Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 26th, 2009
Kim Manners may be remembered globally as *the* director of “The X-Files” but, in my mind, he will always have the distinction of being the director who steered the first uttering in history of the word “Cryptozoology” on a science-fiction television program.
Manners directed “Quagmire,” which first aired May 3, 1996, on Season 3, Episode 22 of “The X-Files.”
The plot concerned a series of mysterious deaths and disappearances reported near a lake in a small town in Georgia. That freshwater body of water was named Heuvelman’s (sic) Lake and agents Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate. With the local legend of a killer Lake Monster (“Big Blue”) being told among the locals, the agents soon found evidence of a cryptid, disappearing frogs, vanishing people, and a giant crocodilian. The episode has a riveting debate between the agents, as they are standing on rocks in the water, in which the term “cryptozoology” is used. The ending has a definitely pro-cryptozoology teaser.
This episode marks the final appearance of Scully’s dog, Queequeg. Other names in the episode include Millikan County; Georgia; Striker’s Cove; Blue Ridge Mountains; County Road 33; Ted’s Bait & Tackle; Rigdon; Lariat Rental Cars; U.S. Forestry Service; plesiosaur; bull shark; peg-leg; hook; Rana sphenocephalus; Ecology Sciences Lab; Patricia Rae; Moby Dick; Ahab; Starbuck; and Harpoonist.
Manners directed the script written by Kim Newton & Darin Morgan (uncredited).
Other “X-Files” episodes of interest to cryptozoo-minded fans directed by Manners include “Humbug,” “War of the Coprophages,” and “Field Trip.”
Now Manners, sadly, has died.
It is with extraordinarily heavy heart that I report the death last night, Jan. 25, of my friend Kim Manners. I first met Kim when he directed me in an episode of The X-Files, for which he was a major figure in the appeal of that show, its look, style, and movement. I thought, in that few days, that I had found one of the great directors I’d ever worked with, and a mensch of the first order. Little did I know.
Several years later, I ended up with a recurring role on Supernatural, where Kim was both an executive producer and a principal director. I have never had such fun working with a director, and Kim became a dear friend….He was an AMAZING director, who knew everything I can imagine a director might need or want to know about directing television. And he was one of the very best people, one of the very best friends, a person might ever want to have….
Rest in peace, chum. by Jim Beaver
Kim Manner was born in 1950 and passed away on January 25, 2009.
His output as a director and producer was extensive, as evidenced by the listing from the Internet Movie Database, including being involved with “Supernatural,” “The X-Files,” “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.,” “Mission Impossible,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” and “Charlie’s Angels.” He appeared as himself in the documentaries, The X Files: The Making of “The Truth” (2004) and The Cigarette Smoking Man Revealed (1999).
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013.