Brown Betty (Fringe)
Encyclopedia
"Brown Betty" is the 20th episode of the second season of the American science fiction
drama
television series
Fringe
, and is the only one of the series performed as a musical
. The episode was written by co-showrunners Jeff Pinkner
and J. H. Wyman, and consulting producer Akiva Goldsman
. It was directed by filmmaker Seith Mann
. As the episode begins with Peter's continued disappearance, Walter consoles himself by smoking a strain of marijuana
called "Brown Betty." Most of the episode is then told from his drug-addled perspective, in which Olivia is a 1940s noir detective and Peter is a conman who ran away with Walter's glass heart.
The episode first aired in the United States on April 29, 2010 on the Fox Broadcasting Company
and was seen by 5.551 million viewers in the United States. The episode was part of the network's "Fox Rocks" campaign, in which musical elements were incorporated into various shows in their lineup for a week, a concept that was panned by critics before the episode aired. Nevertheless, "Brown Betty" garnered mostly favorable reviews, with many noting the musical element as a strong point. Various cast members also stated that they enjoyed the musical aspect of the episode.
(John Noble
) smoking his own strain of marijuana
called "Brown Betty" while Olivia Dunham
(Anna Torv
) attempts to find his son, Peter
(Joshua Jackson
), who disappeared at the end of the previous episode after learning Walter stole him from a parallel universe. Because Dunham's sister Rachel (Ari Graynor
) is unavailable, she brings her niece Ella (Lily Pilblad) to the lab for Walter and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole
) to look after. To pass the time, Walter tells Ella a detective noir
story in which Olivia is a private investigator
.
Rachel approaches Olivia to find her boyfriend, Peter, who has gone missing. During the investigation, Detective Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick
) leads her to Massive Dynamic, where the CEO Nina Sharp (Blair Brown
) informs her that Peter is a conman and industrial spy
. Later, Rachel is found murdered, with her heart
taken. Olivia finds a check signed by Walter Bishop, who in the story, is an inventor that has created "everything that is wonderful in the world" in order to benefit humanity (hug
s, rainbow
s, bubblegum
, singing corpses). Questioning Walter, Olivia learns that Peter worked with Walter, who treated him like a son. One day, Walter made a glass heart but Peter later stole it. Were the heart not to be found, Walter and his ideas would die. To help find Peter, Olivia calls her assistant, "Esther Figglesworth" (Farnsworth).
Later, Olivia follows Nina Sharp, only to find herself kidnapped by a "watcher" (the Observer, played by Michael Cerveris
) working for Sharp. The watcher attempts to kill Olivia by placing her in a wooden crate and sending it out to sea. Fortunately, Olivia is rescued by Peter. After taking her to his hideout, he reveals that the glass heart was his by nature of having been born with it, and that after working with Walter, Peter loved him enough to donate it to him. However, he took it back after learning a terrible secret behind his inventions: they were stolen from children's dream
s and replaced with nightmare
s. Later, the house is under attack by an army of watchers. Olivia fights them off, but not before they manage to take Peter's heart with them. After placing batteries
in his heart cavity to act as a temporary measure, Olivia discovers that Walter set up the attack. In the confrontation, Walter apologises for his misdeeds and promises to change. However, Peter does not forgive Walter and leaves him, ending the story.
Ella is disappointed by the ending, as that is not how she believes stories ought to end, so she proposes an alternate ending: when Walter says he can change, Peter believes him and splits the glass heart in two, and together they "lived happily ever after
." At the episode's end, Olivia returns, having found no leads on Peter's location. Farnsworth returns Walter to his home, where the Observer watches from a distance and notes Peter's disappearance.
