be a little frustrating. The two main characters, Peter and Olivia, balance him out. I think the three of them provide a very stable triangle for our show. He’s incredibly fun to write for because he can say and do anything, which is a blast for a writer. He’s incredibly brilliant and he’s forgotten just how brilliant he is. He’s scared of his own shadow, and he’s scared of the things he’s done in the past, and he’s incredibly childlike. Which is just really fun to write for.

Q: It seems like it would be easy to go too far with the character. Do the writers have rules for him?

A: I think the rule is you have to bring it back to humanity. It always has to be honest. John Noble, who plays Walter, is unbelievably smart and insisted on finding the humanity in the character. He plays it from a believable place and doesn't play him from a goofball, cuddly cute place. That's our prime directive: Keep it real and honest.

Q: The number of characters being abducted and given extraordinary powers made a lot of sense when someone in a recent episode alluded to the building of an army. Is that what’s going on here?

A: Yes, though I think "army" can be taken more than one way, it's more figurative than literal. But I think the basic premise that there are people who are using our world as a scientific playground is sort of the touchstone.

What scares me is what science is capable of and what we know government and private individuals are experimenting with and toying with in the name of science and the spirit of pure curiosity. Science has the capability of rocking the foundation of what we consider to be reality right now. There was a very real fear among very smart scientists when they fired up the Hadron supercollider that our universe would disappear. I suppose none of us would have known it; we just would have been gone. But these aren’t things to be taken lightly.

Our world, as we’ve seen with the recent financial collapse, is controlled largely by private industry, which does not have the same regulations as government. And when you have unfettered imagination married to technological resources we’ve never had before, plus money, it can become quite scary.

Literally everything we’ve done on our show is grounded in actual scientific fact. We’ve trying to tell entertaining stories. We have the license to get a little crazy, but it’s all grounded in fact.

Q: How much scientific fact is present in any episode?

A: In the last episode, "Bellini’s lymphocemia" was a made-up name, though the qualities of the disease are real. We just didn’t want to imply that individuals working on their own could cure it. We didn’t want to be irresponsible to people with the real disease.

Q: Do you always feel that outside pressure?

A: There’s always a degree of responsibility we feel, but all of our science is grounded in reality. We’re not telling any stories that are in the world of potential.

Q: If you’re playing with the reality anyway, why rely on scientific fact at all? Couldn’t you just completely make something up that sounds plausible and go with that?

A: Yes. But our rule is we don’t want to do it if it’s totally made up. I’m sure people would tell you everything we’re doing is totally unbelievable, but for us, if we set out to do an utterly fictional show, it would probably be easier in some ways, but it would be less exciting. I think we all quite like the idea that we’re working in the realm of the real, as opposed to the entirely made-up. Again, it’s not necessary to watch the show and see how it’s ripped from the headlines, because it’s not. But there’s a certain quality of authenticity that it’s much easier to create if you know the parameters.

Q: The show’s more graphic than anything we’ve seen on network TV in a while.

A: I think we always want to have a quality of “Oh, my God, can you believe what they did on Fringe last night?” When I was a kid growing up, one my best friends’ dads was an ophthamologist, and at their house he had films of all of his surgeries. All of his surgeries were locked-down camera close-ups of eyeballs with scalpels cutting into them and peeling back the corneas. And they’d be running all the time. It was very real and honest — they were created for the purpose of education. Science is kind of disgusting. The human body is kind of disgusting when you look at it inside out, and our show needs to acknowledge that.

Q: Have you encounted any censor problems with things like expoding heads?

A: No. There’s been one or two shots they’ve asked us to trim back, but I think they do far more upsetting things on 24. Not to say that 24 is mean-spirited, but none of our stories involve torture. It’s all very organic.

Q: How’s the experiment with Fringe having limited commercials going?

A: We’re doing an extra act of television every week. Storytelling-wise, we’ve gotten used to it. It’s fanastic when storytellers are given an extra seven minutes of time, but it’s been hard. It’s impossible on prodouction. We’re doing an extra 20% of television every week. We don’t have 20% extra money and time. We’re getting comfortable with the pace of our production. But the writing is challenging, because with those seven minutes we’re still trying to keep the story energy up, and it’s a very fine line between going deeper with the story and keeping it moving.

