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The first season of the American science fiction television series Fringe commenced airing on the Fox network on September 9, 2008, and concluded on May 12, 2009. It was produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, and its showrunners were Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman. The first season introduces a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security. The team uses unorthodox "fringe" science and FBI investigative techniques to investigate a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe. FBI agent Olivia Dunham is portrayed by actress Anna Torv, while actors Joshua Jackson and John Noble play father-son duo Peter and Walter Bishop. Other regular cast members include Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole, Blair Brown, Mark Valley, and Kirk Acevedo.

The season contained 21 episodes, although only 20 of them aired as part of the first season. The unaired episode, "Unearthed", was aired a few days before the episode "Johari Window" as a special episode during the show's second season.

Main cast

 * Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham
 * Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop
 * Lance Reddick as Phillip Broyles
 * Kirk Acevedo as Charlie Francis
 * Blair Brown as Nina Sharp
 * Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth
 * Mark Valley as John Scott (episodes 1–13)
 * John Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop

Recurring cast

 * Michael Cerveris as September/The Observer (20 episodes; 3 credited appearances, 17 uncredited cameo appearances)
 * Ari Graynor as Rachel Dunham (7 episodes)
 * Lily Pilblad as Ella Blake (7 episodes)
 * Chance Kelly as Mitchell Loeb (5 episodes)
 * Jared Harris as David Robert Jones (4 episodes)
 * Michael Gaston as Sanford Harris (4 episodes)
 * Trini Alvarado as Samantha Loeb (2 episodes)
 * Clark Middleton as Edward Markham (1 episode)
 * Leonard Nimoy as Dr. William Bell (1 episode)
 * David Call as Nick Lane (1 episode)

Guest stars
Billy Burke, Derek Cecil, Jennifer Ferrin, James Frain, Jason Butler Harner, Neal Huff, Gillian Jacobs, Michael Kelly, Randall Duk Kim, Spencer List, Jefferson Mays, Susan Misner, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Keith Nobbs, Zak Orth, Peter Outerbridge, Al Sapienza, Jeremy Shamos, Felix Solis, Kenneth Tigar, Yul Vazquez, Kiersten Warren

Development
Co-creators J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci began the brainstorming process for Fringe in the spring of 2008. They avoided emulating Abrams' other show, Lost, because they believed its mysteries made it difficult to attract new viewers. Instead, the co-creators studied crime procedurals, such as the American series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the franchise Law & Order, in an attempt to merge that genre with a more mythology-based show without creating only standalone episodes. Orci explained, "We studied procedurals specifically to try and merge the two. Very against our instincts to do that, but when nine of the top TV shows are called Law & Order and CSI, you have to study them a little bit and figure out what it is that they're doing." Abrams has also listed the science fiction television series The Twilight Zone, Altered States, and The X-Files as well as the 1979 film Alien as inspiration for Fringe. The series struggled early on, as the first ten episodes had continuous rewrites and expensive last-minute reshoots. Actor Lance Reddick noted "It was a constant struggle. It just didn't feel like a signature [J.J. Abrams] show — not yet."

The writers began to focus more attention on the series' mythology when Akiva Goldsman temporarily joined Fringe to write and direct a mid-season episode, "Bad Dreams"; Believing "this is the stuff fans want to know", he and Bryan Burk were able to convince the other series writers to begin revealing the concept of parallel universes, despite the writers' initial intention to merely tease the idea of two worlds over two seasons. By the middle of the season, critics and regular viewers noted Fringe had started to improve. Kevin Reilly noted around this time, "I was looking for evidence that it was becoming their favorite show. And it was during the back half of the season that people started to say, 'This is now appointment television for me."

Jeff Pinkner, an executive producer on two of Abrams' other television series Lost and Alias, was hired to serve as showrunner and executive producer for Fringe.

Critics as well as those involved in the show's production have acknowledged that Fringe had a rocky beginning. Abrams later noted, "It's going to sound weird, but a show starts talking to you and telling you what it wants to be. It took us a while to hear it."

Ratings
Fringe finished its first season with an average of 8.8 million viewers per episode, making it the most watched new series for the 18–49 demographic.

In Canada on CTV, Fringe's first season had an episode average of 1.3 million viewers and finished in 19th place.

Reviews
Metacritic, a film review aggregate website, gave the first season 67/100 based upon 25 critical reviews, indicating a "generally favorable" reception. While the series was perceived to have a shaky start, the season finale aired to general fan acclaim.

Home video releases
The first season of Fringe was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on September 8, 2009, in region 2 on September 28, 2009 and in region 4 on September 30, 2009. The sets includes all 20 episodes of season one on a 7-disc DVD set and a 5-disc Blu-ray set presented in anamorphic widescreen. Special features on the sets include three commentary tracks—"Pilot" with co-creators J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, "The Ghost Network" with writers J. R. Orci, David H. Goodman and executive producer Bryan Burk, and "Bad Dreams" with writer/director Akiva Goldsman and executive producer Jeff Pinkner. Episodic behind-the-scene featurettes include "Deciphering the Scene" on every episode and "The Massive Undertaking" on select episodes. Also included on select episodes are "Dissected Files", deleted scenes. The main featurettes include "Evolution: The Genesis of Fringe", "The Casting of Fringe", "The Real Science Behind Fringe" and "Fringe Visual Effects". Also included is "Roberto Orci's Production Diary", a short featurette titled "Gene the Cow" and a gag reel. Exclusive to the Blu-ray version is "Fringe Pattern Analysis".