--- title: The X-Files Is Back—Here's Why the Original Was So '90s description: The revival of the hit TV show starts in January, but the first episode premieres at a conference on Oct. 6 canonical: https://time.com/4054271/x-files-1995/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-06T16:00:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:21:58.525Z article:section: History og:title: The X-Files Is Back—Here's Why the Original Was So '90s og:description: The first episode of the revival premieres at a conference on Oct. 6 og:url: https://time.com/4054271/x-files-1995/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62b5bc1964cd582d/69886613cd1bba622e6fd6bb/xfiles.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: xfiles og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The X-Files Is Back—Here's Why the Original Was So '90s twitter:description: The first episode of the revival premieres at a conference on Oct. 6 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62b5bc1964cd582d/69886613cd1bba622e6fd6bb/xfiles.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _The X-Files_ Is Back—Here's Why the Original Was So '90s ## Video: The 14 Best Television Intros [Watch (HLS stream): The 14 Best Television Intros](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/43fbt7yd.m3u8) (1:30)  _Published 2014-07-10. The best 30 seconds on TV come before the feature. Here are the best opening credits television has to offer._  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 6, 2015 4:00 PM CUT  A 1996 scene from The X-Files A 1996 scene from The X-FilesFox / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 6, 2015 4:00 PM CUT Mulder and Scully are back, but the world has changed. When the first episode of the upcoming revival of _The X-Files_ premieres on Tuesday at an entertainment-industry conference in France (it will air on TV in January), the FBI agents who helped kick start the 1990s paranormal craze will solve crimes in a newly wired world (the [trailer ](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/29/x-files-teaser-trailer "undefined")does show smartphones, after all). But no matter how the show is updated for 2016, it will bring a little bit of the 1990s with it. After all, _The X-Files_ helped define the decade. When the show premiered in 1993, it helped precipitate a programming trend that would last for years. As TIME wrote in 1995, _The X-Files_ and its imitators spoke to a distinctly pre-Y2K interest: --- > “” --- **_Read more from 1995, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Out of This World](http://time.com/vault/issue/1995-04-03/page/74/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4054271/x-files-1995/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4054271/x-files-1995/"},"headline":"The X-Files Is Back—Here's Why the Original Was So '90s","datePublished":"2015-10-06T16:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:21:58.525Z","description":"The first episode of the revival premieres at a conference on Tuesday","url":"https://time.com/4054271/x-files-1995/","keywords":["Television","TV"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62b5bc1964cd582d/69886613cd1bba622e6fd6bb/xfiles.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62b5bc1964cd582d/69886613cd1bba622e6fd6bb/xfiles.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"xfiles","caption":"x-files","creditText":"Fox / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4054271/x-files-1995/","name":"The X-Files Is Back—Here's Why the Original Was So '90s"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The 14 Best Television Intros","description":"The best 30 seconds on TV come before the feature. 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