page_title: The Same Old Story
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: The Same Old Story / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Jeff Pinkner speaking at Wondercon 2012 in Anaheim, California on March 18, 2012.
context_page_description: "The Same Old Story" is the second episode of the first season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. The episode was written by executive producer Jeff Pinkner and co-creators J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci. When developing the series, they sought to find a medium between serialized drama and the crime procedural. "The Same Old Story" was the first regular episode of Fringe, and journalists viewed it as an example of what they could expect from the series. It was directed by Paul A. Edwards.
  After a newborn baby rapidly ages into an 80-year-old man, Fringe division agent Olivia Dunham and consultants Peter and Walter Bishop investigate. They tie the case to the murders of young women, who have all had their pituitary glands removed. It is revealed that Dr. Claus Penrose, an expert in progeria, is working to help his son Christopher stay alive, as he suffers from rapid aging syndrome.
  "The Same Old Story" first aired in the United States on September 16, 2008 on Fox. An estimated 13.272 million viewers watched the episode, a 45 percent increase from the series premiere.
context_section_description: Co-creators J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, and executive producer Jeff Pinkner wrote the episode. Paul A. Edwards served as the director, his first such credit for the series. In developing Fringe, the co-creators did not want to make the series too serialized, as this was a complaint often directed at Abrams' television series Alias. They wanted to find a balance between standalone stories and serialized content, and studied procedural dramas such as Law and Order and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for inspiration. Kurztman explained, "While we make sure that our episodes are self-contained – have a beginning, a middle, and an end – the character stories can be serialized. They don't have to resolve themselves over the course of one show." "The Same Old Story" was Fringe's first regular episode, and some journalists viewed it as an example of how the series would be structured.
  The episode was based on actual recent research and involved much collaboration among the series' different departments. For the scene in which they remove the victim's eyeball, the special effects crew created a mold based on actress Elizabeth Stanley's head. Using plaster to make a prosthetic, they "drilled out the eyeball and sculpt[ed] it open and [went] through a series of molds." Stanley stated that "it's really cool to see the head because it really does look just like me, even though it's very gruesome because the eyeball's popping out." The prop department rigged a weapon which they called a "photon gun"; according to prop master Peter Gelfman, this gun was based on real devices employed in airport security that look through people's clothing for concealed weapons. VFX Supervisor Christopher Scollard explained that for the eye's last vision, they used "a lot of actual photographic reference on the set and on the location," which they then used to "take that imagery and composite it into the various computer monitors and displays in the lab."
  "The Same Old Story" featured guest appearances by actors Derek Cecil as Christopher Penrose and Mark Blum as his father, Dr. Claus Penrose. Other guest actors included Betty Gilpin as Loraine "Amber" Daisy Alcott, Bernie McInerney as old Christopher Penrose, Carmen Goodine as Amy, Ty Jones as a doctor, and Karin Agstam as John Scott's sister.
caption: "The Same Old Story" was co written by Jeff Pinkner (pictured), J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
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