TVSquad

You could make a case for Fringe being the biggest premiere of the fall season. Through the involvement of J.J. Abrams, and a boatload of promotion from the network, the show has generated an incredible amount of buzz. The thing about buzz though, is that it's often fleeting. At some point the show will have to back it up. There are still many weeks to go before we'll have a good idea of the result of the Fringe experiment, but where's the fun in waiting for the numbers? I ask you, TV Squad readers, to put on your ratings analysis caps and make the call. How will Fringe fare?

It's a complicated question. The biggest sticking point for me is the "serialized drama" question. The producers seem to be going out of their way to make sure everyone knows that this isn't like Lost. The LA Times quotes Abrams as saying that Fringe will be "a show that people can watch as frequently and as infrequently as they want to." That's all well and good to say, but in the same article he refers to "a larger mythology." In addition, lead actress Anna Torv says that what she loves about the show is the conspiracy. That's not the stuff of easily accessible procedurals.

Apparently the new Trek movie, Fringe, and whatever it is he does over at Lost these days, isn't enough to fill up J.J. Abrams' day. That's a good thing. He'll be too busy to notice that you are downloading the leaked Fringe pilot. Through Bad Robot, Abrams is set to produce a new project, turning an article from the New York Times into a feature film. J.J.'s overlords at Paramount have purchased the rights to a recent article titled "Mystery On Fifth Avenue."

That article, written by Penelope Green, tells the story of a luxury apartment on Fifth Avenue that has some unique architecture. After dropping $8.5 million on the place, the new owners brought in an architectural designer to liven the place up for the kids. The remodel included hidden compartments, puzzles, poems, and messages. There is even a book and a soundtrack that goes with it. How that translates into a movie remains to be seen, but Abrams has some help from a couple television veterans as he tries to figure that out. Maya Forbes (The Larry Sanders Show) and Wally Wolodarsky (The Simpsons) are on board to write the feature. I'm thinking Panic Room meets Jumanji, with time traveling aliens.

Kate Flannery, who most of you will know as Meredith from The Office, has updated her TV Guide blog with some tidbits about the big J.J. Abrams directed episode, "Cocktails." There are a couple spoilers, so save it for tomorrow if you dodge that kind of stuff. The entry also includes some more trivia on last week's Whedon episode, "Business School." For instance, Rainn Wilson named the bat, and it was a live bat, Gary.

The thing I found interesting was her story of her past with Abrams. It seems that previous to her Office gig, Kate spent some time working as a waitress. Abrams would come in to write and ask how her acting was going. When the two met again on the set he remembered her, and was very excited for her success. Abrams catches a lot of crap for his role in the whole Lost deal, so it's worth pointing out the positive stories now and again too.

My Name Is Earl and The Office are still working at reaching those viewer numbers from the Must See TV of a few years ago. But what they lack in audience, they are making up for with cool. How else do you explain the ability of the two to draw such a collection of guest stars and guest directors?

Joss Whedon is joining Harold Ramis and J. J. Abrams as a member of the Office directorial pool. Julia mentioned this last month, but now there is a video on YouTube where Joss talks about why he decided to work on the show. He also says that in doing something like this the director needs to be anonymous and that this will not be "The Joss Whedon episode." Looking at the clips that go along with the interview though, I don't think the writers got that message. It looks like the Joss Whedon episode. Video is after the jump and contains spoilers, just so you know.

[ via whedonesque ]

Jonathan posted news recently that J.J. Abrams is in talks with HBO to direct and produce a show through his Bad Robot Productions. That's all well and good, but let's play junior programming executive for a moment. How would you feel about buying a show from Bad Robot, given their history.

Are you making a deal with the brilliant team behind the top 20 hit Lost? And does the fact that we have now switched that qualifier from top 5, to top 10, to top 20 cause any concern? Or are you making a deal with the team that so bungled Alias that by the end of the run it was almost an act of charity for ABC to even air the show? Seriously. May 17th, 2006, Alias is the #5 show in its time slot behind Deal Or No Deal (NBC), Bones (Fox), The Amazing Race (CBS), AND Next Top Model (UPN), only managing to beat out the movie Final Destination 2 (WB).

Brian K. Vaughan, creator of Runaways and writer for the Buffy comics, announced on his website that he has joined Lost as an Executive Story Editor. According to Vaughan, he is neither an executive or an editor, and the title is Hollywood speak for joining the writing staff.

As for what that means for the show... I'm leaning toward not much. Not that Brian K. Vaughan isn't a talented guy, he clearly is, but I don't have much confidence that he will really be allowed to do all he can. Lost has always had talented writers. Although, they have had some trouble hanging on to them. David Fury hopped a boat off the island and went to hang out with Jack Bauer. Javier Grillo-Marxuach later followed suit and made his way to Medium.