7x01 Hungry
Mod note: Guys, I'd just like to ask you if we can refrain from any spoilery (even mild) talk about XF2. And If you guys can stop from using really spoilery icons? I know no one has yet, but my co-mod and I'm sure plenty other of people in our comm wont be seeing the movie until next week with the later release date in Europe. Meanwhile, I have
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Fun Facts:
- The real Lucky Boy restaurant is located in Los Feliz, California, which substituted for the fictional drive-thru, which was located in Costa Mesa, California.
- Originally the script called for the drive-thru to be called Burgerlishious. But the location department found a restaurant location was ideal except for a big sign saying LUCKY BOY that couldn't be removed. So, ever flexible, The X-Files simply changed the fictional drive-thru's name to match.
Back Story:
"An X-Files director since the second season, Kim Manners likes to sum up the general process of creating the show this way: 'We're going to hell but we're having a great time.'
Well, when it came to the episode 'Hungry,' the director had a lot of help in this down-and-dirty nightmare of the true terror that lurks behind the disembodied voice of your favourite fast food drive-thru restaurant, beginning with the story idea, courtesy of veteran co-writer and co-executive producer Vince Gilligan.
According to producer Frank Spotnitz, 'Vince's career on The X-Files has always been about doing something different than what has been done before.' It was that attitude that allowed for two great stand-alone episodes in Season 6, 'Drive' and 'Tithonus.' Given his track record, it was not too far-fetched a notion when Gilligan brought his concept of a brain-eating monster behind a burger stand to the pitch meeting.
'I had always wanted to do a story where Mulder and Scully were the antagonists rather than the protagonists. The idea was that 'Hungry' would be solely from the monster's point of view and that the only time we would be aware of Mulder and Scully is when it was through the monster's eyes. I knew going in that this would be a real experimental type of episode. I wanted to take a bad guy and spend enough time with him to understand him so that he becomes sympathetic.'
At the story meeting, Gilligan's gross-out concept, complete with a toothy, very shark-like monster, was an immediate hit. Spotnitz latched onto the basic intent of the idea. 'The monster was sympathetic because he could not help himself. He didn't want to be a monster. He just was.'
Chris Carter likewise applauded Gilligan's idea of a 'really great monster show.' 'It was mentally scary and just a bottom-line quirky idea. It took the creep level to a new high.'
'Hungry' would also prove to be a challenge on a number of fronts. Going into Season 7, The X-Files' production company found itself with a bit of a scheduling problem. David Duchovny was putting the finishing touches on the motion picture Return to Me and Gillian Anderson was finishing up The House of Mirth. Consequently, neither would be available for the time required to work on the two-part season premiere, 'The Sixth Extinction' and 'Amor Fati.'
But with plenty of experience in handling this kind of scheduling challenge already under their belts, The X-Files' production company simply juggled the schedule so that 'Hungry,' which would ultimately be the third episode aired, was bumped to be the first episode filmed. Kim Manners, who always does well by the creepier outings, was a natural to direct the episode.
Behind the scenes, the detailed and seemingly rote elements of 'Hungry' were being addressed by the costume designers, special effects department, and location manager.
The big set pieces for the production design department for 'Hungry,' specifically the design of the Lucky Boy restaurant and Rob Roberts' apartment, had the requisite challenges. Corey Kaplan found that making over the Lucky Boy, with its inherent retro-kitsch, was not too daunting. The apartment was a whole other matter.
'Doing the apartment interior was very complicated,' explains Kaplan, 'because Vince really didn't want to give us a thing in the script in terms of detailed explanation. So we went with a fairly stark, super-in-order look, and that seemed to work.'"
[Continued...]
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"Monster shows are makeup coordinator John Vulich's favourite kind of show. Vulich, whose company, Optic Nerve, also provides alien images for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Roswell, found the challenge of turning put-upon Rob into a shark-like, brain-eating mutant complex on a number of fronts.
'The character had to be passable as a human being and the disguise had to look slapped together. The makeup was complicated in it level of subtlety. We had to get something that was a dynamic monster, but at the same time, we had to do a little tweaking so that he would look like a human being.'
The job was accomplished with two basic prosthetic pieces, a forehead and a nose applied to the actor's features. Additional disguise bits, contact lenses, and ears applied to the main prosthetic appliances completed the looks. 'Everything was very subtle and natural,' explains Vulich.
Duchovny's relative absence from the show opened the door for his stand-in Steve Kiziak to make that rare on-camera appearance as a private detective who is tailing the monster Rob Roberts and meets a bloody demise at the business end of the monster's brain-sucking tongue.
'It was a lot of fun to be in front of the camera,' says Kiziak. 'I got to play this real hard-core private dick and it gave me some valuable screen time, which never hurts in this town.'
Getting the most out of the limited availability of the show's stars proved an ongoing challenge during the filming of 'Hungry,' and producer Spotnitz relates that ingenuity was the watchword.
'There were some scenes where Mulder and Scully were together but were not even on the set the same day. But we made it look like they were together by the use of doubles. The main thing was that we knew we were taking a risk with this episode by giving the supporting actor the responsibility of carrying the show. Fortunately we had a very good actor in Chad Donella.'
Casting director Rick Millikan adds that the choice of Donella, whom he describes as having 'a subtle, interesting quality,' was integral to keeping viewers of this monster-intensive episode off-balance.
'Casting monster episodes can be tough because you don't want somebody who is going to jump out at viewers as the obvious bad guy. We always try to keep the true identity of the monster hidden as long as possible. And there was just something in Chad's eyes that was creepy but not in-your-face creepy.'
The episode also turned out to have its share of stunts. The opening sequence in which Hungry Guy gets pulled through the drive-thru window was accomplished with a stuntman and high-speed cable rig. Doing the 'blind driving' inside the car as it careened across the restaurant parking lot and into the tree was stunt coordinator Danny Weselis. A stuntman was also used in the sequence where the dead body dumped into a trash can is picked up by the garbage truck and dumped into the trash compactor.
Ultimately 'Hungry' would typify the hardcore scares that would populate the first part of Season 7 and stands tall with the best of the stand-alone fright episode of seasons gone by, including 'The Host' and 'Home.' It would also signal The X-Files' ability to conform to a season that found itself fraught with professional challenges and surprises that would bedevil the show through the entire season.
However, for the moment, Vince Gilligan could look back on a good idea thoughtfully executed. 'My intention for the end of that episode was that at the end, when Mulder and Scully show up and kill the monster, to have the audience out there hoping that they would not show up.'"
[Source - All Things: The Official Guide To The X-Files, Vol. 6, pp. 42-43, Copyright 2001]
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