and J. H. Wyman along with consulting producer Akiva Goldsman
. Seith Mann
served as the director, his only directional credit for the series. For Sweeps Week, the Fox network
announced the "Fox Rocks" campaign, in which various shows within their lineup were encouraged to produce musical episodes in the same vein as the sophomore show Glee
. Along with Fringe, Family Guy
, Bones
, The Simpsons
, and a few other Fox series took up the musical theme. The episode was already in development before Fox's announcement. Jeff Pinkner
stated that the music was not in the original plan for the episode, but was added to fit into Fox's sweeps stunt. As the episode occurred after the big reveal of Peter's true identity ("The Man from the Other Side
"), the writers knew they wanted "Brown Betty" to explore the aftermath from Walter's damaged psyche. Fox did not ask for a full-blown musical, but requested that some music be integrated into the episode in any shape or form. Pinkner elaborated:
The episode begins with Walter smoking his own strain of marijuana while listening to "Roundabout"
by the band Yes
. The scene was originally removed out of concern it would be airing on network television, but was later reinserted because "the story itself had so many different genres playing. We had a noir element. We had a musical element. and it just really played funnier coming from an altered state of Walter", according to co-producer Tanya Swerling. Jeff Pinkner added "We set out to do an episode that explored Walter's state of mind — he's dealing with some very upsetting news. When we realized that the way Walter would deal with such news would be to try to anesthetize himself with copious amounts of marijuana, well, singing and dancing became a natural outcome." Music supervisor Charles Scott IV and J.R. Wyman are big Yes fans, and consequently chose the song that appeared in the opening scene. As the episode was done with a 1940s aesthetic, every department had to act accordingly. Torv's normally straight hair was placed into a curl hairdo fashionable for the time period, and lighting changes were made to reflect the period as well. New furniture was brought in for various sets, such as Walter's lab and Nina's office at Massive Dynamic, which was then removed in preparation for the following week
. The ending was a challenge for the producers, as it was supposed to end with Ella's version of the story conclusion and Walter still feeling upset over Peter's absence, but they felt this ended making viewers feel depressed. They debated ways to make it a happier tone, so Wyman added the Observer scene to change the feeling of the episode, and prepare viewers for next week.
As guest actor Leonard Nimoy
, who plays William Bell, was unavailable to shoot the brief conversation with Blair Brown
's Nina Sharp, the producers knew they wanted to do something a little more creative for the scene. They talked to cartoonist Frank Miller
and hired a special effects school to do all the modeling, which they accomplished based on photos of Nimoy, because the actor could not come in to have his head scanned; he did some voicework however. The finished scene included an animated version of Nimoy's head, shown through the same window as the one used in "Peter"
.
Pinkner thought the added musical element improved the episode, because it gave insights into each of the characters' psyches. According to Wyman and Pinkner, the "episode was supposed to be a fantastical episode in the first place, and so the music supports the storytelling". Wyman continued in a different interview with the Los Angeles Times
that "Noirs traditionally are morality tales, and that's kind of what we're doing. We felt that that was a great way to get across Walter's mind frame and where his head is at right now, with his son missing". Other cast members also praised the added music. John Noble
wrote "It really deepened and blew the episode out even further in the direction we were already taking. We get [Walter's] fractured take on the world and his condition now that Peter has left. The music really supports the storytelling". He added, "It is like a mind-trip of Walter's. It is Walter trying to grapple with the fact that his son is gone". Jasika Nicole
continued: "I have a musical theater background, so I've been waiting for some moment in some realm of where I am in TV and film for this to happen and, you know, of course, when Glee came on the air I was like, 'Great, that was my chance,' and I'm in this show, which I love this show, but I'm never going to sing and dance in this show. And I did! It's so awesome!" Swerling called it "the longest and possibly most difficult episode of the season" to create.
As with other Fringe episodes, Fox released a science lesson plan for grade school children focusing on the science seen in "Brown Betty", with the intention of having "students learn about fingerprints and how they can be collected and used as evidence to identify an individual."
, who plays Peter Bishop, was adamant that he not sing in the episode, despite the fact he frequently sings on set, causing him to be one of the few cast members with no musical part. As the original script contained no musical number for Jasika Nicole, she emailed Jeff Pinkner specifically asking him to let her sing, which he then approved. Some critics noted their surprise that Tony Award
-winning actor Michael Cerveris
did not sing in the episode. The producers were initially going to have him sing Django Reinhardt
's "Blue Moon", but changed their minds because they thought it would be better to keep the Observer out of the musical aspect of the episode. Despite the pre-recordings, the audio used in the episode was taken from the actors actually singing on set. Tanya Swerling believed the recordings were not a wasted effort however, as it helped make the actors more comfortable about singing on set. At the end of shooting, Gottlieb believed "everybody was great... they could jump on stage and do Broadway and it wouldn't be a problem for any of them". He and other crew members called Jasika Nicole "probably the most accomplished" musical person of the cast. As one of the episode writers, Akiva Goldsman chose the Stevie Wonder
song "For Once In My Life
".