Kirk Acevedo Runs NYC Marathon

Kirk Acevedo, who plays FBI Agent Charlie Francis on FRINGE, ran the New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 2. The Bronx native placed an incredible 2,027 out of 40,000 runners with a time of 3:13:04, which qualifies him for the Boston Marathon in April. He's super-proud that he ran under-6-minute miles for the majority of the race, and just beat out the time of PI (3:14:15)! Kirk was back on the New York set of FRINGE on Monday, hobbling a bit but grinning from ear to ear.

Congratulations Kirk, and good luck in Boston!

Anna Torv Interviews

The Fox FRINGE Blog has scans of the December Issue of Sci-Fi Magazine featuring Anna Torv.

SpoilerTV also has has some quotes from Anna regarding FRINGE. We've removed the spoilers here, but you can read the full article in the Fringe Spoilers section:

Discovering new layers of her character (Olivia)
“Oh it's great because it's television so you don't really know when you start. You just do it episode by episode, and we don't get the episodes, say – we don't get them, you know, much ahead of time so every time you read it oh, my God, and that – really, oh, and then you sort of try and put it in, but it's – it's fun.”

[The Dreamscape Spoiler Removed]

[In Which We Meet Mr. Jones Spoiler Removed]

Olivia's relationship with Walter Bishop (John Noble)
“I think Olivia waits for everyone to prove themselves to her, you know, before she kind of jumps in or, you know, really gives them all of herself, but I think definitely there was a sweet scene, I know in one episode where she sort of, Walter's the only one she confides in and I think when Walter's lucid, you know, I think absolutely he's got that kind of like mentoresque, fatherly – yeah, he's like the wise one, isn't he?”

[The Equation Spoiler Removed]

The science of "Fringe"
“They justify it really well, you kind of want to get online and find out if it’s actually possible, what’s actually possible and what isn’t but that’s the bit that I love about the show because I think that, you know, I can give it just the information that we get at the moment like if it’s totally okay and everyone is fine with knowing that we can clone sheep and ten years ago that was frightening, I kind of think “What are we capable of? And why don’t we know? Who does know.”

Jasika Nicole Interviews

The NY Times outed Jasika Nicole recently, so there are a bunch of interviews discussing her personal life, plus her work as Astrid Farnsworth on Fringe:

NY Times: Out in Hollywood: Starring Roles Are Rare

Jasika Nicole, right, and her partner, Claire Savage. Source: Jacob Silberberg for The New York Times

Jasika Nicole, 28, an F.B.I. agent on “Fringe,” a new Fox drama, said that as bigger parts became available, her manager, John Essay, sat her down and asked how public she wanted to be about being a lesbian.
...
“If it becomes exaggerated,” he said, “you just become the gay actress instead of a wonderful actress.”
...
Ms. Nicole, who has a girlfriend, said she would just be herself.
...
Now, as she becomes better known, “There’s no way I can keep quiet,” she said. “I want to be clear this is my partner. I don’t want to make that shameful in any kind of way.”

After Ellen: "Fringe" Benefits: A Conversation with Jasika Nicole

AE: Are you filming now in October?
JN: Yes, we are starting Episode 9, I believe, this week, and of course we got picked up for the back nine episodes. So in January, we will finish our 22-episode season. We’re not even quite halfway through yet, which is really exciting. I can’t wait to find out what else is going to happen!

AE: Where do you film?
JN: We film in Long Island City in Queens, at Silvercup Studios East. It’s very close, which is wonderful. I didn’t have to move away from New York City.

Clutch Magazine: Life on the Fringe: An Interview with Jasika Nicole

C: So… Astrid Farnsworth? Really, that’s this sister’s name? You really don’t look like an Astrid. You should be wearing really tiny glasses or something.
JN: You know why that’s cool? It makes her name super memorable.

C: Despite the fact that Walter (John Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop) can never remember her name.
JN: Actually, I just made the connection that she has such an unusual name, yet Walter STILL can’t remember it. In rehearsal the other day, Walter called my character Afro. Which was great, but he said “NO, they’ll come knocking down my door and they’ll think I’m a racist!” [laughs] I think it would be awesome, considering I kind of have an afro.

The Wonderful World Of Walter

Check out this amusing montage of Walter-isms. What is your favorite Walter moment?

