Tag Archives: Jeff Pinkner

‘Fringe’ co-showrunner Jeff Pinkner steps down prior to final season

News, Television, , ,

When Fringe returns this fall for its fifth and final season, it will be down one showrunner. It has been made official that executive producer and co-showrunner Jeff Pinkner will not be involved in the making of Fringe‘s 13 episode swan song. Co-creator J.J. Abrams handpicked Pinkner to run the show in season 1 and J.H. Wyman was made co-showrunner the following season. With Pinkner out, Wyman will serve as the sole showrunner next season. Fans should note that Pinkner’s exit was amicable and he did it so that he could start pursuing new projects.

Abrams released this statement concurrent with the announcement: “We’re so excited to begin work on a fifth season of Fringe and to be able to deliver the 13 final episodes to our passionate and devoted fans. For four years, J.H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner have worked tirelessly as a team to keep all the worlds in order on Fringe. We’re thankful for the invaluable contributions Jeff has made to the show and of course wish him well and look forward to working together in the future. J.H. Wyman’s importance to Fringe cannot be overstated, however, and I’m thrilled that he will continue as showrunner for the concluding chapters of our story. We can’t wait for our fans to see what we have in store for them in the wild conclusion of Fringe.”

Fringe returns Friday, September 28 on FOX.

[Via TVGuide]

TV trailer: ‘FRINGE’ season 4 finale will rock your (wool) socks [Update: the showrunners tease what’s next]

Television, Video, , , , , ,

If you thought part one of the two part Fringe season 4 finale was spectacular, just wait. After watching this movie-like trailer for “Brave New World: Part Two” you will surely see what I mean. (Spoiler!) Leonard Nimoy’s William Bell is back and he’s off his rocker. Will the Fringe team–including Bell’s former parter Walter Bishop (John Noble)–be able to stop him from collapsing the two universes so he can control a new one like a God? Ramp up anticipation for tonight’s epic season finale that airs at 9PM on FOX by watching this revealing clip. After the break you’ll find a bonus video featuring Nimoy and Noble discussing the new chapter that is about to unfold as we make our way to the final thirteen episodes of one the best sci-fi shows in history.

Jump after the break to view an excerpt from a recent interview with the Fringe showrunners. Continue reading TV trailer: ‘FRINGE’ season 4 finale will rock your (wool) socks [Update: the showrunners tease what’s next] →

‘FRINGE’ TV trailer: “answers are coming” tonight

News, Television, Video, , , , , , ,

Tonight Fringe airs one last episode before its winter break. Showrunner and executive producer Jeff Pinkner, like the trailer above, promises that the episode titled “The End of All Things” will provide answers for fans of the sci-fi cult series. “It’s definitely, as they say, a game-changer in that our characters learn a lot more and the audience is going to learn a lot more about the über-plot of the season’s bad guy, David Robert Jones,” says Pinkner. Also, The Observer will “peel back some layers about what his agenda has been and use that as an opportunity to revisit the things  on the show we’ve seen before.” Pinkner concludes, “It’s the 14th out of 22 episodes and it’s very much an episode that’s going to launch us into the back half of the episodes.”

When Fringe returns from its month-long hiatus, an episode called “A Short Story About Love” will bring viewers back into the fold. Co-showrunner and exec producer J.H. Wyman will be making his directorial debut with this special episode and he teases it like this:  “It’s an episode that’s really close to me. It’s about love and all the great things that we talk about on Fringe. To us, it’s the perfect version of what a Fringe [episode] is because it has a great, terrifying element to it that is very Fringe-y. At the same time it has this incredible love story aspect with things that people are going to be very excited for, we believe, as far as the relationships on the show.”

The showrunners also discussed with the press a possible return of Charlie Francis and the unfortunately always looming, impending cancellation of the show. Concerning the former situation, the duo hinted at discussions being had between the show and Charlie’s portrayer Kirk Acevedo about a comeback. And as for the show’s survival odds? “We will find out like everybody else,” said Wyman. “We don’t fret about it because it’s really out of our control. We can only step back and do our work and therein lies the path to serenity. We’re hoping for the best.” So are we, Mr. Wyman. So are we.

Now watch that trailer and get amped for tonight’s pivotal installment of Fringe. It airs at 9PM on FOX.

[Via EW]

‘Fringe’ showrunners discuss the return of Peter Bishop

Television, Video, , , , , , ,

Take 2. Due to the World Series airing on FOX last Friday, the next pivotal episode of Fringe–you know, the one where Peter Bishop comes back into existence and reunites with his partner Olivia and father Walter–was pushed to the following week. Well, I am excited to report that a week’s time has indeed past and the episode titled “Novation” will air tonight! Before watching tonight’s installment, take a moment to hear what Fringe showrunners J.H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner have to say about the return of the younger Bishop. “What are the consequences of Peter being back?” posits Pinkner. Tune in to find out.

Fringe airs Friday nights at 9PM on FOX. Bonus video after the break! Continue reading ‘Fringe’ showrunners discuss the return of Peter Bishop →

‘Fringe’ producers hint at epic season 3 finale [Updates: Ratings slip, FOX prez speaks]

News, Television, , , , , , , ,

Fringe fans, the move to Friday hasn’t been too bad now has it? Ratings are holding steady (actually they’re not, see below), and it appears that the loyal hardcare fanbase is sticking with it. And according to FOX execs that’s all they need to confidently renew the fantastic sci-fi series thereby granting it a fourth season. This week producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman shared some intriguing thoughts about the near-term future of the show. “Largely this season has been about the march to war, and it will continue to be so, driven equally by the relationship of Peter and the two Olivias,” Pinkner tells TVLine. “But we’ve got more stuff coming.” Wyman teases, “We can definitely guarantee that the last stretch [of episodes] is going to be very complicated, because you’re going to understand our show in a different capacity. It’s going to stretch your mind and make you think, ‘I never saw that coming.’ We have a few cards to lay down that I don’t think anybody expects. That’s what we feel we owe the fans.”

