Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another edition of a nerd Afficent.
Speaker 1: I'm one half of your host, Danny Fernandez. I am back.
Speaker 1: I am here. If he was holding it down very much,
Speaker 1: holding it down while I was gone and off on
Speaker 1: magical adventures, if he thank you? No, you know I'm
Speaker 1: always down to clown. Yes, thank you. Now, I'm just stalling.
Speaker 1: Want to eat this chocolate. Your boy's back on ket Keto. Watch,
Speaker 1: I'm back on Keto. I was off for a bit,
Speaker 1: but your boys back. Yes. Actually, if you and I
Speaker 1: went to a party this weekend and he texted me
Speaker 1: and said, I'm going to drink, but I'm going on
Speaker 1: to cleanse tomorrow, And I thought it was so funny
Speaker 1: that you had to You had a validate with me.
Speaker 1: Why you Because I was definitely going to be drinking.
Speaker 1: I didn't care. It was just funny that you had
Speaker 1: to let me know. Hey, by the way, like I'm
Speaker 1: going back on my cleanse tomorrow. Well, because you know
Speaker 1: certain friends, um more specifically Ronnie Adrian likes to tease
Speaker 1: me about how like keyto online, but like when I'm
Speaker 1: having my cheap moments, that's never online. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying thank you okay, thanks, thank you. Um
Speaker 1: we're joined today by writer podcaster Aaron Mallory Long. Hi. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how are you doing. I mean I'm doing great. Look
Speaker 1: to be quite honest, I just got back from Japan,
Speaker 1: and I'm a little confused about what day it is.
Speaker 1: I know, I'm so sorry. I like texted you to
Speaker 1: come on, and like she got all my text at
Speaker 1: once because she was on the airplane, and I'm like, listen,
Speaker 1: we're doing spoiler. We're talking about X files, and you
Speaker 1: have to be on because you're the person that I
Speaker 1: know knows the most about X files. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just it's one of those things that has been such
Speaker 1: a part of my life. Yeah, that's files and then
Speaker 1: also being sleep deprived. Both of those things those interchangeably. Um. Well,
Speaker 1: we have been starting out our show by asking people
Speaker 1: what they're speaking out about. I have been thinking about
Speaker 1: this and I'm going to keep mentioning it because I
Speaker 1: was just on a trip. Um No, I watched um
Speaker 1: the whole season of Dead to Me on Netflix, like
Speaker 1: on my flight over to Japan, and so it's like
Speaker 1: one of those things where it's like the altitude and
Speaker 1: then also like watching something in one sitting and stuff
Speaker 1: where I felt like I got so like cued into
Speaker 1: it and was like so emotionally invested in everything that
Speaker 1: was happening. So that's the first thing that came to
Speaker 1: my mind, what I'm getting out of what is the
Speaker 1: show about. It's like, you can't even describe what the
Speaker 1: show is about, but it's Christine Applegate and Linda Cardlini,
Speaker 1: who I love both of them. And then I just
Speaker 1: feel like Linda Cardlini doesn't get enough like roles like this,
Speaker 1: Like she's always like the wife in a movie that
Speaker 1: gets nominated for an oscar and I'm like, and she
Speaker 1: has like three lines and specifically about green Book specifically,
Speaker 1: but it's happened a lot of times. She's also the
Speaker 1: wife in you know, like where she's just like hey hawki,
Speaker 1: like it's just like and then she disappears, you know.
Speaker 1: Like so I just was sort of like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: so nice that she's like back on this thing. Like
Speaker 1: I've loved her. I love her because of freaks and geeks,
Speaker 1: so it's like nice that she's like around is a
Speaker 1: thing James Marsden, isn't it? I love um? But it
Speaker 1: was really it's really good It's like one of those
Speaker 1: like you know, twist grief, right, they like Christine Applegate's
Speaker 1: husband has just died at the start of the start
Speaker 1: of the series. Um, but it just goes a million
Speaker 1: places I wasn't expecting and I really liked it. It's
Speaker 1: like adult search party kind of, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: I've seen a ton of people tweeting about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really really, really really enjoyed it. But if you
Speaker 1: what are you speaking out about. Oh man, I'm still
Speaker 1: on my funal Fantasy fourteen grind. You know, they had
Speaker 1: a huge event. I think I might have talked about
Speaker 1: this last episode, but they had a huge event where
Speaker 1: you can win the regalia, just the car they drive
Speaker 1: in Final Fantasy fifteen, but you can only get it
Speaker 1: through winning uh like fake money within the game because
Speaker 1: there's a gold saucer in the which is like a
Speaker 1: prominent Final Fantasy casino, and so you had to like
Speaker 1: grind up to like two hundred thousand um M g P,
Speaker 1: which is the fake currency. And uh yeah, I spent
Speaker 1: all Sunday going in and I did get my car.
Speaker 1: I have the regalia, and I'm geeking out about how
Speaker 1: cool I look driving around town. So when you're because
Speaker 1: were you streaming during that time? Some everyone got to
Speaker 1: watch you do it? Oh no, this was it was
Speaker 1: like private, intimate, private because it was so mind numbingly
Speaker 1: like I was just bouncing from one thing. Because the
Speaker 1: way the casino works is there's these group events every
Speaker 1: twenty minutes, and that that gives you the opportunity to
Speaker 1: win about four thousand mg P. Then I would do
Speaker 1: choke a boat racing in between, which would only give
Speaker 1: me about three hundred. But there was challenges that if
Speaker 1: you did X amount of chokea Boat racings you would
Speaker 1: get like a bonus eight thousand. So it was like
Speaker 1: very just mind numbing, like grinding. Now. I was like,
Speaker 1: this isn't gonna be entertaining. Check. I bet somebody still would.
Speaker 1: I bet he'll get a tweet like I still would
Speaker 1: have been there and watched you. You know. Um the
Speaker 1: thing I'm geeking out. I'm geeking out about two movies,
Speaker 1: UM Book Smart and Aladdin. UM one. I was gone
Speaker 1: for two weeks because I was hosting with Disney. If
Speaker 1: he went to the premiere with me, which I got
Speaker 1: to host at. I want to just say, if you
Speaker 1: haven't been following me on Twitter. Will Smith is the kindest,
Speaker 1: nicest man, like just he has every It was so
Speaker 1: crazy because I was sitting there and he was like
Speaker 1: giving a pep talk to everyone. He's like such a
Speaker 1: hype man, like he just is. He exudes positivity. He's
Speaker 1: the same person on camera z is off camera. He's
Speaker 1: just such a nice, nice guy, which you know, being
Speaker 1: in Hollywood, we don't always run into that, and he
Speaker 1: has every reason to act egotistical or whatever because he
Speaker 1: is such a huge star and he's not. Like he
Speaker 1: was just such a dream to work with. Um. But
Speaker 1: what I wanted to say is book Smart is um hilarious.
Speaker 1: It's a female lead, female directed film that everyone should
Speaker 1: go out and see. It's coming of age story, just
Speaker 1: really funny. I know if he and I both loved it,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was gonna be my pick, and then
Speaker 1: I backed out at the last second. The way I've
Speaker 1: been pigeon it to people is is just super bad
Speaker 1: with girls, and I think it's I'm really I'm more
Speaker 1: excited for the like teens of this generation like watch
Speaker 1: that and be like charged up on that. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had great queer representation in it as well. Um
Speaker 1: so that and then also Aladdin was number one in
Speaker 1: the box office and it has to POC lead, I
Speaker 1: mean three POC leads. I mean it was super awesome.
Speaker 1: I know our friend Malcolm Barrett, who is on Our
Speaker 1: Shark our Street Sharks episode, was talking about how, you know,
Speaker 1: another director a couple of decades ago said oh, I can't, Um,
Speaker 1: I can't have someone whose name is Mohammed as my
Speaker 1: lead character. You know whatever, Yeah, you can go and
Speaker 1: I know, uh, and now we have something that made
Speaker 1: like a hundred what hundred million like opening that has
Speaker 1: Minima sud who plays Aladdin, who's relatively you know, um,
Speaker 1: he's been in a couple of things, but this was
Speaker 1: definitely a breakout for him. And Naly Scott who plays Jasmine, who, um,
Speaker 1: they really updated her character I think for this for nineteen.
