The Unusual Suspects
The X-File's Lone Gunmen Gear Up For Their Own Series
By Melissa Perenson
It all began with a joke: casual barbs traded on the set, mostly. But now, its a reality: The X-Files' trio of Lone Gunmen are getting their own series.
The latest effort from the creative team behind The X-Files, The Lone Gunmen debuts in March with its first four episodes; that same month, X-Files will step aside so that Gunmen can gain maximum exposure in the coveted Sunday, 9pm time slot. The series stars Bruce harwood, Tom Braidwood, and Dean Haglund - each of whom assumes his colorful, off-kilter persona from The X-Files.
Sci Fi: When do you remember first hearing talk about the Gunmen getting their own series?
Bruce Harwood: Since the second or third year, I think.
Dean Haglund: Mostly by me and fellow actors going. "Yeah, you'll get your own series as a spinoff. Ha-ha-ha."
Tom Braidwood: It had always been mentioned jokingly.
Scifi: How did it feel for that to become a reality?
BH: Strange.
TB: No other way to describe it.
DH: ON the other hand, it wasn't so strange. It sort of made sense. Often the fan mail we get goes, "Oh you guys are so great, we'd like to see more of you on the show. What do you guys do when you're not helping Mulder and Scully?" There was a fan curiosity from the get-go about the tree of us. So it would seem logical that the writers would want to expolore what the heck the three guys do when Mulder and Scully aren't hanging around.
BH: Well, they've already kind of explored this in a couple of episodes they actually wrote for The X-Files that featured us.
DB: And those were used to show the network how these guys can carry their own thing.
"It had been talked about for such a long tim," concurs Frank Spotnitz, exccutive producer on The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen. "And we never saw it - we never understood how you could do it. The truth is, the Lone Gunmen were really very thinly drawn characters until season 5, when Vince Gilligan wrote "The Unusual Suspects." That's where you learned their first names, you learned what they'd done, you learned how they came together to publish a newspaper; alot of the blanks were filled in."
Even so, it wasn't until the 6th season episode "Three of a Kind" that 1013 Productions realized that the Gunmen really did have the potential to carry their own series. "Even before we finished editing that show," Spotnitz says, "we were all - Chris [Carter], Vince [Gilligan], John [Shiban], and I - excited about the idea of doing this as a TV series, because we could really see it, suddenly."
That exxcitement had to be tabled, though, since 1013 already had a second series in the pipeline - Harsh Realm. When Harsh Realm met its untimely demise in the fall of 1999, the Gunmen concept was revisited in earnest.
Scifi: So when did you guys learn you were getting your own series? [Everyone laughs]
DH: Well, we're still not sure.
TB: We were in LA shooting and XF in January [2000], and before anybody told us about it, we actually heard [the news] at a TCA thing in LA. All of these critics were asking us about the series and how we felt about it, and we thought, this has always been a joke, for years. So we went along for the ride. And then the next morning, Dean called me and said you'd better go down and get Variety and have a read. So I went down and therre we were - it was announced.
BH: I saw it in USA Today; USA Today was delevered to my hotel room, I turned to the entertainment section, and there, in the last paragraph of this article, oh, and there's going to be a series of the Lone Gunmen. I went, "Ahhh! That's me!"
TB: So we were sort of the last to know.
The Gunmen may have felt like the last to know - but in reality, they were not too far behind the producers at 1013 themselves. "We had pitched the idea to the studio, and the studio hadn't given us an official answer," explains Spotnitz. "They were encouraging, but they hadn't said yes or no. And then there was an interview in one of the trades where it was said it was a reality. And that's why the guys found out before we had a chance to tell them. We hadn't even heard officially that it was true."
Once the decision was made to go forward, Spotnitz and the rest moved full stream ahead. Step one: Get a crash course in the latest and greatest high-tech gadgets. "The show's pretty techno-geek oriented, and it's been alot of fun," explains Spotnitz. "And there's all manner of cutting-edge technology that we can use. Computers drive everything now - that's the truth, from airplanes to medical devices to communications. There are alot of obvious avenues and not so obvious avenues through which technology can be manipulated. The pilot plays on that in a big way, and so do all of the other episodes we've written, to varying degrees."
