The X-files - 202 Episodes

Playing to the conspiracy-theory crowd, Fox's "The X-Files" tapped into a vein of distrust of the U.S. government and general paranoia that began in the 1970s. And creator Chris Carter, whose formative years coincided with Watergate, says the show hit the airwaves at precisely the right time. "If it had come 10 years later, post-2001, it might have been received differently," he says. "I think it came at a time when people were considering other faiths, religions or explanations."

But the audience received the show's tenuous accounts of alien abductions, demonic possession and government cover-ups with enthusiasm when it debuted in '93, eventually developing into a rabid cult following.

It was FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who were charged with investigating top-secret government cases dealing with unexplained phenomena. Believer and skeptic, the duo represented two sides of the same coin, which gave their relationship enough friction to keep it interesting. Time and again, Mulder and Scully pursued clues that lead to elusive and threatening characters such as the Cigarette Smoking Man, Deep Throat, the Well-Manicured Man and even a twisted double Soviet agent.

Carter says "X-Files" owes much of its success to the chemistry of its two stars. "They were fresh, new faces playing interesting characters in an underappreciated genre on television, which was science fiction. Also, it was a scary show," he says.

Carter maintained a level of humor, suspense and intrigue each week with a hand-picked group of writers, including Vince Gilligan, Howard Gordon, Darin Morgan, Glen Morgan, Frank Spotnitz and James Wong. They took stories and characters into new and exciting directions. "That was, for me, an amazing thing to see, that these characters I'd created could stretch and grow and change," he explains.

— Barry Garron