Awake is an American television police procedural fantasy drama that originally aired on the and Howard Gordon's Teakwood Lane Productions, in association with 20th Century Fox Television. Gordon was chosen as showrunner for the series by Killen, and commended the pilot script at first glance on a flight to New York. "I read the pilot, and once I got past my envy, I was struck by the voice," he stated. "So few writers have real voices. Kyle is disarmingly self-effacing; and at the same time, he's disarmingly confident. It's that duality thing: On the one hand, he's open; on the other, he's closed." Gordon later compared the television series to The Good Wife: "The Good Wife has so many procedural aspects that they have to decide which format to use each week...Why is this an Awake episode?" He and Killen served as executive producers (with David Slade and Jeffrey Reiner) for the pilot episode.
The series' episodes were written by Killen, Gordon, Evan Katz, Lisa Zwerling, Noelle Valdivia, Leonard Chang, Davey Holmes and David Graziano. Episodes were directed by Slade, Reiner, Sarah Pia Anderson, Aaron Lipstadt, Scott Winant, Adam Davidson, Michael Waxman, Nick Gomez, Laura Innes, Milan Cheylov and Miguel Sapochnik. Jason Isaacs, Keith Redmon, Ed Milkovich and Michael Klick produced the show. Feliks Parnell was the show's primary cinematographer. Editors of the show were Paul Trejo and Nikc Berrisford; principal photography for the pilot was completed at Fox Studios in Los Angeles, California.