If you couldn’t process this before, they clearly they have another season on their collective mind. The May finale “will be as much as anything about setting up next season,” says Pinkner. Adds Wyman, “It’s like when you read a great novel and you finish a chapter, you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, something happened that’s going to propel me forward!’ That’s something we desire to emulate.”

Bring it. Fringe airs Fridays at 9PM on FOX.

Update: Looks like Fringe isn’t exactly maintaining viewers like I had previously thought. Let’s take a look at the trend since it moved to Friday. “The Firefly”, Fringe‘s Friday debut, attracted 4.8 million viewers (1.9/6 in 18-49 demo); that was up 12% from its last original Thursday airing. Great start. The following week FOX aired “Reciprocity” and the ratings held steady at 4.6 million viewers (1.9/6 in 18-49 demo). The next episode “Concentrate and Ask Again” started the rocky spiral descent; viewership dropped 16% to 4.2 million viewers (1.6/5). And that brings us to last night’s episode; “Immortality” garnered 3.7 million viewers (1.4/6)–that’s a 13% drop from the previous ep. This is certainly a cause for concern when it comes to thinking about season renewal. The hardcore fanbase needs to stick with this show if FOX is going to pick it up for another season. Obviously these early numbers do not take into consideration DVR numbers (Fringe typically picks up the slack in time-shifted viewership), so these low figures may increase over the next few days. The bottom line is this: if Fringe wants to see another year to live, YOU have to tune into the show when it airs Fridays @ 9PM. Plain and simple. If you must, DVR it and watch it later. Tell your friends about it. The producers have promised they have “years of story left to tell” so it would be nothing short of a catastrophe if FOX eliminated it from its schedule prematurely.

Update 2: Recently FOX entertainment president Kevin Reilly shared his thoughts on Fringe‘s early surge when it first moved to Friday nights. He said, “I’m so psyched about it. It does go to show you the loyalty of the genre audience, when you get the right show. I’m so grateful to that audience, I’d like to shake their hands. We have a lot of passion for that show here.” Even though Reilly released this statement before last Friday’s dip in ratings, it does go to show his massive amount of support behind the show. If ratings can pick up again and begin to level out, I have no doubt in my mind Fringe will return for another season next fall.

[Via TVLine 1, 2; EW]

‘Fringe’ produces tell fans to embrace the Friday move

News, Television, , , , ,

This week EW’s Jeff Jensen sat down with Fringe executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman to discuss the future of Fringe and thoughts about FOX’s decision to shift the sci-fi program to Friday nights.  Here are some choice quotes from the interview.

Wyman on the parallel universe episodes: “You definitely haven’t seen the last of the ‘over there’ world. We’ve established that both of these worlds are linked in a profound way. We are going to attend to that. We are going back ‘over there.’ It’s not going to be forgotten about, but we’re not going to be ‘one on, one off’ right now.”

Pinkner on FOX’s “initial resistance” to the parallel universe storyline: “They were really concerned that if the episodes didn’t have [‘over here’] Walter or Peter in them, it wouldn’t feel like our show anymore. We said that not unlike a show likeLost, Fringe has to constantly evolve, to move and grow and go forward, otherwise we’ll get bored, the cast will get bored, the audience will get bored.”  Adds Wyman: “The alternate world storyline really allowed us to explore the characters deeper via their doppelgängers, to illuminate characters we already know. It’s been a real gas for all of us involved in making the show.”  FOX eventually fell in love with the concept, along with the viewers.

Pinkner on the move to Fridays: “It doesn’t feel loaded to us. It’s not like Fox is saying to us: ‘We’re falling out of love with the show. We’re burning it off by moving it to Friday.” .. “For a year and half now, we’ve been asking and our fans have been asking — to take us off Thursday because the landscape is crowded.”  Adds Wyman: “The research shows that people love the show, but they don’t really want to watch it on Thursday night. Thursday is more of a romantic comedy kind of night, not a hard science fiction night,” says Wyman. “We hope our fans follow us to Friday night. It’s a much easier marketplace, and Fox is going to really support it; they think there’s a real opportunity to reinvent the night.”  Pinkner concludes: “If this felt like a vote of no confidence from Fox, I’d be concerned. But they’ve verbalized the opposite. They think we have a better chance at staying on the air for years to come, which, of course, is what we want, because by design, we have years of story left to tell.”

Yeah, I added the bold font there for effect.  Isn’t this wonderful news?  The Fringe execs just confirmed that there’s “years of story to tell” meaning the show will most likely live on past season 3 and potentially even a fourth season.  After reading the news about the Friday move I felt a bit weary of the situation, but all of their words of encouragement are really comforting.  In the interview the producers also hinted at what’s to come in the second half of the season.  The mystery of The First People will receive some attention, and the January 21 returning-from-hiatus episode is called “Firefly” (an ironic nod to the ill-fated 2002 FOX sci-fi series moved to Friday nights, ironic because the name was decided upon before the writers heard about the scheduling shift) and it will focus on The Observers with a special guest appearance by Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) as an old friend of Walter’s.

Fringe returns Friday, January 21 at 9PM on FOX.

[Via EW]