TV phenomenon's
09/12/07 14:49 Filed in: Media
Time to set the way back machine for...oh 1997 (I
think) and relive an important time in my life.
I've been going through my DVD collection of late and
I realized that I've not watched any of the first 6
seasons of the X-files which I brought very cheaply
some time ago (probably last year). So I started to
watch them from season 1.
Ah that takes me back. Back to those heady days of the late 1990's. Back to the days just before I moved out from the parents. back to when the X-files was a huge phenomenon.
In those early days of the X-files (seasons 1 and 2), the program really was a huge phenomenon. Here was this odd ball TV series which, in the UK at least came out of nowhere and suddenly became almost every ones favorite program. And it did it overnight it seemed.
It was very clearly a telefansity type show, that would appeal to geeks and the like, which of course was why I watched it, but it also some how managed to cross the geek 'boundary' and appeal to a much larger audience. And it did this in a way which I don't think had happened before, except maybe with the original series of Star Trek and as far as I can tell has only happened once or maybe twice since and even then, it hasn't happened on the same scale.
Now I've got to claim that I was one of the 'early adopters' of the show, as I started watching it when it was on from 10:15 to 11 on BBC 2. Not exactly a prime spot. Yes your right I wasn't the earliest adopters of the show, since season 1 had already shown on Sky 1 at that point (but I didn't have cable or satellite at that point, still living with the parents).
But after a few episodes in this spot, the BBC realized what they had and moved it to 9:40 on BBC 1. Right after the 9 o'clock news, a much better time for it.
So why did it get so huge so quickly?
The quality of the early writing? Yes partly. The sex appeal of the leading players? Yes for sure.
These all played there parts, but I think the main reason and the reason we haven't seen something on this scale since, was the timing. The series 'when mainstream' just about the same time as the internet was starting to become something that a few people had access to at home (I wasn't in that class of people till the second series, once I'd moved out from the parents) and I think this new way of communicating how great the series was, is the biggest single reason why the X-files was the phenomenon is was.
Of course as with most things, the phenomenon was over by the end of the third series. People where just tried of hearing about the X-files every where and the quality of the writing had started to fall (but it was still good up until the 5 season, after that, well I stopped following it some where in the middle of season 6)
So why haven't we seen this sort of thing happen again, now that the internet it's self has 'gone mainstream'?
I think for exactly that reason. The internet is now common place. It doesn't generate that same excitement of the new any more. Yes there are big shows out there with huge internet fan bases, but I don't think we have seen or will see ever again that same sort of phenomenon as we did in those late 90's
So what shows do I think have come close to generating the same sort of phenomenon but on a smaller scale to the X-files? Well for me and a lot of other geeks but a smaller number of non geeks, I would have to say Buffy came close. More recently, the new series of Doctor Who is huge in the UK and has come closer than Buffy to being a huge phenomenon. I'm not sure how big it is across the water in the states. And finally the show that has come closest to an X-files type phenomenon, has to be Hero's
Again I was there first (but I would say that wouldn't I! since I saw this when it was shown on the sci-fi channel here at the start of the year. Even then a fair few people at the office where I work where following (downloaded from bit torrents mostly!), but now it's been shown on BBC, it's huge. Even the (and I'm sorry if this sounds sexest, I don't mean it in that way) 'account girls' at the office follow it. So much so that no one that had seen the series before it started on the BBC was aloud to talk about it at the office.
So yes Hero's is huge, but I still think that the X-files was bigger still.
Ah that takes me back. Back to those heady days of the late 1990's. Back to the days just before I moved out from the parents. back to when the X-files was a huge phenomenon.
In those early days of the X-files (seasons 1 and 2), the program really was a huge phenomenon. Here was this odd ball TV series which, in the UK at least came out of nowhere and suddenly became almost every ones favorite program. And it did it overnight it seemed.
It was very clearly a telefansity type show, that would appeal to geeks and the like, which of course was why I watched it, but it also some how managed to cross the geek 'boundary' and appeal to a much larger audience. And it did this in a way which I don't think had happened before, except maybe with the original series of Star Trek and as far as I can tell has only happened once or maybe twice since and even then, it hasn't happened on the same scale.
Now I've got to claim that I was one of the 'early adopters' of the show, as I started watching it when it was on from 10:15 to 11 on BBC 2. Not exactly a prime spot. Yes your right I wasn't the earliest adopters of the show, since season 1 had already shown on Sky 1 at that point (but I didn't have cable or satellite at that point, still living with the parents).
But after a few episodes in this spot, the BBC realized what they had and moved it to 9:40 on BBC 1. Right after the 9 o'clock news, a much better time for it.
So why did it get so huge so quickly?
The quality of the early writing? Yes partly. The sex appeal of the leading players? Yes for sure.
These all played there parts, but I think the main reason and the reason we haven't seen something on this scale since, was the timing. The series 'when mainstream' just about the same time as the internet was starting to become something that a few people had access to at home (I wasn't in that class of people till the second series, once I'd moved out from the parents) and I think this new way of communicating how great the series was, is the biggest single reason why the X-files was the phenomenon is was.
Of course as with most things, the phenomenon was over by the end of the third series. People where just tried of hearing about the X-files every where and the quality of the writing had started to fall (but it was still good up until the 5 season, after that, well I stopped following it some where in the middle of season 6)
So why haven't we seen this sort of thing happen again, now that the internet it's self has 'gone mainstream'?
I think for exactly that reason. The internet is now common place. It doesn't generate that same excitement of the new any more. Yes there are big shows out there with huge internet fan bases, but I don't think we have seen or will see ever again that same sort of phenomenon as we did in those late 90's
So what shows do I think have come close to generating the same sort of phenomenon but on a smaller scale to the X-files? Well for me and a lot of other geeks but a smaller number of non geeks, I would have to say Buffy came close. More recently, the new series of Doctor Who is huge in the UK and has come closer than Buffy to being a huge phenomenon. I'm not sure how big it is across the water in the states. And finally the show that has come closest to an X-files type phenomenon, has to be Hero's
Again I was there first (but I would say that wouldn't I! since I saw this when it was shown on the sci-fi channel here at the start of the year. Even then a fair few people at the office where I work where following (downloaded from bit torrents mostly!), but now it's been shown on BBC, it's huge. Even the (and I'm sorry if this sounds sexest, I don't mean it in that way) 'account girls' at the office follow it. So much so that no one that had seen the series before it started on the BBC was aloud to talk about it at the office.
So yes Hero's is huge, but I still think that the X-files was bigger still.
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