FRINGE - LOS ANGELES TIMES SHOW TRACKER: Josh Jackson on Peter Bishop's return to 'Fringe'
November 4, 2011
by Andrew Hanson
"Fringe" made a gutsy move at the end of Season Three. Plenty of shows kill off characters in a season finale, but how many can say they completely erased one of their main heroes from all of existence? Not only did ‘Fringe’ delete Peter, but the show also kept him deleted. Olivia, Walter and the rest of Fringe Division spent the beginning of Season Four in a world with no Peter Bishop, so when I got a chance to talk with Josh Jackson about Peter’s return to "Fringe" this week, I asked if the rest of the cast teased him about basically getting to sleep on Season Four. “I don’t know if it was teasing,” Jackson joked, “as much as a lot of dirty looks.”
Reimagining the world of "Fringe" without Peter Bishop gave the writers and cast the opportunity to alter the characters we’ve come to know, and even though his character was out of the picture, Jackson kept a very close eye on the changes that took place. “For some characters it’s a totally different iteration.” Jackson explained. “I think the Olivia we have in Season Four is very different from the Olivia of Season One. Walter definitely regressed. Even probably further back than he was in Season One. They’re at opposite ends of the spectrum. She became more whole and he became less whole...”
... The Walter/Peter relationship is one of the strongest aspects of ‘Fringe.’ I had to ask how close it was to the John Nobel/Josh Jackson relationship. “He’s not anywhere near as fragile as Walter is, but the professional relationship is certainly as warm as it is on screen. The best moments, the best memories I will take from this show when it’s all said and done, will be that working relationship with John. We’ve spent many hours talking about how to make that father/son relationship as honest as possible, and I think that comes through. That relationship wasn’t there in the first season, but by virtue of hashing it out, all the moments we found in scenes, really added that dimension to the show."
