Movies & TV

You've got cause and effect backwards. X-files created the cliche theories for the show. It's really more Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM than Jones. Keep in mind this was the 90s. People were just as ignorant but there wasn't an infinite fountain of bizarre delusion at everyone's fingertips the way there is now. There were fewer venues to fall in to the "Fluoride is a commie plot" world.

A big thing with the X-Files wasn't the conspiracy stuff, it was that David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson had great stage presence and were regarded as the sexiest people on television. Or that the show had "arc stories" related to an overarching plot, which wasn't really a thing at the time. It was sort of a horror anthology show for the most part. You were supposed to sympathize with Fox's moon eyed credulity and willingness to believe every silly thing that came along bc of the disappearance of his sister, while Scully's flat-earth atheist businesslike professional attitude provided a foil and, like, seriousness to an otherwise silly series. Together they made for a fun team as they coped with whatever weird thing happend this week.

It had some notably good episodes. The one stand-out I can remember is the recurring character who was responsible for a bunch of locked-room mystery murders. It turned out he could squeeze himself through tiny spaces and came out of hybernation every few decades to eat people's livers before going back to sleep. it was creepy as hell by the standards of 90s television.