Oct-30-1998
Kevin & Bean
Interview with Chris Carter
Transcript from PA X-files site
K/B: Kevin or Bean (can’t tell these guys apart on the show)
LM: Lisa May (traffic girl/girl in the two-guys-and-a-girl formula used for any kind of show these days)
CC: Chris Carter
K: …people who haven’t met him, think a guy who writes all this, just, bizarre weirdness, is… He’s just, like, a — he’s just, like, a… easy-going…
LM: …surfer dude…
B: …surfer dude, yeah.
K: Like, a nice, just a really nice — doesn’t want to upset any-anybody — kind of a guy.
B: Yeah.
K: It doesn’t make sense. [gives off an abrupt puff of amusement]
B: People who are famous in horror are — I mean, you expect when you meet Wes Craven, he’s gonna have fangs.
CC: Right.
B: You know what I mean?
CC: But he doesn’t either.
B: He doesn’t either. He’s a very normal nice guy. Yeah, exactly. It’s a surprise. I guess it all, it just comes from the mind. Did you — Was Halloween fun for you when you were growing up? Was that a holiday you enjoyed?
CC: [says this in the middle of starting to laugh] I, actually, I hate Halloween. [KBL chuckles]
B: No! Really?
LM: [in a mocking tone] …don’t want to dress up…I hate the pumpkins…
CC: It’s-it’s like a-a, uh, day for closet drag queens. [KBL crack up]
B: So the people who are doing Halloween year ’round, those are your folks.
CC: Yea-heh-heh… [KBL still chuckling]
K: [chuckling] …closet drag queens, I like that.
B: So how you’ve been? How was your summer? How’s your fall been?
CC: Uh–
B: Just crazy? Busy?
CC: — It’s been busy…with two shows again now and uh, (takes a breath in) travelling to Vancouver now and again. It’s just been a, uh, whirlwind. (lets the breath out)
K: Oh, you’re gonna forget about all those Vancouver people. [C chuckles]
K: What the hell, you’re back in L.A. now.
CC: I-I– Millenium’s still back there. So I still…
K: Oh, it is…
CC: yeah, yeah
K: I didn’t even realize that. No wonder you go back and forth.
CC: Yeah. And I love it actually.
K: Yeah, well, it’s a great city.
CC: yeah, yeah
K: Been up there a couple different times. It’s a great city.
B: What–
K: You have a lot–you have a lot, uh, to do with Millennium, too, this season again, right?
CC: Yeah, I’m back on the show. I-I left the show last year to do the X-Files movie. But I’m back in full force this year.
B: We love that show so much and you, you probably know this, but every week, we talk about it and every week, we urge people to check it out.
CC: thank god
B: Cause it’s on, I mean, let’s be honest, it’s a tough time slot, as you found out when The X-Files use to be on Fridays.
CC: yeah
B: It’s just a tough time slot.
K: I tape it every single week and watch it over the weekend.
CC: Although, we’ve hung in there. This is year three and, uh, last-last (?) we got a big victory over, uh, some new shows. So we’re still [some more proverbial CC-stutters here] we’re, uh, uh, still, uh, a strong show on the Fox network.
B: Alright let me ask you this because I know they’re a lot of Millennium fans who are wondering. You made quite a few changes in the off season
CC: mm-hmm
B: with, uh, with, uh, Frank Black and his family–situation. What was the, uh, what was the, uh, impetus behind jettisoning the wife?
CC: uh… [CKBL chuckle]
K: Do you consider it jettisoning the wife?
CC: The, uh, the truth is that she was a terrific actress and we just could never write enough story for her, uh, because Frank Black tended to, uh, get all the, uh, all the, uh, drama. So, uh, it was an over-idealized marriage, uh, he loved his wife, there wasn’t, there were no issues and so, uh, it was something that seems like it was time to go.
K: There wasn’t, uh, there wasn’t enough for her to do.
CC: Yeah, exactly.
K: Which is what– When we’ve had Megan Gallagher in here before, I mean, that was her fear that when she first signed up was just cause she knew it wasn’t gonna be a traditional relationship show, she was afraid she would be squeezed out.