On composing the episode's score, Chris Tilton cited Chinatown as a big influence, and commented "the idea was to have this noir feel but still not be totally away from Fringe".
The episode featured excerpted music from the following tracks:
called the episode "admittedly fun" because it "gave us an indirect window to view how Walter feels about himself". In a review of the DVD, another critic from IGN later called it the "worst overall episode" of the season however, asking the question "Musical numbers and Olivia Dunham: who thought this would be a good idea?" Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
was also initially irritated after hearing Fox's musical plans, and consequently gave "Fringe a lot of credit for pulling off this hour so cleverly" Jennifer Walker from TV Fanatic thought the episode was "bizarre" to watch; it "held our interest for the entire 60 minutes, but really failed to introduce any new information about Peter and the unknown man that has crossed into our dimension". MTV
s John Wigler loved the "noir" element, and thought "each and every participating "Fringe" cast member exhibited great musical ability. Overall, it was a very solid effort on everyone's part". Jane Boursaw of TV Squad loved the scenes between Walter and Ella, and thought "it was downright brilliant to create a story within a story". While he praised the episode's production and the singing abilities of the cast, Kurt Anthony Krug of Mania.com wrote a negative review: "All in all, what was supposed to be a fun filler episode before the question of where Peter went at the end of the last episode when he found out he was the Peter from an alternate reality – one of the turning points in the show’s mythology – fell flat". Sarah Stegall of SFScope
enjoyed it, writing "There was just enough music, and just enough dance, to season this story without overburdening it". She praised the risktaking it took to make the episode "edgy and whimsical, casting aside the concrete conventions of television storytelling...Not only was it entertaining, but it moved the storyline forward on some important emotional fronts, as the characters deal with Peter's disappearance in ways that protect them, but reveal as well".
Andrew Hanson from the Los Angeles Times
also was impressed with the cast's singing abilities, and praised the writers' risk-taking: "that just goes to show how well thought out, creative, and just plain fun tonight’s “Fringe” really was. A lot of people would have pegged a 1940s film noir musical episode as a big risk, but the bigger the risk, the bigger the pay out". Rhee Dee of Pinkraygun.com commented "After the revelation in the last episode, and Peter running away, this episode was a great way to express Walter’s grief and guilt about this whole situation without actually watching Walter talk about how sad and guilty he feels about everything. Walter’s story serves as a powerful metaphor for how he actually feels". Tim Grierson of New York Magazine thought the episode turned out to be simply mediocre because "its noir elements weren’t incorporated in a really interesting way, and as for the musical numbers, they tended to be throwaway bits, save for “fictional” Dunham crooning “For Once in My Life” to the seemingly dying “fictional” Peter near the episode’s end". Grierson continued that "If a show is going to completely throw away its usual rulebook for a fun onetime-only episode, it would be great if the writers could come up with a story as audacious as their premise. But aside from some Chinatown references, fancy threads, and mildly clever mirroring of the show’s mythology — Massive Dynamic is up to no good in this story-land world as well — “Brown Betty” wasn’t all that enjoyable because it didn’t do a great job of capturing what generally makes Fringe enjoyable". Noel Murray of the The A.V. Club
graded the episode an A-, while Television Without Pity gave it a C+.
"Brown Betty," along with Music Editor Paul Apelgren, was nominated for Best Sound Editing: TV Short Form Music in a Musical by the Motion Picture Sound Editors
for the 2011 Golden Reel Awards. "The Box"
, a season three Fringe episode, was also nominated for Best Sound Editing: TV Short Form Music. "Brown Betty" lost to an episode of Glee
.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Fringe
Fringe (TV series)
Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...
, and is the only one of the series performed as a musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. The episode was written by co-showrunners Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner is an American television writer and producer. He graduated from Pikesville High School in Baltimore Maryland in 1983. He is known for his work on Alias where he served as executive producer. In 2006 and 2007, he worked as an executive producer and writer for the mystery series Lost...
and J. H. Wyman, and consulting producer Akiva Goldsman
Akiva Goldsman
Akiva J. Goldsman from Walker Valley, New York is an American screenwriter and film producer. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture....
. It was directed by filmmaker Seith Mann
Seith Mann
Seith Mann is an American Film and Television Director. He directed the award-winning Five Deep Breaths and has gone on to direct for The Wire, Grey's Anatomy, and Fringe.-Biography:...
