Co @-@ creators J. J. Abrams , Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci , and executive producer Jeff Pinkner wrote the episode . Paul A. Edwards served as the director , his first such credit for the series . In developing Fringe , the co @-@ creators did not want to make the series too serialized , as this was a complaint often directed at Abrams ' television series Alias . They wanted to find a balance between standalone stories and serialized content , and studied procedural dramas such as Law and Order and CSI : Crime Scene Investigation for inspiration . Kurztman explained , " While we make sure that our episodes are self @-@ contained – have a beginning , a middle , and an end – the character stories can be serialized . They don 't have to resolve themselves over the course of one show . " " The Same Old Story " was Fringe 's first regular episode , and some journalists viewed it as an example of how the series would be structured .