So, for today’s post, I’ve picked two of my favorite TV quotes: “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE” and “I WANT TO BELIEVE.”
Those quotes didn't start out being uttered. They were words on our TV screens, first seen in the pilot episode of The X-Files, which first aired on September 10, 1993.
The glowing words "THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE" memorably loomed against a dark sky at the end of the show's opening credits sequence.
They soon became a well-known and oft parodied phrase. And, since the show was a big hit, its stars soon became stars in the bigger Hollywood sense of the word.
They were Gillian Anderson, playing by-the-book FBI agent and scientist, Dana Scully, and David Duchovny, as her polar opposite partner, Agent Fox Mulder, an alien-paranormal-conspiracy-theory buff.
One of the things that helped establish Mulder’s persona was the poster on the wall of his office. It showed a picture of a flying saucer with the words "I WANT TO BELIEVE."
That became the second famous catchphrase generated by the show. (There was a third. Do you remember it yet?)
The X-Files aired for nine seasons, until 2002. Like Star Trek, it has lived on in movies. The second X-Files movie released in 2008 was titled I Want to Believe.
I did want to believe the second X-Files movie would be better than the kinda blah first one. And, it was.
But my fondest memories are still of the monster-of-the-week X-Files episodes, like “Squeeze,” “The Host” and “Home.”
Trust no one who tells you that the "mytharc" episodes that focused on the show's ongoing mythology-conspiracy arc were as good as those gems.
