70 replies to this topic

[spookysammy]

I tried to find an appropriate thread for this, but couldn't and was advised to start a new one. I've been through a lot, and I mean a lot of posts, and everyone here is so witty, intelligent and analytical. I've tried my best with this and I am open to suggestions for everything, including the name for my thread.

Something crossed my mind recently....Can we make a list of shows and movies that have used "The X-files" or anything related to it as a reference. I am sure that there are a lot of them since 1993.

My list
Shows :

Bones (Season 5) - Has XF's opening score and even an appearance by Dean Haglund (with short hair)
Home Improvement - It has Tim and Jill with flashlights, and Jill says something that sounds like "Askew" ...(uggh, I am doing the best with my memory, Help!)
The Simpsons - "The Springfield Files"


Movies :
Independence Day

[TWoP Roxy]

I changed the thread title a little to make it a little more encompassing.

[xphileOG]

I remember an animated show called "Reboot" that had - I think, more than one episode with the characters Fax Modem and Data Nully LOL!

I just found a link!

Reboot with Fax Modem and Data Nully

Edited by xphileOG, Sep 24, 2010 @ 12:44 PM.

[As An Amoeba]

And in fact Gillian did the voice of Data Nully -- her husband Clyde worked on the show.

[DaynaPhile]

In DD's movie Evolution, he tells his research partner "You do not want to tell the government. Trust me, I know those people", or something along those lines. It's been a while since I've seen in to be able to remember the exact wording. Total shout out.

[Taryn74]

Everwood - Amy and her grandmother Edna talk about how they used to play X-Files by gathering evidence and looking for clues to figure out stuff.

[poseurlady]

Roswell:

in Liz Parker's bedroom she had the Mulder and Scully action figures.

[wheelie]

I like this idea for a thread. For example, I like Bones, but it's a pale, pale imitation of The X-files. And I love Fringe, and I appreciate all its shoutouts to the X-files, but it's really quite different and it's good in a different way. I feel like there's been discussion along those lines in a lot of different threads and it will be interesting to have it all in one place. Particularly because I don't think anything quite compares to the X-files, even all these years later.

Edited by wheelie, Sep 24, 2010 @ 8:33 PM.

[Namarie]

Good idea for a thread!

In an early season 1 ep of Angel, when Det. Kate Lockley is getting made fun of by her fellow officers for investigating the weird and paranormal kinds of cases, one of them says something like, "...Just because you went all Scully." Kate replies, "Scully's the skeptic." And then the other guy says, "Isn't Scully the chick?" at which Kate gives him an appropriately scornful look.

[wheelie]

Namarie, I always remembered that conversation, but I couldn't remember what show it was from. Haven't seen Angel in a while. So glad you posted that.

Don't we first meet Det. Locksley in an episode with a plot very similar to Genderbender?

I often have the Bare Naked Ladies song in my head when I'm watching X-files episodes.

Edited by wheelie, Sep 25, 2010 @ 1:02 PM.

[GageWhitney]

Good timing on this thread, because there was a shout-out on Haven last night! Quick backstory: Audrey Parker, an FBI agent who specializes in weirdness, has been investigating in the town of Haven for months. Her FBI boss comes to town and questions the fact that she's still working with these strange people/events while they're dealing with killers and terrorists in the real world.

AUDREY: At least I'm not like that one guy you trained that was chasing aliens. What was his name?
BOSS: Hey, he was a genius. What happened to him the last few years was a tragedy, but that's beside the point.

[DaynaPhile]

I caught the very first episode of Haven and I always thought they took the storyline right from X Files. Emotions controlling the weather.

[GageWhitney]

I caught the very first episode of Haven and I always thought they took the storyline right from X Files. Emotions controlling the weather.

It's a cool little show with some X-Files-y moments in it. There was one episode with this angry teenager who can control fire and kill people with it that was reminiscent of D.P.O. I was waiting for him to say, "Come on, now, you're pissing me off!"

[DaynaPhile]

That's fairly reminiscent of Stephen King as well. I wonder if CC thought about DPO as a result of Firestarter? Sometimes the ideas are so old that just about everything is recycled. Though I really think a lot of the stuff on XF was so weird it had to be new.