Fringe Dwellers Podcast: Episode 9

Adele is joined by guest co-host, Jason, to discuss Fringe's character progression as of Season 1, Episode 6.

Show notes are available at the Fringe Dwellers homepage.

Listen now:


You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

If you have a comment or question for Adele & Jen, you can email them at fringedwellers@gmail.com. You can also leave a voicemail for them at (206) 333-0072, or reach them on Twitter as fringedwellers, or Facebook as Gene the Cow Worshippers

Fringe Halloween

To celebrate Halloween, TV Guide and E! have created Gross/Spooky TV show lists, which both include Fringe:

TV Guide: Oh, Yuck! 9 Gross Television Scenes

E!: Spookiest Shows on TV

How are you celebrating Halloween? How about Fringe-Style, with a Fringe Pumpkin or Fringe Costume?

If you need some ideas, how about a six-fingered hand pumpkin, or try other Fringe symbols. Or you could dress your pumpkin up like Mr. Papaya!

As far as a Fringe costume, The Observer is an easy choice - you'll just need a suit and a hat (shave your head and eyebrows for a more authentic look!), or dress up like Gene, everyone's favorite Fringe cow.

Send us your pictures, and we'll post them in a Fringe Halloween Gallery.

Fringe Episode Titles

The episode titles for the next four Fringe episode have been revealed in a Fox Press Release.

November 11 - #107 - In Which We Meet Mr. Jones
November 18 - #108 - The Equation
November 25 - #109 - The Dreamscape
December 2 - #110 - Safe

You can read the episode descriptions for all four episodes, and see some promotional photos for In Which We Meet Mr. Jones, over in our Fringe Spoilers section.

Fringe Comic #2 Re-Announced

Fringe Comic #2 has been re-announced on the DC / Wildstorm website. The new release date is January 28th, 2009.

Watch for a special announcement on this miniseries' creative team, coming soon!

The secret history of Walter Bishop and William Bell continues in this exclusive tie-in to the hit Fox show Fringe! Witness their first attempts at pushing the boundaries of science and reality!

Wildstorm Universe | 32pg. | Color | $2.99 US

Click here for more Fringe comics news.

Fringe: If You Haven't Seen It, It's New To You

Which is a nice way of saying Fringe is not new tonight. Instead, tonight's episode is an encore presentation of Episode 102, The Same Old Story. If the new TV season has left you with room for Fringe, and tonight is your first time watching and you like what you see, you can catch up on the entire season of Fringe by watching it online. The next new episode of Fringe doesn't air until November 11, 2008, so there's plenty of time. Fringe is one of only two new hit shows this season, and it has been picked up for a full season.


As for tonight's episode, it has been spoiled, cataloged, discussed, disassembled and reassembled. Which just goes to show, there's more to Fringe than meets the eye.

Is Fringe new to you?

Fringe Dwellers Podcast: Episode 8

Jen and Adele dip their toes into the murky onion soup of Fringe's sixth episode, The Cure. We discuss our thoughts about the Olivia backstory relevations, Peter's deal with the devil (and by that we mean Nina Sharp) and the gutwrenchingly funny Walterisms of this episode.

Emails, voicemail and our plans for the mini-hiatus are also discussed. Show notes are available at the Fringe Dwellers homepage.

Listen now:


You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

If you have a comment or question for Adele & Jen, you can email them at fringedwellers@gmail.com. You can also leave a voicemail for them at (206) 333-0072, or reach them on Twitter as fringedwellers, or Facebook as Gene the Cow Worshippers

KROQ: Joshua Jackson Interview

Joshua Jackson was interviewed by Kevin & Bean on the Los Angeles radio station KROQ.

Good Day NY: Lance Reddick Interview

Lance Reddick was on Good Day New York Tuesday to discuss Fringe and what it's like to work with J.J. and Joshua. Julie Chang also got Lance to sing a little tune for her.

Fringe: The Cure - HD Screencaps

High-Definition screen captures of Fringe Episode 1.06 "The Cure", are now available in our Galley section.

Some of the most interesting screenshots are already up in our Screencaps / Easter Egg section, but if there's something you can't find there or in our Gallery, you can request a screenshot here.