Speaker 1: So those are my thoughts. Those are the things that
Speaker 1: I'm geeking out about. It was really cool to see, um,
Speaker 1: a POC lead film do so well. And then I
Speaker 1: hope that everyone goes out and go see this female directed, uh,
Speaker 1: female led film in book smart am I too. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to see both of the Lost Man So
Speaker 1: excited too. Um. So we are talking about X Files. Yes,
Speaker 1: I guess I remember. The first thing I think of
Speaker 1: is is the theme song, Yeah, yeah, and the nineties.
Speaker 1: I mean that's what I think of, is like staying
Speaker 1: it is it's so nineties, and like also like something
Speaker 1: about like aliens is so nineties to me. I mean
Speaker 1: obviously just like alien iconography, like that little face. I
Speaker 1: feel like it was everywhere when we were kids and stuff,
Speaker 1: but like something, I feel like we were all collectively
Speaker 1: obsessed with aliens in the nineties. Like I remember Fox
Speaker 1: having that like Alien Autopsy show too, which I love.
Speaker 1: Also unsolved mysteries and unsolved mysteries in general, scariest thing
Speaker 1: I've ever seen, you know. So it's like X Files
Speaker 1: was kind of like this culmination of like everything that
Speaker 1: was happening, and like when when I started falling in
Speaker 1: love with it, it was like from coming out of
Speaker 1: like me being like, oh, this is a show my
Speaker 1: dad really likes. Therefore it's an adult show. Therefore I'm
Speaker 1: smart if I like it, Like, I'm like smart, I
Speaker 1: can handle scary, Like even though at the time, like
Speaker 1: are You Afraid of the Dark used to terrify me,
Speaker 1: Like I was like I'm going to watch the X Files,
Speaker 1: like this is going to be this is like my thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was just a little too smart for me. That's
Speaker 1: so funny to say. It was just a little bit
Speaker 1: like yeah I was. I mean at that time that
Speaker 1: you watching, I was watching, Um, are you Afraid of
Speaker 1: the Dark? Goose Bumps? Like those were more on my level.
Speaker 1: And I always thought that that X Files was creepy,
Speaker 1: but it was just a little too old for me
Speaker 1: where I didn't always know what was going on. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: if you do, you remember the first time that you
Speaker 1: watched X Files, Yeah, I remember. You did, like watch
Speaker 1: it a lot, mostly because my like auntsome mom really
Speaker 1: into it, so I had no choice but to sit
Speaker 1: there and watch it with him, but I did. I'll
Speaker 1: never The episode that I'll never forget is the crossover
Speaker 1: they had what Cops Cops, because it was like this
Speaker 1: great level because like it was almost like like you,
Speaker 1: even though it was a narrative show, there was almost
Speaker 1: this like light suspension of like this could be real
Speaker 1: because it's like the truth is out there. So when
Speaker 1: they did that, it was like oh wait, what yes,
Speaker 1: like is this all real? What's going on? Well? And
Speaker 1: I'm coming at it from like being like I think
Speaker 1: I probably started watching it when I was eight, which
Speaker 1: I would say is too young, but that is when
Speaker 1: I started watching and it was like coming off of me,
Speaker 1: like being an elementary school kid who had a notebook
Speaker 1: entitled Strange Things that Have Happened to Me. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: and so I was like, oh my god, there's a
Speaker 1: show where adults are talking about this. I'm in wait,
Speaker 1: what was in your book? It was everything. It was
Speaker 1: like I would be like on the playground, like at
Speaker 1: my elementary school, and I like saw someone like walking
Speaker 1: over a hill and I would like jot it down
Speaker 1: and be like like stranger spotted like three PM, like
Speaker 1: what's happening? Oh my gosh, you were Oh shoot, what's
Speaker 1: her name? Michelle Trakenberg's Harry At another favorite of mine.
Speaker 1: I think I think that came from me loving the
Speaker 1: book Harry at the Spy and then the movie Harry
Speaker 1: at the Spy, and then it like merged into me
Speaker 1: loving the XP like it was just for people that
Speaker 1: don't know you, this is so on brand for you
Speaker 1: as a person. It was just like I was just like, yep,
Speaker 1: this is like suspicious activity, Like was basically what I
Speaker 1: would write down or like even if I saw like
Speaker 1: a mirage like on the street, you know, like it
Speaker 1: like looks like water, I'd be like, I saw a mirage.
Speaker 1: I don't know why, like investigate later. I just think
Speaker 1: that a notebook with that title would alarm any adult,
Speaker 1: your daughter having like some oh my gosh. I don't
Speaker 1: think I told my parents about it, Like, I don't
Speaker 1: think it was something that I actively like, because it
Speaker 1: was it was meant for me to have a log
Speaker 1: of weird things so that I could track what was
Speaker 1: going on. So I think it was in my understanding.
Speaker 1: I didn't show it to them. I don't think. I don't.
Speaker 1: I think they would be surprised to know about that. Well.
Speaker 1: So the X Files was inspired by earlier series that
Speaker 1: were similar to it, like the Twilight Zone, Night Gallery,
Speaker 1: Tales from the Dark Side, Twin Peaks, um And it
Speaker 1: is interesting because I used to watch We were talking
Speaker 1: about Twin Peaks before we started recording, and I used
Speaker 1: to watch that and also Dark Shadows. Dark Shadows. I
Speaker 1: did used to watch Dark Shadows. The thing about the
Speaker 1: thing that I loved about that was that because it
Speaker 1: was it's known as an American Gothic soap opera because
Speaker 1: they of the way that they recorded it. If they
Speaker 1: messed up, they just left it in there because it's
Speaker 1: kind of like Days of Our Lives. Yeah, like and
Speaker 1: so just be you can like watch like if they
Speaker 1: would flobb a line, they just had to keep going.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Um. But it's fascinating to me that I
Speaker 1: loved Dark Shadows and Night Gallery and Twilight Zone and
Speaker 1: didn't think that those were like two adults. But I
Speaker 1: think it's because there are elements of X Files were
Speaker 1: it seemed like nothing I don't wanna say nothing happened,
Speaker 1: but it was more do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 1: It was like, here's a monster. It was like a
Speaker 1: lot of adult dialogue, and it's a lot of sexual tension. Well,
Speaker 1: so the show I was thinking about was the Outer Limits,
Speaker 1: the Outer Limits, to the Outer Limits as well, maybe
Speaker 1: I'm getting yeah, all of those essentially, Yeah, the outer
Speaker 1: Limits too. Well that's the X Files is basically broken
Speaker 1: into Monster of the Week episodes, which are my personal
Speaker 1: favorite and I love, and then like the episodes that
Speaker 1: actually followed the story plot line, which get dry. I
Speaker 1: mean they just do like they get kind of hetty
Speaker 1: and like weird, and especially as a kid, Like I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I don't really care about these, but like,
Speaker 1: let me get back to monsters, let me get to
Speaker 1: the sexual attention. Like The X Files is where I
Speaker 1: learned about sexual attention, and I was like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: into this. Like I was like, I'm in love with
Speaker 1: everyone on the show. I'm in love with David Duchovney
Speaker 1: even though I'm a child, Like I was like, this
Speaker 1: is everything I mean still to this day, Like if
Speaker 1: you ask me my favorite X Files episodes, it's like
Speaker 1: Arcadia where they have to pretend to be a husband
Speaker 1: wife and they keep making jokes about like he keeps
Speaker 1: making jokes to her about like like making a porn
Speaker 1: video or like being like playing house, and I was like, yep,
Speaker 1: I'm into this way before you up into all of
Speaker 1: your favorites, because we will get into those. Um, we
Speaker 1: should probably tell people that have never watched it a
Speaker 1: little bit about, um, you know how it came to be,
Speaker 1: so you know the basics are this. The X Files
Speaker 1: is an American science fiction drama TV series created by
Speaker 1: Chris Carter, and the original television series was airing from
Speaker 1: September tenth to May nineteenth of two thousand two on Fox,
Speaker 1: and the program went for nine seasons with two hundred
Speaker 1: two episodes. A short tenth season consisting of six episodes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: A short tenth season consisting of six episodes, premiered on
Speaker 1: the January twenty four of two thousand sixteen and concluded
Speaker 1: on the twenty two of February, and following the ratings
Speaker 1: success of this revival, Fox announced that in April of
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen that The X Files would be returning
Speaker 1: for an eleventh season of ten episodes, and that season
Speaker 1: premiered on January three of two thousand eighteen and ended
Speaker 1: in March twenty one of two thousand eighteen. In addition
Speaker 1: to the Tell Division series, two feature films came out.
