New York — On this rare escape from writing and producing "The X-Files," Chris Carter might have preferred hitting the beach with his surfboard his other passion. Instead, here he was in a cold, rainy city on the opposite coast, seated in a dark, deserted hotel bar named Journeys.
Scouting "X-Files" locations?
Chris Carter, creator of Fox's "The X-Files," has spun off the comedy series "The Lone Gunmen." The series has just as much mystery as "The X-Files" but takes itself less seriously.
No, Carter had bolted for Manhattan to talk up his new series, "The Lone Gunmen." Something different for him, he said. An action comedy. Laughs. Fun. Plus heart.
"Gunmen" which had its premiere last week on Fox and airs this Sunday and next (March 18), as well as Fridays, at 8 p.m. is a spinoff. It puts center stage the trio of beyond-the-fringe crusaders who lately served as "X-Files" comic relief.
Played by Bruce Harwood, Tom Braidwood and Dean Haglund, these ill-assorted activists are on their own now, publishing a muckraking newspaper and plunging into quixotic exposes.
Like "X-Files," the new series has a sci-fi bent and a paranoid tone. But while one is marked by darkness and opacity, the other dares to lighten up.
In "Gunmen," said Carter, "we set aside the sadness."
It differs from "X-Files" in another way: privatizing the enemy. "Gunmen" looks not to the skies or even the Pentagon for intrigue, but, instead, the Dow Jones industrials and Nasdaq.
"Creating a government conspiracy that keeps the truth away from the people was great for 'The X-Files,' but this show isn't like that at all," Carter said. "If it deals with conspiracies, they're at the corporate level."
The Gunmen uncover a computer chip that spies on its users and a water-fueled car kept off the market because it would wreck the petroleum industry. Clearly, corporate bogeymen can be as shadowy and sinister as any paranormal foe.
"MORE sinister," cracked Carter, taking a sip of Perrier.
"Corporate America is in fact a de facto government," he said, turning serious, "and I think there's gonna be a backlash against that sort of consolidation of power. Who's going to have a reaction? The youth of America? I think that would be the natural place."
And, like the young-skewing "X-Files," now in its eighth season, "The Lone Gunmen" may find a particularly receptive audience on campuses.
"I hope so, anyway," said Carter.
At 43, the Los Angeles native retains the blond beach boy looks that seem to certify him as a lifelong wave-shredder. But are surf-bum looks misleading for someone who, before "Gunmen," masterminded dusky, brooding shows like "Harsh Realm," "Millennium" and, of course, "X-Files"?
"I've got real darkness inside of me," Carter said in his soft-spoken manner. "But the stories I tell are about constantly keeping the darkness at bay, of embracing the light."
Granted, Mulder and Scully, the intrepid truth-chasing FBI agents of "X-Files," embrace the light or try their darnedest against towering odds.
"Life is full of tremendous sadness," said Carter. "They're trying to find meaning in the sad reality."
And do it in the constant company of fear, a response that Carter can tap in his viewers as if he carried a dowsing rod.
"Maybe I'm a chicken at heart and that's the reason I'm sensitive to fear," he said.
"But we all have the same kind of fears: of violent death, of humiliation, of loss of our loved ones, of being out of control, of finding there is no meaning to life."
And what about the fear of failure, especially at the birth of a cherished new project that comes on the heels of two flops ("Harsh Realm" and "Millennium")?
"So much of it is left to fate," Carter sighed. "If you start thinking too much about success, if that starts being your goal, then you've jumped over the important part to the fearful part. You've missed the point.
"I couldn't hope to find this kind of success again," he said, speaking of "The X-Files" and its impact on television and movie viewers. "But if I do, it'll be a result of making the same good choices, doing the same hard work and having the same strokes of luck."
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