Fox Fringe: Walter's Lab Notes #6

Accompanying the usual crime scene photos and notes, a bowl of Mr. Papayahead's remains and what looks like a blood spatter picture of a woman sealed in a plastic baggy?

Fringe Episode 106 - The Cure

After weeks of being reported missing, a woman with a rare disease resurfaces in suburban Massachusetts and inexplicably causes excruciating pain and subsequent death to those she encounters...
Which major science fiction themes would you like Fringe to explore?

Fringe Episode 106 - 'The Cure' Airs Tonight

...at 9/8 Central on FOX. If, ...

Doing something online, I was watching a show and something was mentioned I'd be able to go online and see it. This just provides another level of discovery and interaction. Often there are clues that connect to things in the story if you care to pursue those or examine them or discover them. It's something as a viewer I like to do, so it really comes from my, and the team's, desire to create entertainment that goes elsewhere than just the TV or movie screen. That elsewhere might be online or places yet to be discovered. It's not about trying to blur the line, it's about creating an experience that is more than just the narrative that you are watching in front of you. -- J.J. Abrams

...appeals to you, be sure to join us starting at 9:00 Eastern for our easter egg hunt and episode discussion where this week's poll asks, "Which major science fiction themes would you like Fringe to explore?"

We also have some previews and spoilers for tonight's episode, and as always, Fringepedia will be a hivemind of activity.

TV Guide: Jasika Nicole Interview

TV Guide has an exclusive interview with Jasika Nicole, who plays Astrid Farnsworth on Fringe. Jasika reveals some interesting information about her character, and some theories about William Bell. There are some mild-spoilers in the article, so you can read the spoiler-free version below, or head over to Spoilers.FringeTelevision.com to read the spoliers.

Click here to read the Spoiler-Free article

Fringe: Jasika Nicole Hints at Astrid's Secrets
by Mickey O'Connor
Oct 21, 2008 07:16 AM ET

When Jasika Nicole auditioned for J.J. Abrams' Fringe (Tuesdays, 9 pm/ET, Fox), she was told it was for a sci-fi series that incorporated humor. As FBI Special Agent Astrid Farnsworth, though, Nicole isn't exactly given a lot of the punchlines, saddled as she is with doing a lot of the heavy lifting in the lab of mad scientist Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble). With a background in musical theater and a talent for drawing (check out her work, including an autobiographical comic, on her website), Jasika (it's pronounced jah-SEEK-uh) talks to us about being intimidated by Noble, why Astrid returned to work in the lab and her theory about the identity of the elusive William Bell.

TVGuide.com: What's a sensible gal like Astrid doing with this bunch of crazies?
Jasika Nicole: I think Astrid is really riveted by Olivia Dunham [who is played by Anna Torv]. I think for any woman starting out in her career, Agent Dunham is an exceptional role model. On Fringe, she is juxtaposed with the doctor, who is also brilliant, but was in an institution. I imagine that Astrid is trying to learn the balance of going after what you want in your career without having it be your whole life. Literally 15 minutes ago I was talking with Anna Torv about needing a scene to show that Astrid has a life outside of this lab.

TVGuide.com: So what's coming up for Astrid? Will she have a larger role in future episodes?
Nicole: She's always doing a lot of lab work, always doing a lot of filing and interjecting at appropriate moments. Episode 107 [which airs on Nov. 11] is really intense. [SPOILER REMOVED]

TVGuide.com: Do you have a backstory for Astrid?
Nicole: So far I've learned that she's really, really smart, has a brain for science even though that isn't what she studied. [SPOILER REMOVED]

TVGuide.com: Tell me about working with John.
Nicole: John is the funniest guy. I thought he would be very serious, and I was intimidated when I first met him, and I'm pretty sure he made fun of me because, you know, he likes to keep the mood light. Seeing him work is fascinating; it's like taking a master class. I just like to sit back and watch how he processes information and take notes. He's able to do a scene a million different ways within the span of five minutes because he's so able to connect with the artistic vision everyone has for this show.

TVGuide.com: But why can't Dr. Bishop ever remember Astrid's name?
Nicole: I wonder if it just started out as one joke, and it just ended up being so charming and funny that they kept it going. It's hard for me not to laugh; John's reading on it is so funny. We have this running joke where we're always trying to think of new names for Astrid. We were rehearsing a scene the other day and he called me "Afro," and I died. I fell on the floor laughing. He's also called me "Aspirin" and "Ostrich."

