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The Lone Gunmen

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  1. "The Lone Gunmen Season 1"
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The Lone Gunmen - Frohike, Langly and Byers.

The Lone Gunmen was a television series produced by Chris Carter. It centered around the Lone Gunmen, characters that had been introduced in Carter's other TV series, The X-Files.

The series was canceled at the end of its first season, with the final episode, "All About Yves", ending with a cliff-hanger. Despite this, the characters of Byers, Frohike and Richard 'Ringo' Langly continued to appear in The X-Files, with the plot of The Lone Gunmen series finally being resolved in the episode "Jump the Shark".

Contents

[edit] Series Overview

Due to it's lighter nature, The Lone Gunmen has several features not present in either The X-Files or Millennium.

One such feature is the use of contemporary music. Different music is heard throughout the series, from classic rock such as "Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood, to modern electronica such as "Weapon of Choice" by FatBoy Slim.

Perhaps the most unique feature however, was the use of the pre-credit teasers; although all were related to the episodes in question, several contained sequences that did not feature in the action of the episodes. This ranged from flashbacks of the main characters' childhoods (for example, "Like Water for Octane" and "The Cap'n Toby Show"), to Jimmy facing the camera and narrating his thoughts about metaphorical football helmets, at the start of "The Lying Game".

Similarly, the teaser for "Jump the Shark" also gave a short biography of the Gunmen, supposedly narrated by Morris Fletcher. This was done in the same style as that from The X-Files episode "Dreamland II", in which Fletcher narrated a brief biography of Fox Mulder.

[edit] Production Information

[edit] Build Up to the Series

After initially appearing only once in "E.B.E.", the season one episode of "The X-Files" that introduced the Lone Gunmen, the trio became popular amongst both the crew and fans of the series, and continued to appear sporadically throughout the next few seasons.

When the filming schedule for Season 5 clashed with that of The X-Files Movie, the crew needed to produce the first few episodes with minimal input from the series' two main leads, David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully. It was for this reason that the first episode of the fifth season, entitled "Unusual Suspects", set in 1989, gave the backstory of how the three individual characters joined to create the Lone Gunman.

After several more appearances, this episode was then followed by "Three of a Kind" in Season 6. Not only did this episode continue the Susanne Modeski storyline from "Unusual Suspects", but it also formed a useful template of how the characters of Byers, Frohike and Langly could convincingly hold their own, and how a framework of their own series would take shape.

The idea for doing a spin-off series featuring these three characters had been suggested very early on, even before "Three of a Kind". Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban - writers from The X-Files - approached the creator of that series, Chris Carter, and said they would like to do a spin-off featuring the Gunmen. Even then, Carter thought the notion seemed like a perfect idea. The writers, however, still had to convince the executives at the Fox network, who did not definitely understand the idea until the writers pitched it to them. These executives and writers sat in a room together where the writers pitched basic elements of the proposed series' pilot episode. Still focusing on conspiracy theories, like The X-Files, but with its attention switched to technological crime rather than aspects of the paranormal, the pilot episode was broadcast on 4 March, 2001, less than two years after "Three of a Kind" had aired.

[edit] Crossovers

As a specific spin-off series, several other characters who had been introduced in The X-Files and had made several appearances in that series appeared in some episodes of The Lone Gunmen series.

The only episode of The X-Files to feature any characters introduced in The Lone Gunmen is "Jump the Shark", in which Jimmy Bond, Yves Adele Harlow and Kimmy the Geek appear.

Despite both The Lone Gunmen and Millennium having connections to The X-Files, no crossovers between The Lone Gunmen and Millennium ever occurred.

[edit] Main Cast

[edit] Episodes

(Season 1, 13 episodes)

[edit] DVD Releases

Every episode of The Lone Gunmen has been released on DVD.

[edit] Background Terminology

[edit] Legends

A legend is an explanatory piece of information accompanying an illustration, map or chart. Many legends appear in The Lone Gunmen, usually including information such as time or setting, over the events of a scene.

The legends used were similar to those seen in The X-Files, as text appearing on the screen one character at a time, as though being written. Unlike "The X-Files" however, the legends always appeared in the centre of the screen, as opposed to far left.

The term 'legend' was never used on-screen in any series, but originates from terminology used by production personnel.

[edit] Related Links

[edit] External Links


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