The X-Files helped define network television in the 1990s as a bold, high-concept science fiction series that pushed the boundaries of what was possible. That became obscured toward the later end of its run, marred by plot problems and the departure of star David Duchovny. However, it remained no less groundbreaking for it. The X-Files helped the nascent Fox achieve major network status, providing a perceived “grown-up” option to subversive earlier hits like The Simpsons and Married… with Children. Today, its best episodes still hold up as first-rate television. However, none of this would have been possible without The Silence of the Lambs.
The Silence of the Lambs, the Oscar-winning horror thriller from 1991, played a huge role in getting the seminal TV series to the screen. In fact, without Silence, The X-Files probably wouldn’t have happened. It helped pave the way for the often graphic content that helped the sci-fi series make its name
Based on the novel by Thomas Harris, Silence depicts an FBI manhunt for a notorious serial killer, “Buffalo Bill.” Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the Academy, is brought in to assist in the case and develops a strange rapport with Hannibal Lecter, another serial killer under lock and key in an asylum. Among its other assets, the film contrasted the FBI’s methodical efforts for tracking the murderer with the killer’s gruesome and bizarre practices. It also demonstrated the quiet roadblocks a woman like Starling found in a “boys club” like the FBI and how she ultimately transcended the countless tiny putdowns presented to her every day.
This served as a significant creative foundation when Chris Carter set out to make The X-Files. According to The Complete X-Files: Behind the Series, the Myths and the Movies, Carter cited The Silence of the Lambs by name and talked about what a fan he was. The show’s overall structure uses the same pattern, with the FBI as the probing catalyst into strange and horrifying circumstances lurking just below the surface of a normal life. More prominently, there was Dana Scully, a character clearly patterned after Starling from her no-nonsense, just-the-facts attitude to her struggles in an organization that had a hard time accepting women as equals.
But beyond the content and tone, The Silence of the Lambs made it easier for the network to take a chance on something different. Not only was the film a phenomenal box office success but an enormous critical one as well, including a sweep of the "big five” Oscars that year (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay). It became a justly celebrated classic and was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2011. It also spawned a bevy of sequels and the well-regarded TV series Hannibal and Clarice, currently airing on CBS.
The film’s critical respectability meant the network would be more open to shows with dark or disturbing content. It could present a strong woman as a co-lead without getting pushback from nervous executives and cover strange, outlandish cases without being dismissed by front-office gatekeepers who didn’t get it. And Fox was a hungry network looking to expand and less afraid of content that more established networks shed away from. The result was a show that looked like nothing else on television but carried unlikely respectability that the upstart network craved.
The X-Files was never shy about tipping its hat to its progenitor. The original run of the first series ended with Fox Mulder mimicking Lecter’s greeting to Clarice. Season 1, Episode 13, “Beyond the Sea,” also featured Scully facing off against a death row inmate who claimed he could help her, much like Lecter to Clarice. Despite this, The X-Files never felt like a knock-off, and the result was a second pop culture classic on top of the first.