"Fringe:" Fall's Hottest New Series is Already Online - Ed Martin Live at TCA

Have you seen the pilot for Fox39s Fringe yet If not you have nobody to blame but yourselfApparently somebody involved with the production quotleakedquot as in illegally uploaded the pilot to the Internet and it is already building a big fan base there even though the online version is not a finished copySuch posting is the big fear of studio and network publicists throughout the television industry in this era of runaway digital technology When they send out DVD screeners to critics and journalists they run the risk that one or more of us dirty rotten scoundrels will upload it to the Net So they watermark them or make critics sign menacing legal documents or in the case of ABC they stream them for a limited time on a locked Web site which means critics who already spend too much time at their computers every day no longer watch as many advance episodes of ABC programs as they once didIt is also assumed that one or more deranged critics will attempt to mass produce screeners and sell them on eBay or Craig39s List or somewhere As if Seriously what kind of idiot would risk his or her reputation in the media and his or her access to future materials from networks not to mention legal trouble by so flagrantly violating the understood agreement between publicists and journalistsAnyway Fox can39t blame critics for the Fringe quotleakquot because to date the network has not sent any screeners of this pilot to the pressquotThere39s a version of the pilot that lots of people have been watching on the Internetquot one critic told JJ Abrams and the other four producers of Fringe at a TCA press conference for the showquotI don39t know what you39re talking aboutquot Abrams smiled He would later admit otherwisequotIt couldn39t have been us because we didn39t get screeners sent to usquot the critic continuedAs laughter erupted throughout the room Abrams goodnaturedly replied quotI wasn39t blaming youquotquotCould you talk a little bit about the difference between what critics saw on a closedcircuit screening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and what people have been watching onlinequot the critic askedAbrams referred the request to fellow executive producer Bryan BurkquotWe didn39t put the pilot onlinequot Burk began quotWe hate putting anything out there until it39s done and that39s really the reason why you guys didn39t get any advance copiesquotquotWorked wellquot the critic smirked The room erupted once againThen Burk and Abrams both explained a few very minor differences between the quotleakedquot version and the closedcircuit versionAbrams returned to the topic later in the session When the show was quotleakedquot online he revealed quotIt was something we all freaked out about especially once it got to that peertopeer thing where it was just unstoppable The good news is that the response has been much more positive than not especially for something that wasn39t completed yetquot

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"Fringe:" Fall's Hottest New Series is Already Online - Ed Martin Live at TCA

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Ed Martin

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