Scifi: Do you get to use alot of cool technology?
DH: Yup, there's alot of cool technology in this one.
BH: Its not really the centerpiece of it all, though, I've noticed. It's more just by-the-by, oh there's something cool, look at what we can do. Quickly we use it, and then we move on to more plot, more action. That kind of thing.
Part of the challenge in developing the Gunmen for a weekly series lay in building these characters from broad strokes into fully defined people with a quest. "When we sat down to write the pilot, we had to stop and say, 'Let's reimagine these guys as leads of their own show. That means they're heroes. What is it that they stand for?'" remembers Spotnitz. "And that really means that you have to reverse engineer alot of thigns to get at that truth. It's not The X-Files - it's not about aliens and conspiracies, and it's really not a Science Fiction show, though some episodes border on it. It's much less about the truth is out there than its about truth, justice, and the American Way. It's about these three counterculture figures upholding very traditional ideas about democracy and patriotism.
"I think where we really approach Science Fiction is in the episodes that push the limits of what technology really can do," he adds. "It's sort of like what technology might become. It's speculative, I guess."
There may be some speculation with respect to the writers trying to predict the future, but at the same time, they're trying to stay as close to reality as possible. Case in point: the pilot episode, which depicts some heavy-duty hacking. "We were so determined that all the lingo hbe accurate that we wanted some real hackers to read the script. So our researcher made contact with [some hackers] and they were very paranoid - they had her meet them in a bus station by the telephones. And they had minimal notes - they loved the script, and we were more accurate than we knew."
Scifi: So what do you do in the context of the show?
BH: Well, we're reporters, essentially. And we go off an chase down important news stories to protect the safety of the American public.
DH: We're still computer hackers. We're going after larger government conspiracies and more life threatening espionage kinds of thigns, while at the same time dressing in the suit, wearing a rock t-shirt, and Tom's in leather.
Scifi: So is this what the Gunmen do when they're not helping Mulder and Scully?
BH: After this, we'll wonder how we ever had time to help Mulder. [laughs]
DH: The episodes are action-packed, and we're traeling all over - allthough we don't get the FBI flying-around budget.
BH: Nooo. We travel the country in a VW van, if you can believe it. It goes everywhere.
DH: It's a really old one. It looks like a post-modern and hippie kind of thing. Jack Kerouac on the road with the Gunmen.
TB: But we have 12 of them. [laughs]
DB: [deadpan] We have alot of Hollywood secrets.
In talking with the Gunmen as they take a break from shooting, the mood is relaxed and casual - a tribute to the camaraderie the trio shares. Afterall, they have known each other for some eight years on The X-Files. Observes Spotnitz, "It's like there's already a family in place. There wasn't a long period of trying to make connections with each other; everybody was aldready comfortable with each other."
That the Gunmen already have a sense of comedic timing is a good thing, considering the series' tone is more light hearted and comedic. "Alot of the episodes are more action or comedy adventure," Spotnitz says. "The pilot, which I have to say is excellent and we're very proud of, still has one foot in the world of The X-Files: It's sort of half-werious and half-comic. When you get to episode 1 and the rest of the series, the show really finds itself, and it's much more thoroughly comedic than the pilot episode is."
An element of that comedy stems from the two new additions the cast, Zuleka Robinson ad Stephen Snedden. "We added one series regular in the pilot, and that's Yves Adele Harlow [played by newcomer Robinsin]. She's a beautiful hacker/nemesis for the Gunmen, someone who didn't understand conspiracy theories or technology, who would force them to explain and justifythemselves every week. And so we came up with this character of Jimmy Bond, and he makes his appearance in the first episode. So there are really five leades in the show."
The character of Yves will prove to have her own mysterious background - we don't even know her real name (Yves Adele Harlowe is an anagram for Lee Harvey Oswald). And Jimmy provedes the Gunmen with some sorely needed capital to keep the newsletter running.