[nelblu]

I wonder if CC thought about DPO as a result of Firestarter?

Howard Gordon was the writer of "D.P.O." But I would guess that CC thought about "Fire" (which he did write) as a result of Firestarter. :)

[spookysammy]

Thanks for the tweak in the title TWoP Roxy...Its so much better now.

I like Bones, but it's a pale, pale imitation of The X-files

Word to that. "The X-Files" was one of its kind and any show that is made after it will only draw comparisons. The chemistry between Bones and Booth is nowhere close to the chemistry that Mulder and Scully shared. Even with its downfall in the last two seasons, its still the best Sci-Fi show ever. What? I am a Loyalist.

I often have the Bare Naked Ladies song in my head when I'm watching X-files episodes.

Is this the same song that Crass recently mentioned in another thread that has lyrics "Watching X-files with no lights on". This reminds me, there's a song by Catatonia called "Mulder and Scully".

Thanks for the link XPhileOG. Nice bit of fact AAA. I couldn't help but smile when I read this....Fax Modem was last seen in when Mainframe was crashing. He was trying to decide between a card reading L.A. and one reading B.C.

I found the transcript to "Home Improvement's" parody of "The X-files", but I can't post it because its too long.

Are we allowed to post links to videos that are already online?

One of my friends mentioned that "Castle" reminded her of "The X-Files". IMO the only similarily is a Male and female lead actor working as parteners. I reiterate what I said earlier, there can never be another Mulder and Scully.

[Niuxita]

One of my friends mentioned that "Castle" reminded her of "The X-Files". IMO the only similarily is a Male and female lead actor working as parteners. I reiterate what I said earlier, there can never be another Mulder and Scully.

Castle is currently my favourite show on TV, but Castle and Beckett, the main couple/partnership, are NOTHING like Mulder and Scully, nor do the writers/creators intend them to be, I think. With Booth and Brennan from Bones, Booth has actually referred to the two of them as Mulder and Scully in the first episode, but any analogy between C/B and M/S (beyond the fact that the woman is the straight-laced "skeptic" and the man is the goofball and more "out there") hasn't been acknowledged in the show. TPTB tend to compare it more to shows like Moonlighting and Hart to Hart than XF.

That said, Rob Bowman is an executive producer on Castle and has directed a few episodes, and there WAS an overt XF reference in an episode last season where the FBI showed up to take over a serial killer case. When Castle sees the FBI SUVs approaching to the crime scene, he says, "Either a UFO just landed on the other side of the park, or..." Mitch Pileggi also guest-starred in last season's finale as a man participating in one of those spy games and he was very Skinner-ish during his interrogation, all "I've seen things you will never believe" and "You will get a phone call from someone that will tell you to release me and I will walk away, never to be seen again." Heh.

[smrou]

With Booth and Brennan from Bones, Booth has actually referred to the two of them as Mulder and Scully in the first episode, but any analogy between C/B and M/S (beyond the fact that the woman is the straight-laced "skeptic" and the man is the goofball and more "out there") hasn't been acknowledged in the show.

Of course, the comparison doesn't have to be acknowledged in the show for it to be valid.

TPTB tend to compare it more to shows like Moonlighting and Hart to Hart than XF.

Mulder and Scully were/are also frequently compared to David and Maddie, so that right there is a similarity.

Having said that, I don't watch Castle, so I have no idea how similar or dissimilar the two partnerships are and I'll take your word for it that they're very different. I just know that "the writers don't intend that" isn't particularly meaningful. Even a writer who's never heard of XF could potentially write a partnership that has some similarities to it.

Edited by smrou, Sep 26, 2010 @ 1:23 PM.

[Niuxita]

I just know that "the writers don't intend that" isn't particularly meaningful. Even a writer who's never heard of XF could potentially write a partnership that has some similarities to it.

