Trust No One
The Truth Is Out There
Friday night September 10th, 1993 8PM: It all began - The X-Files premiered on Fox. And those three sayings were on posters in a dingy basement, cluttered with files in the FBI building. They would become mainstream over the next few years.
The trailers for the show were intriguing from the first time I saw them. This was the show I had been waiting for a long time to see.
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson starred in what would be the longest running science fiction series ever on US television up to that time. Running from 1993 until 2002.
The premise for the show was everything I love. Paranormal phenomena, aliens, conspiracy theories, government cover-ups...the whole ball of wax. Hell, there was even an episode where the Kennedy assassination was shown to be the conspiracy theory so many think it was. And it is pretty believeable the way they played it out...even the real film footage meshed with the shows B&W footage. It was so cool.
Duchovny played the ever skeptical Fox Mulder (tip: when pitching a show to the Fox network use the name of the network as the star character) and Anderson plays Dana Scully the FBI agent "assigned" to Mulder to keep his wild speculations grounded in some scientific logic. And she is THE hottest redheaded FBI agent ever to be on a show. I was in lurv with Scully!
The episode names were as memorable as the episodes themselves. Kitsunegari. Squeeze. Deadalive. Syzygy. Chris Carter and a host of others were genius at coming up with real attention grabbers every week. Adding William B Davis as the Cigarette Smoking Man and Mitch Pillegi as Asst. Director Skinner along with a host of others from time to time were all casting home runs.
The show was a good time and had many different people writing the episodes and many different directors and rarely had the same writer/director combination in consecutive weeks. Many of the episodes were referred to as "monster of the week" shows. In effect they were stand alone shows not affecting the underlying theme of the entire series. I found it a unique and refreshing way to present a series and its longevity is a testament to how well it worked.
The X-Files became a huge cult classic and the term "Mulder and Scully" weaved its way into many other shows scripts referring to investigative or alien type moments. The series spawned a short-lived spinoff called the Lone Gunmen about a trio of conspiracy theorists. During the X-Files run Mulder often sought assistance from these three modern day stooges that made for some comical moments.
Once I got hooked on this weekly fix I knew it would be a sad day when it ended. Mulder did not make it as a main character beyond season 7 and Anderson was done after season 9. Both were cast in their roles for the two movies that were made and then it was over.
If you have never seen the show and you have any sci-fi bones in your body, I strongly recommend picking up season one on DVD and have an X-Files marathon. Find someone who is a fan and have a good time. It truly was the best show of its kind in the 90's.
But for me....
Extra Credit Points for anyone who can tell me (without Googling) what Kitsunegari means. Pat, no fair asking your wife!
Y not wait til tomorrow...