Speaker 1: There was film The X Files and I remember that one,
Speaker 1: which took place as part of the TV series continuity.
Speaker 1: And then they had a stand alone film called The
Speaker 1: X Files I Want to Believe that was released in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, six years after the original television
Speaker 1: and I think that was the one No one liked. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no one liked it. Did that one have? Yeah? They
Speaker 1: were both in it. My personal problem with I want
Speaker 1: to Believe was that they skipped over like Moldern Scully,
Speaker 1: like getting together, making a life together, like they all
Speaker 1: of that happened off screen. So you just like, so
Speaker 1: the thing that all the fans wanted to see you
Speaker 1: were like, you turn on the movie and you're like what, No,
Speaker 1: Like it was just it existed in this crazy place
Speaker 1: where it's like sexual attention is gone, and like everything
Speaker 1: that you wanted to happen presumably has happened. Like it's
Speaker 1: just like whereas the first movie which I made my
Speaker 1: parents take me to a midnight screening of Um, they
Speaker 1: were like, we're not okay. Luckily they both like The
Speaker 1: X Files, but I was like, we have to go
Speaker 1: immediately when it comes out. I don't know what to
Speaker 1: tell you. I'm like thirteen. I'm like, sorry, you really
Speaker 1: like Book Smart because you are literally those girls. That
Speaker 1: makes me so nervous. Um. But it's like in that
Speaker 1: one they had that you know, the big moment for
Speaker 1: me in that movie is like when they go to
Speaker 1: almost kiss in the hallway and then like they don't
Speaker 1: kiss because Scully gets stung by the bee and then
Speaker 1: she goes down and you know that is the original
Speaker 1: Jim and Pam yes, truly though, Like that's what I'm like,
Speaker 1: they are Molder and Scully are my whatever, Sam and Diane,
Speaker 1: Jim and Pam, like that's well. I remember the twenty
Speaker 1: I remember when it came back in because if you
Speaker 1: remember Luke Crate, like Luke Crate boxes and stuff, they
Speaker 1: did like a big X Files push, and I remember
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I have these shirts Aaron like
Speaker 1: that they that they had given me. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't I know someone that's going to really care about
Speaker 1: this a ton, but that was a really big deal.
Speaker 1: And then it seemed like when they brought it back in,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I heard about it or if
Speaker 1: it was marketed like as much, and maybe I'm just
Speaker 1: like not in the community, I think it wasn't. It
Speaker 1: wasn't brought up as much. And I think even my friends,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people who are really into
Speaker 1: the X Files as well, and I think even us,
Speaker 1: like we kind of weren't necessarily there for it. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people are a lot harder on
Speaker 1: the first reboot season than I think it deserves. I
Speaker 1: think it's six episodes and basically two of them are
Speaker 1: really good. Two of them are kind of terrible, and
Speaker 1: two were like kind of mediocre, boring like plot ones,
Speaker 1: and that's like how the series sort of is percentage
Speaker 1: wise overall. So I felt good about it. I was like,
Speaker 1: this is okay, Like this this is what we used
Speaker 1: to I remember being fourteen and watching it week to week,
Speaker 1: and you know, there'd be an episode that I'd be like, no,
Speaker 1: I didn't really care about that. That's fine, Let's get
Speaker 1: to some sexual tens and then everything will be okay.
Speaker 1: X Files basically for me as a pre teen and
Speaker 1: teen was the closest I got to watching porn. Like
Speaker 1: it was just like this is this is porn. This
Speaker 1: was on Fox, I know, because it's all about tension.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's like I was basically watching Cinemax, like,
Speaker 1: but you were watching It was like my equivalent of
Speaker 1: like fan fiction, like it's just so like you know, well,
Speaker 1: it gets your little heart pitter pattered, very pitter pattered.
Speaker 1: And it's where I learned about fan fiction, Like I
Speaker 1: was sure, I'm like on aim, like into the night
Speaker 1: with my friend who was also obsessed with the X
Speaker 1: Files in high school, who otherwise we didn't really talk,
Speaker 1: and then it's like she's sending me like fan fix,
Speaker 1: like did you read this one? Did you read this one?
Speaker 1: And I was like, Okay, I'm like up until six
Speaker 1: am when I have to be up for school at
Speaker 1: six thirty because I'm just like I can't stop like
Speaker 1: reading fan fix of the X Files. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's just porn. Yeah me, it was seat because they
Speaker 1: always had a hot tub scene them up every every
Speaker 1: day and they you know, and I will say Buscano
Speaker 1: More was more diverse than Blind Date because Bustano More
Speaker 1: was just the hum Telemundo's Blind Date and but like
Speaker 1: it wouldn't just be like twentysomethings, Like they had straight
Speaker 1: up like episodes with like sixty year olds and still
Speaker 1: had them do the hot tub scene. I watched, I
Speaker 1: mean myself and Hector Navaro, who's been on I've watched.
Speaker 1: I watched anime on Telemundo because one it was like
Speaker 1: not as edited and also they got stuff that like
Speaker 1: we didn't get onto Namie Interesting or four Kids or whatever,
Speaker 1: like it was, yeah, they got stuff before we did.
Speaker 1: I didn't go to Telemundo with any good intentions. I
Speaker 1: don't know what the Saturday one, there was a Saturday
Speaker 1: party one where like it was obviously like their soul train,
Speaker 1: but it always had like bikini ladies dance and I
Speaker 1: was like, bet like this, I'm here every Saturday. I
Speaker 1: forget the name of it. I was going to say,
Speaker 1: um uh, I definitely saw Goku's bare ass though there's
Speaker 1: a scene where he bends over in his butt ass naked. Okay, Eric,
Speaker 1: can you tell people about so we have um, we
Speaker 1: have Scully and Molder talk me through Fox Molder played
Speaker 1: by David Company. What is he? What is his role in?
Speaker 1: What is he? How would you describe his personality and
Speaker 1: his story arc? He is a believer, so like he's
Speaker 1: I mean the whole I think the whole. The whole
Speaker 1: setup to the show is basically what I like as well,
Speaker 1: which is just this idea of opposites and stuff. And
Speaker 1: it's like Scully, who is a doctor who is always
Speaker 1: like her line that she always goes to was like
Speaker 1: I was brought into debunk your work, like she was
Speaker 1: teamed up with Mulder because Mulder was like, I need
Speaker 1: to open the X files and investigate all these crazy things.
Speaker 1: And the FBI is basically like, Okay, Scully is an
Speaker 1: actual smart normal person, like here you go be with
Speaker 1: him and kind of like work on these things. So
Speaker 1: it's like for most of the season, I mean even
Speaker 1: in like the later episodes, the later seasons, after she's
Speaker 1: seen a bunch of stuff for real, she's still always like, Molder,
Speaker 1: I don't think it could do that, and he's always
Speaker 1: like I think it is, Yea, even after she's been abducted,
Speaker 1: after like everything that, like she's still like I don't know,
Speaker 1: like that's not physically possible, and then it always is.
Speaker 1: But so the whole the whole system is him fighting
Speaker 1: against the man actually, like and investigating the X Files
Speaker 1: and trying to figure out the truth. He has this
Speaker 1: whole backstory about his sister Samantha, who disappeared when they
Speaker 1: were kids, and like there's even an episode with Um
Speaker 1: called paper Hearts where there's a serial killer, so it
Speaker 1: also combined my true crime obsession. There's a serial killer,
Speaker 1: and then like the serial killer is kind of baiting
Speaker 1: Molder and like being like maybe I killed your sister,
Speaker 1: And so it's like everything that Molder does is like
Speaker 1: to investigate this strange occurrence of like his sister disappearing
Speaker 1: when he was Like does he have to find that out.