But then, that doesn't fit into the "references, shout-outs and copycats" theme of this thread, because all three of them imply a level of knowledge of XF to consciously model a couple after them. A writer who's never heard of XF, as you say, could write a similar partnership, but in that case it would be more a similarity to the TV trope of the "male/female partnership with different belief systems that bicker and have UST," which Mulder and Scully are a part of, rather than to M/S themselves.

Regardless, this doesn't apply to Castle because, Rob Bowman being involved, it's obvious TPTB know what XF is. I guess what makes it so clear in my head that any similarity is unintentional is because TPTB have gone explicitly on record saying they want the Castle/Beckett partnership to be a throwback to the fast-talking, snappy duos of 1940s films like His Girl Friday, for example (and shows where the partners were already married, like Hart to Hart and Macmillan and Wife) which, to me, sets them way apart of what Mulder and Scully were. I guess my point is, not all "male/female partnerships that bicker" automatically have to be labeled specifically as M/S references/imitations/etc., because that trope has existed since even before M/S came into the picture.

(And I just thought of another clear XF reference on that show. In another episode last season, where the murder victim was a con man that made his wife believe he was CIA, the wife receives a fake voicemail from her husband telling her he's actually alive, and the message ends with, "Trust no one." Hee.)

Edited by Niuxita, Sep 26, 2010 @ 3:49 PM.

[smrou]

But then, that doesn't fit into the "references, shout-outs and copycats" theme of this thread, because all three of them imply a level of knowledge of XF to consciously model a couple after them

I guess I figure references and shout-outs are obviously intentional, but copycats don't have to be. Since the writers of Castle obviously know about XF (pretty much everyone working in TV right now does, I'd think) it's possible for it to be (partly) an unconscious copycat, and in that case any lack of mention on the show (or in interviews or elsewhere) is irrelevant.

Edited by smrou, Sep 26, 2010 @ 4:12 PM.

[spookysammy]

I guess I figure references and shout-outs are obviously intentional, but copycats don't have to be. Since the writers of Castle obviously know about XF (pretty much everyone working in TV right now does, I'd think) it's possible for it to be (partly) an unconscious copycat, and in that case any lack of mention on the show (or in interviews or elsewhere) is irrelevant.

ITA Smrou, but that said Mulder and Scully were protagonists on one of the shows that defined Telly-vision history and were pivotal to the 90's pop culture so any show that has male and female leads with distinct and contrasting personalities partnered up to fight against evil (whether its the government or crime) will inevitably be compared to M and S. I think that is what my friend found similar between Castle and XF.

Don't even get me started on "Bones". The show already acknowledges that Seeley and Dr. Brennan are the "Mulder and Scully" of Bones. Season 4 has a plot wherein Booth has a brain tumour and is operated and then goes into a coma, and dreams of a life with Bones. Now where have we heard this before...Hmmm *pretending to think hard*

Have you all noticed how Mulder and Scully have become "Adjectives" that characters on other shows use. As mentioned earlier in this thread by Namarie.

In an early season 1 ep of Angel, when Det. Kate Lockley is getting made fun of by her fellow officers for investigating the weird and paranormal kinds of cases, one of them says something like, "...Just because you went all Scully."

Maybe we can find a quote on some show that uses the word "Muldery"

Edited by spookysammy, Sep 27, 2010 @ 10:35 AM.

[duramater]

There's always this song. My college roommate and I used to sing this all the time. (We were dorky.)

[smrou]

Oh right, songs. The Catatonia one has been mentioned, and of course Bree Sharp's classic, but there's also The Scully Song by Eric Snider.

By the way, in looking for that youtube link I also came across this Scully Song (a play on "The Llama Song"), which is pretty amusing.

Edited by smrou, Sep 27, 2010 @ 3:57 PM.

[AngelBelle]

Buffy had several shout-outs: in season one, when Giles is sceptical of the supernatural significance of her dream, she replies, "I can't believe that you of all people are Scullying me". A couple of times, they refer to "Muldering things out"; and in season 6, the trio of wannabee bad-boy geeks often refer to the X Files. At one point they say that they hope Buffy doesn't take as long to figure out a time-loop spell as Mulder did in Monday - after which the wimpiest geek-boy muses that "Scully totally wants me"

I may or may not be on a 90s television kick at the moment.

