ArchaeoBlog

The 20th anniversary of The X-Files that is. September 10, 1993 according to Wikipedia. The early ’90s were kind of exciting for me, in good ways and bad. I went to Egypt in ‘91, ‘93, and ‘94, two times on Don Ryan’s project to the Valley of the Kings and once on my own to the Fayum. The former were productive, the latter not so much. Plus I’d started working full time at a place I’d stay on for 15 years, seeing me through to the end of my graduate school career and a Ph.D. I did my MA thesis in 1989-91. Met the future ArchaeoWife.

I always thought of X-Files as sort of a son of Twin Peaks because each dealt with creepiness and FBI agents, with an additional nod to The Silence of the Lambs. But Chris Carter also got a lot of his inspiration from The Night Stalker series which I also adored. I have most of the set and still pull it out and watch some favorite episodes every now and then. They did black humor remarkably well. I also really liked the Millennium spinoff. Actually, both of those shows got me to not minding the climate around here (Pacific NW) as much, eventually coming to like all the clouds and rain (both were filmed up in Vancouver BC).

I suppose as kind of a science nerd it should irritate me as it tended to go into all sorts of conspiracy theories and pseudo-science, but that never really bothered me. IN an interview, Carter said he was giving a talk to some skeptics society or other and was worried about how they’d react since his show was all about the conspiracy theories and pseudo-science that they were constantly trying to debunk. But he echoed my feelings, saying that it was science fiction shows like this that often got people interested in science in the first place, and that’s very true. And they could be remarkably tongue-in-cheek about it a good part of the time.

I’ll probably do a longer post when the actual anniversary comes up, but wanted to toss this out there now as something of a reminder.

Larry Hagman hath passed away. Little bummed about this, although it’s not surprising, he’s looked very frail of late, and he was 81 after all. I only bring this up because I have some fond memories of Dallas back in the 1980s. I only really discovered the show in college although I’d obviously known of its existence before then — I mean, was there anyone on the planet who hadn’t heard about Who Shot JR? For some reason we (a couple of my roomies and I) started watching it on Friday nights, along with the sister show Falcon Crest. This latter show was notable somewhat archaeologically for having Paul Freeman as a villain for a season (Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark). That was at a time I was really getting into archaeology so it’s got these sort of warm fuzzy memories associated with it. Back then, we would sit down with a bunch of beer and hard pretzels and watch both of them, hooting and hollering at all the camp. And then we’d go out and hit the bars. Great fun.

Hagman always kind of fascinated me because of his Dallas comeback since I still kind of remember him for his role on I Dream of Jeannie. Not only was his comeback neat, but it was a completely different character and format: he went from being the ‘hero’ in a comedy to the villain in a drama. And he pulled it off! Apparently he was a very heavy drinker and eventually had to have a liver transplant so for the last few years he was really on ‘bonus time’. He also had a short-lived series in the 1990s, I think, and it was set in Louisiana, he played a judge I think. I kind of liked the couple of episodes of it, but it was cancelled pretty quickly.

It’s kind of odd how the show is seen as kind of emblematic of the “greedy ’80s” since it originated in 1978. Also, I kind of think it’s absurd to call the ’80s greedy when the ’90s make the ’80s look like the ’60s by comparison. But you know, the powers that be have decided that, so I guess it’ll probably stick.

RIP, Tony Nelson.