4. THE X-FILES (1993-2002)
Created by Chris Carter
Once upon a time, the FBI sent no-nonsense special agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) to debunk the crackpot theories of special agent Fox ''Spooky'' Mulder (David Duchovny). What they got instead was a conspiracy-fighting team so powerful it threatened to bring down the shady men who'd infiltrated the highest levels of government with their dreams of alien/human hybrid technology. What did we get? One hell of a TV show — even if we never quite got the truth.
POP CULTURE LEGACY For the first time since The Twilight Zone, viewers could ponder the mysteries of the universe and get scared silly. From inbred mutants to satanic cults, Mulder and Scully's darting flashlights lit up some seriously freaky darkness. And like Twin Peaks before it, Files made conspiracy-theorizing an addictive couch-potato pastime.
THE BEST BIT For the perfect balance of mythology and monster-of-the-week, pick up season 3. You'll get plenty of geeky goodness — the black oil, the Cigarette Smoking Man, the chip in Scully's neck — but you'll also get brilliant stand-alone episodes like ''Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose.'' When guest star Peter Boyle, playing a winsome psychic, tells Scully she'll never die, it's hard not to wish the same could have been said for this show's heyday. —Whitney Pastorek