CC: And I-I promised her otherwise but [L chuckles]
CC: in the end [starts to laugh] I couldn’t do it. [CKBL laugh]
LM: oh, well. heheh…
B: Let me, uh–
K: You’ve had a lot of these problems lately, Chris.
B: what–
K: Chris has convinced everybody in Hollywood that he’s the King… [CKBL chuckle]
K: …and now he’s got, like, 75 different projects to do… You gotta come through on them — that’s kinda tough.
B: Hey, let me read this, uh, email, because, uh, Chris, uh, wrote in yesterday with this question for you, Chris Carter. “As a loyal Millennium fan, I was glad to see Megan Gallagher’s character eliminated as the character grew tiresome for me. Ask Chris why we didn’t get to see her death though. It left this viewer really cold.” [CKL chuckle]
B: “Is there some way you could do some flashbacks? I understand she may not be under contract anymore, but someone dressed up as her should suffice.”
K: Cause we never actually got to see what happened to her. She just kinda wandered off into the…
CC: This-this guy wanted to *see* her die. [L laughs]
K: Yes, he wanted to see her.
CC: He really didn’t like her character. [KBL laugh]
K: I guess not. But, uh, there’s probably no plans for a flashback or anything of that, uh, sort at all, right?
CC: You never know, I mean, uh, the truth is I’d really like to get Megan back on the show and she is part of the mythology, if you will, of the show so, uh, I think there is reason to bring her back.
B: She should come back as a member of the Millennium group.
K: Yes, exactly. That’s right.
B: Dude, and Frank sees her and says, “What’re you *doing*?”
CC: Can I–
K: “I’m a member of the Millennium group.”
CC: –can I have a pen? [KBL crack up]
B: And then it’s a big end-of-the-season show-down between Frank and her! [pause]
B: You know, Chris can have this written by nine a.m., Lisa? (It’s 8:15) [K cracks up]
LM: I know, he’s that fast. [K still laughing]
B: Alright, now, what– Can you get rid of the, uh, the kid, though? Can you get rid of the annoying little girl? Is that possible? [K chuckles]
LM: She *is* annoying.
CC: I-I– She’s great. I like her.
B: Nooo. Nooo.
LM: in an annoying way
K: Bean doesn’t like kids at all. So you have to know that… [C chuckles]
B: She’s really annoying, Chris. [K chuckles]
B: What is she doing for ya? Does she just give– Is she supposed to give Frank some humanity? Is that why…?
CC: E-exactly. And it-it’s what grounds him. And it’s his reason for, you know, for doing what he does.
B: I wanna see her hit by lightning or something cool. [KLC chuckle]
B: Alright, now, uh, so now tell us about, uh, now on Millennium, Frank has kind of-kinda an unofficial partner…
CC: Right, right.
K: Let’s take a phone call about that real quick.
B: Oh, we have someone…
K: Right, we have Keith. Hello Keith.
Keith: Hi, I have a question about, um, someone who I really liked, was C.C.H. Pounder
CC: yeah
Keith: I know you made her, uh, a bad, uh, guy, as it were a bad woman,
CC: uh-huh
Keith: but I would’ve loved to see her becoming the new partner or something.
CC: She-she’s coming back this year.
Keith: Oh great.
CC: Yeah. So, uh, stay tuned.
B: Alright, what is the, uh, so, why does Frank now have, a, kind of a partner? Why did you decide to do that? Cause he’s kind of famous as a, as a loner.
CC: Right. Well, I-I didn’t want to do another cop show with Millennium so I wanted to do something different and I-I went outside of the-the typical t.v. franchise thing with the show and, uh, what I found was that, uh, moving to season three, we needed that franchise again and so we brought Frank back to the FBI again and gave him a partner, a woman, we didn’t want to do the Mulder-and-Scully relationship, um, so we gave-made it more of a teacher-student relationship and I think it’s worked out really nice. She’s a terrific actress and she’s really fun to write.