Scifi: Your new co-scars?
DH: Well, they added a gorgeous woman, of course.
BH: We needed that.
DH: We want to keep the 14-year-old boys watching [laughs]. So, she's a computer hacker as well, but she's doing it for money, not the good of the American people.
BH: She's also smarter than the three of us put together, I think.
DH: I'd like to think differently, but...
TB: She's basically our nemesis.
DH: Our Moriarty, as it were.
TB: Then there's a good-looking guy who kind of globs onto us because he thinks we're reallyhonest and good. And we can't shake him.
DH: And he's dumber than all of us put together.
TB: Thankfully. But his heart's in the right place.
DH: And he's got the money to help us pay for the newspaper and all the high-tech gadgets that we always manage to have.
Scifi: We've always wondered where you got all the gadgets and operating funds from.
BH: So did I.
DH: Turns out we have a sugar daddy.
Along with tapping the resources of 1013's writing and production staff, the Vancouver-based series also uses a crew that has worked on various Chris Cater projects in the past. Completing the circle for a family reunion on the set of Gunmen is confirmation that yes, we will see X-Files characters migrate over on occasion. "Lone Gunmen sprang from The X-Files, so it just feels natural the two worlds would cross," says Spotnitz. "We're already got plans for Skinner to be in at least one episode."
For his part, Spotnitz is having fun with taking a left turn from the dark, conspiracy stories that largely made up The X-Files, Millennium, and Harsh Ream, over the past seven years. "It's been a blast," the X-Files veteran says. "To work on stories that are comedic and lighter and about guys who are heroic in a very unexpected way, [requires] using a different part of your brain."
After their quest had been decided, the creative challenge came in fleshing out these characters, who look so very different, and stand for different things even as they stand united in their fight against injustice. "Byers tends to be the leader: in a way; he's got the strategic ideological agenda, and he is the do-gooder; he served in the federal government, and that's reflected in his haircut and the way he dresses," says Spotnitz, giving a reason at last for Byers' penchant for crisply pressed suits. "He keep their [collective] conscience, keeps them honest, wants them to do things the right way. Langly is the brilliant technology guy, but also the guy who makes the most mistakes. He still wears the rock and roll t-shirts, he's got the long hair, listens to the heavy metal alternative music, and is a brilliant hacker and game player. And Frohike is the unlikely wiseman of the group. He's a hacker as well: Frohike is the man of action, believe it or not. He gets in there and does the stunts and risks his life week in and week out.
Scifi: What about your characters? How do you break down who gets to do what and what your specialites are?
BH: You know, I've got a question about that, because I'm not sure what my character does, other than lead the other guys. Dean plays the guy who can hack everything, Tom, what does Tom do?
TB: I'm the action hero.
BH: You're the action hero, that's right. And I guess I'm just-
DH: You're the babe magnet.
Scifi: It must be exciting for each of you to explore who these people are in depth, instead of doing it on the ocasional episode of The X-FIles.
TB: Oh yeah, it's great to take a run at it. To do it day in and day out - even if you don't break it down with the producers and the directors, you're always working it out in your own head between the three of you.
DH: I agree. For the longest time during The X-Files, we were making up our own backstory and stuff. I thought I was a rodie for the Ramones. And now it's nice to actually see it come to sort of concrete actuality, not an imaginary one.
BH: Although we seem to have made a big impression on The X-Files, I wasonly ever on the set for four or five days a year. Which is why the success of our characters has always suprised me.
"I think it's that they don't take themselves seriously - especially in The X-Files," postulates Spotnitz on the Gunmen's seemingly universal appeal. "They were much needed comic relief in those shows. And to a large segment of the X-Files audiance - especially the hardcore fan base - they really spoke to alot of the fans. You could see aspects of yourself in them. And they would voice things that mulder and Scully would never voice."
Spotnitz's simple answer for why he thinks that popularity will continue in The Lone Gunmen?
Sci Fi: When do you remember first hearing talk about the Gunmen getting their own series?
