On September 10, 1993, viewers got their first-ever out-of-this-world experience with FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully as The X-Files debuted on television. Chris Carter’s iconic series would run for nine, 20+ episode seasons and two movies before a 16-episode revival in 2016.
The pilot, aptly named “Pilot,” was nearly as perfect as a premiere episode can be. We have the skeptical medical doctor, Dana Scully — played by the incredible Gillian Anderson — who is tasked with picking apart and “debunking” the X-Files as an extension of the FBI superiors. She’s instructed to take notes on her partner, Fox Mulder — portrayed by the handsome and charismatic David Duchovny — an agent that has gone from bureau golden-boy to basement joke due to his obsession with all things extra-terrestrial.
The first trailer that aired for a new FOX series in Fall of 1993 that would change the landscape forever. 30 Years ago tonight, the final touches were being put on #TheXFiles #30YearsOfTheXFiles pic.twitter.com/ztdX1e5pXj
— Reopening The X-Files (@XFReopened) September 9, 2023
In the premiere, Mulder and Scully travel to Oregon to investigate the mysterious disappearances of some teenagers. Mulder thinks it’s alien abductions. Scully isn’t so sure. There are just enough instances that are unbelievable — loss of time, weird lights, odd bumps on abductees and a seemingly comatose Billy Miles going for nighttime jaunts in the woods — that Scully has to stretch to find explanations that might fit into the realm of plausibility.
You also meet the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis), the ominous government official that lingers in the background, chain-smoking his favorite Morley cigarettes. He takes a mysterious metal implant into a vast storage area in the Pentagon, illustrating the depth of the conspiracy. And most impressively, all of this is established with about three minutes of screen time.
Immediately, the chemistry between Anderson and Duchovny is evident. They play off each other perfectly, and that partner relationship develops over the seasons in a way that is hard to find in other series. The will they, won’t they nature of the friendship is one that would have driven Twitter users wild each week and The X-Files would have been the ideal Sunday night communal watch like HBO series Game of Thrones, Succession and The White Lotus became.
The pilot served as the first entry of what would later be classified as a mythology episode in the series, one that dealt with the overarching government conspiracies that were orchestrated by men in suits in darkly lit rooms filled with cigarette smoke.
The X-Files shaped the way television was created moving forward as the first in that 1990s time frame to really feature the long-arcing storyline (the mythology episodes) alongside what were soon dubbed monster-of-the-week episodes where Mulder and Scully investigated everything from the bizarre (black hole shadows) to the terrifying (extremely stretchy liver-eaters).
Creatives like Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), Kim Manners (Supernatural), Rob Bowman (Castle, The Rookie), David Nutter (Homeland, Game of Thrones, Entourage, Shameless) and Darin Morgan (Fringe, Millennium) were all some combination of writer, director and executive producer for the series.
The list of references to The X-Files in pop culture is long and robust. The Simpsons did an entire episode that involved Duchovny and Anderson voicing their animated characters as they investigated a mystery in Springfield.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Diaries, The Nanny, House MD, Criminal Minds, Castle, Breaking Bad and Bones are just a handful of the titles that made some sort of nod to the iconic series. Rock band Eve 6 took their name from a Season 1 episode, “Eve,” that featured clone girls. Barenaked Ladies’ first hit, “One Week,” included the line, “Watching X-Files with no lights on, we’re dans la maison, I hope the Smoking Man’s in this one.”
Three decades ago, The X-Files hit the airwaves and had a lasting impact on pop-culture, television and fandom. And it all started on one quiet Friday with a perfect television pilot.