page_title: August (Fringe episode)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: August (Fringe episode) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: w:Anna Torv @ 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International
context_page_description: "August" is the eighth episode of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe's second season. The episode was co-written by J. H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner, and directed by Dennis Smith.
  The episode marked the first prominent appearance of more than one Observer, and follows the events that occur when one of them saves a girl from boarding a soon-to-be crashing plane. It featured two new guest stars, Peter Woodward and Eugene Lipinski.
  The episode first aired on November 19, 2009 in the United States to mostly positive reviews, with many critics praising the new revelations about the Observers. An estimated 5.746 million viewers watched the episode on its first broadcast.
context_section_description: "August" was co-written by co-showrunners J. H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner, while being directed by NCIS veteran Dennis Smith. They began shooting the episode during the second half of September 2009, right after wrapping production on "Of Human Action". Supervising producer Josh Singer later noted how "August" helped them write the rest of the season, "There was one episode, 'August', which was all about the Observers, that I feel was mythology without being mythology. And somehow, in working that episode, we sort of found a new creative vein. And it's not that that episode was necessarily so related to everything else we did. But I feel like it sort of opened us up in terms of how we were feeling about the year".
  Up to the point the episode "August" aired, only one character that was part of a group known as "Observers" had been introduced. In this episode, two more such individuals were revealed: August (played by Peter Woodward) and December (played by Eugene Lipinski). The creation of Observers was one of the first ideas the writers of Fringe thought of when developing the show in its early stages, when they asked each other, "What if there were these characters where all they did was watch?". Pinkner and Wyman thought of creating Observers by "looking for something... iconic" that had the "quality of being invisible". Though the Observer called September has appeared in every single Fringe episode in a brief cameo, he was first featured prominently in the fourth episode of the first season. The producers thought of unique characteristics for "somebody who wasn't of our world," evolving to the Observers having bald heads, no eyebrows, and "largely deadened" senses, which led to a love for extremely hot peppers.
  Before the second season premiere aired in September 2009, co-creator J.R. Orci hinted that the audience was going to meet "many Observers", and that in the season's eighth episode, "You're going to find out their role in the world, what they're named after, and their connection to some of these characters." Later on, when still leading up to the airing of "August" in another interview, Roberto Orci elaborated that "Individuality will be one of the things that they will be fanatically struggling with, actually. That was a fun one, because that one was one where you're finally getting to pay off things you've been setting up for a year. You finally get to open the toy box and really play with those toys". Actor Michael Cerveris, who plays September, commented in an interview that as a result of the episode, viewers would learn that the Observers "are not completely devoid of feelings, and are not incapable of being attached to people they're observing". He also expressed relief that his character was no longer the sole Observer on the show, joking that "it was nice to feel like I'm not the only freak in town for once".
  Actress Anna Torv stated in an interview with MTV News that "August" was one of her favorite episodes because "We sort of get to meet the Observers. At the moment what we know about them, they... seemingly just observe. That's kind of it, but [in] the episode that we have coming up, we're not sure if all they do is just observe".
caption: Lead actress Anna Torv calls "August" one of her favorite episodes.
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