. As the episode begins with Peter's continued disappearance, Walter consoles himself by smoking a strain of marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
called "Brown Betty." Most of the episode is then told from his drug-addled perspective, in which Olivia is a 1940s noir detective and Peter is a conman who ran away with Walter's glass heart.
The episode first aired in the United States on April 29, 2010 on the Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
and was seen by 5.551 million viewers in the United States. The episode was part of the network's "Fox Rocks" campaign, in which musical elements were incorporated into various shows in their lineup for a week, a concept that was panned by critics before the episode aired. Nevertheless, "Brown Betty" garnered mostly favorable reviews, with many noting the musical element as a strong point. Various cast members also stated that they enjoyed the musical aspect of the episode.
Plot
The episode begins with Dr. Walter BishopWalter Bishop (Fringe)
Walter Bishop, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by John Noble. Noble also plays Walter's counterpart in the show's parallel universe, who is referred to in the show as Walternate.-Arc:...
(John Noble
John Noble
John Noble is an Australian film and television actor, and theater director of more than 80 plays. He was born in Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia and is currently starring as scientist Walter Bishop in the J. J. Abrams television series Fringe.He made occasional appearances on the...
) smoking his own strain of marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
called "Brown Betty" while Olivia Dunham
Olivia Dunham
FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series Fringe . Olivia first appeared in the pilot episode on September 9, 2008. She is portrayed by actress Anna Torv....
(Anna Torv
Anna Torv
Anna Torv is an Australian actress known for her role as FBI agent Olivia Dunham on the Fox television series Fringe.-Early life:...
) attempts to find his son, Peter
Peter Bishop
Peter Bishop is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by Joshua Jackson.-Fictional character biography:...
(Joshua Jackson
Joshua Jackson
Joshua Carter Jackson is a Canadian American actor. He has appeared in primetime television and in over 32 film roles. He is best known for playing Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks film series, Pacey Witter in the television series Dawson's Creek and Peter Bishop in the television series...
), who disappeared at the end of the previous episode after learning Walter stole him from a parallel universe. Because Dunham's sister Rachel (Ari Graynor
Ari Graynor
Ariel Geltman Graynor, better known as Ari Graynor, is an American actress.-Life and career:Graynor was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was raised in a Jewish family and attended Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a private school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Trinity College, in Hartford,...
) is unavailable, she brings her niece Ella (Lily Pilblad) to the lab for Walter and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole
Jasika Nicole
Jasika Nicole is an American actress and illustrator from Birmingham, Alabama. She is most famous for portraying the character of Astrid Farnsworth in the TV series Fringe....
) to look after. To pass the time, Walter tells Ella a detective noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
story in which Olivia is a private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
.
Rachel approaches Olivia to find her boyfriend, Peter, who has gone missing. During the investigation, Detective Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick is an American theater, film and TV actor and musician born in Baltimore, Maryland. He starred in The Wire as Cedric Daniels, appeared in Oz as Detective Johnny Basil and appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of Lost. He now has a prominent role in Fringe...
) leads her to Massive Dynamic, where the CEO Nina Sharp (Blair Brown
Blair Brown
Bonnie Blair Brown is an American theater, film, and television actress. She has had a number of high profile roles, including a Tony Award-winning turn in the play Copenhagen on Broadway, as well as a run as the title character in the television comedy-drama The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,...
) informs her that Peter is a conman and industrial spy
Industrial espionage
Industrial espionage, economic espionage or corporate espionage is a form of espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of purely national security purposes...
. Later, Rachel is found murdered, with her heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
taken. Olivia finds a check signed by Walter Bishop, who in the story, is an inventor that has created "everything that is wonderful in the world" in order to benefit humanity (hug
Hug
A hug is a form of physical intimacy, that usually involves closing or holding the arms around the neck, back, or waist of another person; if more than two persons are involved, this is referred to as a group hug. A hug, sometimes in association with a kiss, eye contact or other gestures, is a...
s, rainbow
Rainbow
A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines on to droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc...
s, bubblegum
Bubblegum
Bubblegum is a type of elastic chewing gum, designed to be blown out of the mouth as a bubble.-History:In 1928, Walter Diemer, an accountant for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company in Philadelphia, was experimenting with new gum recipes. One recipe was found to be less sticky than regular chewing gum,...