ETA: Apparently, Joss Whedon described Buffy as The X-Files meets My So-Called Life. Hee. I love Joss Whedon.

Wiki has a section on shows influence by the X Files: http://en.wikipedia....iles#References

Edited by AngelBelle, Sep 27, 2010 @ 12:28 PM.

[As An Amoeba]

And of course there's "Watchin' X-Files with no lights on/We're dans la maison/I hope the Smoking Man's in this one" from the BNL song "One Week."

Oh, and "Scully and angel on the kitchen floor" from "A Change Will Do You Good" (is that what it's called?) by Sheryl Crow. Can't remember if we ever figured out definitively if that was *Scully* Scully.

[spookysammy]

Oh my Duramater..I didn't even know this song existed until today...Thanks so much for posting it....I kind of liked the song...so does that make me dorky as well? To be honest, it would have been better if the song was about Fox Mulder.
It's Sunday night, I am curled up in my room
The tv light fills my heart like a balloon
I hold it in best I can, I know I'm just another fan
But I can't help feeling I could love this secret agent man

but there's also The Scully Song by Eric Snider.

LMAO....Now that song's dorky!

Join the club..AngelBelle...I'm getting high on 90's television since I stumbled upon this site.

Here's the transcript to Home Improvement's shout-out to the X-files

Tim appears, sat at a desk covered in files. Tim is wearing a suit and tie and trench coat. The placard on the desk reads "ABC TAYLOR". Tim puts a file down on the desk and taps his fingers]
Tim: I've found the file, Jilly.
[Jill appears, wearing a trench coat]
Jill: What have you come up with Taylor? [Jill walks over to Tim at the desk]
Tim: According to my underground sources, this is the triangulated center of all alien activity [Tin turns to look up at Jill] in the western hemisphere.
Jill: Easily explained by swamp gas, weather balloons, mass delusional hysteria? [Tim stands up]
Tim: Why do you respond to everything I say with scientific mumbo jumbo?
Jill: Because everything you say is pie-in-the-sky paranormal saucer-head idiocy.
Tim: [Looking at the camera] The truth is out there.
Jill: No. You're the one that's out there.
[Fade to a dark room (the basement). Tim & Jill descend the stairs, carrying flashlights. Tim bangs his head on the pipe]
Tim: Ohhh. [They reach the bottom of the stairs] Hold up Jilly. I can't explain it but I sense the presence of an alien.
Jill: Taylor, have you noticed these aliens seem to eschew well-lit ventilated housing?
Tim: You what?
Jill: Eschew, eschew. [Tim shines his flashlight at Jill]
Tim: Gesundheit. [They venture into the room] Look, right there, right there. [Tim shines his flashlight at what he's refering to]
Jill: What is it?
Tim: It's the alien we've been looking for all our lives.

The word Eschew was stuck in my head for a long time. I think it was a shout-out for the fancy poetic words Scully mouths..and I like Tim's reply Gesundheit to it because he thought she sneezed. LOL

[As An Amoeba]

spookysammy, you might enjoy this version of the song -- the crew-made video for DD, starring a bunch of XF cast and crew members and some other famous folks too. It's terrible quality but still fun.

[spookysammy]

LMAO...It cracked me up...I so love the 90's. Its hilarious when the Cigarette smoking man comes on...
Thanks for posting...love you AAA.

[smrou]

Oh my Duramater..I didn't even know this song existed until today...Thanks so much for posting it....I kind of liked the song...so does that make me dorky as well? To be honest, it would have been better if the song was about Fox Mulder.

Well, thing is, of course, that it is about Fox Mulder. She just keeps calling him David Duchovny. But Duchovny's a more funnier name to use in a song, so I forgive it.

And I can't believe you didn't know that song! I dare say your life is bound to improve now that you do. :)

[Bastet Esq]

There was a story arc during the 96-97 season of Cybill in which Cybill was starring in a series called Lifeforms, which was quite intentionally a cross between Moonlighting and XF (complete with flashlights).