I am – Hercules!!

Fox’s TCA “Fringe” session was held this morning, and James Hibberd at The Hollywood Reporter offers some highlights:

* "I'm going to be deeply involved in the show,” said pilot co-scripter J.J. Abrams, who by his own admission largely abandoned “Lost” after he landed his gig writing and directing “Mission: Impossible III.” “I feel jealous I didn't get to [direct] the pilot."

* “You don’t have to watch episodes one, two and three to watch episode four,” said Abrams. “Fringe,” he says, “doesn’t require the sort of insane, absolute dedication” one might need to follow shows like “Alias” and “Lost.” (Hibberd has an interesting quote about Abrams finding an old “Alias” episode “impenetrable.”)

* Abrams said the version that was leaked online is not the version to be broadcast this fall. (Hopefully this doesn’t mean we’ll see a less scary or gory version of the pilot’s opening.) “We” didn’t leak the pilot, said producer Bryan Burk.

* "It wasn't like, 'Let's do "The X-Files" again,'" said Abrams. “We started and made a list of all the shows we like ... certainly 'Twlight Zone,' 'Night Stalker' are ones I really like," said Abrams.

* "'X-Files' was an inspiration as well, but that's not where we started. ... I wanted to do a show with geniuses solving problems," said co-scripter Roberto Orci.

For those just joining us, "Fringe" is about a hot FBI girl who teams with a father-son team of geniuses to investigate a growing wave of paranormal activity engulfing the globe. It hits Fox this autumn. One can read my review of the leaked version of the pilot here

Read all of Hibberd’s story on the TCA event here.

It Was $51.99 Last Week!!