, singing corpses). Questioning Walter, Olivia learns that Peter worked with Walter, who treated him like a son. One day, Walter made a glass heart but Peter later stole it. Were the heart not to be found, Walter and his ideas would die. To help find Peter, Olivia calls her assistant, "Esther Figglesworth" (Farnsworth).
Later, Olivia follows Nina Sharp, only to find herself kidnapped by a "watcher" (the Observer, played by Michael Cerveris
Michael Cerveris
Michael Cerveris is an American singer, guitarist and actor. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including in several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Road Show, and Passion...
) working for Sharp. The watcher attempts to kill Olivia by placing her in a wooden crate and sending it out to sea. Fortunately, Olivia is rescued by Peter. After taking her to his hideout, he reveals that the glass heart was his by nature of having been born with it, and that after working with Walter, Peter loved him enough to donate it to him. However, he took it back after learning a terrible secret behind his inventions: they were stolen from children's dream
Dream
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...
s and replaced with nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
s. Later, the house is under attack by an army of watchers. Olivia fights them off, but not before they manage to take Peter's heart with them. After placing batteries
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
in his heart cavity to act as a temporary measure, Olivia discovers that Walter set up the attack. In the confrontation, Walter apologises for his misdeeds and promises to change. However, Peter does not forgive Walter and leaves him, ending the story.
Ella is disappointed by the ending, as that is not how she believes stories ought to end, so she proposes an alternate ending: when Walter says he can change, Peter believes him and splits the glass heart in two, and together they "lived happily ever after
Happy ending
A happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of fiction in which almost everything turns out for the best for the protagonists, their sidekicks, and almost everyone except the villains....
." At the episode's end, Olivia returns, having found no leads on Peter's location. Farnsworth returns Walter to his home, where the Observer watches from a distance and notes Peter's disappearance.
Production
The episode was originally called "Overture", but was later changed to "Brown Betty" as a reference to Walter's marijuana habit. It was written by executive producers Jeff PinknerJeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner is an American television writer and producer. He graduated from Pikesville High School in Baltimore Maryland in 1983. He is known for his work on Alias where he served as executive producer. In 2006 and 2007, he worked as an executive producer and writer for the mystery series Lost...
and J. H. Wyman along with consulting producer Akiva Goldsman
Akiva Goldsman
Akiva J. Goldsman from Walker Valley, New York is an American screenwriter and film producer. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture....
. Seith Mann
Seith Mann
Seith Mann is an American Film and Television Director. He directed the award-winning Five Deep Breaths and has gone on to direct for The Wire, Grey's Anatomy, and Fringe.-Biography:...
served as the director, his only directional credit for the series. For Sweeps Week, the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
announced the "Fox Rocks" campaign, in which various shows within their lineup were encouraged to produce musical episodes in the same vein as the sophomore show Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
. Along with Fringe, Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
, Bones
Bones (TV series)
Bones is an American crime drama television series that premiered on the Fox Network on September 13, 2005. The show is based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode focusing on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent...
, The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, and a few other Fox series took up the musical theme. The episode was already in development before Fox's announcement. Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner is an American television writer and producer. He graduated from Pikesville High School in Baltimore Maryland in 1983. He is known for his work on Alias where he served as executive producer. In 2006 and 2007, he worked as an executive producer and writer for the mystery series Lost...
stated that the music was not in the original plan for the episode, but was added to fit into Fox's sweeps stunt. As the episode occurred after the big reveal of Peter's true identity ("The Man from the Other Side
The Man from the Other Side
"The Man from the Other Side" is the 19th episode of the second season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. The episode follows the attempts of Thomas Jerome Newton, with the help of shapeshifters, to create a pathway between the two parallel universes, while the Fringe...
"), the writers knew they wanted "Brown Betty" to explore the aftermath from Walter's damaged psyche. Fox did not ask for a full-blown musical, but requested that some music be integrated into the episode in any shape or form. Pinkner elaborated:
"We came up with a narrative device to really explore Walter's feelings. We had largely all the elements of the episode in place and Fox called and said, 'Hey, how would you guys feel about if we asked you to have some musical element in the show? Anything, like just feature a song playing.' They didn't ask us to do Glee. And we instantly, before we got off the phone, said, 'Well, this is what we're thinking for the episode and here's an idea how that could work for us.' We turned their request into what felt like a positive for us and really deepened and sort of blew the episode out even further in the direction we were already taking it".