B: She is good.
K: yeah
B: She’s real good. And tonight you have KISS on the show?!
CC: Yeah.
B: Now you don’t picture a lot of stunt casting on a show like Millennium. [KL chuckle]
B: I was really surprised–
K: Would you consider this stunt casting?
B: When I saw this in the promos, I thought, well, it’s Halloween weekend. It kinda makes, uh, sense. We talked to Gene and Peter from-from KISS, earlier and they were telling us from their perspective. Now tell me where the idea came from.
CC: Um, Fox told me they were doing some promotional stuff with KISS and would we consider putting them on the show? And my first response was “You-you must be kidding.” [KB chuckle]
CC: Then we sort of tossed it around and thought why don’t we do a sort of spoof, a Halloween spoof, for, uh, Millennium, for, you know, Halloween, and, uh, uh, and so that sort of, uh, gave us an idea to use KISS. And, uh, they need the money. [KBL crack up]
K: Oh yeah, KISS really needs the money, alright. Did they need to do any sort of acting? Or are they pretty much playing themselves?
CC: They have cameo roles and you might not recognize them out of make-up, uh, we certainly didn’t. [K chuckles]
B: They are really *the* most unattractive band–of all time.
K: They’re the four ugliest guys in America.
B: I mean they really are.
CC: They’re hanging in there.
K: But they were good on the show then?
CC: yeah
B: They’re alive if that’s what you mean by ‘hanging in there.’ They are alive…barely. [K laughing]
K: Uh, so they’re, uh, so they’re playing themselves. And they– Did they perform on the show?
CC: They perform on the show too.
K: Wow, that’s wild.
CC: yeah
B: Now what if Fox had come to you and said, you know, “Hey, we’re doing a big Celine Dion pay-per-view.” [KL chuckle]
B: “Can you work” there? Would you have done that? I mean, are you a whore now? You sell yourself out? What’s the deal here? [CKL crack up]
B: Whatever Fox says, you know, you do?
CC: (chuckling) I-I actually like Celine Dion. (chuckling)
K: Oh!
B: Chris!
K: for god’s sake!
B: Dude, you could kill her on the show though. That’d be cool. [C still chuckling]
B: W’ that be neat?
LM: Drown her.
K: Come on, kill Celine. [L cracks up]
B: You’ve got the power to do that, Chris… [C still making little chuckles in the background]
B: Alright, we need to take a quick break. Uh, so, Millennium, nine o’clock tonight with the big Halloween spectacular, uh, with KISS on the show. We want to take a break. We want to find out some more about what’s coming up with The X-Files this season. And uh–
K: If it’s ever gonna start. [CC chuckles anew]
B: As the, officially, the last show *ever* to premiere, with the new season. The first show is the Christmas episode, right? [K chuckles]
B: …the way it’s going? And we’ll take some phone calls if you want to speak to Chris Carter.
(BREAK)
K: Chris Carter is in the studios. Millennium tonight, nine o’clock. Uh, X-Files is returning on the…eighth? Is that right? The eighth of November?
CC: Yes.
K: Coming up a week from–a week from Sunday, it’ll be coming up. Uh, let me ask you a couple X-Files questions and then we’re gonna take, uh, take some calls for you, Chris. First of all, we had an interesting conversation on the air last week when FX re-aired the incest episode.
B: Oh man, that was ‘f’-ed up.
K: Which is one of the all time great hours in the history of television. [KBL chuckle]
B: You wrote that?
CC: No.
B: Oh, thank god.
K: Uh, here’s the question, is it true or is it just hype: Does that one not rerun on Fox?
CC: Yeah, the, uh, network will not, uh, will not rerun the show.
B: That’s the one where the mom is kept
LM: …under the floorboards…
B: under the floorboards.
CC: It’s funny cause it’s one of the all-time favorite episodes for, uh, for fans.