Speaker 1: I don't think so unless it happens in something that
Speaker 1: I didn't see, you you would think that that's what
Speaker 1: the reboot would try to tack totally, and I'm guessing
Speaker 1: they didn't. They didn't in I can't really The problem
Speaker 1: is I don't really remember the second movie now. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing. It's like, I really I like the
Speaker 1: Monster of the Week episodes so much. It's like it's
Speaker 1: also the episodes that um combine like the humor of
Speaker 1: the show and everything, which is really what I was
Speaker 1: like drawn to as like a kid and as an adult,
Speaker 1: Like it's like if you can make me laugh, and
Speaker 1: also it's like smart and like kind of interesting and scary.
Speaker 1: Like then that where I'm on board, Like that's my
Speaker 1: sweet spot. So there are some episodes of X Files
Speaker 1: which are just like that sweet spot. But basically Molder
Speaker 1: is is called Spooky Molder and like that's his whole,
Speaker 1: his whole kind of thing, like the X Files gets
Speaker 1: shut down multiple times and then reopened and they have
Speaker 1: to go do normal stuff and it's like so it's
Speaker 1: all this, it's all him fighting for the X Files
Speaker 1: and like being this kind of like outcast weirdo and
Speaker 1: Scully is supposed to like normalize him and then they
Speaker 1: have great chemistry. Yeah, and then they end up together.
Speaker 1: I do remember that. Yeah. Well, and it's like it
Speaker 1: doesn't it doesn't hurt honestly that like David Duchovny and
Speaker 1: Jelia Anderson like feed into that so much, Like it
Speaker 1: doesn't hurt that, Like she tweets at like pictures of
Speaker 1: them and stuff, and like they're always like you know,
Speaker 1: like that doesn't hurt the situation. Um. So as far
Speaker 1: as Scully, what is her? Like, what does she have family?
Speaker 1: Like what exactly? For? Like, God, she has a lot
Speaker 1: of weird things that happened. There's a whole now I
Speaker 1: can't remember anything because it's like episodes that I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have rewatched a lot. But it's like there's a whole
Speaker 1: storyline with her sister and family and but she mostly
Speaker 1: her main thing is she's the skeptic. She is the
Speaker 1: one who's like approaching it from like a clinical, like
Speaker 1: scientific way. She's always like going and like looking at
Speaker 1: the autopsies and stuff and like kind of like approaching
Speaker 1: things as a doctor and clinically. And then like he's
Speaker 1: the one who's like emotional and reactive and like. So
Speaker 1: that's how they like balance each other out. Um. But
Speaker 1: she doesn't have that like crazy backstory that he has
Speaker 1: of like I'm trying to figure out what happened to
Speaker 1: my sister, Like, she doesn't have that exact thing. Hers
Speaker 1: is mostly like, Okay, I'm trying. I'm trying to do
Speaker 1: my job. I didn't expect to be working on The
Speaker 1: X Files, but here I am. So A little known
Speaker 1: fact about David the company when he got this, he
Speaker 1: had worked in Los Angeles. At first, he wanted to
Speaker 1: focus on feature films. Um In His manager, Melanie Green,
Speaker 1: gave him the script for the pilot episode of The
Speaker 1: X Files and they were both convinced that he should
Speaker 1: audition for it, and he did a terrific job UM
Speaker 1: and the casting director of the show was very positive
Speaker 1: towards him, but thought he was not particularly intelligent. Um.
Speaker 1: He asked a company if he could please imagine himself
Speaker 1: as an FBI agent in future episodes. Um, this is insane.
Speaker 1: Jillian auditioned for the role of Skoli in UM and
Speaker 1: she said I couldn't put the script down. The network
Speaker 1: wanted either a more established or oh god, this is
Speaker 1: a this is a thing of the times. The network
Speaker 1: wanted a taller, leggiar, blonder, and breastier actress for FBI stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, for FBI stuff. First goal. Then oh, she
Speaker 1: was only twenty four at the time. I guess, I mean,
Speaker 1: but she feels perpetually older than me because she is.
Speaker 1: But I mean, like, I think because I watched it
Speaker 1: when I was little, But holy corrup, she was twenty four.
Speaker 1: Chris Carter, who created it, insisted that it Jillian had
Speaker 1: the kind of no nonsense integrity that the role required.
Speaker 1: So apparently they went for a personality as opposed to
Speaker 1: breast here thank god, I mean yeah, and and so
Speaker 1: she went on to win the Screen Actors Guild Award
Speaker 1: in nine nineteen and Emmy in nine in a Golden
Speaker 1: Globe in n So look what happens when you she's
Speaker 1: the best. She's great. Also, it's like, man, everyone's in
Speaker 1: love with Jillian Anderson and thinks she's super hot, especially
Speaker 1: on the coast. So it's like, I think, you guys
Speaker 1: are fine, I calm down. I always think it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's any like actual stats on this,
Speaker 1: but I always think it's interesting when I'm watching X
Speaker 1: Files episodes because it's odd that she has red hair,
Speaker 1: you know, like not not statistically speaking, not a lot
Speaker 1: of people have red hair, but there are always other
Speaker 1: redheads in episodes, like as side characters. There are always
Speaker 1: redheads everywhere, and I feel like it must have been
Speaker 1: an intentional choice, but I like have never looked into
Speaker 1: that or anything, but it's like, it's weird because in
Speaker 1: that world there's so many red heads. That's the one
Speaker 1: that's one of the spooky occurrences. You investigate that we
Speaker 1: have to take a quick break and then we're hopping
Speaker 1: back into the X Files right after this, and we're
Speaker 1: back and yeah, so I wanted to talk about that
Speaker 1: iconic music. Yeah, so that was actually composed by Mark Snow.
Speaker 1: And you got involved with the X Files through one
Speaker 1: of the executive producers. And initially Carter didn't have anyone
Speaker 1: in mind, and a little over a dozen people were considered,
Speaker 1: but Goodwin continued to press for Snow, which was his
Speaker 1: buddy who was the co producer, and uh, he had
Speaker 1: auditioned about three times with no sign from the production
Speaker 1: staff as to whether they wanted him, and then one
Speaker 1: day Snow's agent called him and was talking about the
Speaker 1: pilot episode and hinting that he got the job. I
Speaker 1: would be like did I get it or not? With
Speaker 1: like what are you doing? Three times? I think you know?
Speaker 1: I think you know. Now. There was a there was
Speaker 1: a episode of Rosy o'donald Show, which I loved, where
Speaker 1: Davi Dukovany was on I Think and he said that
Speaker 1: Mark Snow has said that the theme music, the unheard
Speaker 1: lyrics to it are the The X Files is a
Speaker 1: show by Mark Snow. So I always hear that in
Speaker 1: my brain. That's like me going Star Wars and the
Speaker 1: Star Wars Star Wars exactly the same thing. It's the
Speaker 1: same thing. Well, that theme song apparently the like whistle
Speaker 1: in it was inspired by the track how Soon is
Speaker 1: Now from The Smiths. Okay, I hear that that we yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it is kind of creepy. It's really the title sequence
Speaker 1: with the musicad Alien, the Dead Alien, the like close
Speaker 1: ups of their badges. Like so. Chris Carter did talk
Speaker 1: about creating Moldern Schully. He said, Moldern Schully came right
Speaker 1: out of my head. A dichotomy there the equal parts
Speaker 1: of my desire to believe in something. In my inability
Speaker 1: to believe in something, my skepticism and my faith, and
Speaker 1: the writing of the characters came very easily to me.
Speaker 1: I want, like a lot of people do, to have
Speaker 1: the experience of witnessing a paranormal phenomenon at the same time,
Speaker 1: I want not to accept it, but to question it.