The episode begins with Walter smoking his own strain of marijuana while listening to "Roundabout"
Roundabout (song)
"Roundabout" is the opening track for the 1971 album Fragile by British progressive rock band Yes. The song was written by singer Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire. In January 1972, an edited version of the song was released as a single with "Long Distance Runaround" on the B-side. "Roundabout"...
by the band Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
. The scene was originally removed out of concern it would be airing on network television, but was later reinserted because "the story itself had so many different genres playing. We had a noir element. We had a musical element. and it just really played funnier coming from an altered state of Walter", according to co-producer Tanya Swerling. Jeff Pinkner added "We set out to do an episode that explored Walter's state of mind — he's dealing with some very upsetting news. When we realized that the way Walter would deal with such news would be to try to anesthetize himself with copious amounts of marijuana, well, singing and dancing became a natural outcome." Music supervisor Charles Scott IV and J.R. Wyman are big Yes fans, and consequently chose the song that appeared in the opening scene. As the episode was done with a 1940s aesthetic, every department had to act accordingly. Torv's normally straight hair was placed into a curl hairdo fashionable for the time period, and lighting changes were made to reflect the period as well. New furniture was brought in for various sets, such as Walter's lab and Nina's office at Massive Dynamic, which was then removed in preparation for the following week
Northwest Passage (Fringe)
"Northwest Passage" is the 21st episode of the second season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe, and the 53rd episode overall...
. The ending was a challenge for the producers, as it was supposed to end with Ella's version of the story conclusion and Walter still feeling upset over Peter's absence, but they felt this ended making viewers feel depressed. They debated ways to make it a happier tone, so Wyman added the Observer scene to change the feeling of the episode, and prepare viewers for next week.
As guest actor Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
, who plays William Bell, was unavailable to shoot the brief conversation with Blair Brown
Blair Brown
Bonnie Blair Brown is an American theater, film, and television actress. She has had a number of high profile roles, including a Tony Award-winning turn in the play Copenhagen on Broadway, as well as a run as the title character in the television comedy-drama The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,...
's Nina Sharp, the producers knew they wanted to do something a little more creative for the scene. They talked to cartoonist Frank Miller
Frank Miller (comics)
Frank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...
and hired a special effects school to do all the modeling, which they accomplished based on photos of Nimoy, because the actor could not come in to have his head scanned; he did some voicework however. The finished scene included an animated version of Nimoy's head, shown through the same window as the one used in "Peter"
Peter (Fringe)
"Peter" is the 16th episode of the second season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe, and the 36th episode overall. Considered a keystone episode of the series, "Peter" is a flashback episode, told as Walter Bishop reveals to Olivia Dunham that his son Peter is really the...
.
Pinkner thought the added musical element improved the episode, because it gave insights into each of the characters' psyches. According to Wyman and Pinkner, the "episode was supposed to be a fantastical episode in the first place, and so the music supports the storytelling". Wyman continued in a different interview with the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
that "Noirs traditionally are morality tales, and that's kind of what we're doing. We felt that that was a great way to get across Walter's mind frame and where his head is at right now, with his son missing". Other cast members also praised the added music. John Noble
John Noble
John Noble is an Australian film and television actor, and theater director of more than 80 plays. He was born in Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia and is currently starring as scientist Walter Bishop in the J. J. Abrams television series Fringe.He made occasional appearances on the...
wrote "It really deepened and blew the episode out even further in the direction we were already taking. We get [Walter's] fractured take on the world and his condition now that Peter has left. The music really supports the storytelling". He added, "It is like a mind-trip of Walter's. It is Walter trying to grapple with the fact that his son is gone". Jasika Nicole
Jasika Nicole
Jasika Nicole is an American actress and illustrator from Birmingham, Alabama. She is most famous for portraying the character of Astrid Farnsworth in the TV series Fringe....
continued: "I have a musical theater background, so I've been waiting for some moment in some realm of where I am in TV and film for this to happen and, you know, of course, when Glee came on the air I was like, 'Great, that was my chance,' and I'm in this show, which I love this show, but I'm never going to sing and dance in this show. And I did! It's so awesome!" Swerling called it "the longest and possibly most difficult episode of the season" to create.
As with other Fringe episodes, Fox released a science lesson plan for grade school children focusing on the science seen in "Brown Betty", with the intention of having "students learn about fingerprints and how they can be collected and used as evidence to identify an individual."