LM: oh yeah
CC: And yet there were enough complaints that…
B: And rightfully so. That was ‘f’-ed up. [KB chuckle]
K: When-when the thing– I-I wanna hear cause you were there at the time, when the episode was turned into Fox
CC: yeah
K: was there a phone call made to you from some big-wig at the network who said “Listen, you know, Chris, we love you, man, but we can’t–with the woman–and the–under the floorboard–and the kid–” Did they make a call to you and say “Don’t make us air this.”?
CC: There was a lot of nervousness before it ever aired, um, uh, just even in script form. Uh, Standards and Practices had a little, uh, problem with the, uh, scene where the son gets into the trunk with his mother–
K: yeah [KBL laugh]
B: But isn’t incest one of the great American values though?
CC: But it leaves a lot to the imagination and, uh, actually, people thought it was a very violent episode but if you look at it carefully, um, the violence is all imagined
B: yes
CC: it-it’s actually edited in such a way as to, uh, uh, you know, make the violence, uh, implied.
B: Mm-hmm. And, uh, did they ever, did they run it again at all? Or did they just run it one time on the Fox network?
CC: It aired one time and, uh…
B: It didn’t even come back for repeats.
CC: nope [K chuckles]
B: Wow, but, but FX, are they not getting the same complaints when they air it?
CC: Uh, they, they may be. Actually they asked us to edit out, uh, for network run again, scenes that we decided we didn’t want to edit out, so I-I don’t know what’s been edited out of the FX version, but, uh, all those FX episodes have at least a minute edited out of them. so.
B: oh I see
K: oh they do
B: We, uh– I hope you won’t be offended by this, but I taped it when it was on last week and now I’m selling copies to my friends for ten bucks a pop. [KL chuckle]
B: Uh, and this was weird. I had never seen the black-and-white episode
CC: yeah
B: that aired this past week, which was your Halloween show.
CC: yeah, yeah
B: That was *very* funny
CC: thank you
B: very funny. And Jerry Springer was on the show.
CC: Jerry Springer
B: The last person you’d except to show up on an X-Files but he was very funny on that thing. That was cool. It was a good episode.
CC: thank you
K: Alright, let’s take a few phone calls. Ted?
Ted: Good morning.
K: Say hi to Chris.
CC: Hello.
Ted: How are you?
CC: good
Ted: Good. Um, I was wondering about the X-Files expo. Are you gonna make it more intimate? It just seemed kind of…not as intimate as the previous ones.
B: Are you having trouble stalking Gillian? [KL chuckle]
B: What’s the problem here?
Ted: No, actually, thanks to KROQ, I got to meet her at the, uh, X-Files post party. So thank you.
K: okay
B: I don’t know but, Chris, you don’t have much to do with the expos, do you?
CC: Um, we do but, uh, I think right now they’re on hold, uh, until we figure out how to do them a little bit better.
B: Because they were getting a little too big?
CC: It-it-it’s just, uh, uh– We-we went around the country, uh, last year, and, uh, there were places where the expos really were, uh, big turn-outs for the expos and some places, they weren’t so we have to figure out where to do them again.
K: Oh I see. Okay. Hey thanks for the call. By the way, we talked to Gillian a, uh, couple of weeks ago. She seems real happy about being back here in Los Angeles.
B: yeah
K: She sounds like she was just having the time of her life.
CC: Both Dave and Gillian, I think, are very happy to be close to home.
B: How has it been for you, uh, envisioning the show, here in Southern California.
CC: It was a lot of work for me because we came back here and I had to hire a whole new crew and figure out how to do the show in Los Angeles. I’m still figuring it out and we’re in episode–doing episode nine.
K: yeah
CC: So, uh–
K: Where the aliens come on to the beach surfing? [KB laugh]
CC: Yeah, exactly. [C chuckles]
K: I mean, that’s kinda tough, isn’t it?
B: You’re just, uh, you’re just, uh, you just have to look at everything a little bit differently. I mean, that’s what Gillian said
CC: yeah
B: is you’re just doing a lot of deserts
CC: yeah
B: and stuff like that.
CC: David was funny. We were out in Lancaster for, I don’t know, a week straight or something. He said, “When’s the show coming back to Los Angeles?” [KB chuckle]
K: Alright, let’s, uh, say good morning to Ron. Hello Ron.