TVGuide.com: And when he finally does pay attention to her, he attacks and sedates her. Why do you think Astrid came back to the lab?
Nicole: At first, it was discouraging that they didn't put anything in that told you why Astrid returned. But I think that it sets up something to happen later. [SPOILER REMOVED]

TVGuide.com: Personally, I think that Astrid is much more than she appears, that maybe she has some kind of special skill or power that's related to Dr. Bishop's work.
Nicole: I think that is very, very possible. The best theory I heard so far is that I am William Bell.

TVGuide.com: Wanna hear the best William Bell theory that I heard? That he's Blair Brown's prosthetic arm!
Nicole: [Laughs] That's beautiful. At night, it leaves her body and goes out and does bad things.

Fringe Dwellers - Episode 7 - "Power Hungry"

In episode seven of the Fringe Dwellers Podcast, Jen and Adele try a slightly new format to tackle the electrifying fifth FRINGE episode - Power Hungry. They respond to your emails, report on the newest Kurt-ci news and bring your some spoilers.

Also, listen out for David Wu's parody of Gold Digger that summarizes the events of episode 4 before the spoilers.

Listen now:


You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

If you have a comment or question for Adele & Jen, you can email them at fringedwellers@gmail.com. You can also leave a voicemail for them at (206) 333-0072, or reach them on Twitter as fringedwellers, or Facebook as Gene the Cow Worshippers

J.J. Abrams: Fringe proudly and squarely exists in the science fiction world.

J.J. Abrams talked to Starwars.com about Fringe (and Star Wars).

I read that Fringe had an interesting bovine problem because you couldn't use the same cow from the pilot so you had to bring in another cow and paint it to look like the original.

I wish that had been the biggest problem on the show. [laughs] We had an issue with the cow not being able to cross the border from Canada where we shot the pilot. Apparently, cows are contraband.

Did you have any other obstacles with Fringe that you hadn't come across being a TV show veteran? How has your experience working on this show differed than that of something like Alias or Lost?

I have relatively speaking very little experience, so every time I'm involved in a movie or a TV show it always feels like a brand new set of challenges. On this show, among others, it's a question of pacing the show and how much we reveal. We are obviously taking scientific notions and pushing them into insanity so this is not a documentary or a course on science. It's supposed to be taken as Frankenstein was -- an entertaining narrative that takes the ideas that surround us and push them much farther than they are currently able to go. When Star Trek first came out with communicators and the idea of a laser shooting something, these were scientific notions that didn't exist. And now 40 years later there actually are lasers that can shoot as weapons, and there are communicators that we have in our pockets. The idea that some of the stuff we're talking about potentially could come to pass is a fascinating one, but we're not pretending that this is all real and happening now. The fun of Fringe is that it's a "what if" scenario. Every episode gets to play with the impossible idea that something might happen and how do we deal with those ramifications and consequences? What does it mean to live in a world where science has run amok?

Even TV shows that are supposed to be based in fact like C.S.I. and House aren't exactly using proper science; you can't get DNA results in two hours.

Most legal or medical shows stretch the truth. There are trials and treatments that come to resolution at hyper speed and the reality is much different, but that reality isn't always entertaining. Fringe proudly and squarely exists in the science fiction world.

You often create Web sites for fictional companies like Massive Dynamic for Fringe and The Hanso Foundation for Lost to draw the viewer online and give them another experience outside the TV show. Why is a transmedia experience important to envision in all your properties?

Doing something online, whether it's stuff we did on Lost or Alias and even on Felicity -- one of the characters, Noel Crane, had a Web site -- the idea is more that, if I was watching a show and something was mentioned I'd be able to go online and see it. This just provides another level of discovery and interaction. Often there are clues that connect to things in the story if you care to pursue those or examine them or discover them. It's something as a viewer I like to do, so it really comes from my, and the team's, desire to create entertainment that goes elsewhere than just the TV or movie screen. That elsewhere might be online or places yet to be discovered. It's not about trying to blur the line, it's about creating an experience that is more than just the narrative that you are watching in front of you.

Read the full interview at Starwars.com: J.J. Abrams Talks Fringe, Cattle and Star Wars