Hollywood A.D.

"Hollywood A.D."
The X-Files episode
Mulder and Scully, aghast, watch the finished film, "The Lazarus Bowl." Many critics commented on the "self-reflexive" tone of the episode, facilitated by use of the movie.
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 19
Directed by	David Duchovny
Written by	David Duchovny
Production code	7ABX18
Original air date	April 30, 2000
Guest stars
Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner Garry Shandling as Himself Téa Leoni as Herself Wayne Federman as Himself Paul Lieber as Micah Hoffman Bill Dow as Chuck Burks Tim Roe as Zombie Barry K. Thomas as Sugar Bear Tina M. Ameduri as Tina the Craft Service Woman Bill Millar as Director Minnie Driver as Audience member David Alan Grier as Audience member
Episode chronology
← Previous "Brand X" Next → "Fight Club"
List of season 7 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"Hollywood A.D." is the nineteenth episode of the seventh season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on April 30, 2000. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Hollywood A.D." earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.7, being watched by 12.88 million people in its initial broadcast.

In this episode, an entrepreneurial Hollywood producer and college friend of FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) picks up the idea for a film based on the X-Files, however special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) find that the level of realism in their fictional portrayal is somewhat questionable.

"Hollywood A.D." was written and directed by series star David Duchovny, his second writing and directing credit after the sixth season episode "The Unnatural." The episode—written with a "self-reflexive" tone—features a myriad of guest stars, including, most notably, Garry Shandling and Téa Leoni, who portray Mulder and Scully, respectively, in the episode's fictional movie.

Plot

Walter Skinner's old college friend, Wayne Federman, is making a movie about the bureau and Skinner has given him access to Mulder and Scully during his research phase. Meanwhile, they are trying to solve a case involving the attempted murder of a Cardinal O'Fallon at his church. Federman tags along and consistently interrupts the agents. In the catacombs of the church, Mulder finds the remains of Micah Hoffman, a 1960s counter-culturalist who disappeared, in the blast rubble. They search Hoffman's apartment and find bombs and counterfeiting tools as well as forged gospel of Mary Magdalene. Mulder and Federman return to the church and search the catacombs. The two find several skeletons and pieces of the forged gospel. Federman wanders off and stumbles upon animated bones, who attempt to assemble a shatter piece of pottery. He panics and leaves the scene.

Mulder and Scully examine the bowl. Scully tells Mulder the story of "The Lazarus Bowl" that she learned at her Catholic school. Purportedly, the aunt of Lazarus had been making a clay bowl when Jesus Christ resurrected Lazarus. The words of Christ were then recorded in the grooves of the bowl much like a phonograph record. Mulder brings the relic to Charles Burks, who, after performing a sonic analysis, discovers noises in Aramaic. The first part, roughly translated, reads "I am the walrus. I am the walrus. Paul is dead. Goo goo g'joob." Burks mentions that Aramaic doesn't actually have a word for walrus, and the pottery literally said the "bearded, cow-like sea beast." The second part is the audio of one man commanding another to rise from the dead.

Mulder visits Cardinal O'Fallon, who admits he bought the forged gospel from Hoffman, but believed it was real. Meanwhile, during the autopsy of Hoffman, the man comes back to life on the operating table, but when Scully looks down he is back on the operating table. She finishes the autopsy and finds strychnine in his system. Later at church Scully sees a vision of Hoffman again hanging on the cross in the place of Jesus. Mulder arrests Cardinal O'Fallon but Micah Hoffman walks in, unscathed. Hoffman tells Mulder and Scully that, initially, he created the forgeries to make money, but eventually, he became the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and he bombed the church to get rid of the "blasphemous" forgeries. Skinner suspends Scully and Mulder for four weeks because of the mix-up. 16 months later Cardinal O'Fallon kills Micah Hoffman and then kills himself. As such, the X-File is never truly solved.

During their suspension, Mulder and Scully venture to Hollywood to view the production of Federman's film. It is revealed that Federman's movie will be called The Lazarus Bowl and Gary Shandling will play Mulder and Téa Leoni will play Scully. After filming is done, Mulder and Scully watch the movie, but are thoroughly disgusted at how they and their case are portrayed on the big screen. The episode ends with dead people coming to life on the movie set and Mulder and Scully holding hands on their way presumably to dinner with the FBI credit card Skinner gave them after watching the movie, hinting at the continued romantic relationship between Mulder and Scully that has been hinted at in the last few episodes.

Production

Writing and filming

"Hollywood A.D." was written and directed by series star David Duchovny.

"Hollywood A.D." was written and directed by series star David Duchovny. The episode was written after Duchovny received positive feedback on his last creation, season six's "The Unnatural." Duchovny originally approached Frank Spotnitz about the possibility of writing another episode. Spotnitz gave him the go-ahead and was soon given a rough copy of the script. Series creator Chris Carter was very happy with the story, calling it "a smart, intelligent, quirky, and intelligent idea" and he later described it as "outside the norm, even for The X-Files." Once the script was approved, Duchovny took on an active roll in preparing for the episode.