Ron: Good morning.
K: You have a question for Chris?
Ron: Yes, Chris, I, uh, was just wondering now that Frank is involved with the, uh, FBI,
CC: mm-hmm
Ron: is there a possibility of a Millennium/X-Files crossover?
CC: Yeah, this is the year to do, if we do it.
Ron: Yeah, oh great.
K: Wow, that was kind of a non-answer answer. [C chuckles]
B: Wouldn’t that be funny though if Frank’s walking down the hall of the FBI and, uh, Scully and Mulder just walk right past him and they don’t say anything, they just see him…
K: bump into him
CC: That would be the [chuckles] easiest crossover.
B: yeah, no kidding
K: Like, these guys, like, your staff has any more time to do a crossover, right?
CC: yeah, yeah. Well now, of course, you’d have to either get the Millennium people down to Los Angeles or the, uh, David and Gillian back up to Vancouver.
K: Now you said this year would be the year, if you were going to do it. Are you thinking of doing it?
CC: Yeah, actually, I thought about it but, um, I’m still trying to figure out the best way to do it, so it doesn’t just seem like some, sleazy, you know, ratings–
Ron: Hey Chris–
CC: yeah?
Ron: How ’bout, you know, um, uh, Scully and Frank kind of getting a thing on for an episode or two? [B chuckles]
K: Yeah, that’s not a sleazy, uh, ratings thing.
B: No, no, no, that, uh, that Lance Henriksen, man, he’s, uh, he’s a sexy guy. [CKB laughs]
K: I could certainly see that one working out. We had the director of your movie, Rob Bowman, in a little while ago and he was telling us that there’s additional footage on the home video too.
CC: yeah
K: What, uh, what kind of stuff did you leave in that was not on the, uh–
CC: There was some stuff to do with, uh, Mulder’s sister that was explained, and, uh, we just thought it was too much information for the, uh, for the movie, which was, uh, pretty complex. So we decided to take it out and deal with it in season six of the show, but, uh, we put it back in for the widescreen movie version.
B: So for folks who’re watching on the t.v. show, they’re not gonna get that, they’re not gonna know what that information is. You’ve gotta see the movie on home video, right?
CC: Yeah, you can get it in the movie or, you know, season six will explain a lot that, uh, was set up in the movie.
B: Yeah, if season six ever starts, dude. [CKB crack up]
B: Come on, get with the program.
K: Chris Carter’s in the studio. Can you stay for one more?
CC: Yeah, yeah.
K: Do you mind? We’ll take some more phone calls.
B: We have our big interview with the Los Angeles Kings coming up next. That’s my only fear with Chris.
K: We can move that.
B: Okay, I didn’t know that.
K: Yeah, we can move that. Trust me. Everything can be worked out.
CC: Trust no one. [KB crack up]
(BREAK)
B: Hey, speaking of Billy Corgan, by the way, Chris, you know him, right?
CC: Yeah.
B: Hasn’t he been up to the set of The X-Files in Vancouver?
CC: He spent some time on the set but I got to see, uh, one of his shows up there and go back and meet him and he was cool.
B: He’s a hell of a guy. I can’t remember if it’s–if he told us this story or Duchovny told us this story, but somehow somebody got somebody’s watch. Do you know anything about that?
CC: Yeah. He got–[chuckles]
B: He got Dave’s watch.
CC: I-I was informed that an X-Files watch had disappeared, uh–somehow, someone had stolen [chuckles] it and then I later learned that David had actually just given it to Billy.
K: Given it to Billy. [B chuckles]
K: Well, we can, you know, we can ruffle him up and get it back for ya if you want–we’re gonna talk to him in, like, thirty minutes here or so. Alright, Chris Carter is in the studio, with two great shows, uh, on the Fox network. Millennium, tonight, nine o’clock. It’s the special Halloween episode. And then The X-Files premieres a week from Sunday. By the way, before we go to some more phone calls here, what did I read in the paper about you, uh, signing, uh, a big contract for some–to write some books.
