This X-Files spin-off starred the trio of dweeby conspiracy theorists who helped out Mulder and Scully from time to time. Often serving as comic relief on the original series, Byers, Frohike and Langley (first names were almost never used) similarly took on a hapless, Three Stooges–esque pose on their own show, which did not last very long at all. Creepily, the series premiere, in March 2001, involved a government conspiracy to crash a passenger airliner into the World Trade Center. Four months later, the show was canceled. Adding insult to injury, the Lone Gunmen themselves were killed off almost a year later on an episode of The X-Files.
Top 10 Worst TV Spin-Offs
TIME looks back at the most absurd, ill-planned and disastrous TV-show spin-offs of the past few decades.