Fringe's Joshua Jackson

Joshua Jackson returns to TV tonight as Peter Bishop on the new Fox show Fringe.

Yes, he's aware that people may be checking out the J.J. Abrams science-tinged mystery series to see if there are any similarities with another TV character Joshua played, whose name also starts with the letter P. But he's not letting it faze him.

"I wasn’t really too worried about coming back and being labeled as Pacey or as that guy from Dawson’s Creek because that’s really an actor’s job," says Joshua of creating a brand new character.

"If I get labeled as that, it’s probably because I’m not good enough to define myself as something else."

Well, there is one thing Joshua's alter egos have in common:  effortlessly tossing off a witty one liner!

"Obviously, there's the Pacey association as well, but I generally like characters like that," Joshua shared at the Fringe Premiere party in New York City, adding that playing a character that was too serious would "drive me crazy."

"The show's scenarios are so absurd… the drama would lose its edge if you weren't drawing a little bit against it."

Sounds like there is a little bit Pacey in Peter after all, which is fine by me.

In the end, it's 100 percent Joshua, back on TV where he belongs.

Fringe premieres Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 8 p.m. on Fox.

POST SCRIPT. Props to the brilliant PR person who put together the Fringe screener kit and included a tape recorder. What reporter doesn't like a backup digital, just in case?