Speaker 1: I think those characters and those voices came out of
Speaker 1: that duality. Yeah, And I think that's like it's funny
Speaker 1: because it's like, yeah, that sounds like a normal human reaction, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, I want to be like, oh, yeah, cool,
Speaker 1: weird things are happening, but also like the idea of
Speaker 1: that weird thing happening is terrifying, you know, Like I've
Speaker 1: had a ton of paranormal things happened to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think also just that that combination is just
Speaker 1: like amazing storytelling and just kind of like a commonly
Speaker 1: used trope that's it's just the odd couple. You take
Speaker 1: two people who are complete opposites and put them in
Speaker 1: a position where they're forced to be together, and it
Speaker 1: just makes so much sense. Like like like of course
Speaker 1: you in the Alien show, you want someone who believes
Speaker 1: and who doesn't believe, and it is kind of woven
Speaker 1: together in a beautiful way in the sinse that it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you can look at this weird alien stuff, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna put this person in here with you. It's like
Speaker 1: it's it really is like one of those things that
Speaker 1: are just right there for you, right totally. It just
Speaker 1: makes perfect sense. It makes everything work, and it's like
Speaker 1: it's sort of because then when Scully does believe in something,
Speaker 1: it's so much more meaningful because Mulder believes everything immediately.
Speaker 1: So it's like alien sounds like yeah, it's just like okay,
Speaker 1: like yeah, sure, and Scully always questions and it's like
Speaker 1: for her to get to the point of believing, like
Speaker 1: it takes so much grunt work for her that like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's real Like, as I'm watching The X
Speaker 1: Files as a documentary, so you have a more expansive
Speaker 1: knowledge of X follow episodes than I do. What is
Speaker 1: so is there like a equal amount of episodes where
Speaker 1: it is an alien versus when it isn't and Scully
Speaker 1: is right? Or is it mostly all aliens? Now it's
Speaker 1: pretty much always well, it's not even it's not even
Speaker 1: all aliens. It's like all the thing that Mulder is
Speaker 1: thinking it is, yeah, you know, I do. One thing
Speaker 1: that I think is very interesting about The X Files
Speaker 1: is that like the two main characters, like they are
Speaker 1: not above getting hurt, Like they get hurt by these
Speaker 1: things constantly, Like they get shot even just by normal guns,
Speaker 1: Like they get into paranormal things, like bad things happen
Speaker 1: to them all the time. I'm like, there are real
Speaker 1: stakes when you're watching it. It's not this thing where
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, but I know the main characters are
Speaker 1: going to be safe, Like they're not safe at all,
Speaker 1: which I think is it was always interesting to me
Speaker 1: or like seemed seemed different to me somehow. You know,
Speaker 1: as you're watching the show, and what I think is
Speaker 1: like drawing you in is that you're like you literally
Speaker 1: don't know what's going to happen because you don't know
Speaker 1: what what the crazy twist is going to be. You
Speaker 1: don't know like anything, you know, like they've just they've
Speaker 1: had so many different kinds of episodes and so many
Speaker 1: things that it is that it's actually it's funny how
Speaker 1: infrequent it's aliens. Like I was going to ask about
Speaker 1: some of the other side characters. There's Walter Skinner, Um,
Speaker 1: John Douggett, Our dogg It and Monica Reyes. Can you
Speaker 1: can you talk about some of the other agents. Skinner
Speaker 1: is great. Skinner is their boss, so he is um
Speaker 1: whatever that title is. Is it a d A or
Speaker 1: am I thinking about lawn Order now? Um? And yeah
Speaker 1: and a d FBI Yeah a d UM because I
Speaker 1: also love spu Um. He's like their boss and so
Speaker 1: he's always It's like Scully is always like talking to
Speaker 1: Skinner and like he's like rain Molder in like she's
Speaker 1: always trying to like not get Molder in trouble with Skinner,
Speaker 1: like to step in, which is kind of her role
Speaker 1: like throughout the whole thing. Um, but dogg It in Rays,
Speaker 1: they they are the replacement for Molder. So it's like
Speaker 1: after the I guess the is it the seventh season?
Speaker 1: After the seventh season, like Molder only appears in a
Speaker 1: few episodes in like eight and nine, and like Dogget
Speaker 1: and Rays came in. So that was when I'm watching
Speaker 1: it in high school and I was like what is Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean what happened there? Well? I think what was
Speaker 1: he doing, um weeds or what was he in Californication?
Speaker 1: Why who was in Weeds and White It. I think
Speaker 1: it was him. Never mind California Cacia, you know, six
Speaker 1: ft under, just all of them. Well, it was a
Speaker 1: thing where they used to because I unreasonably hated Ta
Speaker 1: Leoni in the nineties, um, because she was married to
Speaker 1: David Ducovney. And then also the story was that, like
Speaker 1: so the production of The X Files used to always
Speaker 1: be in Vancouver, and then the story is that like
Speaker 1: she was like, no, you can't be like away all
Speaker 1: the time, and she like helped David Ducovny force production
Speaker 1: to move to Los Angeles. And then after that is
Speaker 1: when he like left. So I'm not sure if it's
Speaker 1: like it was like related to that or like because
Speaker 1: he had to do some weird movies that he was
Speaker 1: doing at that time. Um, but it was it really
Speaker 1: like that was like the first experience I had of
Speaker 1: like a show I loved, like really being shaken up
Speaker 1: and like having something change and then being like, oh,
Speaker 1: well I don't like this anymore, Like yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: huge change the character, taking away one of the main characters.
Speaker 1: It was just it was just like it was such
Speaker 1: it was such a weird shock to me that it's
Speaker 1: like I still watched all of those episodes, but I've
Speaker 1: never rewatched them, Like I've never revisited either of those
Speaker 1: two seasons because like I just I'm like, it's to
Speaker 1: the point where even like looking at those actors, it's
Speaker 1: like Annabeth Gish and I always forget his name, who
Speaker 1: played dog it Um from The Terminator, Yeah, Robert patrick Um.
Speaker 1: Like I see them and I unreasonably get annoyed, like
Speaker 1: in other stuff because I'm like, you were in my
Speaker 1: favorite show, like in high school, like like this is terrible,
Speaker 1: but so I can't even I couldn't even tell you
Speaker 1: what they're their things are, but they come in as
Speaker 1: the like replacement people from Molder basically, so the final
Speaker 1: the three of them. Then, yeah, the final two seasons
Speaker 1: are like the three of them mainly, Well that is
Speaker 1: different sexual tension or not or at all? Yeah, it
Speaker 1: maybe a little. It was just it was like it
Speaker 1: would have been the same thing if Scully had left,
Speaker 1: Like if Scully had left and it was just the
Speaker 1: Molder show, I wouldn't have liked that either. Like it
Speaker 1: was just like a lot of the show for me.
Speaker 1: Besides sexual tension is just like them and their relationship
Speaker 1: and this you know this, these different aspects, these different
Speaker 1: ways of viewing things, UM, which is what you need
Speaker 1: from both of them, and it kind of gets muddied
Speaker 1: once you throw other people in my remembrance? Is that
Speaker 1: then Scully kind of after having years of the X Files,
Speaker 1: like she then sort of took up the molder roll
Speaker 1: of like, no, but it is aliens guys kind of thing,
Speaker 1: which doesn't really work for me. UM. For to me,
Speaker 1: I get that it seems like that would be normal.
Speaker 1: Though in her trajectory of like she's seen enough where
Speaker 1: she's like, yeah, no, you'd probably actually is aliens totally, totally,
Speaker 1: it makes sense. It makes more sense for her to
Speaker 1: finally come to that conclusion rather than in season seven
Speaker 1: still being like Malder, calm down. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: anything weird. I'm sure it's normal. There's some like really
Speaker 1: iconic UM episodes and people are villain not villains but
Speaker 1: aliens or whatever. Can you talk about some of those UM.
Speaker 1: I feel like the episode that everyone always talks about UM,
Speaker 1: which again it's kind of like a product of the
Speaker 1: Internet where it's like I thought it was a thing
Speaker 1: like we were just obsessed with in my family, but
Speaker 1: it's like, oh no, everyone in the world is obsessed
Speaker 1: with that, which is this episode home UM where it's
Speaker 1: basically like the whole thing of it is that Like
Speaker 1: I guess they never re aired it, but I remember
Speaker 1: watching it in like those X Files marathons, so I
Speaker 1: don't think that that's true. But it's like really alarming,
Speaker 1: it's really scary. They like basically come upon this farmhouse
Speaker 1: with a bunch of people that are like inbread and
Speaker 1: like just like a really scary situation. There's a really
Speaker 1: horrifying like reveal of a human being under a bed
Speaker 1: with no legs and stuff like there's just like a
Speaker 1: lot of really crazy stuff and it's based on that episode.
