Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: September 10, 1993

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: The X-Files, “Pilot” (Season 1, Episode 1) [Watch on Netflix]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: It’s not hard to make a case for the importance of a TV show that’s returning to television nearly 15 years later because it’s so fondly remembered by its fans. It’s actually kind of amazing that The X-Files has retained as much goodwill as it has considering how it ended. This wasn’t a show that simply delivered a disappointing series finale (something that can happen to the best of shows). This was a show that found itself unable to sufficiently pay off its alien mythology, then limped along for two more seasons with only partial contributions by stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, and THEN delivered a disappointing series finale.

Still, ask people about The X-Files and ask people about a show like Lost and you’ll probably find, on average, far more positive sentiment about the former. Part of that may well be a time thing. Ask people about Lost in ten years and their apoplexy about that finale may well have subsided (it’s time, Lost critics; lay down your weapons). The X-Files fans have had more time to forget the bad and remember the good. But I also think that part of the devil’s bargain you take with the show is that you like it in part BECAUSE the alien conspiracy is so vast and unwieldly, BECAUSE Mulder and Scully’s interpersonal relationship will never quite satisfy, BECAUSE it always felt like the sum of its parts was much more important than its whole.

Of course, the X-Files pilot is a long ways away from the struggles of the later seasons, and it establishes the anything-is-possible mythology and irresistible dynamic between Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) so well. This is, after all, a show about characters. All the aliens and Cigarette Smoking Men in the world couldn’t do for the show’s legacy what Mulder and Scully do in just one episode. May its return come swiftly.

[You can watch The X-Files‘ pilot on Netflix]

Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.

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