Abrams: 'Fringe' Won't Get Too Freaky

"The truth is, when we did the pilot for 'Lost,' we had the monster appear at the end of the first act," Abrams told reporters, including one from SyFy Portal, during a conference call Thursday. "We did that consciously. We wanted to say to the audience that we are jumping the shark now. We are doing crazy shit from the beginning. We are not going to wait.

"On 'Fringe,' we did what is in many ways a preposterous, out-there, far-fetched scientific story point, in order to say to the audience that this is what you're going to be getting on the show."

Abrams, who has made it clear how much the classic "Twilight Zone" series influences his work of today, says that pushing extremes is what makes any type of writing work interesting.

"For the most part, the fun for me in movies and TV shows -- especially in the genre of horror and sci-fi -- is that it's the pushing of the envelope and going further than you might otherwise," Abrams said. "And I think the show will definitely be pushing the edge of the envelope. I don't think we're going to be trying to top ourselves every week, or it's a race against ourselves, because there's no way to win that race."

The key is to tell stories that are as compelling as emotional, and as funny and as weird as possible, Abrams said.

"We don't want to be exploiting that aspect of the show," he said. "I'd rather be delving into who these people are and what makes them tick."

"Fringe" is a story that kicks off with a plane full of bodies that auto-lands at an airport, their deaths a mystery to a number of investigative agencies including the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. An investigative liaison named Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) finds herself in the thick of the investigation when her lover John Scott (Mark Valley) is seriously injured in an attack and she has to find a way to save him.

Dunham turns to the most unlikely source -- Dr. William Bishop (John Noble) -- a man who experimented in fringe science, but has spent the last 17 years in a mental institution. The only way to reach him is through his son, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), creating a team that is not only fascinating, but with a touch of humor and intrigue as well.

Talk about this story