There was a considerable amount of stunt work and choreographing done for "Hollywood A.D." Two stunt doubles were hired for the scene were Shandling tackles Leoni and they tumble down a hill into an open casket. Some of the stunt men were even cast in non-stunt related jobs. Several were "transformed" into zombies, a process which took five hours. The zombie dance sequence at the end of the episode took two days to film. The first day was shot during active production and the second was scheduled for the blue screen work that was required.

Casting

Duchovny cast several of The X-Files' technical crew members in the episode. Tina M. Amedrui, the show's actual craft services woman, portrayed Tina, the craft service woman for Wayne Federman's movie. Bill Roe, the show's photography director, was cast as the vegetarian zombie. Assistant director Barry K. Thomas was cast as Sugar Bear, Paul Rabwin was cast as a producer, and special effects coordinator Bill Millar was cast as the movie's director. Duchovny also cast his brother, Daniel, as the assistant director.

Téa Leoni, who portrayed a fictionalized version of herself portraying Scully in the production, was married to David Duchovny when this episode was filmed, a decision casting director Rick Millikan considered "clever." Duchovny also cast his friend and fellow actor Garry Shandling as a fictionalized version of himself portraying Mulder. Shandling had originally been sought out to play the part of Morris Fletcher in the sixth season episode "Dreamland." The joke about Garry Shandling having a crush on Mulder came from a recurring joke from the TV show The Larry Sanders Show, starring Garry Shandling. In the recurring joke, David Duchovny has a homosexual interest in Shandling's character.

The joke about Mulder wanting Richard Gere to appear in the movie stemmed from the fact that Duchovny's acting was often compared to Gere's. Duchovny decided to turn the idea into a joke, saying, "we used to always have the joke on set that when they do the movie it's going to be Richard Gear and Jodie Foster [playing Mulder and Scully]. So I originally wrote the teaser for Richard Gear and Jodie Foster and I just started to think about it and you know, it's so much funnier with Gary and Téa." The episode featured several uncredited celebrity cameos. During the premiere of the movie, both Minnie Driver and David Alan Grier appear as members of the audience. In addition, Chris Carter, the show's creator, made cameo during the theater scene. The appearance was his second in the series.

References in other media

On the "Killer Cable Snaps" episode of the popular science television series MythBusters, which aired on October 11, 2006, the possibility that audio could be transcribed onto pottery was tested. Clips from "Hollywood A.D." were shown during the segment.

Broadcast and reception

"Hollywood A.D." first aired in the United States on April 30, 2000. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 7.7, with a 12 share, meaning that roughly 7.7 percent of all television-equipped households, and 12 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 12.88 million viewers. The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on May 7, 2000 and received 0.80 million viewers, making it the second most watched episode that week.

Critical reception to "Hollywood A.D." was mostly positive. The Montreal Gazette named the episode the sixth best stand-alone X-Files episode, writing that "Despite taxing our stomach for self-reflexive comedy, this David Duchovny scripted and directed episode manages to deliver some of the greatest laughs of the series." Rob Bricken from Topless Robot named "Hollywood A.D." the seventh funniest X-Files episode. Television Without Pity gave the episode a B, slightly criticizing the dancing zombies at the end of the episode. Sarah Kendzior from 11th Hour Magazine wrote that, "My favorite [episode] this year may well be 'Hollywood A.D.', an ambitious, often ingenious and occasionally flawed sophomore effort concerning the entertainment industry, religion, and pretty much everything in between." Rich Rosell from DigitallyObsessed.com awarded the episode 5 out of 5 stars and wrote that "[the] scene from the 'movie' where Shandling/Mulder faces off against The Cigarette Smoking Pontiff, and his army of sniper zombies, is classic stuff, and earns 'Hollywood A.D.' high marks." Kenneth Silber from Space.com, while criticizing the episode for reveling in parody, noted that the episode was entertaining, writing, "'Hollywood A.D.' is a parody and, as such, will be unsatisfying to the many X-Files viewers, including this long-suffering reviewer, who'd like to see the series culminate in a dramatic, multi-episode denouement of its 'mythology arc.' Nonetheless, this episode has merit as a witty and imaginative parody."

Footnotes

References

• Meisler, Andy (2000). The End and the Beginning: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 5. Harper Prism. ISBN 0061075957. 
• Shapiro, Marc (2000). All Things: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 6. Harper Prism. ISBN 0061076112. 

External links

• "Hollywood A.D." on The X-Files, an external wiki
• "Hollywood A.D." at the Internet Movie Database
• "Hollywood A.D." at TV.com