Why The X-Files' Crossover With A CBS Drama Was Cancelled

David E. Kelley's unusual primetime drama "Picket Fences" debuted on CBS in 1992, and it was, like a lot of media of the 1990s, an aggressive takedown of the previous generation's tropes. The title, "Picket Fences," was meant to evoke the placid serenity of the post-War Baby Boom, describing a common yard feature in the then-new 1950s suburbs. The series, however, took place in Rome, Wisconsin, a place that was anything but placid. The stories surrounded bleak and sometimes unexplained crimes, and the show regularly tackled sensitive and political topics like abortion, sexual assault, polyamory, and the place of faith in the modern world. 

"Picket Fences," with its soapy stories and unusual tone, was clearly a knockoff of (or merely following the trends started by) David Lynch's 1990 series "Twin Peaks." That show also aimed to deconstruct placid 1950s media images with dark violence and surreal mysteries. 

But "Picket Fences" also had a sibling in "The X-Files," Chris Carter's 1993 sci-fi series about a pair of FBI agents regularly assigned to paranormal cases. "The X-Files" regularly featured UFOs, American cryptids, and vast, ineffable conspiracies overseen by shadowy agencies inside the U.S. government. "The X-Files" exemplarily captured 1990s post-Cold War paranoia, and remains one of the defining texts of the decade. The unusual, paranormal cases of "The X-Files" would have felt perfectly at home on "Picket Fences."

As it so happens, there were once plans afoot to have the two shows crossover. Carter and Kelley liked the idea of a crossover, and they brainstormed ideas as to how Mulder and Scully would come to visit Rome, Wisconsin. Sadly, according to an article in Pajiba sourcing info from THR, CBS put the kibosh on the idea. The crossover ended up becoming separate episodes of "The X-Files" and "Picket Fences." 

In the "The X-Files" episode "Red Museum" (December 9, 1994, during its pretty-good second season), Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) travel to a town called Delta Glen, Wisconsin to investigate a series of kidnappings. Teens, it seems, are going missing for a short while, only to return, drugged, with the phrases "HE IS ONE" or "SHE IS ONE" written across their backs. Mulder and Scully also find that some kind of strange experiments have been conducted on the local cows. At first, the FBI agents suspect that the culprits are local cultists from the Church of the Red Museum. They later discover, however, that the teens may be part of their ongoing investigation into governmental cover-ups involving aliens. Are the teens being injected with alien DNA? 

In the "Picket Fences" episode "Away in the Manger" (December 16, 1994), Carter Pike (Kelly Connell), Rome's resident medical examiner, uncovered a similar conspiracy involving strange experiments being conducted on the local wildlife; a cow has mysteriously given birth to a human baby (!). He suspected that is might be because of a mysterious stranger played by James Handy. The Mulder surrogate seems to be "Picket Fences" guest actor Sam Anderson, who played Agent Donal Morell. The episode ended in court, arguing about issues of surrogacy.

As it so happens, "Red Museum" and "Away in the Manger" were merely the two bifurcated halves of the stalled-out "X-Files"/"Picket Fences" crossover. As one can see, the two episodes share similar plot points, and one can see how each show's respective writers clearly began with the same template, even if the shows ended up going their separate ways. 

What happened to the crossover? CBS didn't approve. "The X-Files," a Fox series, was on a competing network, and CBS merely didn't want to play along. 

Carter and Kelley were all for it, having talked over their ideas in an extensive parking lot conversation. It seems that "Red Museum" and "Away in the Manger" were meant to be a two-parter, with one part airing as an "X-Files" episode and the other as a "Picket Fences" episode. Hence, when then crossover was nixed, it was easy for each show to rewrite their respective episodes as autonomous units.

According to an old blog called Poobala, "Away in the Manger" more closely cleaved to its "X-Files" partnership by making explicit references to Delta Glen, the episode wherein "Red Museum" took place. There is also a reference to a plane crash in Delta Glen, as well as a mysterious doctor named Larson, who was also mentioned in "Red Museum." The "Picket Fences" characters also passingly mention that the FBI was in Delta Glen investigating things, although there are no mentions of Agents Mulder and Scully. David E. Kelley may not have been given permission to have a crossover with "The X-Files," but he kind of did anyway. 

"The X-Files," however, was more thorough about scouring its "Picket Fences" references, as series creator Carter seemed to want to make a standalone episode as quickly as possible anyway. Indeed, watching the (rather unremarkable, but by no means the worst) "X-Files" episode, one can almost sense that Carter had to pivot at the last minute to include the de rigueur "X-Files" alien references. The plot about Men in Black and alien DNA all feels tacked-on. It feels rushed. Which, of course, it was. 

Would it have been a fun TV event for sci-fi nerds? We can only speculate.