CC: Yeah, it’s a little premature. It’s not finished.
B: It’s not gonna happen.
CC: yeah, yeah–well, it may happen.
K: Have you written books before?
CC: Uh, not books. [pause]
B: But there’s *nothing* he can’t do. [K chuckle]
K: What kinds of stuff are you interested in writing?
CC: It-it actually has to do with, a little, with the supernatural but they’re period pieces–something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. And just an opportunity arose.
B: Could there–could this be the, uh, could this be, the, the, genesis of some new series down the road, maybe? Or–
CC: Quite possibly.
K: Who knows.
B: Wow.
K: Man, you’re just, uh, you’re a tumultuous (?) machine.
B: Well, with all your spare time, you think you gotta write books, right? You gonna do a Broadway play? [CKL chuckle]
B: A one-man Broadway play?
K: Why not. Alright, let’s take a few more calls. Cathy in Pico Rivera. Hello.
Cathy: Hi. Hi Chris.
CC: Hi.
Cathy: I wanted to know how can you, um, cast your extras. It would be kind of fun to be a creepy person on one of your shows.
K: Now that you’re down here.
B: Well, they let Tad audition for the show before. (Tad is an intern on the show who tried out for the part of the pizza boy in Bad Blood.) So there’s not much of a process. [K chuckles]
Cathy: Yeah, that’s scary.
CC: I think you have to be a member of the, uh, Extras Guild, which is a part of SAG now, so you actually have to go through a process to, uh, be, um, considered.
B: Is that true? Even to be on just one time?
CC: Uh, no, you could, you, I mean… if-if you know me [chuckles] you could be on– [CKBL laugh]
B: Alright, then let’s dust Cathy and let’s hit up Chris again. And how many times have we said this to him? Kill us on The X-Files.
LM: Yes, kill them.
B: Chris, you’re here in L.A. now.
K: You got some kind of scene where we flash onto the screen for maybe two seconds, and then a train, and then just, like, a train hits us. [C chuckles]
K: Come on.
CC: It’s a deal.
K: We’re not asking for that much.
LM: Whoa, whoa. Did you hear? It’s a deal.
K: Are you gonna do it though?
B: Yeah, but he’s said that five times last time.
LM: Oh he did?
K: And he’s already, he’s already in episode nine for this season. You’re telling me you haven’t killed *anybody* in the first eight episodes?
CC: We have, uh, a year and a half to go.
B: alright. [K chuckles]
K: Chris… [L groans]
K: Don’t be stretching it out ’til the last episode. We’ll have to hunt you down.
B: Chris–
CC: Let me know if your ratings are descending. [B chuckles]
K: Dude, we want you to put us on the show as bodies, as corpses. [C chuckles]
K: seriously [C chuckles]
K: we’re not joking here, pal
CC: Don’t-don’t you want do something else besides be corpses?
K: No, we just–
LM: –wouldn’t look good as anything else. [C chuckles]
B: Well, we want the audience to see the process of going from human beings to corpses.
K: We wanna die.
B: I mean there are times when people, uh, uh–very brief roles where people get killed on the show.
CC: That’s true.
K: That’s all we’re asking. I mean, we can be bad guys who get shot or something. We don’t care how we die. We leave that up to you. We just wanna die.
CC: Okay.
K: Alright.
B: It can be like an Airplane, uh, scene, like the movie Airplane, where Dave and Gillian drive up in a car, and they just hit us for no reason. [CL chuckle]
B: Alright, let’s say good morning to JoAnna. Hello.
JoAnna: Hello my funk soul brothers. [B chuckles]
K: Yes, JoAnna, you’re on with Chris Carter.
B: I think Chris Carter would, uh, would be, uh, a funk soul brother too.
K: I think so.
B: If I’m not mistaken.
K: Alright, go ahead JoAnna.
JoAnna: Uh, I had a question about the movie.
CC: mm-hmm…
JoAnna: Where is that in the planning stages right now? Is it being shot? Is it still being written?
