Dark Skies

Dark Skies was pitched by producers Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman to NBC as a proposed competitor to Fox's hit series The X-Files, following that show's success.

The show's creators originally planned five seasons, each with its own title covering a span of decades, from 'Official Denial' (1961-1969) through the apocalyptic final season 'Stroke of Midnight' (2000-2001), but the series was cancelled after its first season due to low ratings.

The series' fictional alien language, called Thhtmaa, was created by UCLA graduate student Matt Pearson, who later became a linguistics professor at Reed College.

For years fans campaigned for a DVD release; a complete series box set was announced for October 2007 but was cancelled by Sony Entertainment due to prohibitive music licensing costs, and several independent DVD companies later backed out for the same reason before it was finally released in the US in 2011 via Shout! Factory.

A limited edition CD soundtrack was released in September 2006 to mark the show's tenth anniversary, featuring Michael Hoenig's original television score plus a previously unreleased Pilot Suite arranged by Mark Snow, the composer of The X-Files.

The series wove real 1960s historical figures into its conspiracy plot, including The Beatles, Robert F. Kennedy, Jim Morrison, and J. Edgar Hoover, and centered part of its story on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

On its original 1996 broadcast, Episode 6 'Inhuman Nature' and Episode 7 'Ancient Future' were aired out of chronological order relative to the in-story dates the episodes are set.

The 2011 US DVD release included previously unseen bonus material such as an hour-long making-of documentary and the never-before-seen pitch for the show's unproduced second season.