Speaker 1: Idea is based on this documentary UM that is about
Speaker 1: event that took place in upstate New York, which is
Speaker 1: where I'm from, um, and so it didn't take place
Speaker 1: in my hometown, but it's basically like a family similar
Speaker 1: to theirs. I don't think they're inbred, but like in
Speaker 1: a murder of that happened and it was like about
Speaker 1: whether or not like these guys are responsible. They had
Speaker 1: very low education, like low I Q all the stuff,
Speaker 1: and like that's kind of where the idea for that
Speaker 1: episode came from is like from this documentary. So what
Speaker 1: was the supernatural presence in this one? Well, I think
Speaker 1: it was just kind of that like that they're inbred
Speaker 1: and like it was like you know, it was like
Speaker 1: most inbred and yeah, it was mostly that. It was
Speaker 1: like it was like this weird Yeah, it was mostly that.
Speaker 1: It was just kind of the one of these like
Speaker 1: thing of week episodes where it's like someone is murdered,
Speaker 1: like they're trying to figure it out, and it's basically
Speaker 1: like this family where like their mom is like telling
Speaker 1: them to like do this stuff. So it wasn't yeah
Speaker 1: that's very Hills have Eyes anyone remembers that. But so
Speaker 1: we who is this smoking man? That's the cigarette smoking Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's like this just like mysterious figure um and the
Speaker 1: thing he's always smoking a cigarette um and it's like
Speaker 1: he's kind of Mulder has this history to where like
Speaker 1: his dad was also like involved in a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: so it's like he gets stuff from from his dad
Speaker 1: and like cigarette smoking Man. There's an episode that like
Speaker 1: goes back like as a flashback to like kind of
Speaker 1: his his starting and things, but it's it's all this
Speaker 1: this is where this is where it gets as you
Speaker 1: would think, like to adult, where it's like all these
Speaker 1: conspiracy things yeah about the government and stuff, which like
Speaker 1: does get confusing. Um, but that's who that's who he is. Um,
Speaker 1: the cigarette smoking man is kind of this figure of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So those were the episodes that I didn't get because
Speaker 1: they had Monster of the Week episodes and then they
Speaker 1: had mythology episodes, which essentially dealt with like colonization, hybred
Speaker 1: super soldiers, like this idea that the government is like,
Speaker 1: which I get, but like those totally went over my head.
Speaker 1: And then it was an alien. I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 1: get it. That's scary totally. Yeah. Well, and and that's
Speaker 1: the thing too, It's like the episodes that I've rewatched
Speaker 1: and that made me love the show are the Monster
Speaker 1: of the Week episode. So it's like those are the
Speaker 1: ones that I'm watching all the time, and like, no,
Speaker 1: everything that happens or like put on when like you know,
Speaker 1: it's Christmas and I want to watch this one episode.
Speaker 1: You know, Like it's these these kind of overarching mythology
Speaker 1: episodes that like are a little a little too involved
Speaker 1: to like really track really like be an expert it
Speaker 1: on for me personally. I know a lot of X
Speaker 1: Files fans who are like very into those episodes, but
Speaker 1: like my my relationship to the show is it's about
Speaker 1: these characters. It's about these weird occurrences rather than like
Speaker 1: the government is like spying on us and this is
Speaker 1: all this crazy stuff that's going on. Okay, I feel that,
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm excited to ask you this next
Speaker 1: one because I mnna ask you about an episode and
Speaker 1: I want to stare at you because I want to
Speaker 1: see your your facial The title of it, this is
Speaker 1: on the list and it covers everything you say. But
Speaker 1: tell us about Memento Mori. Oh man, Memento Mori. Memento Moria. Actually, yes,
Speaker 1: tell us about it? About it after these messages and
Speaker 1: welcome back, we are talking about X Files episode. We
Speaker 1: have Elementory long here with us. Uh. Danny Fernandez is
Speaker 1: focused on the laptop right now. Well, yeah, because I
Speaker 1: have some true to drop after this, but yeah, me
Speaker 1: mental Moori. The reason it stood out to me is
Speaker 1: this is the episode that got Jillian Anderson her emmy
Speaker 1: so uh and uh and and you kind of we
Speaker 1: kind of sprinkled on you know about the the events
Speaker 1: that kind of led to this, but I want to
Speaker 1: let Aaron take it from here. Oh man, um see,
Speaker 1: it's funny. It's funny that you said, I understand that
Speaker 1: this is like one of those ones that people go to, um,
Speaker 1: but it's like it's not necessarily one that I love.
Speaker 1: It's fine, Um no, no, no, I do love it.
Speaker 1: It's just like it's it's one of the things that
Speaker 1: deals with like this whole this whole thing happens where
Speaker 1: Scully gets a tumor, and then it's like she has
Speaker 1: an implant and stuff and it's all these things, and
Speaker 1: so it's like it's after she's been abducted, which is
Speaker 1: obviously like a big deal. Um, and then it's just
Speaker 1: like trying to figure out like basically what has happened
Speaker 1: with her, like what is going on, which I mean
Speaker 1: obviously I care about and I'm interested in, but it's
Speaker 1: kind of like it's like the start of that. It's
Speaker 1: like her learning about this tumor trying to like figure
Speaker 1: it out from a clinical perspective as she does. I mean,
Speaker 1: even in the in the movie and the part that
Speaker 1: I was talking about before with the beasting, when she
Speaker 1: gets stuck by the be she literally starts going like,
Speaker 1: oh my airways are closing, and I'm like, as she's
Speaker 1: passing out, like it's like she is miss doctor, like
Speaker 1: to a fall to a fault, you know. Um, but
Speaker 1: this is kind of like this is one of those
Speaker 1: things where like Scully is trying to deal with actually
Speaker 1: what happened to her, which is very interesting obviously, and
Speaker 1: just kind of like it's sort of her turning point
Speaker 1: of like, Okay, this is real stuff that's going on.
Speaker 1: This is a physical thing that has happened to me.
Speaker 1: So I think from that perspective and from like a
Speaker 1: character perspective, it's very very interesting, but it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: one you like turn on to like have a good time,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I wanted to say something
Speaker 1: because we were talking about the mythology like the whole
Speaker 1: government conspiracy type episodes. So Chris Carter, who created it,
Speaker 1: said that he was a child of the Watergate era
Speaker 1: and so he you know, would question authority and learned
Speaker 1: to mistrust it. That he was largely inspired by all
Speaker 1: the president's men. Interesting, so that was a part of it.
Speaker 1: Um And then another thing um on the other side,
Speaker 1: going back to monsters or I guess not monsters. But um.
Speaker 1: Going back to how Scully came to be was that
Speaker 1: he was partly inspired by Clarice from from Silence of
Speaker 1: the Lambs, and that Jodie Foster actually made a cameo
Speaker 1: in the fourth season episode called Never Again. She provided
Speaker 1: the voice of Betty a homicidal tatto. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that. I've never realized that. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. Um. I feel like if you just
Speaker 1: at a photo of Scully, you're like, oh, is this
Speaker 1: Clarice start? They're very similar. It very makes sense, type
Speaker 1: a like breaking down, you know, why is this happening?
Speaker 1: Like similar hair. Yeah. Another funny thing is that David
Speaker 1: Dicovny actually pushed for Jennifer Beale's to play school for
Speaker 1: people I don't remember. She is the start of flash Dance,
Speaker 1: um and many other things. But um, that would be
Speaker 1: very interesting. She would be just a different type. Like
Speaker 1: she's so like when I think of her, I always
Speaker 1: think of her as um like treating Decovany in like
Speaker 1: that way of being like no it's not aliens, like
Speaker 1: grow the heck up, um, Like I'm mad at you. Yeah, um.
Speaker 1: I also, I mean I would be remiss to not
Speaker 1: bring up The Lone Gunman, which I did. Forget, um,
Speaker 1: who's these like three guys who like Mulder kind of
Speaker 1: like goes to and they come up in Memento Maria
Speaker 1: as well. UM. But like they then had this like
Speaker 1: spinoff series, like they're like a bunch of nerds, you know,
Speaker 1: like a bunch of like he goes to them for
Speaker 1: computer things and all this stuff. Um, And then they
Speaker 1: tried to have a spinoff series of them, which is
Speaker 1: kind of The Lone Gunman. I think it lasted a season,
Speaker 1: but I'm not positive. What are some of the other
Speaker 1: episodes that you've that are like iconic, like episodes that
Speaker 1: are iconic for me or like, um Bad Blood is
Speaker 1: this episode with um Luke Wilson and the kid who
Speaker 1: was like the main character in The Big Green whose
Speaker 1: name I can't think of, which was like the same era,
Speaker 1: so he looks exactly the same, this like redheaded kid um.