Music
The co-music supervisor, Billy Gottlieb, called the episode a "little mini feature film in the sense that we had a lot of camera performances with the music." In order to get the best performances out of the cast and be able to shoot the scenes in various different ways, the producers had the actors go into a music studio in Vancouver and record their respective musical numbers. According to Gottlieb, the actors were very nervous about singing in the episode, despite their parts being around a mere 40 seconds. Actor Joshua JacksonJoshua Jackson
Joshua Carter Jackson is a Canadian American actor. He has appeared in primetime television and in over 32 film roles. He is best known for playing Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks film series, Pacey Witter in the television series Dawson's Creek and Peter Bishop in the television series...
, who plays Peter Bishop, was adamant that he not sing in the episode, despite the fact he frequently sings on set, causing him to be one of the few cast members with no musical part. As the original script contained no musical number for Jasika Nicole, she emailed Jeff Pinkner specifically asking him to let her sing, which he then approved. Some critics noted their surprise that Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
-winning actor Michael Cerveris
Michael Cerveris
Michael Cerveris is an American singer, guitarist and actor. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including in several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Road Show, and Passion...
did not sing in the episode. The producers were initially going to have him sing Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
's "Blue Moon", but changed their minds because they thought it would be better to keep the Observer out of the musical aspect of the episode. Despite the pre-recordings, the audio used in the episode was taken from the actors actually singing on set. Tanya Swerling believed the recordings were not a wasted effort however, as it helped make the actors more comfortable about singing on set. At the end of shooting, Gottlieb believed "everybody was great... they could jump on stage and do Broadway and it wouldn't be a problem for any of them". He and other crew members called Jasika Nicole "probably the most accomplished" musical person of the cast. As one of the episode writers, Akiva Goldsman chose the Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
song "For Once In My Life
For Once in My Life
"For Once in My Life" is a pop song written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden for Motown Records' Jobete publishing company in 1967 . The composition was originally recorded by Jean DuShon, while other artists, such as Tony Bennett and The Temptations, recorded slow ballad versions of the song...
".
On composing the episode's score, Chris Tilton cited Chinatown as a big influence, and commented "the idea was to have this noir feel but still not be totally away from Fringe".
The episode featured excerpted music from the following tracks:
- YesYes (band)Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
' "Roundabout"Roundabout (song)"Roundabout" is the opening track for the 1971 album Fragile by British progressive rock band Yes. The song was written by singer Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire. In January 1972, an edited version of the song was released as a single with "Long Distance Runaround" on the B-side. "Roundabout"...
, heard in background - Tears for FearsTears for FearsTears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...
' "Head over Heels"Head over Heels (Tears for Fears song)"Head over Heels" is a song by the British New Wave band Tears for Fears.It was the band's tenth single release in the United Kingdom and eighth UK Top 40 hit, peaking at #12 in July 1985...
, sung by Walter - Stevie WonderStevie WonderStevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
's "For Once In My LifeFor Once in My Life"For Once in My Life" is a pop song written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden for Motown Records' Jobete publishing company in 1967 . The composition was originally recorded by Jean DuShon, while other artists, such as Tony Bennett and The Temptations, recorded slow ballad versions of the song...
", sung by Olivia - Django ReinhardtDjango ReinhardtDjango Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
's "Blue Moon", heard in background - TrafficTraffic (band)Traffic were an English rock band whose members came from the West Midlands. The group formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason...
's "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys"The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (song)"The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" is a song by the band Traffic from their 1971 album of the same name. The song was written by Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood....
, sung by Broyles - Cast's "Head Over Heels", sung by Walter
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate FactoryWilly Wonka & the Chocolate FactoryWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a 1971 musical film adaptation of the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, directed by Mel Stuart, and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. The film tells the story of Charlie Bucket as he receives a golden ticket and visits Willy...
's "The Candy ManThe Candy Man"The Candy Man" is a song from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It was written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the film and does not appear in the original book or the 2005 film adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...
", sung by the singing corpses - Cast's "I Hope I Get It", sung by Astrid
- Miles DavisMiles DavisMiles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
' "Freddie FreeloaderFreddie Freeloader"Freddie Freeloader" is a composition by Miles Davis and is the second track on his album Kind of Blue. The piece takes the form of a twelve-bar blues in B-flat, but the chord over the final two bars of each chorus is an A-flat7, not the traditional B-flat7 followed by either F7 for a turnaround or...
