TVSquad

The panel for Fringe just ended, and in it was some nice news for anyone who were psyched to see Leonard Nimoy appear last season as the elusive William Bell. The producers of the show told the gathered critics that Nimoy has already shot one episode for the second season and that they will want to have him on the show "as much as he wants."

EPs Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman, along with co-creators Roberto Orici and Alex Kurtzman, even talked about a day of shooting in a super-hot Vancouver soundstage, where Nimoy acted like a pro. "He never went back to his trailer, and shot pages of dialogue." So it seems like they like having him around the set.

The show will take place mostly in the present universe, but there will be some events that happen in the parallel universe introduced last year ( "over there," as the producers put it). Events "over there" will affect events in the present universe, as well.

More on the panel later.

By the time the Fringe panel started, I wasn't the only one who was exhausted. This was one of the final television panels of the day, with the exception, I believe, of MythBusters -- a panel I regret having to miss but, since I literally hadn't eaten anything but two Clif Bars all day, I had no choice. Otherwise you would have heard about the guy who passed out in Room 6B.

Since I'd already seen the Fringe pilot, I considered not attending the panel. I think a lot of people felt the same way, as Ballroom 20 wasn't even full for it. I'm glad I did attend, however, because it was interesting to hear what people wanted to ask of J. J. Abrams.

Right before a Kitchen Nightmares-themed lunch, FOX held the press conference for the new J.J. Abrams show, Fringe. On the panel were Abrams and fellow executive producers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orici, Jeff Pinkner, and Bryan Burk, with stars Joshua Jackson, Anna Torv, and John Noble appearing via satellite from New York.

The name The X-Files was brought up a number of times during the session, mainly because the show aims to tell a continuing story with a mythology, using scientific investigation methods and other plot points based in scientific fact. But, Abrams and company took pains to tell the gathered critics that, while the story of FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Torv) investigates the operations of the Massive Dynamic corporation will have an overall arc, there will be a "mystery of the week" to keep people who've just tuned in for the first time interested.

He realized that some of his previous shows (Alias, Lost) are a bit more complicated than that, which was brought home one day at Greg Grunberg's house.

It looks like one of the executive producers of Lost is moving to another network. Fox has tapped Jeff Pinker to run Fringe, their new high profile sci-fi police drama from J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.

Fringe will be produced by Warner Brothers with Pinkner serving as executive producers and showrunner. Pinkner and J.J. Abrams have a history of working together since Abrams' previous ABC show Alias.

The new project centers on an FBI agent who teams up with a guy and his scientist father to confront unexplained phenomena. I can see why Fox went for this show. It's the J.J. Abrams version of The X-Files.