Speaker 1: And it's basically they go to this town and there's
Speaker 1: like vampires. Is essentially like what's going on. But the
Speaker 1: good part of this episode is that it's told both
Speaker 1: from Molder's perspective and from Scullies. So there's like from
Speaker 1: Scullies perspective, like Luke Wilson looks like Luke Wilson and
Speaker 1: his normal and he like flirts with her, And from
Speaker 1: Molder's perspective, it's like they literally give him like false
Speaker 1: teeth and like like Skully is like fawning over him
Speaker 1: and stuff, and it's like them Like so the episode
Speaker 1: is part like talking about this community of vampires that
Speaker 1: they this town of vampires they have found and like
Speaker 1: what's going on, and part like them like teasing each
Speaker 1: other and flirting. So obviously like very into that, um,
Speaker 1: like very into it, um. But those are all I mean,
Speaker 1: that's what That's what I was going to get into before.
Speaker 1: It's like the episodes of that that I like like and
Speaker 1: used to rewatch so much are like ones like that.
Speaker 1: Like there's an episode um called Detour where they're like
Speaker 1: supposed to be on like a community. It's like one
Speaker 1: of those where like they're not supposed to be investigating
Speaker 1: something and then they like stumble into it and it's
Speaker 1: this like a monster that's basically the woods, Like you know,
Speaker 1: there's like a like a demon like a being that
Speaker 1: exists in the trees and stuff that's killing people. And
Speaker 1: the reason why it sticks out in my child brain
Speaker 1: is because Mulder gets like hurt and they're in there
Speaker 1: in the forest and Scully is like holding him, and
Speaker 1: then he's like, you know, I heard the best way
Speaker 1: to stay warm is to climb naked into a sleeping
Speaker 1: bag with someone else who's already naked inside. And I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I'm twelve. This is the best thing
Speaker 1: I've ever seen, you know. So it's like it's like
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff is what, in a stupid way,
Speaker 1: sticks out to me. But also great episodes like um
Speaker 1: Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, which stars um uh Peter Boyle
Speaker 1: is that his name and he won an Emmy I
Speaker 1: thing for it, um, And it's just it's just like
Speaker 1: these kind of things where they like drop in on
Speaker 1: a person and like follow this story of what's going on.
Speaker 1: There's like, um, there's this great episode called Monday where um,
Speaker 1: this woman is reliving the same day over and over
Speaker 1: and as she watches her boy and like go and
Speaker 1: hold up a bank, and she keeps trying to get
Speaker 1: in touch with Molder and like get through to him,
Speaker 1: and like every day time she keeps groundtog day, reliving
Speaker 1: this day and reliving this day, and like she she's like,
Speaker 1: every time something goes wrong, I can't figure out what's
Speaker 1: going on. And then like you know, so it's like
Speaker 1: a paranormal in that way where it's like she's literally
Speaker 1: stuck in the same day, but it's not like aliens,
Speaker 1: but it's like Molder and Scully keep dying in that episode,
Speaker 1: like the bank keeps exploding and she's like, this isn't right,
Speaker 1: Like you guys have to fix this. I'm trapped in hell.
Speaker 1: And then finally, like the end of the episode spoiler
Speaker 1: alert is that like she has to die and then
Speaker 1: that's what ends it. Um. Something that I think needs
Speaker 1: to be addressed though, is that there was a pay gap.
Speaker 1: Gillian Anderson actually revealed even recently that she had to
Speaker 1: fight to be paid the same amount as de Company twice,
Speaker 1: first when the show originally aired, then again when it
Speaker 1: came back for two seasons. So this is according to
Speaker 1: The Daily Beast, Anderson found herself fighting just to stand
Speaker 1: on equal ground literally with her male costar, because the
Speaker 1: studio initially required her to stand a few feet behind
Speaker 1: her male partner on camera. Careful never to step side
Speaker 1: by side with him, and it took three years before
Speaker 1: Anderson finally closed the wage gap between her pay and
Speaker 1: to companies. That is insane to be she was an
Speaker 1: award winner for this series to be treated like another,
Speaker 1: to be tweet as a sidekick to David Dicovany and
Speaker 1: not as an equal. It's Dana, I mean, Scully and Molder.
Speaker 1: It's like it's not one or the other. That's wild,
Speaker 1: especially since like she's the one who was sitting around
Speaker 1: like holding down the show for two seasons. You know,
Speaker 1: like it's just as much sorry to clean up because
Speaker 1: the first thing when she when they came back, they
Speaker 1: definitely should if anything, Julian should have got paid more
Speaker 1: than to come. But when they first came on, even
Speaker 1: though he was in l A for three years, he
Speaker 1: has already done Working Girl, New Year's Day, denial, bad
Speaker 1: influenced Julia had to don't tell Mom, the babysitter's death,
Speaker 1: the rupture. So he was primarily a feature film actor,
Speaker 1: so that's why he didn't want to do X Files
Speaker 1: because he was he was an movie actor. Then well, yeah,
Speaker 1: he must have then done Twin Peaks, like right when
Speaker 1: he got to l A. But the thing is is
Speaker 1: Iel like, if that's the case, they should have equalled
Speaker 1: out by like season two. Like by season two is
Speaker 1: like this is a hit show. They're both as important.
Speaker 1: It should have equaled out. You can get away with
Speaker 1: I think your first season if someone has like all
Speaker 1: this over it, but season two it needs to equal out,
Speaker 1: especially like they are literally you cannot have Molder without Skully.
Speaker 1: That show would be insane without her. Yeah, and here's
Speaker 1: the here's the simple thing that makes it like rough,
Speaker 1: is like it's hard to get equity in this industry
Speaker 1: because if we show up to set together, no one's
Speaker 1: gonna want to talk. Like if I'm on set with
Speaker 1: Danny and she's like if how much, what's your rate? Right?
Speaker 1: No one, no one. But but the fact of the
Speaker 1: matter is is we should have that combo because that
Speaker 1: doesn't that so like so what why wouldn't you want
Speaker 1: to empower your people on set? But I think it's
Speaker 1: such a touchy thing because people like, well, why should
Speaker 1: you get paid the same as me? But it's like
Speaker 1: if we're on a show like this and we're on
Speaker 1: the second season, like, sure, get your first season, you
Speaker 1: have more, but if we are equal importance in the show,
Speaker 1: we should be equally competent. Absolutely absolutely, Well, it's yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there's too many cogs in this, says, I mean,
Speaker 1: we can I don't want this to well. I was
Speaker 1: going to say, Okay, so maybe that article I was
Speaker 1: reading that said he had only maybe they were just
Speaker 1: talking about he had only been in l A for
Speaker 1: three years because um he had been like you said,
Speaker 1: he had done a couple of things before then. Um,
Speaker 1: although I would argue you that this is what he's
Speaker 1: most known for. Um but yeah, so he slapped me
Speaker 1: one that I was like, oh, I know that one.
Speaker 1: But he but when I think of that, I think
Speaker 1: of Christine Apple. She's the star of Don't Tell Mom. Totally.