CC: You mean the next movie?
JoAnna: Yeah.
K: Oh, your staff is gonna commit suicide if you get them on another movie right away.
CC: Yeah, we’re think–it’s in the thinking stages right now. Uh, there was some talk about trying to do it, uh, this coming summer so it would come up at the end of the X-Files series, which would be after season seven but, uh, that’s not gonna happen.
JoAnna: What ever happened to the last movie that came out? The rumors were it was supposed to pick up where the season finale ended and that didn’t happen.
CC: It-it kind of did. Um, the X-Files had been closed and, uh, Mulder and Scully began anew in the movie. So that was really where one picked, uh–left off and one picked up. Um, but now when you watch the season opener this year–November eighth–um, Sunday night [KBL chuckle]
CC: uh, you will see that, uh [ching sound] [C chuckles]
CC: it emphasizes both the season finale and the movie, and, uh, we pick up from there.
K: Was the plan when the movie came out–and was obviously very successful–is that when you started thinking “hey we should do some more of these, you know, every couple of years maybe. I mean, even perhaps like they did with the Star Trek movie where the show is not on anymore but the movie’s still come out.
CC: It’s kind of the idea. I think it’s a chance for us to get together and do some, something every year or two. Uh, and, um, the t.v. series will become the movie series, I hope.
B: How do, uh, how do your actors feel about that in terms of the long-range plans?
CC: I think they’re cool with it. Uh, I think everybody’s going to be, after season seven, happy to, uh, you know, call it quits for a time. But, uh, I don’t know, we have fun working together I think, so, um, I look forward to it.
K: It’d be cool to have a new X-Files movie every year or two.
B: In your mind–so you have two seasons left, right–in your mind, do you already, kind of know, where it’s all, uh, going? Are you already now starting to put the pieces in play?
CC: For this year, I do. Uh, next year is a big year, of course, because, uh, we’re headed toward, you know, the, uh, the end
K: millennium
CC: the finale and so–yeah, the millennium, exactly–so there’re lots of questions to answer.
B: Do you know what the ultimate end is going to be? You just don’t know how to get there?
CC: I-I’ve had some ideas and they’ve changed over time but, but uh, I have a rough idea. I’m not telling anyone of course.
LM: Of course. [K chuckles]
B: I think that’s wise. [CKBL chuckle]
B: I can’t disagree with that as a strategy really.
K: Where you want to go to here?
B: Uh, let me see–blah…blah–I don’t know what Lisa’s calling about. Let’s try Lisa.
K: Lisa? Hello?
Lisa: Hello?
K: Hi. Lisa, are you west L.A.?
Lisa: Uh, yeah.
K: Go ahead. You’re on with Chris Carter.
Lisa: Oh, hi, um, actually, I work for Scientific American magazine…
CC: oh yeah?
Lisa: and we had read somewhere that you sometimes use the magazine as a background for some of your storylines.
CC: uh-huh
Lisa: Is that true or–?
B: Are you calling to sue? [CKBL chuckle]
Lisa: Oh god, no. [laughs] No, no, I’m just a listener of the show and I’m on my way to work.
CC: Actually the show has, uh–If it weren’t for, uh, Scully’s good science, uh, the show wouldn’t be, uh, would have no counterpoint to Mulder’s weird science. So we use, uh, magazines like Scientific American, journals and all sorts of really good, uh, scientific foundation to, uh, to do our stories.
Lisa: That’s great.
B: That woman that was profiled in People magazine as being kind of the science–
CC: yeah
B: We had her on the show.
CC: Dr. Ann Simon?
B: Yeah, yeah. She was terrific.
CC: She’s great.
K: She is a party waiting to happen. She, uh, she says she just does it for the love of science. I mean, she’s not interested in showbiz really and she didn’t really know much about the show. She just said “hey I’m just happy to be able to spread good information.”
CC: Yeah, she’s been great. Uh, anything to do with genes or viruses.
B: Yeah, yeah.
CC: she’s an expert.
B: She seems like a nice lady too.