"
Ratings
"Brown Betty" was watched by 5.551 million viewers in the United States, with a 3.4 share out 5 among all households and a 2.0/6 share of the audience aged 18-49. The episode fell five percent from the previous week.Reviews
The episode premiered to generally positive reviews. Although initially cringing over the musical premise, Ramsey Isler of IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
called the episode "admittedly fun" because it "gave us an indirect window to view how Walter feels about himself". In a review of the DVD, another critic from IGN later called it the "worst overall episode" of the season however, asking the question "Musical numbers and Olivia Dunham: who thought this would be a good idea?" Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
was also initially irritated after hearing Fox's musical plans, and consequently gave "Fringe a lot of credit for pulling off this hour so cleverly" Jennifer Walker from TV Fanatic thought the episode was "bizarre" to watch; it "held our interest for the entire 60 minutes, but really failed to introduce any new information about Peter and the unknown man that has crossed into our dimension". MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
s John Wigler loved the "noir" element, and thought "each and every participating "Fringe" cast member exhibited great musical ability. Overall, it was a very solid effort on everyone's part". Jane Boursaw of TV Squad loved the scenes between Walter and Ella, and thought "it was downright brilliant to create a story within a story". While he praised the episode's production and the singing abilities of the cast, Kurt Anthony Krug of Mania.com wrote a negative review: "All in all, what was supposed to be a fun filler episode before the question of where Peter went at the end of the last episode when he found out he was the Peter from an alternate reality – one of the turning points in the show’s mythology – fell flat". Sarah Stegall of SFScope
SFScope
SFScope is an online trade journal devoted to entertainment news concerning speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It was founded by Ian Randal Strock in early 2007....
enjoyed it, writing "There was just enough music, and just enough dance, to season this story without overburdening it". She praised the risktaking it took to make the episode "edgy and whimsical, casting aside the concrete conventions of television storytelling...Not only was it entertaining, but it moved the storyline forward on some important emotional fronts, as the characters deal with Peter's disappearance in ways that protect them, but reveal as well".
Andrew Hanson from the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
also was impressed with the cast's singing abilities, and praised the writers' risk-taking: "that just goes to show how well thought out, creative, and just plain fun tonight’s “Fringe” really was. A lot of people would have pegged a 1940s film noir musical episode as a big risk, but the bigger the risk, the bigger the pay out". Rhee Dee of Pinkraygun.com commented "After the revelation in the last episode, and Peter running away, this episode was a great way to express Walter’s grief and guilt about this whole situation without actually watching Walter talk about how sad and guilty he feels about everything. Walter’s story serves as a powerful metaphor for how he actually feels". Tim Grierson of New York Magazine thought the episode turned out to be simply mediocre because "its noir elements weren’t incorporated in a really interesting way, and as for the musical numbers, they tended to be throwaway bits, save for “fictional” Dunham crooning “For Once in My Life” to the seemingly dying “fictional” Peter near the episode’s end". Grierson continued that "If a show is going to completely throw away its usual rulebook for a fun onetime-only episode, it would be great if the writers could come up with a story as audacious as their premise. But aside from some Chinatown references, fancy threads, and mildly clever mirroring of the show’s mythology — Massive Dynamic is up to no good in this story-land world as well — “Brown Betty” wasn’t all that enjoyable because it didn’t do a great job of capturing what generally makes Fringe enjoyable". Noel Murray of the The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
graded the episode an A-, while Television Without Pity gave it a C+.
Awards and nominations
"Brown Betty," along with Music Editor Paul Apelgren, was nominated for Best Sound Editing: TV Short Form Music in a Musical by the Motion Picture Sound Editors
Motion Picture Sound Editors
Founded in 1953, Motion Picture Sound Editors is an honorary society of motion picture sound editors. The society's goals are to educate others about and increase the recognition of the sound editors, show the artistic merit of the soundtracks, and improve the professional relationship of its...
for the 2011 Golden Reel Awards. "The Box"
The Box (Fringe)
"The Box" is the second episode of the third season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. The episode was written by Josh Singer and Graham Roland, and directed by Jeffrey Hunt. The third season spent its time alternating between the prime and parallel universes, and "The...
, a season three Fringe episode, was also nominated for Best Sound Editing: TV Short Form Music. "Brown Betty" lost to an episode of Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
.
External links
- "Brown Betty" at FoxFox Broadcasting CompanyFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...