Speaker 1: I think of her too. He's not like, necessarily, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, the star. She's the star of that. Um
Speaker 1: but um, okay, yeah, so he Yeah, thank you for
Speaker 1: clarifying that he had worked in other things. I didn't
Speaker 1: grow up watching Twin People to be right to be
Speaker 1: in your well actually, oh my gosh. But to be honest,
Speaker 1: like we were saying, it shouldn't have it should have
Speaker 1: equalled out. And then by the time I mean, she
Speaker 1: was when she was when she won an Emmy for
Speaker 1: this role. That should have that should have really changed
Speaker 1: the pain. That's crazy. So um that's that's why I
Speaker 1: like it's it's even insane on the on the reboot
Speaker 1: that that that happens. That's so distance it happened. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's all like like I said, I didn't
Speaker 1: want to turn but that's the it's all just a
Speaker 1: broken system. And that's what happens when you have like
Speaker 1: you know, these package deals and stuff. Is that's all
Speaker 1: takes of like it really does. I think people think that, oh,
Speaker 1: it's just the writers, but it affects people because you
Speaker 1: have agencies as like oh I have this person, I'll
Speaker 1: have or take a lower rate. So that and that's why,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's all, it's all just. But I
Speaker 1: did want to say before someone writes me that m
Speaker 1: David Dicovany did. He was nominated for a Golden Globe
Speaker 1: in ninety six and he finally won one um or
Speaker 1: x X files but David, um, Well, it's also that
Speaker 1: thing where it's like I'm like, David dcovany has a
Speaker 1: flash air role, you know, which also annoys me. Like
Speaker 1: it's like you know, I love killing E. And like
Speaker 1: I've heard a lot of people being like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: weird that Sandra is getting attention when Jody Comber is
Speaker 1: there and she's so great, and I'm like, yeah, but
Speaker 1: like they're both great is the thing? Like they're both
Speaker 1: great in this show, And like Sandra has like such
Speaker 1: a difficult that like straight man part in anything, even
Speaker 1: if it's not a comedy is like that's hard, Like
Speaker 1: that's tough. You gotta you know, like that's a hard thing. Also,
Speaker 1: you don't get to do the fun stuff when you're
Speaker 1: the fund police. You're always like you know, It's it's
Speaker 1: so interesting because you'll have that when you're like writing
Speaker 1: a show where you're like, oh man, you don't want
Speaker 1: this person to be or like, you know, especially if
Speaker 1: you're writing a show that people who are going to
Speaker 1: be in it are in the room, you'll get like
Speaker 1: personalities being like well, I don't want to be the
Speaker 1: one who's not fun all the time. It's like, but
Speaker 1: we need that. Like it's like as much as you
Speaker 1: don't want that, we need that because you're the person
Speaker 1: to balance it out exactly. It's normally what we call
Speaker 1: it the dumb dad. Trope have Homer Simpson, you have
Speaker 1: Peter Griffin, you have um Tim the Toolman, Taylor whatever.
Speaker 1: Like the mom is always the naggy mom because she
Speaker 1: has she has to. If he's the dumb dad and
Speaker 1: he gets to have all, he's the one like lighting
Speaker 1: his pants on fire and stuff, then you have the
Speaker 1: mom um like and Mrs Doubt fire and she's the
Speaker 1: mean mom, the Maaggie mom, the So I'm not taking
Speaker 1: away from those like iconic roles, it's just that that
Speaker 1: is often given to with um. Yeah. Do you have
Speaker 1: final thoughts, Aaron? Are there things that we missed that
Speaker 1: we need to include. The thing that is now panicking
Speaker 1: me that I have not talked about is that there's
Speaker 1: a Simpsons episode that's a crossover with that. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: remember them being simpsified the Springfield Files and it's great,
Speaker 1: and it's like, it's just it's one of those things
Speaker 1: I used to want. I mean, I love the Simpsons
Speaker 1: as well, and it's like it was a thing that
Speaker 1: we watched as a family, and my obsession with it
Speaker 1: was if my parents were laughing at something and I
Speaker 1: didn't get it, I needed to know why. I needed
Speaker 1: to know the reference and like whatever they were referencing.
Speaker 1: And that's how I learned lots of pop culture references
Speaker 1: that I still know and I realized I learned from
Speaker 1: The Simpsons, But with the Springfield Files, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is a whole episode that I
Speaker 1: know all the references. Like I get what they're making
Speaker 1: fun of, I get what's happening and everything like do like, uh,
Speaker 1: Mulder's badge when he flips down is like him like
Speaker 1: in a photo shoot, like in just underwear, like animated,
Speaker 1: you know. And it's like because there was all these
Speaker 1: there's all these references in the X Files to him
Speaker 1: watching porn. He's constantly watching porn like in the background
Speaker 1: like you'd kind of hear something. And then he has
Speaker 1: like a water bed that like explodes in this episode Monday.
Speaker 1: Like he's like he's always like on the edges of
Speaker 1: like sex culture stuff. So it's just like all these
Speaker 1: jokes in that episode that I'm like, oh, I get
Speaker 1: every reference, And it was like so good for me
Speaker 1: as a little kid, like to just be like I
Speaker 1: feel smart, like and I get the jokes and it's funny,
Speaker 1: like just the best thing that's ever happened. That's funny
Speaker 1: that they like, your coworker just straight up watching porn
Speaker 1: while you're at work. It was all it was all.
Speaker 1: It was like usually when he was at it was
Speaker 1: usually to be fair like at his home, and it's
Speaker 1: like she would call and then he would be like
Speaker 1: like pausing or turning off the TV and you could
Speaker 1: kind of hear that. I'm like, you know, like grow
Speaker 1: things from his real life into this. Yeah. Well and
Speaker 1: then that when that all happened, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that must have been where this came from. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean really they made him into the character. They were like,
Speaker 1: David Comany is straight up watching porn and his trailer. Um,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on and talk about X files. Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. What a dream just to think about that,
Speaker 1: and you know it's it's out there. Wow, we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna edit that down hopefully where you don't see
Speaker 1: how long it took me to part those like two
Speaker 1: words three words together. Is there any where can people
Speaker 1: find you? And is there anything you want to promote? Um,
Speaker 1: I'm everywhere at Aaron Mallory Long. That's that's the main
Speaker 1: promoting I do just myself, Um, I do this video
Speaker 1: series where I recap episodes of Dawson's Creek. If anyone
Speaker 1: out there likes Dawson's Creek, one of my favorite shows,
Speaker 1: also my obsession from So Aaron had an entire friends
Speaker 1: podcast with our friend Jamie. Would actually still have that
Speaker 1: friends podcast. Yeah that's yeah, yeah, that's still happening. Lamar
Speaker 1: would love that. He's very I don't know when this happened,
Speaker 1: slowly creeped in, but he had a friend's hat and
Speaker 1: then he just bought those new I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've seen the Kyrie's that came out, but there he
Speaker 1: bought those, and then he bought a friend's hoodie to
Speaker 1: go with you. So I'm like, you look like a
Speaker 1: friend's super fan and I don't know. I only know
Speaker 1: who Kyrie iring is because he loves friends. Uh. And
Speaker 1: you know me as always, if you d I F
Speaker 1: Y n W A d I w E on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram, if D's on Twitch, drop those Twitch Prime
Speaker 1: subs every month. You gotta do it manually until you upgrade.
Speaker 1: I said this last time in a couple of you
Speaker 1: all upgraded to just the regular monthly tier. One up
Speaker 1: and it'll just automatically charge you and if that floats
Speaker 1: your boat, if you never want to come back to
Speaker 1: my twitch, but you're like, I want to give you
Speaker 1: a simple five bucks a month. Uh, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: thank you, but you can also do that. As far
Speaker 1: as shows, I really don't have shows, but I'm would
Speaker 1: definitely be at E three and I'm definitely gonna be
Speaker 1: at R T X. Uh, so you know, prepare for that.
Speaker 1: I don't have dates for anything I'm doing just yet,
Speaker 1: but just go ahead and prepare for that. There you go. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm at Miss Danny Fernandez M S d A and
Speaker 1: I I forgot a spell and I'm at Miss Danny Fernandez.
Speaker 1: It's M S d A and I f E R
Speaker 1: n A and D easy. Um. I think we're both
Speaker 1: going to be at Comic Con though, so to also
Speaker 1: prepare for that. Get your tickets in line because I
Speaker 1: think we get to announce our Comic Con schedule coming
Speaker 1: up pretty soon. I think that's all I have. Check
Speaker 1: out our tea public site. We have a lot of
Speaker 1: cool shirts to public dot com slash Nerdificent if you
Speaker 1: tweet at us or tag us. We've been reposting people
Speaker 1: that that get a shirt or a mother or whatever
Speaker 1: you want, whatever merch you want. Definitely tag guess we
Speaker 1: love seeing you in it, and stay stay nerdy, Stay nerdy.