CC: very nice
B: Alright, do we have one more, our big closer?
K: We’ll try Jeff.
B: alright
K: See what he’s got. Jeff in Tustin.
Jeff: Hey, how you guys doing.
K: Good, thank you.
Jeff: Chris, just want you to know that I’m a huge fan, right off the bat, of X-Files.
CC: thank you very much
Jeff: Yeah, and the Peacock episode was awesome, unbelievable. But, um, one of my favorite things about The X-Files is the use of a lot of your hidden meanings and stuff. How you use a lot of your relatives and influences’ names and characters and birthday numbers and file numbers and just any type of number, anything that comes up, sometimes have meaning behind it.
CC: uh-huh
Jeff: And I was just wondering if you could give examples of upcoming or unknown ones in future episodes or maybe where we could find out more about that.
B: He wants to know if there’s a key to crack the code of what everything means. [chuckles]
B: The internet is your friend, Jeff, I’m telling you.
Jeff: –behind it and a lot of information that you put out there.
K: Wow, this guy frightens me.
B: Yeah, it’s very scary.
K: I don’t care where you come up with your numbers. [L chuckles]
B: I’m a big fan of the show. I didn’t know all that stuff.
CC: Neither did I. [KBL crack up]
K: Do you do that? Do you put relatives’ names–
CC: Uh, yeah, there’s lots–there’s relatives’ names. I’ve got, uh, dead girlfriends, uh, strewn across the, uh, five years of the show. [CKBL chuckle]
K: Is that right?
B: Wow, how many dead girlfriends do you have, Chris? That kind of concerns me. [K chuckles]
CC: Um, I got a letter from, uh, an old friend high school who thanked me for being a dead person on The X-Files. [L chuckles]
K: Oh very nice.
B: Hey, uh, wouldn’t it be great to see Kevin and Bean get killed on The X-Files? [chuckles]
B: Alright, here’s one more plot idea, Chris. And I know you get tired of this because everywhere you go, people, I’m sure, everywhere you go, people go “dude, I got this great idea for the show.”
K: But we really do.
B: This is, no, seriously, I know this sounds fantastic, unbelievable, it could never happen, but I think you could pull this off on X-Files. You got a guy who’s running for sheriff, okay, but here’s the thing: he’s dead but he still wins. (This is a real news story in California right now.)
CC: That story is…too weird for me. [CKBL chuckle]
K: Isn’t it though?
LM: It could never happen.
CC: That headline this morning was unbelievable.
B: Here’s the headline in today’s Los Angeles Times. Tell me if you’ve ever seen anything stranger in a newspaper. “Sheriff Block Dies, His Campaign Still On, Backers Say.”
K: Everybody wants to vote him, still, sheriff.
B: Seriously, that’s the weirdest thing–it is stranger than fiction. [chuckles]
K: Alright folks, let’s say goodbye to our friend, Chris Carter. Millennium, tonight, nine o’clock on Fox, the big Halloween show. That is a terrific program. Lance Henriksen is one of the finest actors on t.v. It really is a great show. We’re so proud of that.
CC: Thank you very much. Thank you.
K: And we urge everyone to watch that. Then on The X-Files, premieres, like, in eight weeks or so.
B: I think it’s Valentine’s Day. [L chuckles]
K: That’s right. Valentine’s Day is gonna be the first one of the season.
B: No, actually, it’s gonna be a week from Sunday. It’s finally here–a week from Sunday.
CC: That’s right.
B: We can’t wait. Chris, say hi to the cast for us–
CC: Uh, David and Gillian and Lance and Claya–and–
B: everybody, everybody you know
CC: I want to say hi to my wife too cause I know she’s listening.
B: Okay, you can call her on the phone too, you know. [CKBL crack up]
B: We’re trying to do a radio show here, Chris. You can take care of your personal business– No, I meant, *when you see them,* when you see them: Hey, Kevin and Bean say hi.
K: We can say “Hi Dave” now, ourselves.
CC: I gotcha. [CKBL chuckle]
K: Chris Carter, everybody.
CC: Thank you.